Adapting to the COVID-19 crisis: corporate social responsibility in an emerging market economy

ABSTRACT

Grounded in the theories of stakeholder and corporate social responsibility (CSR), the study investigates the role of businesses in responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in an emerging market economy such as Bangladesh. Employing a convenience sampling procedure, ten commercial banks were selected as the sample for the study, and the content analysis method was utilised for data analysis. After examining the annual reports of a sample of banks, the study reveals that they have implemented diverse health safety, consumer essential needs, and community development-oriented CSR policies to safeguard their core stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and communities, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. This indicates that corporations, through CSR initiatives, can maintain a win-win relationship between business and society, even in a crisis period. Lastly, the researcher recorded implications and proposed directions for future research on CSR policies in similar critical times, albeit in different circumstances.

KEYWORDS:

• corporate social responsibility
• coronavirus disease 2019
• emerging market economy
• stakeholder theory

Acknowledgement

I thank and acknowledge Professor Seun Kolade and the editorial body of Technology Analysis & Strategic Management and the anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their invaluable suggestions and comments to improve the overall quality of this paper in the peer review process.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Appel Mahmud

Appel Mahmud is an Associate Professor at the Department of Accounting and Information Systems, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur. He earned his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Science and Technology of China. Prior to this, he obtained the Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Accounting and Information Systems from the University of Dhaka. His areas of interest are corporate social responsibility, accounting, auditing, and risk management.