Work

Driving International Revenue Growth Through Social Sustainability: Insights for Corporate Social Responsibility

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Firms' international revenues help diversify revenue sources and reduce reliance on home markets, yet remain hard to grow given complex regulations, cultural differences and fierce competition. Grounded in the resource‐based view, we argue that social sustainability is a valuable, rare, inimitable and non‐substitutable resource that promotes stakeholder trust, compliance and market access abroad. Existing ESG performance research has primarily linked aggregate ESG scores to domestic firm outcomes. We instead isolate the social pillar to examine its role in firms' international revenue growth. Using 2SLS fixed‐effects analysis on longitudinal MSCI–Compustat panel data for US publicly traded firms (2011–2023), we find that social sustainability accelerates foreign revenue growth, though this effect is weakened by operational efficiency, debt ratio, high‐tech status and marketing expenditures. The robustness check with a 2SLS random‐effects model also validates the results. Managers should safeguard investments in social sustainability to sustain firms' international revenue growth.

Source: Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management

DOI: 10.1002/csr.70914

Authors: Ashutosh Singh, Salwa Saleh Almasabi, Diana Korayim, Judit Petra Koltai

Institutions: University of Leeds, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Alfaisal University, Széchenyi István University

Language: English

Topic: Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,100