Impact Of Corporate Social Responsibility And Environmental Management On Corporate Performance Of Firms

The concepts and practices of Corporate Social Responsibility are continuing to gain considerable attention from business leaders,government officials,and academics.More recently,it has been argued that a purposeful engagement of corporations in societal affairs through an active contribution to capacity building is crucial for the progress of developing nations and corporate social responsibility could be a vehicle for development through public-private partnerships.The field of corporate social responsibility is still uncovered ground,at an early stage of development in the Maldives.Furthermore,given the immense global environmental challenges and their social and economic consequences,developing countries,especially small island developing states such as the Maldives are environmentally vulnerable and struggling for sustainability.Moreover,environmental issues such as climate change,waste,and pollution have been frequently discussed and debated among experts and practitioners,and in the world media.Small Island Developing States(SIDS)have been recognized as being environmentally vulnerable because they tend to have a small set of resources and have delicate fragile land and marine ecosystems and a relatively high vulnerability to natural disasters.Hence,the role of businesses,especially the private sector businesses in achieving sustainability has ever been important.Considering past studies and immense literature about corporate social responsibility and various dimensions of corporate responsibility towards achieving better corporate performance reflects on society,economy as well as environment.This thesis aims to evaluate the current understanding and practices of corporate social responsibility,environmental management practices,other related corporate internal practices towards achieving corporate financial performance,corporate sustainability,and sustainable development.The in terms of financial,economic,social,and environmental aspects in the context of the Maldives and explores the potential for sustainability through three main studies.As for the methodologies and research discipline employed,for the first study on the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate financial performance,the secondary data related to corporate social responsibility,financial variables have been collected from the Maldives Stock Exchange,and through content analysis,a corporate social responsibility index was developed for the study.Where else,for the last two studies,a brief focus group discussion and a preliminary test were conducted through a focused group meeting with industry experts before data were collected from senior management of registered businesses in the Maldives.Data for the three studies were analyzed using various statistical software such as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences(SPSS)and tested using variance-based structural equation modeling(SEM)and the partial least squares(PLS)estimation technique,which is implemented in the statistical software package Advanced Analysis of Composites(ADANCO)2.0.1.Findings from the first study demonstrated a significant relationship between overall CSR ranking and financial.However,among the dimensions of CSR,only the community and governance have a significant positive association with financial measures,whereas else the dimensions of employees and environment do not have any significance with financial performance.Furthermore,the study two results showed that environmental management practices have a direct and positive effect on corporate sustainability.Likewise,environmental regulation and reporting positively mediate the effect of environmental management practices on corporate sustainability.Among the sustainability dimensions,it is important to note that the social sustainability aspect has the highest impact,followed by the economic and environmental aspects of corporate sustainability.The research implication and future research directions provided from the first study,required the final study if identify the impact of corporate internal practices towards sustainable development with the mediating effect of stakeholder involvement and the results proved that there is a strong effect of the mediating effect of stakeholder engagement on the relationship between corporate internal practices and sustainable development.To summarize,the majority of the finding of the studies presented relatively a stronger relation between corporate social responsibility practices towards achieving positive corporate performance in terms of corporate financial performance,corporate sustainability,and sustainable development of business in the Maldives.The study results delivered the expected research objectives and provided implications to control the effect of corporate social responsibility dimensions on businesses' performance strategically and to revise business philosophies to a socially responsible approach.It also contributes to helping the decision-makers to come up with concepts to initiate and provide a social performance rating for the Maldives listed companies.Furthermore,the studies presented in the thesis served as noteworthy research for stakeholders to evaluate against regulatory and reporting requirements for businesses they invest in in the future.It adds value to the literature and attempts to advance environmental management and sustainability research in the context of small island developing states as well.The thesis results present are noteworthy and practical for stakeholders and policymakers to follow through the necessary compliance and transparency measures that impact overall sustainability as well as strengthening the key stakeholder relationship management for striving in the with overall corporate performance for the business in the future.