Community development as a mediator between corporate social responsibility economic return and business sustainability in Ethiopia

This research examined how the economic dimension of corporate social responsibility promotes community development and business sustainability in industrial parks in Ethiopia’s Amhara Regional State. Using a quantitative survey, data were collected from 351 workers and community members, selected through stratified random sampling among employees and purposive sampling from the community, across four industrial parks. The study used validated Likert scale instruments to measure economic corporate social responsibility, community development, and business sustainability. Our analysis showed that economic responsibility initiatives significantly fostered community development, which, in turn, strongly and positively affected the long-term viability of businesses (indirect β = 0.373, p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant direct association between economic responsibility and business sustainability, indicating full statistical mediation through community development (β = 0.031, p = 0.248). The substantial, statistically significant direct association between community development and business sustainability (β = 0.714, p < 0.001) further confirmed the presence of full statistical mediation. These findings highlight the importance of aligning business responsibilities with local development efforts to enhance business resilience and social capital, and recommend that companies integrate their responsibility activities with broader community advancement, particularly in infrastructure, culture, education, and health.