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The aim of this paper is to study the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) over small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) innovation and the effect of two mediating variables, debt terms and human capital. Based on a sample of 2825 Spanish SMEs and applying a structural equations modeling, the results demonstrate that the effect of CSR on innovation is mediated by debt terms and by good human resource practices. Part of the positive effect of CSR on innovation occurs through these two variables, which, alone, positively and significantly affect innovation in SMEs. Consequently, the positive effect of CSR practices on debt terms through a decrease in asymmetric information goes further, also having repercussions on innovation. Additionally, the suitable development of human resource practices based on strategies oriented toward CSR allow companies to carry out greater and more efficient innovative activities. This paper contributes to the CSR literature considering the human resource management and the debt access in the relationship between CSR and innovation. The findings reveal important implications for policy makers and managers. For the former, the results show that it would be interesting to carry out actions aimed at assisting SMEs, especially those with fewer resources available, to implement a suitable CSR strategy, supporting sustainable development in SMEs. And, for the latter, CSR‐oriented innovation has proven to be a valuable strategy for more efficient SMEs management because of the multiple competitive advantages it generates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hotel industry is characterized by operating in a global, dynamic and uncertain environment where stakeholders' concerns on sustainable development are growing. However, there is limited research on whether hotels have flexibility and capacity for change, to develop environmental practices that meet stakeholder demands and improve their competitiveness. Through the dynamic capabilities theory, the resource‐based view and the stakeholder theory, this paper develops a model that considers agility and innovation as antecedents of environmental management and competitive advantages as consequences. A Partial Least Squares analysis is carried out based on data from Spanish hotels. The results indicate that agility and innovation influence environmental management positively; agility influences innovation positively; and agility influences environmental management indirectly through innovation. Moreover, environmental management positively influences cost and differentiation competitive advantages. This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of two important dynamic capabilities and their impact on environmental management and showing how the interaction and mediation between these capabilities favors competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility, corporate innovation, and corporate performance in developing countries. Firm level governance and corporate social responsibility data for 150 companies from 12 developing countries were collected from Datastream and Bloomberg for 2014–2019. The results show that in the context of developing countries there is no significant relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate innovation. Our findings raise concerns about the level of R&D investments and commitment to corporate social responsibilities in developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the theoretical and empirical relevance of motivation crowding theory for owner–managers' motivation towards sustainable development. Motivation crowding theory has argued that external pressures enforce (crowd in) moral motivation if these pressures are perceived as supportive. On the basis of this theory, we conjecture that a competitive environment that is characterized by a high intensity of competition on innovation will crowd in moral motivation towards sustainable development if owner–managers believe that environmental policy practices increase the innovative capability of their company. Test results on survey data filled out by 650 owner–managers support this hypothesis. These results imply that policy makers, who aim at stimulating innovation as well as sustainable development, should inform managers about the innovation‐enhancing effects of environmental policy practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment by energy firms in innovation can have substantial economic and environmental impacts and benefits. Firms engage in innovation for different reasons. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the role that the different innovation objectives have on firms' decisions to invest in each of three types of innovation activity: namely, internal R&D, external R&D, and the acquisition of advanced machinery, equipment, or software. We consider four objectives: process innovation, product innovation, reducing environmental impact, and meeting regulatory requirements. With this approach, we examine how energy firms innovate to reduce their environmental impact in comparison with other innovation objectives. In carrying out the empirical analysis, we draw on data for private energy firms included in the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel for the period 2004–2016. In the empirical analysis, we take the potential persistence of innovation activities into account and we use multivariate probit models to control for possible complementarities between the different R&D and innovation investments. Our results show that internal and external R&D are undertaken to address environmental objectives and to meet regulatory requirements whereas the acquisition of advanced machinery has the purpose of developing process innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in emergent countries have been motivated to implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, whereas innovation is needed or even necessary to gain performance. This paper develops a conceptual model to explore if three types of innovation (technology, management, and marketing) have moderation and mediation effects on relationships between CSR practices and performance. Using 494 samples collected from Chinese SMEs, hierarchical regression analysis results show that technology innovation can improve environmental performance together with employee efforts, and it can also improve social image together with environmental practices and community involvement. Management innovation is necessary to improve stakeholders' satisfaction, and it can also help bring environmental performance through employees' efforts and improve social image through organizational governance. Marketing innovation is necessary to gain economic performance. Meanwhile, marketing innovation can improve stakeholders' satisfaction together with organizational governance, and it can help to improve environmental performance through community involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the new economic scenario, characterized by a rapidly changing environment, companies are pushed into seeking new responses in order to survive and succeed. Companies are looking for new activities to improve their economic performance. Furthermore, these activities have been focused on innovation and/or socially responsible aspects. This paper analyzes the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), innovation and its effect on performance. Especially, it shows if innovation has a fundamental role in the development of socially responsible practices or if social issues are responsible for practices that lead to greater innovation and, consequently, to greater performance. Data were collected from a sample of 121 Spanish wineries. The results show that CSR and innovation act as a mediator depending on the measurement of performance used. CSR, specifically, acts as a mediator between innovation and objective performance. However, managers perceive that the relationship between CSR and performance improves through innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pakistan is a developing country making efforts to become compatible to foreign industry for smooth economic activities. A developmental wave of China Pakistan Economic Corridor puts pressure on Pakistan corporate industrial sector to speed up its strategical & developmental implementation process to remains in or surpass competition. For this Pakistan industry is gradually moving towards Corporate Social Responsible actions while China is leading from front. The intention of this paper is to examine moderating and direct impact of innovation on corporate social responsibility and firm performance in manufacturing industry of Pakistan. For this; panel data of three years was collected. Theoretical framework is based on two theories that are resource based and institutional theory. The direct and moderating effect was test by using multiple regression technique. The results was that significant direct relationship exist among CSR, Innovation and Firm Performance while moderating effect of innovation is absent between CSR and Firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, a model of structural equations is proposed to analyze the relationship between the actions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its influence on innovation and cooperation in agribusiness sector located in Murcia, Spain. These companies have always been characterized by an innovative and cooperative spirit to meet the demands of their customers. The proposed model shows the relationship between cooperation and innovation and their influence on economic performance. Moreover, the model suggests, first that innovation partially mediates the relationship between cooperation and performance and second that cooperation partially mediates the relationship between CSR and innovation. Insiders (employees, partners, and managers) and external agents (suppliers and society) and its association with the strategy of innovation and cooperation and the various measures and economic outcomes associated with CSR are also studied. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen a proliferation of suggestions for market-based solutions to global poverty. While research emphasises that sustainability innovation aimed at poverty alleviation must be grounded in user needs, few studies demonstrate how to study the poor for purposes of early phase innovation in business enterprises, especially in multiple locations comparatively. This study suggests that the necessary understanding of low-income users and their practices can be gained through multi-sited rapid ethnography. We exemplify how the process moves from an understanding of the needs of the poor towards innovation and offer a general framework for evaluating the success of these types of projects. The paper describes the challenges and solutions found in a multi-sited rapid ethnography research in urban base of the pyramid (BOP) contexts in Brazil, India, Russia, and Tanzania. It suggests businesses can learn about the poor with the help of this method and conduct sustainability innovation on the basis of the needs of the poor, rather than start with existing products. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior confronting findings on the association between corporate social responsibility and profitability show that some aspects remain to be clarified about this binomial. Contributing to this body of research is particularly interesting in the case of the exporters to understand the role that corporate social responsibility may play in improving export performance. This study aims to determine the impact of firms' corporate social responsibility efforts on their export performance by examining innovation and the legal form of the organization as factors that could affect this relationship. Using data from 107 agri‐food companies, we found that corporate social responsibility has no direct effect on export performance. However, our results show that innovation serves as a mediator in this relationship. It was also found that companies that adopt associative legal forms (i.e., cooperatives) benefit more from their social responsibility practices than companies that adopt non‐associative legal forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether and how non‐pecuniary employee rewards based on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in association with human resource management (HRM) affect firm value. In the context of Japanese manufacturing firms for the 2006–2019 period, the regression results provide several important findings. Non‐pecuniary rewards work individually and synergistically with pecuniary rewards to enhance employee motivations for innovation, through which the CSR‐HRM nexus increases firm value. However, non‐employee perception of employee‐oriented CSR negatively moderates the relationship between innovation and firm market value. In the Japanese market, investors are fully aware about the CSR‐HRM effect on employee motivations and highly concerned with risk due to conflicts of interest between employees and non‐employee stakeholders. This suggests the importance of stakeholder engagement to link organizational innovation capability with firm value. These findings provide useful implications for the alignment of CSR strategies with HRM policies for optimizing innovation performance for corporate sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) presents a valuable tool of a better management of enterprises for the benefit of the whole society. Small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have been facing this challenge for a shorter time than large enterprises. The aim of the article is to evaluate the impact of the CSR indicators on the sustainability of SMEs in Central European (CE) countries. Factors of the sustainability of SMEs are innovative ways to win new markets and retain existing customers, the innovation of our products and services, and lower probability of SMEs' bankruptcy. Linear regression analysis was applied to verify causal relationships. The sample size was constructed of 1,585 SMEs on basis of the questionnaire's answers. The results show that the knowledge of the CSR concept and its assertion in business is the most important CSR indicator with a positive impact on each factor of SMEs' sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eco-innovations of corporations are seen to contribute to the mitigation of negative impacts on the natural environment. However, despite environmental gains, some eco-innovations fail in the marketplace while others succeed. We propose a framework that reflects the connection between eco-innovations and their social license to operate. Corporations can increase the market success of eco-innovations if they can gain a social license to operate based on fair and trustworthy stakeholder engagement shaped by the context of their societal environment. Eco-innovations can be transformed following management steps of an internal and external evaluation, the analysis of companies' interactional status, and conformation activities for the introduction of sustainability-oriented innovations. We conclude that the successful transformation of eco-innovations requires the inclusion of social factors, such as stakeholders' multiple claims, to secure a social license to operate and thereby even reduce costs by avoiding sketchy corporate social responsibility measures. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the debate about the strategic potential of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the existence of a possible relationship between CSR and competitiveness has become increasingly relevant. However, the literature has not analysed in detail why this influence occurs and what the key elements that determine increasing competitiveness are. This study analyses the roles of innovation and investment in the ways in which CSR influences competitiveness. The results from an empirical study of 236 companies show no direct influence of CSR on competitiveness, but innovation and investment are shown to affect CSR's influence on competitiveness indirectly and significantly. These results demonstrate a total mediation effect of innovation and investment on CSR's influence on competitiveness. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed together with its limitations and potential for future research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]