Have corporate social responsibility strategies mattered during the pandemic: Symbolic CSR versus substantive CSR

Abstract This paper contributes to the existing CSR decoupling literature by examining whether the COVID‐19 pandemic increased the likelihood of firms adopting a corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling strategy and by assessing the impact of a symbolic CSR strategy on abnormal returns. The study analyzes a sample of 75 socially responsible French‐listed firms. The findings indicate that symbolic CSR reporting strategies were more likely to be implemented in response to the COVID‐19 crisis. Furthermore, while the market initially rewarded greenwashing practices during the COVID‐19 crisis in the short term, it subsequently penalized such practices over the long term. Additionally, abnormal returns of firms operating in the most severely affected industries surpassed those of firms in the least affected industries. Finally, the results highlight that firms adopting a defensive CSR strategy during the health crisis experienced more significant abnormal returns compared to other firms.