Does CSR Help Firms to Cope with Supply Chain Disruptions? Evidence from the Suez Canal Ever Given Obstruction

We investigate whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) compliant procurement activities reduce firms’ exposure to supply chain disruptions. The Suez Canal obstruction in March 2021 by container ship Ever Given provided the necessary exogenous shock. We collected measures of intensity of firms’ CSR procurement activities in the Refinitiv ESG database for a large sample of European listed firms accounting for more than sixty percent of the Euro STOXX Total Market index capitalization. Using a difference-in-differences approach, our results indicate that firms with active CSR suffer significantly less from supply chain disruptions. We show in addition that this mitigating effect is driven by supply chain-specific CSR items and, by doing so, uncover a new channel through which CSR activities contribute to firm value creation. JEL Classification: G32, M14