Using PLS-SEM to Analyze the Effect of CSR on Corporate Performance: The Mediating Role of Human Resources Management and Customer Satisfaction. An Empirical Study in the Spanish Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector

Although in recent decades corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been subjected to numerous studies in management and marketing literature about its impact on business results, the mechanism by which it affects performance has not been established. There is a lack of consensus when it comes to explaining how CSR actions are related to firm performance. Our research helps to understand this relationship through mediating effects such as CSR-oriented human resource management and customer satisfaction because employees and customers are critical stakeholders of companies and contribute directly to the determination of the corporate results. Through a study on a sample of small and medium-sized Spanish food and beverage manufacturing companies, and by using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), we found that CSR does indeed impact business performance when CSR actions are mainly oriented towards more efficient management of human resources and customer satisfaction. In this way, the results lead us to conclude that depending on the stakeholder to which these actions are oriented, a specific orientation of the company’s CSR policy can be more efficient in corporate performance.