TY - JOUR

T1 - The impact of corporate social responsibility practices on corporate high-quality development: burden or dividend? Evidence from China’s manufacturing sector

AU - Соколов, Борис Иванович

AU - Ding, Xiaowei

AU - Liu, Yali

N1 - Ding, X., Sokolov, B.I. & Liu, Y. The impact of corporate social responsibility practices on corporate high-quality development: burden or dividend? Evidence from China’s manufacturing sector. Environ Dev Sustain (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-025-06892-z

PY - 2025/10/27

Y1 - 2025/10/27

N2 - Does corporate social responsibility (CSR) necessarily lead to corporate high-quality development? To address this core question, this study draws on the utilitarian perspective and resource-based view to examine the mechanism through which CSR affects corporate high-quality development. Using data from Chinese manufacturing listed companies (2012–2020), we construct a two-way fixed effects model to analyze this relationship. The baseline regression results show that CSR significantly inhibits corporate high-quality development, the robustness of which is confirmed through replacing independent variables, shortening the time window, model substitution, and winsorizing the data. To address endogeneity concerns, this study employs multidimensional fixed effects, propensity score matching, and instrumental variable methods. Furthermore, heterogeneity is analyzed by examining equity structures, the degree of industry-finance integration, and audit quality. The mechanism analysis indicates that CSR constrains corporate high-quality development by crowding out technological innovation investment and green innovation output. Environmental regulations are found to have heterogeneous moderating effects. Extended analysis reveals a single threshold effect in both market-incentivized and public-participation environmental regulations. Under conditions of limited resources, enterprises should pay attention to the crowding-out effect of CSR practices and strategically prioritize enhancing green innovation capability to drive high-quality development. This study offers actionable insights for enterprises pursuing high-quality development and policymakers designing differentiated environmental regulations.

AB - Does corporate social responsibility (CSR) necessarily lead to corporate high-quality development? To address this core question, this study draws on the utilitarian perspective and resource-based view to examine the mechanism through which CSR affects corporate high-quality development. Using data from Chinese manufacturing listed companies (2012–2020), we construct a two-way fixed effects model to analyze this relationship. The baseline regression results show that CSR significantly inhibits corporate high-quality development, the robustness of which is confirmed through replacing independent variables, shortening the time window, model substitution, and winsorizing the data. To address endogeneity concerns, this study employs multidimensional fixed effects, propensity score matching, and instrumental variable methods. Furthermore, heterogeneity is analyzed by examining equity structures, the degree of industry-finance integration, and audit quality. The mechanism analysis indicates that CSR constrains corporate high-quality development by crowding out technological innovation investment and green innovation output. Environmental regulations are found to have heterogeneous moderating effects. Extended analysis reveals a single threshold effect in both market-incentivized and public-participation environmental regulations. Under conditions of limited resources, enterprises should pay attention to the crowding-out effect of CSR practices and strategically prioritize enhancing green innovation capability to drive high-quality development. This study offers actionable insights for enterprises pursuing high-quality development and policymakers designing differentiated environmental regulations.

KW - Corporate social responsibility practices · High-quality development · Impact mechanism · Threshold effect

KW - Corporate social responsibility practices

KW - High-quality development

KW - Impact mechanism

KW - Threshold effect

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/dae9124f-d75d-3bc2-91bc-9e994a8b54cf/

U2 - 10.1007/s10668-025-06892-z

DO - 10.1007/s10668-025-06892-z

M3 - Article

JO - Environment, Development and Sustainability

JF - Environment, Development and Sustainability

SN - 1387-585X

ER -