Integrating strategic marketing and ESG compliance management for balanced enterprise development under CSRD regimes: a dynamic capabilities approach

Grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory, this study investigates whether compliance management enables environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies to transcend symbolic greenwashing and deliver substantive ecological impacts aligned with UN SDGs 12 and 13 under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) regime. Utilizing a two-way fixed-effects panel regression, this research analyzes an empirical sample of STOXX Europe 600 companies over the regulatory transition period (2022–2025). Data from LSEG and Bloomberg databases strictly measure non-financial environmental performance, specifically absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and waste recycling ratios. The empirical analysis reveals that high-level compliance management significantly enhances corporate environmental strategy efficacy. Crucially, ESG dynamic capabilities (eco-design and resource reduction) fully mediate this relationship, transmuting rigid compliance frameworks into operational routines that yield absolute reductions in GHG emissions and improved waste recovery, thereby facilitating genuine ecological decoupling. Diverging from the financial focus of ESG literature, this study re-centers the narrative on "impact materiality." It establishes a novel framework proving that the ultimate value of corporate sustainability lies in verifiable ecological preservation, advancing the scholarship on sustainable development and CSRD compliance.