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In this study, we aim to define a new ecological financial pecking order. We examine how SMEs' adherence to the environment in the Mediterranean region is impacted by their financial resources and how women Entrepreneurship could play a moderating role in this relationship.

Our data are pooled cross-sectional firm level data across 14 Mediterranean countries, with a total of 5,949 observations over the period from 2018 to 2020. We look into the moderating influence of SMEs’ female ownership on the financial sources-environmental engagement link using GLS estimations. To reach our aim we focus on seven funding sources and develop a green engagement construct using JCA. Besides, we distinguish between the least and most environmentally engaged companies in the EU and its neighborhood and compare the different interactions and possible moderations.

Results show that government subsidies foster environmental engagement, followed by supplier credits with a less significant positive impact. The bank credits have the least significant beneficial influence, while non-bank financial institutions have a non-significant effect. We underline that environmental engagements are hindered by the other funds, issued bonds and internal funds.

SMEs in the Mediterranean region, particularly the less environmentally conscious, require strong legal frameworks to enforce environmental responsibility and raise awareness. Integrating less environmentally committed EU SMEs into state subsidy strategies is a chance to improve environmental responsibility in the region.

To our knowledge, there are no prior studies that present a detailed financial structure and environmental management investigation for SMEs within the Mediterranean region while considering the moderating effect of women's entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm performance (FP) of companies listed on the Tunis Stock Exchange.

This paper reports on two empirical studies. The first was an exploratory qualitative study carried out on a sample of 30 Tunisian companies operating in different sectors. The second empirical study used a panel data regression analysis, to examine data from 46 companies listed on the Tunis Stock Exchange during the 2017 to 2021 period.

The results of the exploratory qualitative study pointed out the specificities of the Tunisian context as to the importance of CSR. The results highlighted also the importance of the 2018 CSR law in Tunisia, yet it drew attention to the non-implementation of its applying texts, meaning that CSR is not always enforced in the Tunisian context. Moreover, in this qualitative study, most companies confirmed that CSR is a key factor behind good governance practices. By studying the impact of CSR on various FP proxies, the results highlight that CSR has a positive and significant impact on FP measured by ROA as an accounting variable and stock returns as a market-measure variable. In addition, the authors confirm the moderating effect of innovation on the CSR and FP relationship. Indeed, innovation affects corporate FP differently. It hinders accounting-based FP while fostering the market-based one.

The study provides insights for managers into how CSR approaches can be used to maximize profits, improve its FP and reputation, while considering the corporate innovative capacities. CSR is a real performance lever for companies, a means of improving their economic, environmental and social efficiency. It enables companies to anticipate constraints and prevent risks, reduce certain operational costs, optimize resources, communicate a good image and stand out from the competition, gain easier access to innovation, strengthen their competitive edge, gain easier access to financing and strengthen their territorial and social roots.

The main contribution of this paper is the adoption of two empirical approaches. These two methods are complementary. The first is an exploratory qualitative approach aimed at better understanding the current state of CSR implementation by Tunisian companies. The second one is quantitative, a panel data regression analysis. Furthermore, the authors test the moderating effect of innovation on the studied link. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that investigates the moderating effect of innovation on CSR FP in the Tunisian context. Finally, robustness tests were conducted to test the reliability of this study’s results.