Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability during the Coronavirus Crisis

The COVID-19 crisis triggered responses and actions from all kinds of social agents and organisations to deal with the situation. On the one hand, actions carried out in the business world were remarkably diverse: from a well-established corporate social responsibility (CSR) culture to spontaneous initiatives. On the other hand, the maker movement emerged to provide fast and technologically viable solutions: The Coronavirus Makers Network.

In the context of CSR’s situation in Spain during the crisis in the first half of 2020, this chapter aims to analyse this maker movement as an innovation community in times of crisis. Specifically, it seeks to explore its nature, composition, relationships and dynamics with institutional agents and companies. It analyses how the network emerged, how it was organised, its results and social impact, trying to explain the key factors for its success. For this purpose, a single case has been selected: the Coronavirus Makers community. Besides, this research was based on analysing secondary sources of information and two in-depth interviews with two coordinators of the Coronavirus Makers Network.

The analysis introduces elements of debate arising from the contrast among the actions carried out by companies and The Coronavirus Makers Network in a context of crisis. Additionally, the analysis of innovation communities reveals the need to examine in greater depth such concepts as the democratisation of innovation and the difficulties to manage innovative communities like these.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives can help mitigate the human and economic problems caused by the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Based on a content analysis of text news articles ordered chronologically from the beginning of the pandemic, this research aims to analyze the evolution of companies’ CSR initiatives during the first six months of the pandemic in Mexico. Enterprises have shown an evolution in the types of initiatives they have undertaken, starting from helping the population in need to satisfy their immediate necessities to helping others resume economic activity in the “new normal”. However, with hundreds of thousands of businesses closing and millions of people unemployed and in poverty, Mexico is facing its worst economic crisis in history.

Corporate social irresponsibility may, indeed, be one of the “grand challenges” of international business and management research. Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) is broadly assumed to lead to performance decline and reputational damage for those firms involved in acts of wrongdoing. The overview of extant research presented in this chapter illustrates how and why these assumptions are not always supported, therefore explaining, at least in part, the many examples of irresponsible firm behavior observed in business practice. The chapter points to the discrepancies between CSI theory and CSI practice, followed by a discussion concerning the opportunities and challenges associated with acts of irresponsible firm behavior, particularly during times of crises and disruptions. The discussion captures key managerial and policy implications around curtailing corporate social irresponsibility.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has influenced the majority of firms around the world. Among them, Swedish tourism firms are struggling to stay in business and have been affected in different ways. This chapter aims to discuss how Swedish tourism firms have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with a special focus on sustainability values. The results show that different types of tourism firms have acted creatively in order to stay in business by offering higher sustainability value to their customers. This paper contributes by deepening knowledge on how tourism firms have been influenced by the coronavirus pandemic. The results may help tourism firms gain ideas of how to stay in business during a global pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious challenges to businesses across the globe. However, the effects of pandemic on businesses vary widely across nations, regions, and industries. Some businesses are being pushed into liquidation and bankruptcy while others are struggling to maintain operational continuity. Yet others are forced to repurpose their expertise and resources in order to meet a sudden upsurge in the demand for their products and services. Likewise, there is a variation in the understandings and responses of entrepreneurs to the COVID-19 crisis. Our case study illustrates these variations. Using a multiple case study, we explore the perceptions, strategic responses, and managerial practices of Swedish SMEs during the COVID-19 crisis. The aim is to gain some insight into how SMEs manage the COVID-19 pandemic from both economic and CSR perspectives. The results indicate that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is related to the state of the industry in which the case companies are located, and the pre-crisis status of the companies. The perceptions of the entrepreneurs also differ. Some entrepreneurs perceive the crisis as a threat to their business while others see opportunities for innovation. These perceptions are likely to guide the strategic choices and managerial practices of the entrepreneurs. Digitalization is a common denominator with regard to social responsibility. However, the primary focus is on socially responsible practices for the health and safety of employees.

This chapter reports on how Swedish companies have coped with the first six months of the pandemic. The basis for analyses consists of interviews with 1200 small companies from four different industry segments, whose results show different outcomes. Some categories of companies experienced and are still experiencing significant negative effects, while other businesses have been only marginally affected. A small group has noticed growing sales as well as occasional signals from the market that new products and services are needed in the near future. There are indications that small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers are considering social responsibility towards the employees of the companies. We would like to emphasize three different activities. Firstly, over 40% of all SME managers have during the pandemic partly abstained from salary and/or other special salary benefits. In the hotel and restaurant sector, this figure is 70% and for managers with foreign background 55% state that they have done such activities. Second, many SMEs have used governmental support to be able to keep their employed individuals part-time in the companies. As a third example, it could be worth mentioning the many companies which are looking for alternative business ideas as an alternative, which could be seen as examples of effectuation.

There is an emerging history of corporate charitable giving targeted at socio-economic development challenges in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana. This has been done through either culturally embedded forms of giving or institutional strategic forms of giving. Some of these types of corporate giving had been criticized for being unsustainable, ad-hoc and inadequately targeted. West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana have also been in the spotlight, because they are countries endowed with abundant natural resources and increasing business presence (multinational and local). Yet the development and business environment challenges of these countries, pre-COVID, were still significant.

The intended analysis of corporate responses to the crisis presented by Coronavirus is an opportunity to explore the context and forms in which corporate charitable giving emerges. It is also an opportunity to re-evaluate the role of such philanthropy and to suggest potential ways in which such responses can be embodied in sustained corporate responsibility practices geared towards sustainable human development.

The chapter presents as illustrative cases, the response to Coronavirus by corporate organizations in the region which, prior to the crisis, were moving beyond basic charitable giving towards sustained Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices to drive sustainable development. These cases will also include COVID-specific responses such as the Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID, Nigeria) and COVID-19 Private Sector Fund (Ghana). These funds have been involved in collaborative private sector provision of medical equipment, treatment facilities and palliatives for the poor. This has also involved critical public and private sector engagement, as well as strategic impact initiatives geared at enhancing public health and well-being. The chapter also explores two specific company examples for analysis of potential impact and challenges. The aim is to suggest what this might mean for CSR practices in the region.

The deleterious effects of a black-swan event, COVID-19, on companies and their governance are likely to be wide-ranging and unprecedented. To survive a potentially existential crisis that organizations are currently facing and remain sustainable, they may have to look beyond the standard governance models, leadership styles, and leaders’ attributes. So far, the usual suspects of effective corporate governance have been the sound principles of management and law. The impact of corporate elites’ religious background on their decision-making is seldom explored in the existing literature. However, the Upper Echelon perspective suggests that when faced with uncertain and complex situations, corporate elites turn to their background and experiences. This is done in order to interpret available information and make decisions. This chapter explores if corporate elites’ religious background influences their decision. We conduct the inquiry by interviewing 42 board members of listed companies in the UK. The study’s findings suggest that corporate elites’ religious beliefs shape their value-sets, decisions, and organizations’ strategic aspirations. The findings are explained with the help of interdisciplinary literature. The study’s contribution to theory, literature, and praxis is also discussed.