CSR and firm performance: An analysis of the impact of CSR during the COVID-19 market crash of 2020

Sammanfattning: The COVID-19 virus induced a financial market crash, between February 20th to March 23rd of 2020, during which governments were in a hurry to create aid packages, often touted as green restarts. Therefore, is it studied whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments pay off for companies during a stock market crash. The study uses the quantitative research method of cross-sectional regressions and utilizes robustness tests to confirm results. In addition, an industry analysis is conducted to deepen the understanding of the result. In conclusion, the results show no general impact of CSR during a financial market crash, however CSR ranking had two short-term effects on firm performance, during the fall it had some negative impact, while having a positive impact during the initial recovery. Thus, the results do not confirm the hypothesis that CSR is beneficial during times of crisis.