Did Corporate Social Responsibility Vaccinate Corporations Against COVID-19?

Ehsan Poursoleyman (), Gholamreza Mansourfar (), M. Kabir Hassan and Saeid Homayoun ()
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Ehsan Poursoleyman: Urmia University
Gholamreza Mansourfar: Urmia University
Saeid Homayoun: University of Gävle

Journal of Business Ethics, 2024, vol. 189, issue 3, No 6, 525-551

Abstract: Abstract Using an international setting consisting of 5410 corporations domiciled in 24 countries, we test the insurance-like effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in the era of the pandemic and confirm that CSR performance increases socially responsible companies’ resilience against the adverse effects of the crisis. Comparing stakeholders' responses to CSR activities during the pandemic and normal periods, we observe that the link between CSR performance and firm value is stronger during the crisis period. We also realize that the social aspect of CSR performance is the main driver for the mentioned effects. Finally, comparing the resilience of highly committed socially responsible companies with those with moderate and very low CSR ratings, we observe that best-in-class companies enjoy the greatest buffering effects, implying that the insurance-like effect of CSR performance is non-linear against systematic crises. Findings are robust to ceremonial CSR activities, extreme values of market-based instruments, endogeneity concern, etc.

Keywords: COVID-19; CSR performance; Firm performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05331-1

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