Sustainability practices should produce positive effects on business and society. The literature has mainly dealt with the relationship between environmental sustainability practices and financial performance. Few empirical studies have addressed the social dimension of sustainability. This article seeks to fill these gaps and contribute to social sustainability studies by hypothesizing a positive correlation between corporate social sustainability practices--to employees and the community--and corporate social performance, through the role of mediators of social sustainability orientation and long-term orientation. Social Identity Theory and Practice-based view are employed to explain the hypothesized relationships. Data were collected through a survey of a sample of Italian companies in the manufacturing and trade sectors. A two-stage structural equation model was applied to test the hypothesized relationships and mediation effects. The results reveal that when social sustainability practices are supported by a strong social and long-term orientation, it triggers the process of social identification that leads to better social performance. In essence, orientation coupled with practices- and not the practices themselves-can explain the differences in performance among enterprises. In order to succeed in improving social impacts, managers and policy makers should increase awareness among enterprises to also take care of the cultural aspects of sustainability.
