IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v32y2025i3p3227-3245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Alliance Networks, Innovative Culture, and Intellectual Human Capital as Key Enablers of Corporate Social Innovation: A Hybrid Approach Using PLS‐SEM and fsQCA

Author

Listed:
  • Munir A. Abbasi
  • Lim Chia Yon
  • Azlan Amran

Abstract

Corporations have been increasingly prioritizing corporate social innovation (CSI). It has potential for creating long‐term business value and promoting sustainable social development. CSI possesses immense value due to its exceptional ability to tackle complex and pressing social issues. Despite over a decade of research on CSI, there is limited understanding about drivers of CSI from the perspective of organizational resources. The current study utilized the resource‐based view of the firm (RBV) to investigate the impact of organizational resources (such as alliance networks, innovative culture, and intellectual human capital) on CSI. This was done by examining the mediation of dynamic capabilities (exploitation and exploration). The data obtained from Malaysian public limited companies was examined using PLS‐SEM and fsQCA. The results revealed that alliance networks and innovative culture play a crucial role to drive CSI. The fsQCA analysis discovered four sufficient configurations that foster CSI. In addition to the theoretical contributions, the findings have significant implications for corporate leaders seeking CSI initiatives, as well as policy makers within governmental bodies.

Suggested Citation

  • Munir A. Abbasi & Lim Chia Yon & Azlan Amran, 2025. "Alliance Networks, Innovative Culture, and Intellectual Human Capital as Key Enablers of Corporate Social Innovation: A Hybrid Approach Using PLS‐SEM and fsQCA," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 3227-3245, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:3227-3245
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.3125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.3125
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.3125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Souza João-Roland, Iraci & Granados, Maria L., 2023. "Towards social innovation strategy: An analysis of UK social enterprises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    2. Lee, Kyootai & Woo, Han-Gyun & Joshi, Kailash, 2017. "Pro-innovation culture, ambidexterity and new product development performance: Polynomial regression and response surface analysis," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 249-260.
    3. Oeij, Peter R.A. & van der Torre, Wouter & Vaas, Fietje & Dhondt, Steven, 2019. "Understanding social innovation as an innovation process: Applying the innovation journey model," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 243-254.
    4. Centobelli, Piera & Cerchione, Roberto & Esposito, Emilio & Shashi,, 2019. "Exploration and exploitation in the development of more entrepreneurial universities: A twisting learning path model of ambidexterity," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 172-194.
    5. Mirvis, Philip & Herrera, Maria Elena Baltazar & Googins, Bradley & Albareda, Laura, 2016. "Corporate social innovation: How firms learn to innovate for the greater good," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5014-5021.
    6. Holmström Lind, Christine & Kang, Olivia & Ljung, Anna & Rosenbaum, Paul, 2022. "Involvement of multinational corporations in social innovation: Exploring an emerging phenomenon," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 207-221.
    7. Pappas, Ilias O. & Woodside, Arch G., 2021. "Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA): Guidelines for research practice in Information Systems and marketing," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    8. Do, Hoa & Budhwar, Pawan & Shipton, Helen & Nguyen, Hai-Dang & Nguyen, Bach, 2022. "Building organizational resilience, innovation through resource-based management initiatives, organizational learning and environmental dynamism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 808-821.
    9. Mohammad Iranmanesh & Kavigtha Mohan Kumar & Behzad Foroughi & Reza Kian Mavi & Ng Hui Min, 2021. "The impacts of organizational structure on operational performance through innovation capability: innovative culture as moderator," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(7), pages 1885-1911, October.
    10. Patricia Gurviez & Lucie Sirieix, 2013. "Resistance to a social innovation: An analytic framework for problems of Fair Trade diffusion," Post-Print hal-01019161, HAL.
    11. Howard, Matt C. & Henderson, Jennifer, 2023. "A review of exploratory factor analysis in tourism and hospitality research: Identifying current practices and avenues for improvement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    12. Jing Yang & Kelly Basile, 2022. "Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: External Stakeholder Involvement, Productivity and Firm Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 501-517, June.
    13. Nielsen, Bo Bernhard & Raswant, Arpit, 2018. "The selection, use, and reporting of control variables in international business research: A review and recommendations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 958-968.
    14. Jiang, Shuiquan & Yang, Jie & Yu, Mingchuan & Lin, Han & Li, Chao & Doty, Harold, 2022. "Strategic conformity, organizational learning ambidexterity, and corporate innovation performance: An inverted U-shaped curve?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 424-433.
    15. Azlan Amran & Lim Chia Yon & Shaian Kiumarsi & Amar Hisham Jaaffar, 2021. "Intellectual human capital, corporate social innovation and sustainable development: a conceptual framework," International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 15(1), pages 75-99.
    16. Olya, Hossein G.T. & Altinay, Levent, 2016. "Asymmetric modeling of intention to purchase tourism weather insurance and loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2791-2800.
    17. Stock, Ruth & Six, Björn & Zacharias, Nicolas, 2013. "Linking Multiple Layers of Innovation-oriented Corporate Culture, Product Program Innovativeness, and Business Performance: A Contingency Approach," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 61665, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    18. Leischnig, Alexander & Henneberg, Stephan C. & Thornton, Sabrina C., 2016. "Net versus combinatory effects of firm and industry antecedents of sales growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3576-3583.
    19. Stock, Ruth & Six, Björn & Zacharias, Nicolas, 2013. "Linking Multiple Layers of Innovation-oriented Corporate Culture, Product Program Innovativeness, and Business Performance: A Contingency Approach," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 63409, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    20. Maltz, Elliot & Pierson, Kawika, 2022. "Maximizing corporate social innovation to enhance social and shareholder value: A systems thinking model of industry transformation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 12-25.
    21. Du, Shuili & Bstieler, Ludwig & Yalcinkaya, Goksel, 2022. "Sustainability-focused innovation in the business-to-business context: Antecedents and managerial implications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 117-129.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Yen-Chun & Lin, Ya-Hui & Li, Po-Chien & Chen, Chung-Jen, 2022. "Understanding the interplay between competitor and alliance orientations in product innovativeness: An integrative framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Kyrdoda, Yuliia & Balzano, Marco & Marzi, Giacomo, 2023. "Learn to survive crises: The role of firm resilience, innovation capabilities and environmental dynamism," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Tabares, Sabrina & Dionisio, Marcelo & Parida, Vinit, 2025. "Leveraging corporate social innovation by hybrid organizations: A strategic perspective from B Corps in Latin America," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    4. Ruth Maria Stock & Nils Lennart Schnarr, 2016. "Exploring The Product Innovation Outcomes Of Corporate Culture And Executive Leadership," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-33, January.
    5. Dirk Clercq & Narongsak Thongpapanl & Maxim Voronov, 2018. "Sustainability in the Face of Institutional Adversity: Market Turbulence, Network Embeddedness, and Innovative Orientation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 437-455, March.
    6. Li Zuo & Gregory J. Fisher & Zhi Yang, 2019. "Organizational learning and technological innovation: the distinct dimensions of novelty and meaningfulness that impact firm performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1166-1183, November.
    7. Fuping Bai & Yujie Huang & Qi Zhang & Mengting Shang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of green culture: Exploring the path to sustainable development performance in enterprises," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 3226-3247, August.
    8. Claudia Bitencourt & Gabriela Zanandrea & Cristiane Froehlich & Manuela Rösing Agostini & Roselei Haag, 2024. "Rethinking the company's role: Creating shared value from corporate social innovation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 2865-2877, July.
    9. Javanmardi Kashan, Alireza & Wiewiora, Anna & Mohannak, Kavoos, 2021. "Unpacking organisational culture for innovation in Australian mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    10. Buccieri, Dominic & Javalgi, Raj G. & Cavusgil, Erin, 2020. "International new venture performance: Role of international entrepreneurial culture, ambidextrous innovation, and dynamic marketing capabilities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2).
    11. Müller-Stewens, Benedikt & Widener, Sally K. & Möller, Klaus & Steinmann, Jan-Christoph, 2020. "The role of diagnostic and interactive control uses in innovation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Kumar, Satish & Sahoo, Saumyaranjan & Lim, Weng Marc & Kraus, Sascha & Bamel, Umesh, 2022. "Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in business and management research: A contemporary overview," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    13. Saka-Helmhout, Ayse & Álamos-Concha, Priscilla & López, Mabel Machado & Hagan, Julie & Murray, Gregor & Edwards, Tony & Kern, Philipp & Martin, Isabelle & Zhang, Ling Eleanor, 2024. "Stakeholder engagement strategies for impactful corporate social innovation initiatives by multinational enterprises," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(4).
    14. Agnė Šimelytė & Manuela Tvaronavičienė, 2022. "Technology Transfer from Nordic Capital Parenting Companies to Lithuanian and Estonian Subsidiaries or Joint Capital Companies: The Analysis of the Obtained Primary Data," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-23, October.
    15. Chao Hung Wang & Wei‐Jr Juo, 2021. "An environmental policy of green intellectual capital: Green innovation strategy for performance sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3241-3254, November.
    16. Lay, Janine & Wiewiora, Anna & Kashan, Alireza Javanmardi & Bradley, Lisa, 2022. "Operationalising a process model of innovation for the mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    17. Dedeoglu, Bekir Bora & Boğan, Erhan & Kucukergin, Kemal Gurkan & Birinci, Muhammet Cenk, 2023. "Are tourists afraid of the unknown? Examining the role of travel constraints and tourist xenophobia with symmetric and asymmetric perspectives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    18. Odysseas Pavlatos & Hara Kostakis, 2022. "Exploring the Relationship between Target Costing Functionality and Product Innovation: The Role of Information Systems," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(1), pages 124-140, March.
    19. Liu, Gordon & Aroean, Lukman & Ko, Wai Wai, 2023. "Service innovation in business ecosystem: The roles of shared goals, coopetition, and interfirm power," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    20. Rexford Attah-Boakye & Kweku Adams & Honglan Yu & Dafydd Mali & Hyoungjoo Lim, 2024. "Growing Old, but Paying Back: Understanding How Age Influences Corporate Social Innovation Depth and Breadth of Multinationals in Weak Institutional Contexts," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 419-458, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:32:y:2025:i:3:p:3227-3245. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.