Corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: The mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation

•Shows that CSR has no direct significant influence on environmental performance in large manufacturing firms.•Demonstrates that CSR is positively associated with environmental strategy and green innovation.•Shows that environmental strategy and green innovation significantly improve environmental performance.•Incorporates CSR, environmental strategy, green innovation, and environmental performance in a single study. This study investigates the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on environmental performance, using data from 297 large manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Our results show that CSR has no direct significant influence on environmental performance, but is positively correlated to environmental strategy and green innovation, which again improve environmental performance, i.e. they significantly mediate between CSR and environmental performance. Our study offers a valuable model for general managers of manufacturing organizations and policymakers to manage CSR, environmental strategy, and green innovation in examining environmental performance. It can help to assist general managers of large manufacturing organizations to strengthen their internal resources like CSR, environmental strategy, and green innovation to enhance environmental performance.