The Interplay of Corporate Social Responsibility, Innovation Capability, Organizational Learning, and Sustainable Value Creation: Does Stakeholder Engagement Matter?

Abstract

At the crossroads of innovation and responsibility, our study delves into CSR’s pivotal role in steering organizations toward sustainable value creation. Combining the frameworks of stakeholder theory, the resource-based view, and dynamic capabilities theory, this study examines the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in enhancing sustainable value creation (SVC), with a keen focus on how organizational learning (OL) and innovation capability (IC) mediate this relationship and the degree to which stakeholder engagement (SE) moderates the impact of CSR on OL, IC, and SVC. Using a quantitative research approach, 416 managers in the Turkish manufacturing sector (e.g., textiles, building materials, and food processing firms) were surveyed using electronic and physical questionnaires. To test the research model, AMOS 24 was employed. The results confirmed that CSR positively influences SVC, OL, and IC; OL and IC positively influence SVC; OL and IC partially mediate the relationship between CSR and SVC. Likewise, the findings suggest that stakeholder engagement (SE) plays a moderate role in strengthening the relationship between CSR and organizational learning (OL), CSR and innovation capability (IC), and CSR and sustainable value creation (SVC), with increased SE enhancing the positive effect of CSR on OL, IC, and SVC. This study explains the complex ways that CSR enhances SVC, focusing on OL and IC’s mediating roles and SE’s moderating effects. It offers manufacturing sectors in Turkey useful information for promoting sustainability and innovation.