Changes in Corporate Responsibility Management during COVID-19 Crisis and Their Effects on Business Resilience: An Empirical Study of Swiss and German Companies

Fridolin Simon Brand, Richard Blaese, Giulia Weber and Herbert Winistoerfer
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Fridolin Simon Brand: Center for Corporate Responsibility, Department International Business, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Theaterstr. 17, 8004 Winterthur, Switzerland
Richard Blaese: Center for Corporate Responsibility, Department International Business, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Theaterstr. 17, 8004 Winterthur, Switzerland
Giulia Weber: Center for Corporate Responsibility, Department International Business, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Theaterstr. 17, 8004 Winterthur, Switzerland
Herbert Winistoerfer: Center for Corporate Responsibility, Department International Business, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Theaterstr. 17, 8004 Winterthur, Switzerland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the activities and performance of companies worldwide. This article examines in what ways corporate responsibility management and corporate responsibility reporting activities have changed during the COVID-19 crisis in Switzerland and Germany, and how corporate responsibility management is related to aspects of business resilience in terms of maintaining expected financial performance during the COVID-19 crisis in Swiss companies. To answer these questions, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of company reports of the top 10 Swiss and German companies in terms of market capitalization, as well as a quantitative survey among Swiss managers. Our results show that during the period under consideration, (i) a majority of the companies analyzed in Switzerland and Germany expanded their sustainability reporting, both overall and in all sustainability dimensions; (ii) there is a tendency for corporate responsibility management to move away from upstream and downstream sustainability topics and focus more on in-house sustainability topics; and (iii) there is a correlation between the two corporate responsibility topics of local recruitment and occupational health and expected financial performance as an aspect of maintained business resilience in times of crisis.

Keywords: corporate responsibility management; corporate responsibility reporting; sustainability management; COVID-19; business resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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