How green investment drives sustainable business performance for food manufacturing small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises? Evidence from an emerging economy

Abstract

This study unfolds the nexus between green investment (GI), the sustainable business performance (SBP) of small-and medium-sized enterprises by exploring the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and green innovation (GIN) in the context of an emerging economy. A well-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 556 valid responses from directors and managers were received and used for data analysis. The Smart PLS version 3.3.2 was employed to analyse and investigate the relationships between the constructs and the latent variables. Our findings provide an insight into how GI can boost SBP in the context of CSR and GIN partially mediating this relationship. This research implies that, businesses, which implement GI, GIN and CSR to promote bringing long-term and sustainable benefits to businesses and stakeholders for SBP to help businesses, develop sustainably in the new context.

The analytic hierarchy process as an innovative way to enable stakeholder engagement for sustainability reporting in the food industry

“…Such reports document information related to environmental dimensions, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water withdrawal and waste management (Rajic et al, 2022). As a result of this analysis, scholars have highlighted that green investments are able to improve enterprise performance (Le & Ferasso, 2022). Additionally, there is a need to promote employee-based strategies (Usmani et al, 2022) and to issue sustainable documents in order to improve consumer trust (Mercadé-Melé et al, 2021).…”

Digital capability and creative capability to boost firm performance and formulate differentiated CSR-based strategy

“…They confirmed the moderating effects of company reputation and demanding clients on the link between foreign CEO-CSR expenditure [ 126 , 127 ] Other CSR study explores the mediating function of CSR and green innovation (GIN) in the context of an emerging economy to reveal the relationship between green investment (GI), sustainable business performance (SBP), and green innovation (GIN). SEM firms increasingly use GI, GIN, and CSR to generate long-term and sustainable benefits [ 128 ].…”

Investing for a Greener Future: Asymmetric Nexus between Green Finance and Renewable Energy Technology Innovation

“…Equation (7), utilizing the QQ model, depicts the association between the σ th quantile of GF and the τ th quantile of RTI. The symbol (*) denotes the conditional GF quantile, while the parameters α 0 and α 1 are represented by σ and τ, respectively.…”

“…Conventional financing sources, such as banks and private investors, often shy away from these initiatives due to perceived risks and uncertainties. [6,7] However, GF offers incentives for enterprises to implement environmentally friendly practices. The introduction of GB has created a new avenue of financing dedicated to supporting long-term projects in the RE sector.…”