Impact of knowledge absorptive capacity on corporate sustainability with mediating role of CSR: analysis from the Asian context

Considering the growing awareness about sustainable development among various stakeholders, the present study aims to examine the impact of employees' knowledge absorptive capacity (KAC) on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices for accomplishing corporate sustainability performance (CSP) goals by following the absorptive capacity and green theory. Data were collected using a convenience sampling technique from 587 ISO-certified manufacturing Multinational Corporations (MNCs) from the Asia Pacific region, including those from China, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Middle East, and Taiwan. It was analysed using partial least squares structural equation modeling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). As per the results, KAC is positively correlated with CSR activities and significantly impacts CSP. Second, CSR was found to have a considerable mediating impact. Third, importance-performance map analysis indicated that the performance of KAC is relatively higher than CSR for CSP. Furthermore, fsQCA results validate the robustness of constructs towards CSP.