Unveiling the influence of corporate social responsibility on the triple bottom line: a study of Pakistani manufacturing firms

This study aims to understand how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) dimensions influence proactive environmental strategies and Triple Bottom Line (TPL) of manufacturing firms. The quantitative approach has been used in this study and data was collected through a questionnaire, and 135 responses were gathered from Marketing and operations managers working in manufacturing industries. All the hypothesis was tested through Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Out of the 15 hypotheses, 10 were significant and 5 were insignificant. CSR to Employee (CSREM) had insignificant impact on environment sustainability and development (ESD), Eco-branding (ECB), and Eco-efficiency (ECE). The relationships between CSR to the consumer (CSRCS) with ESD and CSR to Environment (CSREN) with eco-branding had insignificant effects, while all the other CSR practices had a significance impact. ESD, eco-efficiency and eco-branding all had a positive relationship with triple bottom line. The study’s findings indicate that CSR dimensions can improve manufacturing firms environmental, social and economic performance through ESD, ECB and ECE. Therefore, the results indicate that incorporating environmental strategies in CSR dimensions are essential to achieve TPL.