Corporate social responsibility and disruptive innovation: The moderating effects of environmental turbulence

A growing number of firms have used disruptive innovation as a strategy to gain competitiveness, and the topic of how disruptive innovation occurs has attracted wide attention. Leveraging the extant literature on disruptive innovation, stakeholder theory, and contingency theory, this study explores how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects disruptive innovation under various degrees of environmental turbulence. A sample of 226 firms was used, and empirical results indicate that CSR (external and internal CSR) positively affects disruptive innovation. In addition, technological turbulence positively moderates the abovementioned relationships, while the effect between external CSR and disruptive innovation was negatively moderated by market turbulence. These findings advance the knowledge of disruptive innovation, stakeholder theory, and contingency theory, and provide practical insights to guide the implementation of disruptive innovation.