Market valuation of crisis-responsive corporate social responsibility

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Market valuation of crisis-responsive corporate social responsibility
 
Creator Su, Ya Tang, Fei
 
Subject Business Administration corporate social responsibility; market valuation; crisis response; event study; major public crises
Description Purpose: This study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives during a major public crisis on stock performance. We explore whether and why crisis-period donations could serve as credible market signals that affect market value, and how ownership type and industry characteristics moderate these effects.Design/methodology/approach: Utilising a sample of 260 listed firms that donated during the coronavirus disease 2019 containment, we conduct a market model to estimate abnormal returns (ARs). We employ an event-study method to investigate the relationship between crisis-period CSR and market value and test contingent effects by ownership type and industry characteristic.Findings/results: Crisis-responsive donations generated significantly positive ARs, suggesting that capital markets reward crisis-responsive CSR. However, long-term analyses show limited sustained effects, indicating that donations primarily function as short-term crisis signals. Moreover, value gains are stronger for non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) and for non-direct-contact industries.Practical implications: Given the short-lived nature of CSR signals, firms must complement donations with long-term capability building. Firms should treat CSR as a strategic trust-building tool in crises, with NSOEs leveraging autonomy, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) enhancing transparency and firms in non-direct-contact industries mitigating hygiene concerns.Originality/value: This study extends crisis management and signalling theory by (1) identifying CSR as a survival premium during crises, signalling resilience and resource sufficiency; (2) demonstrating that institutional embeddedness shapes CSR credibility, with SOE donations often seen as policy-driven while NSOE donations are viewed as discretionary and credible and (3) uncovering a crisis-induced consumer proximity liability, where industry context conditions CSR effectiveness.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-11-27
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v56i1.5358
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 56, No 1 (2025); 11 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/5358/3548 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/5358/3549 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/5358/3550 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/5358/3551
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Ya Su, Fei Tang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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