Analyzing the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Performance: Evidence From the Spanish Wine Sector

Introduction

The business landscape has evolved rapidly in recent years, amplified by the uncertainty of the environment. Companies must adapt their strategies to remain competitive by embracing socially and environmentally responsible practices to build a sustainable advantage (Knudsen et al., 2021). Such strategies are embodied in the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which enables firms to respond to the demands of stakeholders while also improving their legitimacy, image and reputation (Adomako and Nguyen, 2020).

CSR is a set of voluntary practices that consider economic, social, and environmental demands in the decision-making process of a business (Indriastuti and Chariri, 2021). These practices may provide an advantageous edge to companies in the long run, giving them a sustainable competitive advantage (Malik et al., 2021). In the wine industry, wineries have begun to adopt CSR as a way to offset any potential negative externalities of their operations while simultaneously achieving a higher level of differentiation in the market (Maali et al., 2021).

The global wine industry is confronted with a range of issues which could have long-term implications for its proper management. Golicic (2022) noted that climate change, energy and water scarcity could potentially lead to a reduction in the size of the vineyard area and even have an influence on wine quality, thus affecting winery profits. Additionally, global warming could severely damage the landscape of wine-making regions, thus reducing the attractiveness of these areas for wine tourists (Andrade-Suárez and Caamaño-Franco, 2020). As a response to these challenges, CSR has been proposed as a means of improving social and environmental performance while pursuing economic goals established by the organization (Manning et al., 2019). This suggests that CSR can be instrumental in both improving Sustainable Performance (SP) and addressing environmental and social issues.

CSR can contribute to increasing and strengthening employee engagement and Organizational Commitment (OC), understood as the state in which employees are deeply involved and enthusiastic about their work, contributing positively to the company's goals (Afsar et al., 2020). Research shows that when employees believe that their organization is committed to CSR, they are more likely to be committed to their work (He et al., 2019). Likewise, employees will tend to stay with an firm that cares for the environment, being more likely to take pride in their work when the organization has a positive impact on society (González-Rodríguez et al., 2019). Similarly, CSR can increase visibility, provide external market feedback and improve Consumer Satisfaction (CS), defined as the extent to which the actions, products or services provided by a company meet or exceed customer expectations (Zhang et al., 2020). Thus, consumers tend to support organizations that develop CSR activities, as they care about the territory and the environment in which they operate, thus increasing their satisfaction (Wang, 2020). This highlights the strategic nature of CSR policies, which is accentuated in the wine industry, given that, in addition to being able to improve the SP, OC and CS of wineries, CSR can combat the climate challenges that threaten the survival of wineries (Mercadé‐Melé et al., 2021).