Closing the loop: does corporate sustainability capability matter for improving energy efficiency? Evidence from Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether and how corporate sustainability capability influences energy efficiency through competitive intensity and slack resource availability.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied a two-wave research design and administered a survey questionnaire to senior-level managers of 78 ISO-14001 and ISO-50001 certified manufacturing companies. The authors use a multi-method approach for data analysis. AMOS 23 software was applied for covariance-based structural equation modeling. In addition, SPSS 25 software was applied for hierarchical regression analysis to examine the causal relationships in the model.
Findings
The finding reveals that corporate sustainability capabilities, which include energy-saving opportunities, seizing energy-saving opportunities and resource reconfiguration, significantly improve firms’ energy efficiency. In addition, competitive intensity and slack resource availability positively moderated the relationship between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the link between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency in developing countries such as Pakistan. Although the influence of various corporate sustainability capabilities on sustainable performance has been widely examined in the literature, the role of corporate sustainability capability has been limitedly explored with energy efficiency. This study extends the literature by adding to the knowledge of corporate sustainability capability that enhances boundary conditions in developing countries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research is partially funded by the major projects of China National Social Science Fund, Research on the Construction of a Carbon Neutral Economic Transformation Model for China and by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (22&ZD145), (72140001) and (9222002).
Data availability: Data is available as per request.
Declaration of competing interest: The authors have no conflict of interest.
Citation
Tanveer, A., Zeng, S. and Tian, W. (2024), "Closing the loop: does corporate sustainability capability matter for improving energy efficiency? Evidence from Pakistan", Studies in Economics and Finance, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEF-09-2023-0577
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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