The relationship between corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: A quantitative analysis in the healthcare sector

This study aims to examine the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scores and environmental (E) scores—representing environmental sustainability performance—of firms operating in the healthcare sector. Additionally, it investigates whether these scores differ significantly across various healthcare sub-sectors. The dataset was obtained from the Refinitiv Eikon database for the year 2023, comprising 899 firms after the exclusion of those with missing or zero values. The analysis process included normality and homogeneity tests, followed by ANOVA, Games-Howell post-hoc test, Pearson correlation, and simple linear regression analyses. The findings reveal statistically significant differences in both CSR and E scores across the sub-sectors within the healthcare industry (p <0,05). Furthermore, a strong and positive correlation was identified between CSR and E scores (r = 0,723), and the regression results show that CSR explains 52.4% of the variance in E scores. These results suggest that environmental sustainability is not solely driven by technical infrastructure but can also be enhanced through CSR-based strategic integration. The outcomes of this research contribute to the development of sustainability-focused governance policies in the healthcare sector. By empirically addressing the impact of CSR practices on environmental performance in a sector with limited prior empirical focus, this study fills a significant gap in the literature. The findings further highlight the importance of integrating social responsibility into environmental strategies, particularly in sectors such as healthcare where public interest and environmental risk are both high.