Examining Chefs’ Social Responsibility (CSR) during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Anchored on Dowling and Pfeffer’s (1975) Legitimacy Theory, this thematic content analysis paper purports to understand the ontology of various social responsibility-driven initiatives of chefs in various countries. Specifically, YouTube videos and online news published by major search engines were content analysed. Interestingly, a concept dubbed as The Anatomy of a Caring Chef during the COVID-19 Pandemic, consisting of three constructs of chefs as the Community Supporter, Community Leverager, and Community Enabler, emerged that offers an interesting portrait of global chefs’ corporate social responsibility in this challenging times. The implications of the study’s findings to the food industry, limitations, and recommendations were also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Restaurant industry
• corporate social responsibility
• Covid-19 pandemic
• thematic content analysis
• symbolic actions
• substantive actions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Allan B. De Guzman

Allan B. de Guzman handles management and research courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels in the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. He received the prestigious 2011 Metrobank Foundation Most Outstanding Teacher Award in Higher Education in the Philippines and the 2014 Australian Awards Fellowship on Curriculum Leadership at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

John Christopher B. Mesana

John Christopher B. Mesana has a Master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Studies from the Graduate School of the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. He handles research subjects at the Senior High School Department of Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila, Philippines.

Jonas Airon M. Roman

Jonas Airon M. Roman completed his degree in secondary education from the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. At present he is completing his associate degree in Tourism at the Faculty of Adventure, Culinary Arts, and Tourism, Thompson Rivers University, Canada.