Mediating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Relationship Between Green Financing and Sustainable Business Performance: Evidence From Banking Sector

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Useful for scholars studying the mechanisms through which green financing affects firm sustainability, particularly the role of CSR as a mediator in banking.

🏢実務担当者:Bank sustainability officers may gain insights on integrating CSR with green lending strategies to improve sustainability outcomes.

The banking sector in emerging economies is gradually aligning with sustainability priorities. However, despite increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR)-driven green financing, there is limited evidence on how green financing translates into sustainable business outcomes. Prior evidence shows that energy-efficient equipment and green policies can influence banks’ environmental performance, but CSR-related green loans and green projects may not always show significant effects. This study examines how corporate social responsibility mediates the relationship between green financing and sustainable business performance in the banking sector. Primary survey data was collected from banking professionals in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, in the year 2025. After filtration and screening, 391 valid responses were used for analysis. A cross-sectional research design was applied following the quantitative approach. The measurement and structural relationships were examined using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) under bootstrapping with 10,000 resamples to test direct and indirect effects. The findings indicate that green financing has a positive and significant direct effect on sustainable business performance (β = 0.155, p = 0.005). Similarly, green financing also shows a strong positive influence on corporate social responsibility (β = 0.574, p < 0.001), and corporate social responsibility significantly increases sustainable business performance (β = 0.597, p < 0.001). The mediation results exhibit a significant indirect effect of green financing on sustainable business performance through corporate social responsibility (β = 0.342, p < 0.001), which shows that corporate social responsibility meaningfully transmits green financing benefits into sustainability-oriented performance. The study concludes that green financing enhances sustainable business performance in the banking sector, but its impact becomes stronger when banks institutionalize corporate social responsibility practices. Future studies could investigate the causal relationship with serial mediating effects and moderating effects, including the constructs such as business ethics, green innovation, corporate governance, etc., between the relationships.

• semanticscholar https://armgpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BEL_2_2026_10.pdffirst seen 2026-07-04 05:34:12