<![CDATA[Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the tourism sector are widely promoted as instruments for poverty alleviation, yet their outcomes remain uneven and difficult to evaluate systematically. This study investigates the role of operational efficiency in shaping poverty alleviation outcomes of tourism-based CSR programs and examines the mediating effect of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation. An integrated methodological framework combining Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is applied to 87 tourism-related CSR programs in Indonesia, supported by survey data from 285 key stakeholders. The DEA results indicate a moderate level of technical efficiency, with an average score of 78.34%, and reveal substantial scale inefficiencies, as a significant proportion of programs operate under increasing returns to scale. The integrated DEA–PLS-SEM analysis demonstrates that higher program-level technical efficiency is associated with improved extreme poverty alleviation outcomes, while SDG implementation effectiveness partially mediates this relationship. The findings underscore the importance of aligning program efficiency, operational scale, and SDG-oriented implementation to enhance the poverty reduction impact of tourism-based CSR initiatives.]]>
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