The impact of corporate social responsibility on the sustainable financial performance of Italian firms: mediating role of firm reputation

Abstract

This research examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions (employee, customer, community, and environment) on the sustainable business performance of the manufacturing industry. Manifestly, the mediating impact of firm reputation is also analyzed between CSR and sustainable business performance. In doing so, we have collected primary data from Italian manufacturing firm’s employees using simple random sampling. Smart-PLS was used to test the reliability of the covariates and relationships among the variables. The results revealed that CSR has a positive association with firm reputation and sustainable business performance. The findings also indicated that firm reputation has a significant and positive association with sustainable business performance. Moreover, firm’s reputation plays a positive and significant mediating role between CSR and sustainable business performance. These results provide valuable recommendations.