Does a Competitive Business Strategy Make Firms More Resilient? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Tanveer Ahsan, Ammar Ali Gull, Sabri Boubaker and Riadh Manita
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Tanveer Ahsan: Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business
Ammar Ali Gull: DVHE - De Vinci Higher Education
Sabri Boubaker: EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School
Riadh Manita: NEOMA - Neoma Business School

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Abstract: This paper examines the effects of COVID‑19 and business strategy on the performance of Chinese-listed firms. Using a sample of 2,606 Chinese non financial listed firms over 2010-2022, we provide evidence that the COVID‑19 (business strategy) pandemic has a significant negative (positive) impact on firm performance and business strategy positively moderates the negative relationship of COVID‑19 on firm performance. We further show that firms with a proactive business strategy had better resilience during the COVID‑19 pandemic than firms with a defensive business strategy. We also find that these relationships are more pronounced for state-owned and large firms. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness tests and contribute to the growing debate on the role of business strategy during crises, offering insights to regulators and policymakers.

Keywords: COVID- 19; Business strategy; Corporate resilience; Firm performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eff and nep-sbm
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Published in Management international = International management = Gestión internacional, 2025, pp.1 - 26. ⟨10.59876/a-6bdp-jh81⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05289833

DOI: 10.59876/a-6bdp-jh81

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