Enhancing sustainable mineral extraction through corporate social responsibility and green innovation

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of green innovation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in improving the sustainability performance of mineral extraction firms. The rationale behind exploring said perspective is the extensive use of water, materials, and energy in mineral extraction, which necessitates developing new pathways to condense the use of natural resources. In this study, we used a well-structured questionnaire method to collect primary data from employees working in the mineral extraction sector. We performed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) in SPSS after screening the initial data and then proceeded to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS. After verifying the structural arrangements of constructs and ensuring the data meets reliability and validity requirements, we created a structural model in AMOS to test our hypothesis. We performed the mediation analysis using bootstrap methodology, 5000 resamples, and a 95% confidence interval. The results demonstrate that corporate social responsibility to society and the environment does not have a direct impact on sustainability performance. However, corporate social responsibility toward employees and green innovation strengthens the sustainability performance of mineral extraction firms. Additionally, we found that green innovation mediates the relationship between corporate social responsibility and sustainability performance. The study concludes that the role of green innovation in the mineral extraction sector is crucial to promoting sustainability performance via CSR activities. The conclusion of this study portrays promising implications for managerial decision-making and policy development regarding the mineral extraction sector. We suggest that firms seeking to improve sustainability performance through corporate social responsibility must adopt green innovation practices, which serve as a bridge between corporate social responsibility and sustainability performance. Without doing so, the results of corporate social responsibility efforts might not be successful.