Novel CSR & novel coronavirus: corporate social responsibility inside the frame of coronavirus pandemic in Greece

Ioannis Panagiotopoulos

doi:10.1186/s40991-021-00065-7

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) becomes popular as big international firms gain more power than states and global issues engender concerns to people from all over the world. The pandemic of novel coronavirus is a current issue of global concern that threats humanity and global economy since the end of 2019. A lot of firms have announced urgent actions to support their employees and the local communities. The present study aims to examine whether the CSR activities of firms due to the pandemic could be categorized either as strategical or tactical CSR. The researcher recognizes the formation of a new kind of CSR called critical CSR as a hybrid between tactical and strategical CSR sharing characteristics from both. The examination of the case of Greece during the pandemic has provided a variety of examples of CSR activities from big Greek international firms that have been processed to support the validity of the reasoning. Finally, the paper delineates this new universal form of CSR born under the critical circumstances of the pandemic and the ensuing economic recession. That fact proves that this crisis could be transformed into a chance for corporations to realize their social role and improve their CSR footprint with the learnings of this pandemic by underlining possible advantages of these urgent CSR actions that could be incorporated into the usual CSR policy of the firms.

Highlights

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the concept that calls corporations to consider social and environmental concerns to their decision- making process (European Commission, 2001)
The present research is based on an unobtrusive research, a qualitative and comparative content analysis (Babbie, 2011) in the field of CSR programs implemented during the period of the pandemic by Greek international companies in Greece
Several urgent CSR actions have been taken by big international Greek corporations that are beyond the laws for the confrontation of pandemic aiming to protect their employees and society in general

Summary

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the concept that calls corporations to consider social and environmental concerns to their decision- making process (European Commission, 2001). CSR suggests a live connection among a corporation with sustainability principles meaning an equilibrium among a) economy, b) society and c) natural environment (Elkington, 1999) using the prism of Ethos (Carroll, 1979, 2016; Frederick, 1998) with its ancient Greek meaning. CSR concerns a planning of activities that are beyond the simple compliance with the law and profit making. Big international corporations should design a CSR strategy that expresses their sustainable principles inside the frame of globalization adjusted in the everyday activities of them under the usual conditions of our world. COVID-19 was first reported in China in Panagiotopoulos Int J Corporate Soc Responsibility (2021) 6:10

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Conclusion