Triple bottom line as additive innovation capability in Vietnamese food manufacturing firms

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory reframes organizational performance around business, social, and environmental value, yet the field remains divided on whether these domains function as reinforcing complements, additive practices, or competing trade-offs in day-to-day operations. This study examines this tension within Vietnam’s food manufacturing sector, an emerging-economy context undergoing rapid regulatory transition. Using organizational data from 233 manufacturers, we find evidence that perceived business, social, and environmental innovation co-move positively rather than forming orthogonal trade-offs. Mirror ordinary least squares (OLS) models show positive conditional associations across the three domains, while pairwise interaction tests yield negligible gains in explained variance, supporting an additive main-effect pattern in this sample and specification. K-means clustering on standardized pillar scores identifies an intensity ladder rather than distinct strategic profiles. These findings suggest that firms advance all three TBL dimensions simultaneously to satisfy comprehensive compliance baselines, with differences arising primarily in capability depth. Ultimately, this additive capability framework offers Vietnamese managers and policymakers a potential pathway for system-level upgrading, aligning firm-level routines to support long-term economic and sustainability development.