Vol. 13 No. 2 (2025)
June 2025

Articles

Beyond the crisis: Role and effects of corporate social responsibility during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Published 2025-06-30

  • Iveta Ubrežiová
    • ,
  • Karol Čarnogurský
    • ,
  • Mária Janošková

Iveta Ubrežiová
Catholic University in Ruzomberok

Karol Čarnogurský
Catholic University in Ruzomberok

Mária Janošková
University of Economics in Bratislava

Abstract

Objective: The article addresses the research gap in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting the outcomes of a national research initiative in Slovakia.

Research Design & Methods: The research delves into the social, economic, and environmental components of CSR, aiming to quantify their individual effects and uncover potential interconnections. Operationalising questions into variables allows for a rigorous examination of these dimensions, utilizing factor analysis with principal component analysis. With 190 organisations answering a questionnaire, the study provides quantitative and qualitative insights.

Findings: The results show that CSR has the most significant impact on strengthening corporate reputation across all three dimensions. CSR reinforced the importance of ethical and sustainable strategies during the pandemic, with organisations with an active CSR strategy performing better. The research confirmed that CSR is key to building corporate credibility and competitiveness.

Implications & Recommendations: Based on the information above and the article’s content, we want to provide direction for further research. It is mainly about investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially after the post-COVID-19 period, in the most critical areas that evoke CSR and the business environment, such as corporate culture, human resources, and companies’ financial and economic situations.

Contribution & Value Added: The presented research aimed to expand knowledge about the effects and impacts of social responsibility on organisations that implement socially responsible activities and the region and society in which they operate. We based the research on the processing of data from a nationwide survey. We processed a total of 190 valid questionnaires, which enabled the use of descriptive and inference statistics procedures.

Keywords

corporate social responsibility, enterprises, quantitative analysis, pandemic, resilience strategies, sustainability

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Author Biography

Iveta Ubrežiová

Full Professor and Head of the Department of Management at the Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Faculty of Education in Slovakia. Her research interests include strategic and international management.

Karol Čarnogurský

Associate Professor at the Department of Management of the Faculty of Economics, Catholic University in Ruzomberok. His research interests include marketing, marketing communication in the online environment, consumer behaviour, and CSR trends.

Mária Janošková

Associate Professor at the Department of Commercial Entrepreneurship. Her research interests include behavioural economics, consumer behaviour, and CSR.

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