Abstract
The relevance of the study is determined by the need for an analytical understanding of business participation in the sustainable development of regional economic systems under conditions of territorial asymmetry, the strengthening of the ESG agenda, and the growing role of corporate social responsibility in addressing socio-economic and environmental challenges. The purpose of the study is to systematize the directions of business socialization, distinguish corporate social responsibility and public-private partnership as complementary mechanisms of regional development, and identify measurable indicators for assessing their contribution to regional sustainability. The study applies systemic, institutional, and comparative approaches, as well as methods of content analysis, descriptive statistics, comparative analysis of regional indicators, classification, and indicator-based assessment, which made it possible to reveal the relationship between corporate social responsibility practices, public-private partnership mechanisms, and parameters of sustainable regional development. The results show that Kazakhstan’s regional economic systems are characterized by substantial territorial heterogeneity, manifested in differences in gross regional product per capita, regional shares in national GDP, labour market conditions, environmental protection costs, and the development of public-private partnership mechanisms. It is substantiated that in industrially developed regions corporate social responsibility is mainly associated with environmental modernization, occupational safety, environmental investments, and non-financial reporting, whereas in less developed regions its priorities shift toward employment support, human capital development, social infrastructure, healthcare, education, and local communities.