CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABLE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF SMES IN PAKISTAN: MEDIATING ROLE OF CSR COMMITMENT AND GREEN COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Main Article Content

MUHAMMAD MUZAMMAL MURTAZA SNOBER JAVED

Abstract

The present study considered the mediating role of CSR commitment at first level of proposed mediation model and green competitive advantage at second level for the implantation of corporate social responsibility practices (environmental, social and economic) for sustainable financial performance of SMEs. The present study considered the SMEs from manufacturing sector of Pakistan as unit of analysis and owner/managers as representatives of SMEs were the main respondents of the study. With the 53.27% response rate, through survey questionnaire a total of 391 questionnaires were collected for final data analysis. The PLS-SEM techniques was used for the analysis of second and first order constructs and hypothesis testing. The findings indicates that CSR commitment mediates positively and significantly between the relationship of CSR practices (environmental, social and economic) and green competitive advantage at first level of serial mediation. Then at second level of serial mediation green competitive mediates significantly between the relationship of CSR commitment and sustainable financial performance


 

Article Details

Section
Articles

References

Abdulsaleh, A. M., & Worthington, A. C. (2013). Small and medium-sized enterprises financing: A review of literature. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(14), 36.

Ahinful, G. (2018). The relationship between environmental management practices and financial performance of Ghanaian SMEs. Bournemouth University,

Aiyub, K., Arifin, K., Awang, A., & Jahi, J. M. (2009). Environmental performance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) certified to ISO 14001 in the United Kingdom. International Business Management, 3(1), 7-14.

Albertini, E. (2013). Does environmental management improve financial performance? A meta-analytical review. Organization & Environment, 26(4), 431-457.

Aramburu, I. A., & Pescador, I. G. (2019). The effects of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty: The mediating effect of reputation in cooperative banks versus commercial banks in the Basque country. Journal of business ethics, 154(3), 701-719.

Axjonow, A., Ernstberger, J., & Pott, C. (2018). The impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure on corporate reputation: A non-professional stakeholder perspective. Journal of business ethics, 151(2), 429-450.

Ayub, M. K., & Zaman, K. (2015). Proactive corporate environmental management practices in industrial estate Multan, Pakistan. International Review of Management and Marketing, 5(3), 154-164.

Banerjee, S. B., Iyer, E. S., & Kashyap, R. K. (2003). Corporate environmentalism: antecedents and influence of industry type. Journal of marketing, 67(2), 106-122.

Bansal, P. (2005). Evolving sustainably: A longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development. Strategic management journal, 26(3), 197-218.

Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of management, 17(1), 99-120.

Barney, J. B. (2001). Resource-based theories of competitive advantage: A ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view. Journal of management, 27(6), 643-650.

Barungi, F. (2017). Contribution of business development fund to the financial access by Small and Medium Enterprises in Rwanda. University of Rwanda,

Brammer, S., Hoejmose, S., & Marchant, K. (2012). Environmental management in SME s in the UK: Practices, pressures and perceived benefits. Business Strategy and the Environment, 21(7), 423-434.

Brammer, S., Millington, A., & Rayton, B. (2007). The contribution of corporate social responsibility to organizational commitment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(10), 1701-1719.

Buffa, F., Franch, M., & Rizio, D. (2018). Environmental management practices for sustainable business models in small and medium sized hotel enterprises. Journal of cleaner production, 194, 656-664.

Calantone, R. J., Cavusgil, S. T., & Zhao, Y. (2002). Learning orientation, firm innovation capability, and firm performance. Industrial marketing management, 31(6), 515-524.

Cantele, S., & Zardini, A. (2018). Is sustainability a competitive advantage for small businesses? An empirical analysis of possible mediators in the sustainability–financial performance relationship. Journal of Cleaner Production, 182, 166-176.

Carroll, A. B. (1991). The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders. Business horizons, 34(4), 39-48.

Cekanavicius, L., Bazyte, R., & Dicmonaite, A. (2014). Green business: challenges and practices. Ekonomika, 93(1), 74-88.

Chai, Y. K., & Sa, M. L. L. (2016). Strategic Entrepreneurship and Performance of Small and Medium Enterprises of Malaysia. The International Journal of Business & Management, 4(2), 116.

Chang, C.-H. (2011). The influence of corporate environmental ethics on competitive advantage: The mediation role of green innovation. Journal of business ethics, 104(3), 361-370.

Chen, Y.-S., Lai, S.-B., & Wen, C.-T. (2006). The influence of green innovation performance on corporate advantage in Taiwan. Journal of business ethics, 67(4), 331-339.

Cheon, S., Maltz, A., & Dooley, K. (2017). The link between economic and environmental performance of the top 10 US ports. Maritime Policy & Management, 44(2), 227-247.

Cherkos, T., Zegeye, M., Tilahun, S., & Avvari, M. (2017). Examining significant factors in micro and small enterprises performance: case study in Amhara region, Ethiopia. Journal of Industrial Engineering International, 1-13.

Cholette, S., Kleinrichert, D., Roeder, T., & Sugiyama, K. (2014). Emerging social entrepreneurial CSR initiatives in supply chains: exploratory case studies of four agriculturally based entrepreneurs. Journal of Corporate Citizenship(55), 40-72.

Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2013). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students: Macmillan International Higher Education.

Corbett, L. M., & Cutler, D. J. (2000). Environmental management systems in the New Zealand plastics industry. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 20(2), 204-224.

Cordeiro, J. J., & Sarkis, J. (1997). Environmental proactivism and firm performance: evidence from security analyst earnings forecasts. Business Strategy and the Environment, 6(2), 104-114.

Dahleez, K. A., Aboramadan, M., & Bansal, A. (2020). Servant leadership and affective commitment: the role of psychological ownership and person–organization fit. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.

Davidsson, P. (2004). Researching entrepreneurship: Springer.

Davis, K. (1973). The case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities. Academy of Management Journal, 16(2), 312-322.

Earnhart, D., & Lizal, L. (2010). The Effect of Corporate Environmental Performance on Financial Outcomes–Profits, Revenues and Costs: Evidence from the Czech Transition Economy. Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 46(3), 1-44.

El-Garaihy, W. H., Mobarak, A.-K. M., & Albahussain, S. A. (2014). Measuring the impact of corporate social responsibility practices on competitive advantage: A mediation role of reputation and customer satisfaction. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(5), 109.

Elkington, J. (1998). Partnerships from cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st‐century business. Environmental quality management, 8(1), 37-51.

European Commission. (2011). communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions (a renewed eu strategy 2011-14 for corporate social responsibility). retrieved from

Filbeck, G., & Gorman, R. F. (2004). The relationship between the environmental and financial performance of public utilities. Environmental and Resource Economics, 29(2), 137-157.

Franco, C. E., & Suguna, G. (2017). Corporate social responsibility influences, employee commitment and organizational performance. International Journal of Research-granthaalayah, 5(1 (SE)), 23-27.

Franke, G., & Sarstedt, M. (2019). Heuristics versus statistics in discriminant validity testing: A comparison of four procedures. Internet Research, 29(3), 430-447.

Friedman, M. (2007). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In Corporate ethics and corporate governance (pp. 173-178): Springer.

Gonenc, H., & Scholtens, B. (2017). Environmental and financial performance of fossil fuel firms: A closer inspection of their interaction. Ecological Economics, 132, 307-328.

González-Rodríguez, M. R., Martín-Samper, R. C., Köseoglu, M. A., & Okumus, F. (2019). Hotels’ corporate social responsibility practices, organizational culture, firm reputation, and performance. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(3), 398-419.

Hair Jr, J. F., Howard, M. C., & Nitzl, C. (2020). Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis. Journal of Business Research, 109, 101-110.

Hair Jr, J. F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., & Gudergan, S. P. (2017). Advanced issues in partial least squares structural equation modeling: Sage Publications.

Harash, E., Al-Timimi, S., & Alsaadi, J. (2014). The influence of finance on performance of small and medium enterprises (SMES). technology, 4(3), 161-167.

Harjoto, M., & Laksmana, I. (2018). The impact of corporate social responsibility on risk taking and firm value. Journal of business ethics, 151(2), 353-373.

Hart, S. L., & Dowell, G. (2011). Invited editorial: a natural-resource-based view of the firm: fifteen years after. Journal of management, 37(5), 1464-1479.

Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), 115-135.

Hou, M., Liu, H., Fan, P., & Wei, Z. (2016). Does CSR practice pay off in East Asian firms? A meta-analytic investigation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 33(1), 195-228.

Jiang, Y., Xue, X., & Xue, W. (2018). Proactive Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Financial Performance: Evidence from Chinese Energy Enterprises. Sustainability, 10(4), 964.

Johari, J. (2019). sustainability reporting and firm performance: evidence in malaysia. International Journal of Accounting, 4(17), 32-45.

Kadir, A. R. A., Aminallah, A., Ibrahim, A., Sulaiman, J., Yusoff, M. F. M., Idris, M. M., . . . Malek, Z. A. (2018). The Influence of Intellectual Capital and Corporate Entrepreneurship Towards Small and Medium Enterprises’(SMEs) Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Building a Conceptual Framework. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2nd Advances in Business Research International Conference.

Katsikeas, C. S., Leonidou, L. C., & Morgan, N. A. (2000). Firm-level export performance assessment: review, evaluation, and development. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 28(4), 493-511.

Khan, M., Majid, A., Yasir, M., & Arshad, M. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation: A case of cement industry in Pakistan. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 5(1), 843-857.

Kirchhoff, B. A. (1994). Entrepreneurship and dynamic capitalism: The economics of business firm formation and growth: ABC-CLIO.

Lucas, M. T., & Noordewier, T. G. (2016). Environmental management practices and firm financial performance: The moderating effect of industry pollution-related factors. International Journal of Production Economics, 175, 24-34.

Madueno, J. H., Jorge, M. L., Conesa, I. M., & Martínez-Martínez, D. (2016). Relationship between corporate social responsibility and competitive performance in Spanish SMEs: Empirical evidence from a stakeholders’ perspective. BRQ Business Research Quarterly, 19(1), 55-72.

McMahon, R. G. (2001). Growth and performance of manufacturing SMEs: The influence of financial management characteristics. International Small Business Journal, 19(3), 10-28.

McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2000). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification? Strategic management journal, 21(5), 603-609.

Mellahi, K., & Harris, L. C. (2016). Response rates in business and management research: An overview of current practice and suggestions for future direction. British Journal of Management, 27(2), 426-437.

Mensah, H. K., Agyapong, A., & Nuertey, D. (2017). The effect of corporate social responsibility on organizational commitment of employees of rural and community banks in Ghana. Cogent Business & Management, 4(1), 1280895.

Montabon, F., Sroufe, R., & Narasimhan, R. (2007). An examination of corporate reporting, environmental management practices and firm performance. Journal of operations management, 25(5), 998-1014.

Mwaura, A. T. W., Hiuhu, J., & Gathenya, J. (2015). Interrogating the inculcation of entrepreneurial culture among students in Kenya. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 5(3), 1.

Nyirenda, G., & Ngwakwe, C. C. (2014). Environmental management practices for sustainable development: agenda for harmonization. Environmental Economics Journal, 5(1), 76-85.

Nyuur, R. B., Ofori, D. F., & Amponsah, M. M. (2019). Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: A developing country perspective. Thunderbird International Business Review, 61(4), 551-564.

Pereira-Moliner, J., Font, X., Tarí, J. J., Molina-Azorin, J. F., Lopez-Gamero, M. D., & Pertusa-Ortega, E. M. (2015). The Holy Grail: Environmental management, competitive advantage and business performance in the Spanish hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(5), 714-738.

Peteraf, M. A., & Barney, J. B. (2003). Unraveling the resource‐based tangle. Managerial and decision economics, 24(4), 309-323.

Peterson, D. K. (2004). The relationship between perceptions of corporate citizenship and organizational commitment. Business & society, 43(3), 296-319.

Pham, H. S. T., & Tran, H. T. (2020). CSR disclosure and firm performance: The mediating role of corporate reputation and moderating role of CEO integrity. Journal of Business Research, 120, 127-136.

Pintea, M.-O., Stanca, L., Achim, S.-A., & Pop, I. (2014). Is There a Connection Among Environmental and Financial Performance of a Company in Developing Countries? Evidence from Romania. Procedia Economics and Finance, 15, 822-829.

Pinzón-Castro, S. Y., & Morales, C. L. (2017). Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Reputation in Mexican Small Business. Advances in Management and Applied Economics, 7(5).

Popa, M., & Salanţă, I. (2014). Corporate social responsibility versus corporate social irresponsibility. Management & Marketing, 9(2).

Porter, M., Kramer, M., & Randall-Raconteur, J. (2006). 9. So what now? Harvard Business Review.

Porter, M. E. (1985). Technology and competitive advantage. Journal of business strategy.

Porter, M. E., & Linde, C. v. d. (1999). Green and competitive: Ending the stalemate. Journal of Business Administration and Policy Analysis, 215.

Porter, Ÿ. (2017). ME and Kramer, MR (2006). Strategy & Society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility, Havard Business Review. In.

Qian, W., & Xing, K. (2018). Linking Environmental and Financial Performance for Privately Owned Firms: Some Evidence from A ustralia. Journal of Small Business Management, 56(2), 330-347.

Qing, M., Asif, M., Hussain, A., & Jameel, A. (2019). Exploring the impact of ethical leadership on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in public sector organizations: The mediating role of psychological empowerment. Review of Managerial Science, 1-28.

Rahman, N. R. A., Rasid, S. Z. A., & Basiruddin, R. (2014). Exploring the relationship between carbon performance, carbon reporting and firm performance: A conceptual paper. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 164, 118-125.

Ramanathan, R. (2018). Understanding complexity: The curvilinear relationship between environmental performance and firm performance. Journal of business ethics, 149(2), 383-393.

Ramayah, T., Rahman, S. A., & Taghizadeh, S. K. (2019). Modelling green entrepreneurial intention among university students using the entrepreneurial event and cultural values theory. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, 11(4), 394-412.

Rondinelli, D. A., & Vastag, G. (1996). International environmental standards and corporate policies: an integrative framework. California management review, 39(1), 106-122.

Russell, D. W., & Russell, C. A. (2010). Here or there? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility initiatives: Egocentric tendencies and their moderators. Marketing Letters, 21(1), 65-81.

Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 341-350.

Sahu, S. K., & Narayanan, K. (2014). Energy use patterns and firm performance: Evidence From Indian Industries. J. Energy Dev, 40, 111-133.

Sanzo, M. J., Álvarez, L. I., Rey, M., & García, N. (2012). Perceptions of top management commitment to innovation and R&D‐marketing relationship effectiveness: do they affect CSR? Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 83(3), 383-405.

Sarbutts, N. (2003). Can SMEs “do” CSR? A practitioner’s view of the ways small‐and medium‐sized enterprises are able to manage reputation through corporate social responsibility. Journal of communication management.

Schoenherr, T. (2012). The role of environmental management in sustainable business development: a multi-country investigation. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), 116-128.

Shah, S. S., Shah, A. A., & Taiyyeba, Z. (2018). Identification of strengths and barriers among Pakistani SMEs. NICE Research Journal of Social Science. ISSN: 2219-4282, 10, 110-120.

Singh, S. K., & El-Kassar, A.-N. (2019). Role of big data analytics in developing sustainable capabilities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 213, 1264-1273.

Stites, J. P., & Michael, J. H. (2011). Organizational commitment in manufacturing employees: Relationships with corporate social performance. Business & Society, 50(1), 50-70.

Torugsa, N. A., O’Donohue, W., & Hecker, R. (2012). Capabilities, proactive CSR and financial performance in SMEs: Empirical evidence from an Australian manufacturing industry sector. Journal of business ethics, 109(4), 483-500.

Wang, S., Li, J., & Zhao, D. (2018). Institutional pressures and environmental management practices: The moderating effects of environmental commitment and resource availability. Business Strategy and the Environment, 27(1), 52-69.

Williams, R. O. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance of US Manufacturing and Service Small-and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

Yuan, Y., Lu, L. Y., Tian, G., & Yu, Y. (2020). Business strategy and corporate social responsibility. Journal of business ethics, 162(2), 359-377.

Zhao, X., Lynch Jr, J. G., & Chen, Q. (2010). Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of consumer research, 37(2), 197-206.

Zou, S., Taylor, C. R., & Osland, G. E. (1998). The experf scale: a cross-national generalized export performance measure. Journal of international Marketing, 37-58.