Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja

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The impact of corporate social responsibility on

the sustainable financial performance of Italian
firms: mediating role of firm reputation

Ye Feng, Rabia Akram, Vu Minh Hieu & Nguyen Hoang Tien

To cite this article: Ye Feng, Rabia Akram, Vu Minh Hieu & Nguyen Hoang Tien (2022) The
impact of corporate social responsibility on the sustainable financial performance of Italian
firms: mediating role of firm reputation, Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 35:1,
4740-4758, DOI: 10.1080/1331677X.2021.2017318

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ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA
2022, VOL. 35, NO. 1, 4740–4758
https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677X.2021.2017318

The impact of corporate social responsibility on the

sustainable financial performance of Italian firms:
mediating role of firm reputation
Ye Fenga, Rabia Akramb, Vu Minh Hieuc and Nguyen Hoang Tiend
a
Zhejiang Yuexiu University, Shaoxing, China; bSchool of Business, Guilin University of Electronic
Technology, Guilin, China; cFaculty of Business Administration, Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam; dHo Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This research examines the impact of corporate social responsibil- Received 18 October 2021
ity (CSR) dimensions (employee, customer, community, and envir- Accepted 7 December 2021
onment) on the sustainable business performance of the
KEYWORDS
manufacturing industry. Manifestly, the mediating impact of firm
Corporate social
reputation is also analyzed between CSR and sustainable business responsibility; sustainable
performance. In doing so, we have collected primary data from business performance; firm
Italian manufacturing firm’s employees using simple random sam- reputation; manufacturing
pling. Smart-PLS was used to test the reliability of the covariates organizations
and relationships among the variables. The results revealed that
CSR has a positive association with firm reputation and sustain- JEL CODES
able business performance. The findings also indicated that firm M14; L21; L25; L14
reputation has a significant and positive association with sustain-
able business performance. Moreover, firm’s reputation plays a
positive and significant mediating role between CSR and sustain-
able business performance. These results provide valuable
recommendations.

1. Introduction
As social and environmental awareness is increasing among the general public, it has
become a critical need for business organizations to ensure sustainable business per-
formance to attain a unique position both in the national and international markets
and community (Asiaei & Bontis, 2019; Pearson et al., 2019). Sustainable performance
is the act of the organization to carry on its activities without imparting adverse influ-
ences on the environmental quality and society (Sharif et al., 2019). A sustainable
business operates its activities well-being of community and environment both at
national and international level (Phillips et al., 2019). A firm makes sustainable per-
formance when it is environmentally and socially conscious and focuses more than
simply on profits; it has a keen observation of the effects of its activities on society

CONTACT Rabia Akram [email protected]

ß 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4741

and the environment quality. Such a business can be considered sustainable since it
contributes to the social and environmental safety of the community in which it
operates, hence contributing to creating an environment in which the business can
thrive. Well-known scholars and practitioners have put a lot of effort into the concept
of business sustainability. Such as Waheed and Zhang (2020) studied the significance
of sustainable business performance in highly competitive enviornment, where envir-
onmental and social safety is also demanded from suppliers or sellers along with the
required goods or services.
People prefer to do business with organizations concerned about the general pub-
lic’s social and environmental concerns and regulatory bodies. The ’triple bottom line
concept, coined by John Elkington, founder of the British consultancy ‘Sustainability’,
has been used to determine the business’s long-term viability. Society, the environ-
ment, and profits are the three components of this concept. A profitable, sustainable
business demonstrates social responsibility to the community while safeguarding
environmental resources (Pislaru et al., 2019). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is
a business paradigm in which firms make voluntary efforts to operate in a manner
that enhances rather than degrades society well-being and environmental quality. The
standard CSR practices are responsibilities towards employees (human capital
enhancement), customers (ethical marketing), environment (environmental sustain-
ability), and community (society improvement and social well-being) (Khan et al.,
2021; Ye et al., 2020). The main objective of CSR is to give back to society, participate
in philanthropic and activist causes, and give positive social value. Business organiza-
tions are increasingly moving towards CSR, making an exception, developing an
excellent brand, and extensive marketing. Common CSR practices include environ-
mental sustainability, human capital enhancement, community welfare, ethical con-
duct (Ben Abdallah et al., 2020; Borges et al., 2018). Similarly, the firm reputation
implies ‘how the public perceives the firm’s performance, triggered by CSR imple-
mentation from all four perspectives: environment, society, employees, and customers.
Firm reputation is the image of a firm in the eyes of consumers, which affects their
interaction with the firms and the level of firm marketing. Thus, the improved repu-
tation of the firm enhances sustainable business performance (Herrera & de las
Heras-Rosas, 2020).
Our study aims at analyzing the influences of CSR practices like responsibilities
towards employees, customers, community, and environment on the firm reputation
and sustainable business performance for the manufacturing industry of Italy. Italy is
an upper-income economy run by a unitary parliamentary system. As per the gross
domestic product (GDP) per capita, Italy is the 27th largest economy globally.
According to purchasing parity, it was the 29 largest country in the world in 2019.
The estimated nominal GDP for 2019 is $2.106 trillion. There are three main sectors
of the economy of Italy: Agriculture, Industry, and Service (Tien et al., 2020). Despite
accounting for 40.1 percent of GDP in 2004, the industrial sector only employed 12.9
percent of the workforce. Non-state activities accounted for 22.4 percent of industrial
production in 2000. The industrial sector grew at an annual pace of 10.3 percent on
average from 1994 to 2004. Manufacturing employed 10.2 percent of the workforce
and provided 20.3 percent of GDP in 2004. Manufacturing GDP increased at an
4742 Y. FENG ET AL.

annual pace of 11.2 percent from 1994 to 2004 (Nguyen et al., 2018). The large auto-
mobile industry has emerged in the last decade.
Italy, being a developed country, faces many environmental problems. The manu-
facturing organizations that have a significant portion of the country’s GDP need spe-
cial attention to accelerate the performance and develop sustainability in the business
performance. Our study is an attempt to meet this need with an objective to give the
ways to develop sustainability in business performance. The study aims to check the
influences of CSR practices like responsibilities towards employees, customers, com-
munity, and environment on sustainable business performance. It is also its objective
to analyze the role of firm reputation between CSR practices like responsibilities
towards employees, customers, community, and environmentally sustainable business
performance for the economy of Italy. Thus, the study aims to address the following
research questions:

1. What is the role of SCR practices like responsibilities towards employees, custom-
ers, community, and environment in achieving sustainable business performance?
2. What is the role of CSR practices like responsibilities towards employees, custom-
ers, community, and environment in high firm performance?
3. What is the effect on firm reputation due to sustainable business performance?
4. What is the role of firm reputation between CSR practices and sustainable busi-
ness performance?

This paper contributes on three grounds. First, in past studies, the CSR strategy
has been mainly discussed without distinguishing its practices as the driver of sustain-
able financial performance. But current study removes this literary gap by determin-
ing CSR practices into the organizations’ responsibilities towards the employee,
customers, community, and environment to analyze their impact on sustainable
financial development. Second, in the previously conducted theoretical research,
mostly one or two practices are used to predict sustainable financial performance.
The current study focuses on all four CSR practices for attaining sustainable financial
performance. Third, in the existing literature, the direct influences of CSR practices
on firm reputation and sustainable business performance, and direct impacts of firm
reputation on sustainable business performance. Thus, this study aims to address the
firm reputation as a mediator between CSR practices and sustainable business devel-
opment, which is a reasonable contribution to literature. Third, the study chooses the
Italian economy to analyze the understudy constructs, while a lack of research has
been done in Italy before this study.
This paper is composed of several parts. After an introduction, 2nd part of the
paper deals with the association of CSR and its four dimensions, like responsibilities
towards employees, customers, community, and environment, on firm reputation,
and the achievement of sustainable business performance in the light of past stud-
ies. The 3rd part of the study throws light on the methodology applied to collect the
CSR dimensions, like responsibilities towards employees, customers, community,
and environment on firm reputation and the achievement of sustainable business
performance and analyze its validity. 4th part compares the study results with the
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4743

findings of other authors about the same subject and thus, approves these results.
The paper ends with proper study implications, conclusions, and future
recommendations.

2. Literature review
Sustainable business performance refers to the undertaking of the company’s activ-
ities, functions, and operations so that they do not have harmful effects on the envir-
onment or the health of its customers while also fostering better social interactions
with its stakeholders. According to Manning et al. (2019), a highly sustainable firm
maintains its policies and operations to produce greater profits while protecting the
natural environment, thereby benefiting stakeholders (Irfan et al., 2021; Sharif et al.,
2020). Business sustainability and the elements that influence it have received a lot of
attention in the literature. This study focuses on the influences of CSR practices like
responsibilities towards employees, customers, community, and environment on the
firm reputation and sustainable business performance (Weller, 2020; Ye et al., 2020).
The contribution of CSR to getting highly sustainable business performance has a sig-
nificant position in the literature, which is used to build the following hypotheses.
CSR is a business concept that focuses on self-regulation within integrated enter-
prises and makes the enterprises socially responsible towards stakeholders like cus-
tomers, employees, suppliers, investors, and the public (Barauskaite & Streimikiene,
2021). Business decisions and their activities have influences on society, the environ-
ment, and its economic position. These influences may be contributing or adverse,
depending on the nature of decision making and business operations. SCR implemen-
tation is helpful to mitigate the negative social and environmental impacts and
improve high sustainability in the business performance (Muhmad & Muhamad,
2020). The study was conducted by Bacinello et al. (2020), to evaluate the influence
of CSR on sustainable innovation and sustainable business performance. The
study developed the model of CSRM and SIM for this purpose. The study applied
resource-based theory and structural equation modelling along with a sample of 154
enterprises in Brazil to collect the data regarding the CSR responsibilities towards
employees and business performance. The study represents that the enterprises which
are integrated under CSR give employment opportunities to local workers, develop
creative and leading skills in their employees, and take care of their social, emotional,
and health needs. These employees become committed to the organization, focus on
their duties, and maintain innovation in the business processes in the best interest of
the firm. Thus, the effective implementation of CSR enhances sustainable business
performance. An article was issued by Islam et al. (2021) to discuss the importance of
CSR practices regarding the welfare of customers in getting business sustainability.
The study implies that management is concerned with product and customer service
quality under the CSR business model. As a result, it uses production techniques and
marketing channels to provide economic and emotional satisfaction to customers
who interact with the company. In this method, product marketing can be improved
by retaining existing customers while attracting new ones, allowing businesses to
achieve long-term success. Similarly, empirical research made by Hou (2019)
4744 Y. FENG ET AL.

investigates the influences of CSR practices towards the environment on sustainable

business performance. The study reveals that under the CSR integration, enterprises
operate their activities with great care and always keep a check on the flaws and defi-
ciencies in their resources, techniques, and technologies, which could spoil the natural
environment and initiate to remove these deficiencies. Thus, the environmental qual-
ity is not disturbed by the business operations. High environmental performance con-
structs highly sustainable financial performance. These arguments lead us towards the
following hypothesis:
H1: The implementation of CSR practices is positively linked with sustainable business
performance.
Corporate reputation’ is the stakeholders’ perception about a company, including
its performance, behaviors, and operations (Lombardi et al., 2020). The effective
implementation of CSR responsibility towards employees, customers, community, and
environment, and the description of CSR application in annual reports improve the
stakeholders’ perception of the company (Miras-Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020). A study was
presented by Park (2019) to explore practices in CSR and their influences on corpor-
ate reputation. This study acquired data from a sample of 967 airline service users
and analyzed them with the help of structural equation modelling. This study implies
that undertaking CSR practices for the improvement of environmental quality (recy-
cling, renewable energy consumption, waste, and water management) and for the wel-
fare of customers’ or general people in the community (charities, employment to
local people, and avoidance from falsehood) improves the firm’s reputation among
general public and customers. This helps achieve public trust and creates sustainabil-
ity in the business performance. According to the views of Lu et al. (2018), having
implemented a CSR strategy effectively improves a company’s conduct toward stake-
holders such as employees, customers, suppliers, the general public, and government
officials. The firm’s representatives’ way of treatment toward stakeholders reflects the
firm’s goals, considerations, and worries. As a result, a positive and polite way of
dealing enhances the firm’s reputation among stakeholders and propels the company
forward. An investigation was made by Yuan et al. (2020) to identify the relationship
between CSR practices (ethical conduct) towards employees and customers and the
business reputation. First, if the organizational management shows polite behavior
towards the customers, provides support showing concern for their needs and moti-
vates them to apply their ideas in business, the employees are committed to the
organization and put effort into its reputation. Secondly, if the organization places a
higher value on the customers and respects them, through ethical marketing like
avoiding false advertisements, it successfully gets a reputation among the customers.
Based on the above discussion, we may put the following hypothesis.
H2: The implementation of CSR practices is positively linked with the firm reputation.
Sustainable business performance is to maintain the financial position of the firms
by maintaining social and environmental performance. Rehman et al. (2020) define
sustainable business performance as the harmonization of social, environmental, and
financial objectives. Firms reputation, which represents the way stakeholders and the
public perceive the firm, is helpful in leading the firm towards sustainable business
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4745

performance, as argued by Singh and Misra (2021), who shows a positive association
between firm reputation and sustainable business performance. The firms’ perform-
ance and market position depend on the firm’s reputation aroused by its way of con-
duct, effectiveness of the business process, quality of goods and customers services,
and their impact on the environment and society. Deep research was done by Abbas
(2020), who debate on the firm reputation, integration with the stakeholders (suppli-
ers, investors, logistics providers, or employees) who assist in carrying on business
processes and sustainable business performance. When a firm has earned a high repu-
tation among the stakeholders because of efficient past performance, they enjoy their
trust and can give the firm favours or assistance when needed. Investors can give a
large amount of money to invest in business resources or projects that aim to remove
negative environmental impacts. The suppliers can allow the delivery of good quality
resources in advance. In this situation, it becomes easy to achieve a high rate of sus-
tainable business performance (An et al., 2021). The study conducted by Ait Sidhoum
and Serra (2018) analyzes the association of firm reputation with sustainable business
development. The study analyzes that the marketing of products and services and rev-
enues from sales are determined by the number of clients or consumers who deal
with the company. Consumers’ interest in items and readiness to buy is influenced by
their level of satisfaction with the company’s operations, customer service, and prod-
uct quality. This contentment is engendered in the minds of consumers by the firm’s
reputation among experienced customers or other stakeholders.
H3: Firm reputation has a positive association with sustainable business performance.
A study was conducted by Cowan and Guzman (2020) to evaluate the relationship
among CSR practices towards employees and environment, firm reputation, and sus-
tainable business performance. The authors collect secondary data about 135 different
brands across industries and counties. Bivariate analysis and OLS regression were
applied to analyze the Data acquired about the 135 domestic and foreign brands. This
study implies that CSR focuses that the firms must adopt positive, supportive behav-
iour towards the employees to create dynamic skills in them and motivate them to
work for the firm’s best interest, maintaining its reputation. Similarly, when the man-
agement takes care of the environmental requirements of the firm, the quality of
products and services also improves, which enhances the firm brand reputation. The
reputation as a result of CSR ensures sustainability in the business performance. The
study conducted by Mousa and Othman (2020), identifies the relationship among the
CSR responsibilities towards the stakeholders, firm reputation, and sustainability in
business performance. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with
operational managers, human resource managers, and chief executive officers from
the healthcare sector in the West Bank. The quantitative data was collected from 69
respondents. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was applied for the
analysis of data. The study implies that one of the basic objectives of the CSR is to
show positive behavior towards the stakeholders and build strong bonding with them.
It is the strong bong with the stakeholders which assists improve the brand image
and raising the share of voice for the products and services of firms. The increased
firm reputation help retain the customers and achieve sustainable business perform-
ance. That is why we can say:
4746 Y. FENG ET AL.

H4: Firm reputation mediates between the implementation of CSR practices and
sustainable business performance.

3. Research methodology
This research examines the impact of CSR dimensions such as employee, customer,
community, and environment on sustainable business performance. Also, it examines
the mediating impact of firm reputation among the nexus of CSR and sustainable
business performance of manufacturing companies in Italy. The current research has
used quantitative data collection methods and used the survey questionnaires for data
collection. The researchers have selected the top twenty-five manufacturing compa-
nies of Italy under investigation. The employees of these selected manufacturing com-
panies of Italy are respondents selected using simple random sampling. A total of
1050 survey questionnaires were sent by mail and also by personal visits. After two
weeks, only 757 valid questionnaires were returned and used for analysis that repre-
sented around 72.10 per cent response rate.
Moreover, the smart-PLS was used to test the reliability and relationships among
the variables. The researchers have used this statistical tool because it provides the
best estimation in the case of complex models and large data sets (Hair et al., 2011).
PLS-SEM can quickly evaluate many complex models and smaller sample sizes (Shiau
et al., 2019). In addition, PLS-SEM has received substantial focus in a variety of disci-
plines including, management, marketing, health sciences, accounting and environ-
mental studies. Moreover, PLS-SEM has the ability to handle problematic modelling
issues that generally occur in the social sciences, like unusual data characteristics and
highly complex models. The researchers have adopted one predictor such as CSR
with four dimensions named employee, customer, community, and environment. In
addition, CSR employee has seven items taken from the past study conducted by
Bahta et al. (2021), such as EMP1 ‘Our company takes into account employees’ inter-
ests for decision –making’, EMP2 ‘Our company helps employees balance their pri-
vate and professional lives’, EMP3 ‘Our company’s policies encourage employees to
develop their skills and careers’, EMP4 ‘Our company recognizes the importance of
stable employment for its employees and society’, EMP5 ‘The managerial decisions
related to the employees are usually fair’, EMP6 ‘Our company provides the basic
facilities to their employee’, EMP7 ‘Our company provides procedures that help to
ensure the health and safety of our employees’.
In addition, CSR customer has five items also taken from the study of Bahta et al.
(2021) such as CUS1 ‘Our company incorporates the interests of our customers in
our business decisions’, CUS2 ‘Our company provides full and accurate information
about its products/services to its customers’, CUS3 ‘Customer satisfaction is highly
important for our company’, CUS4 ‘Our company takes measures to prevent cus-
tomer complaints’, CUS5 ‘Our company responds to customer complaints or inqui-
ries’. Moreover, the CSR community has seven items such as COM1 ‘Our company
contributes to the campaigns and projects that promote the well-being of society’,
COM2 ‘Our company has transparent relations with the local authorities’, COM3
‘Our company is considered part of the local community and is concerned with its
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4747

Figure 1. Theoretical model.

Source: Authors estimation.

development and the improvement of its infrastructures’, COM4 ‘Our company

encourages its employees to participate in voluntary work’, COM5 ‘Financially sup-
port activities (arts, culture, sports) in the communities where we operate’, COM6
‘Stimulate economic development in the communities where we operate’, COM7 ‘Our
company always ready to serve the local society’. Finally, CSR environment has six
items taken from the past study conducted by Bahta et al. (2021) such as ENV1 ‘Our
company incorporates environmental concerns in business decisions’, ENV2 ‘Our
company participates in activities that aim to protect and improve the quality of the
natural environment’, ENV3 ‘Our company always ready to serve for environmental
improvement’, ENV4 ‘Takes government regulations about the environment beyond
what the law requires’, ENV5 ‘Invest/involved in saving energy’, ENV6 ‘Implements
programs/involved to reduce water consumption’.
The researchers have taken the firm reputation (FR) as the mediating variable that
has five items and also taken from the Bahta et al. (2021) such as FR1 ‘Customers see
us as being a very professional organization’, FR2 ‘Customers view our firm as one
that is successful’, FR3 ‘Our firm’s reputation is highly regarded’, FR4 ‘Customers
view our firm as one that is stable’, FR5 ‘Our firm is viewed as well-established by
customers’. In addition, sustainable firm performance (SFP) has been taken as the
dependent variable with four items such as SFP1 ‘Return on Assets (ROA)’, SFP2
‘Return on Sales (ROS)’, SFP3 ‘General firm profitability’, SFP4 ‘Return on invest-
ments (ROI)’. These variables are shown in Figure 1.

4. Research findings
The current study shows the demographic statistics of the respondents. Table 1 shows
that 59.71 percent of the respondents are male, while 40.29 percent respondents were
female. In addition, the results show that 68.96 percent of the respondents have
graduation qualifications, while 27.87 percent of the respondents have master
4748 Y. FENG ET AL.

Table 1. Demographics of the respondents.

Gender
Respondents Percentage
Male 452 59.71
Female 305 40.29
Total 757 100.00
Qualification
Graduation 522 68.96
Master 211 27.87
PhD 24 3.17
Total 757 100.00
Experience
0 to 5 Years 299 39.50
6 to 10 Years 433 57.20
10 Years and more 25 3.30
Total 757 100.00
Source: Authors estimation.

qualifications, and only 3.17 percent of the respondents have Ph.D. qualifications. Finally,
the results also exposed that 39.50 percent of the respondents have zero to five years of
experience while 57.20 percent of the respondents have six to ten years of experience, and
only 3.30 percent of the respondents have ten and more years of experience.
The results below (Table 2) exhibit the convergent validity that shows the correl-
ation of the items. The thumb rule implies that Alpha and composite reliability (CR)
values should be higher than 0.70 while average variance extracted (AVE) and factor
loadings values should be higher than 0.50 (Rodr
ıguez et al., 2020). The figures below
in Table 1 report that the Alpha and CR values are higher than 0.70. The figures also
showed that AVE and factor loadings are larger than 0.50. These figures indicated
that high relationships among items and valid convergent validity.
The results section highlighted the discriminant validity that shows the variable’s
correlation. Firstly, the Fornell Larcker correlation was tested (Nasution et al., 2020).
The figures given below in Table 3 have been highlighted that the variable itself value
that shows the nexus with itself is higher than the rest of the values that guide the
relationships with other variables. These figures indicated that low relationships
among variables and valid discriminant validity (Figure 2).
Secondly, cross-loadings were used, and the thumb rule is that the item itself value
that shows the association with itself should be larger than the values that show the
association with items of other constructs (Nasution et al., 2020). The figures given
below in Table 4 show that the variable items themselves values that show the nexus
with itself are higher than the rest of the values that show the relationships with other
variables. These figures indicated that low relationships among variables and valid
discriminant validity.
Thirdly, the Heterotrait Monotrait (HTMT) ratio was used, and the threshold
value for the HTMT ratios is that it should not be greater than 0.90 (Afthanorhan
et al., 2021). The figures given below in Table 5 show that the values are lower than
0.90. These figures indicated that low relationships among variables and valid dis-
criminant validity.
Finally, the results revealed that CSR positively correlates with firm reputation and
sustainable business performance and accepts H1 and H2. The findings also indicated
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4749

Table 2. Convergent validity.

Constructs Items Loadings Alpha CR AVE
Community (CSR) COM1 0.757 0.882 0.908 0.585
COM2 0.752
COM3 0.739
COM4 0.764
COM5 0.747
COM6 0.815
COM7 0.779
Customer (CSR) CUS1 0.849 0.775 0.821 0.605
CUS2 0.745
CUS5 0.735
Employee (CSR) EMP1 0.772 0.880 0.908 0.588
EMP2 0.814
EMP3 0.815
EMP4 0.779
EMP5 0.782
EMP6 0.793
EMP7 0.585
Environment (CSR) ENV2 0.758 0.790 0.765 0.553
ENV3 0.738
ENV5 0.644
ENV6 0.526
Firm Reputation FR1 0.821 0.861 0.899 0.642
FR2 0.859
FR3 0.735
FR4 0.750
FR5 0.834
Sustainable Financial Performance SFP1 0.801 0.849 0.898 0.688
SFP2 0.840
SFP3 0.847
SFP4 0.831
Source: Authors estimation.

Table 3. Fornell Larcker.

COM CUS EMP ENV FR SFP
COM 0.765
CUS 0.496 0.778
EMP 0.589 0.450 0.767
ENV 0.201 0.181 0.176 0.673
FR 0.568 0.466 0.467 0.125 0.801
SFP 0.614 0.551 0.609 0.169 0.550 0.830
Source: Authors estimation.

that firm reputation has a significant and positive nexus with sustainable business
performance and accept H3. In addition, firm reputation also plays a positive and sig-
nificant mediating role among the nexus of CSR and sustainable business perform-
ance and accept H4. Table 6 shows these relationships.

5. Discussions
The study findings have revealed that the implementation of CRS has a positive asso-
ciation with sustainable business performance. These results align with the previous
study of Guo et al. (2020), which states that the effective implementation of CSR
practices improves business performance and creates sustainability. Implementing
CSR practices like recycling, waste management, and the application of renewable
4750 Y. FENG ET AL.

Figure 2. Measurement model assessment.

Source: Authors estimation.

Table 4. Cross-loadings.
COM CUS EMP ENV FR SFP
COM1 0.757 0.330 0.506 0.174 0.354 0.448
COM2 0.752 0.339 0.454 0.157 0.354 0.416
COM3 0.739 0.292 0.462 0.169 0.379 0.468
COM4 0.764 0.418 0.416 0.121 0.506 0.441
COM5 0.747 0.341 0.460 0.131 0.439 0.563
COM6 0.815 0.481 0.423 0.171 0.490 0.479
COM7 0.779 0.446 0.438 0.152 0.514 0.473
CUS1 0.488 0.849 0.413 0.194 0.456 0.505
CUS2 0.280 0.745 0.290 0.113 0.311 0.369
CUS5 0.360 0.735 0.330 0.101 0.299 0.393
EMP1 0.405 0.297 0.772 0.137 0.339 0.432
EMP2 0.548 0.397 0.814 0.158 0.393 0.503
EMP3 0.441 0.289 0.815 0.151 0.372 0.486
EMP4 0.406 0.309 0.779 0.144 0.349 0.514
EMP5 0.447 0.381 0.782 0.100 0.322 0.420
EMP6 0.431 0.355 0.793 0.095 0.373 0.471
EMP7 0.468 0.378 0.585 0.156 0.345 0.430
ENV2 0.149 0.136 0.143 0.758 0.039 0.145
ENV3 0.161 0.154 0.116 0.738 0.139 0.132
ENV5 0.093 0.087 0.114 0.644 0.111 0.073
ENV6 0.127 0.096 0.099 0.526 0.048 0.089
FR1 0.542 0.375 0.424 0.046 0.821 0.523
FR2 0.417 0.382 0.358 0.096 0.859 0.382
FR3 0.415 0.389 0.406 0.155 0.735 0.417
FR4 0.479 0.364 0.342 0.114 0.750 0.486
FR5 0.381 0.348 0.316 0.096 0.834 0.351
SFP1 0.509 0.472 0.467 0.139 0.457 0.801
SFP2 0.507 0.553 0.498 0.144 0.424 0.840
SFP3 0.507 0.410 0.531 0.146 0.474 0.847
SFP4 0.516 0.392 0.525 0.131 0.471 0.831
Bold values show significance at 5%.
Source: Authors estimation.
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4751

Table 5. Heterotrait monotrait ratio.

COM CUS EMP ENV FR SFP
COM
CUS 0.623
EMP 0.669 0.575
ENV 0.275 0.269 0.245
FR 0.639 0.595 0.529 0.180
SFP 0.710 0.716 0.705 0.232 0.631
Source: Authors estimation.

Table 6. Path analysis.

Relationships Beta S.D. T Statistics P Values L.L. U.L.
CSR -> FR 0.610 0.021 28.895 0.000 0.570 0.644
CSR -> SFP 0.611 0.029 21.316 0.000 0.562 0.661
FR -> SFP 0.178 0.031 5.794 0.000 0.119 0.225
CSR -> FR -> SFP 0.108 0.019 5.718 0.000 0.071 0.136
Source: Authors estimation.

energy resources for business processes helps the firm mitigate the adverse impacts of
its activities on the environment. This achieves sustainable business performance in
three ways: minimizing the waste reduces cost, improves product quality, and gains
public and government support. Consequently, the financial performance of the firm
is also high. These results are also supported by the past study of Ghaderi et al.
(2019), which analyzes the role of CSR strategy in marketing and sustainable financial
performance of the firms. This study analyzes that under the CSR business approach,
the management takes care of the quality of products and customer services and,
therefore, adopts such production techniques and marketing channels which could
provide economic and emotive satisfaction to the consumers who come in contact
with the firms. In this way, marketing for the products can be raised by retaining the
old customers and attracting new ones, and thus, the firms can have sustainable busi-
ness performance. These results are also supported by the past study of Uyar et al.
(2020), which showed that the manufacturing organizations implement CSR practices
efficiently while performing business functions can achieve sustainable business per-
formance (Figure 3).
The study results have indicated that the implementation of CSR has a positive
association with firm reputation. These results are supported by Anser et al. (2018),
which elaborate on CSR importance in a successful business. This study posits that
the effective implementation of CSR strategy improves a firm’s behaviors towards
stakeholders like employees, suppliers, customers, the general public, and government
authorities. The behavior of the firm representatives towards the stakeholders repre-
sents its objectives, consideration, and concerns. SO, the improved conduct improves
the firm’s reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders and turns the business towards
success. These results agree with the previous study of S
anchez-Mu~ noz et al. (2020).
The implementation of CSR responsibilities of environmental sustainability, human
resource enhancement, community involvement, and ethical marketing improves firm
reputations. The work also supports these results out of Siueia et al. (2019). This
study suggests that when the company implements the CSR practices like the respon-
sibilities towards the environment through proper waste management, and the
4752 Y. FENG ET AL.

Figure 3. Structural model assessment.

Source: Authors estimation.

effective choice of energy usage, customers through avoiding false descriptions and
cooperative interaction, and community through different advertisement or charity
programs, it gains high reputation among the general public and customers.
The study results have indicated that the firm reputation has a positive relation to
firms’ sustainable performance. These results are supported by the previous study of
Ngai et al. (2018), which shows that the marketing for the products and services and
profits on their sales are dependent on the number of customers or consumers who
deal with the concerned organization. Consumers’ attention to the products and will-
ingness to buy is shaped by their satisfaction towards the functioning of the con-
cerned firm, their customer services, and product quality. This satisfaction arises in
the minds of consumers through the firm’s reputation on the part of experienced cus-
tomers or other stakeholders. These results are in line with the previous study of
D’Amato and Falivena (2020), which confirms a positive association between the firm
reputation and firm sustainable business performance, as the increase in the firm
reputation brings improvement in the sustainability development in firm perform-
ance. These results are also supported by the past study of Agudelo et al. (2019),
which suggested that a firm’s reputation works as an accelerator in getting a sustain-
able business performance. The firms’ goodwill in the eyes of suppliers or logistics
providers is helpful in getting the business processes like the internal business opera-
tions, production, and marketing of goods and services, as the firms’ goodwill could
build a healthy relationship of the organization with the suppliers or logis-
tics providers.
The study results have also represented that the firms’ reputation plays an appro-
priate mediating role between the implementation of CRS practices and sustainable
business performance. The past study approves these results of Hern
andez et al.
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4753

(2020), which throws light on the role of a firm’s reputation to build a link between
the implementation of CSR practices and the achievement of sustainable business per-
formance. This study elaborates that when a business firm effectively implements
CSR practices like analysis of the situation to find flaws in the business processes
including production, advertisement, and marketing which could adversely affect the
environment, and society removes these flaws, it has the chance to catch sympathy
and attention of general public and customers. The increased reputation of the firm
among the stakeholders assures the availability of resources (physical and human
resources) for the business processes and maintains marketing for the products and
services of the goods. It leads to sustainable business performance. Hence, the firm’s
reputation mediates between CSR implementation and sustainable business perform-
ance. These results are also in line with the article written by Kraus et al. (2020). This
article suggests that under the CSR approach, which is the private self-regulation of
the business organizations, the organization not only looks at the profitability but
also takes such initiatives which could remove negative influences of business activ-
ities on the environment or minimize the exploitation of the rights of customers or
the general public. In such a situation, the quality of products and services also
improves. It enhances the firm’s reputation among the general public and the circle
of business organizations. The increased reputation of the firm enables it to get its
policies executed more effectively through cooperation from the stakeholders like sup-
pliers, government, investors, or customers.

5.1. Theoretical and empirical implications

The current study has both theoretical and empirical implications. The study achieves
a significant place in the theoretical world because of its considerable contribution to
environmental and social welfare literature. The current study analyzes CSR and its
four dimensions, like responsibilities towards employees, customers, community, and
environment, and analyzes its influences on achieving sustainable business perform-
ance. Though the current study has a single variable like CSR to check the change in
sustainable business development and its performance, it gives a detailed description
of this business strategy describing it from all the four perspectives of employees, cus-
tomers, community, and environment. Many researchers or scholars have talked
about the essential role of CSR in developing sustainability in business performance,
but either they have discussed the importance of this strategy as a whole in sustain-
able businesses, or they have discussed only one or two dimensions out of responsi-
bility towards employees, customers, community, and environment. Thus, our study,
which explains CSR practices while analyzing their influences on sustainable business
performance, contributes to the literature. Over overtime, the public is getting aware
of the social and environmental concerns; this study has a great significance to the
business management of manufacturing industries whose activities are considered the
major source of environmental pollution and thus, put adverse impact on the social
well-being of the public. This stud has importance because it provides a guideline on
how to create sustainability in the business performance, which is the combination of
social, environmental, and economic performance. This study gives motivation to the
4754 Y. FENG ET AL.

businesses that they should apply CSR practices in order to achieve highly sustainable
performance. The study suggests that if the business takes care of all the CSR practi-
ces like responsibilities towards employees, customers, community, and environment,
the firms can have highly sustainable business performance. The study also suggests
that with the effective implementation of CSR responsibilities towards employees,
customers, community, and environment, firms can achieve a good image among
the stakeholders, and improved firm reputation enhances sustainable business
performance.

6. Conclusion and limitations

The current study was conducted to provide ways for the manufacturing industry
enterprises to create sustainability in the business performance, removing the negative
impacts of business practices from the environment, community, or well-being of the
people. This study introduces a CSR business strategy for attaining higher business
performance. It elaborates the CSR along with its all four dimensions, like responsi-
bilities towards employees, customers, community, and environment, and analyzes its
influences on firm reputation and the achievement of sustainable business perform-
ance. In order to find the effects of CSR along with its all four dimensions, like
responsibilities towards employees, customers, community, and environment on firm
reputation and the achievement of sustainable business performance, the study col-
lects relevant data from the Italian manufacturing industries. These results indicated
that the effective implementation of different practices of CSR improves the business
processes, enhances the production quality, and gains the support of stakeholders like
customers, employees, suppliers, and government. Thus, it helps develop sustainability
in the business performance. These results proved that, under the CSR integration,
the enterprises in any industry themselves regulate their decisions and activities and
disclose this fact in their reports. They can gain reputation and trust from people or
entities they contact, thus ensuring sustainable business performance. The study con-
cluded that the increase in the reputation of firm help them gain cooperation from
their stakeholders in any business matter, and thus, they can have development in the
business processes. Moreover, the effective implementation of CSR responsibilities
towards employees, customers, community, and environment improves the firm’s
reputation, which is helpful in the achievement of sustainable business performance.
The current study is exposed to several limitations like many previous ones. These
limitations may weaken the effectiveness of this study, but they may provide an oppor-
tunity for the authors to prove their efficiency in future studies, having removed these
limitations. The most important thing that needs attention is the exploration of only
one construct of sustainable business performance, like CSR. The CSR is described in
detail with four dimensions such as the responsibilities towards employees, customers,
community, and environment, and this study is limited because there are a large num-
ber of variables like organizational factors, energy usage, information system, and green
finance, etc. (Shahzad et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2021; Zhuang et al., 2021) , which affect
the sustainable business performance. So, the scope of the study is limited. Moreover,
the author collects the data about the influences of CSR along with its all four
 ECONOMIC RESEARCH-EKONOMSKA ISTRAŽIVANJA 4755

dimensions, like responsibilities towards employees, customers, community, and envir-

onment, and analyzes its influences on the achievement of sustainable business per-
formance from the manufacturing sector of the Italian economy.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
The authors acknowledge the financial supports from the Philosophy & Social Science Fund of
Tianjin City, China (TJYJ21-003).

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