Impact on companies of their socially responsible actions in the face of the pandemic generated by Covid-19

At the present time, in which the operational capacity and the efficiency of governments have been overcome by a virus, therefore showing in many situations their inability to supply with the required means not only the population, but also the health services, the law enforcement authorities and the rest of groups involved in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have assumed a completely new role, thus making all their resources (financial, productive, human, logistic, etc.), available to the authorities and therefore to society in general with the aim of helping in the fight against the virus. This socially responsible behaviour is not new at all since, fortunately, companies have been becoming aware for the last few decades of the fact that they are not isolated entities but, instead, their actions have consequences on the operational environment around them. This has given rise to the well-known concept of Corporate Social Responsibility, which should not end once the health crisis is over, since we will have to face with a strong economic crisis in which companies will play a decisive role. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the socially responsible actions that are being carried out by a large number of companies. To this purpose, an exploratory, comparative and descriptive analysis of the main research on CSR and its performance on companies has been carried out. As a result of this study it can be concluded that, despite the existence of great divergences, the companies that today are leading by example and showing their most supportive side will be benefited through increased profits, reputation, corporate image and a higher commitment of their employees, to name but a few examples.