Optimally Distinctive Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy: How Strategic Conformity and Differentiation Contribute to Entrepreneurial Firm Performance

ABSTRACT In the high‐quality economic development context, businesses' implementation of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy not only enhance legitimacy but also offers differentiation competitive advantages. However, entrepreneurial firms, constrained by their liability of newness, also face highly complex and uncertain external environments, necessitating a thoughtful consideration of their CSR strategy orientation. This paper, based on the optimal distinctiveness (OD) theory, empirically examines the impact of conformity and differentiation of CSR strategy on entrepreneurial firm performance and explores environmental uncertainty's moderating effect. The results reveal a U‐shaped relationship between strategic conformity and entrepreneurial firm performance, and an inverted U‐shaped relationship between strategic differentiation and entrepreneurial firm performance. Moreover, environmental dynamism weakens the U‐shaped relationship between strategic conformity and entrepreneurial firm performance, whereas environmental munificence strengthens the inverted U‐shaped relationship between strategic differentiation and entrepreneurial firm performance. This study expands the applicability boundaries of OD theory and provides a more dialectical perspective for entrepreneurial firms seeking to implement CSR strategy in the entrepreneurial context.