How corporate social responsibility improves green transformation technologies inventory output: Evidence from Japanese companies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to businesses’ contributions to sustainable development. Today, it is expected that economic, social, and industrial structures that have long depended on fossil fuels will ultimately transition to clean energy-driven structures, and that green transformation (GX) will be achieved through an overall transformation of economic and social systems. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relationship between the CSR of Japanese companies and their GX inventory output (GXIO). Using machine learning algorithms, we tested the hypothesis that CSR activities influence GXIO at both the individual company and the overall industry levels. The results of our empirical analysis show that CSR not only affects GXIO but also has significant effects at the individual company and overall industry levels. These results are used to provide decision makers with useful guidelines for integrating social sustainability into procurement procedures.