The Role of Social Initiatives in Shaping Sustainable Business Outcomes—Insights from Organizations Operating in Poland

This article addresses the contemporary and highly relevant research area of business sustainability, which attracts the attention of both scholars and management practitioners. Although the social dimension of sustainability is gaining increasing importance, there remains a research gap regarding the extent to which social initiatives contribute to sustainable outcomes. This study specifically focuses on the social dimension of business sustainability. The primary objective of the study is to examine the relationship between activities within the social dimension and sustainable outcomes. Moreover the study extends earlier research by contributing new empirical evidence from the Polish context, thereby enriching the existing body of knowledge. The study encompasses 303 organizations operating in Poland and utilizes a questionnaire-based survey. The collected data were employed to construct a regression model. The results indicate statistically significant relationships between social outcomes and key variables, namely, societal values and employee-related outcomes. The results indicate that social value creation and value chain integration are the strongest predictors of sustainable outcomes The variables were measured using subjective indicators. In addition, the research was conducted only in companies operating in Poland, and the results may be typical of businesses operating in this country. Therefore, the research should be extended to other countries, and it would be particularly interesting to compare with companies operating in countries where sustainability-related indicators are highly rated. It would also be very interesting to expand the data gained through questionnaires through interviews and case studies, linking social-focused business activities to the benefits that businesses can achieve in the area of sustainable outcomes as a result.