The moderating role of money laundering risks according to corporate charter and by-laws: A study of services marketing and financial sustainability

This study examines the relationship between services marketing and financial sustainability, with money laundering risk as a moderator, integrating marketing and financial crime perspectives to explain how regulatory and risk conditions influence sustainable financial outcomes. A quantitative analysis of 432 organizational survey responses, with 429 valid cases after outlier filtering, assessed measurement reliability and validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). A structural equation model (SEM) tested hypothesized relationships among services marketing, financial sustainability, and money laundering risks, while moderation analysis examined interaction effects. The results show that services marketing significantly improves financial sustainability. The efficiency of services marketing in improving financial sustainability is weakened or conditioned by increasing levels of money laundering concerns, which considerably temper this relationship. The findings show good model fit, reliability, and construct validity, confirming the measurement and structural models’ robustness. Results suggest firms should integrate services marketing with anti-money laundering (AML), governance, and risk management to achieve financial sustainability. Policymakers should strengthen frameworks to support sustainable performance and protect investment returns. This study integrates services marketing and money laundering risk into a single framework, showing that money laundering risks moderate the relationship between marketing effectiveness and financial sustainability, thereby extending marketing and financial governance research.