Journal Pre-proofs

The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility and

Marketing Philosophy

Hongwei He, Lloyd Harris

PII: S0148-2963(20)30329-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.030
Reference: JBR 11311

To appear in: Journal of Business Research

Received Date: 13 May 2020

Accepted Date: 14 May 2020

Please cite this article as: H. He, L. Harris, The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility
and Marketing Philosophy, Journal of Business Research (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.
2020.05.030

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The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing

Philosophy

Hongwei He*, Ph.D

Professor of Marketing
Alliance Manchester Business School
The University of Manchester
Manchester, M15 6PB
Email: hongwei.he@manchester.ac.uk
* Corresponding author

Lloyd Harris, Ph.D

Professor of Marketing
Birmingham Business School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
Email: l.c.harris@bham.ac.uk

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 The Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing

Philosophy

Abstract

In this article, we offer some initial examination on how Covid-19 pandemic can influence

fundamental essences and developments of CSR and marketing. We argue that Covid-19

pandemic offers a great opportunity for businesses to shift towards more genuine and

authentic CSR and contribute to address urgent global social and environmental challenges.

We also discuss some potential directions of how consumer ethical decision making will be

shifted to due to the pandemic. In our discussion of marketing, we outline how we believe

marketing is being effected and by this pandemic and how we think this will change, not only

the context of marketing, but how organizations approach their strategic marketing efforts.

We end the paper with a identifying a number of potentially fruitful research themes and

directions.

Keywords: Covid-19; Corporate Social Responsibility; Marketing; Consumer Ethical

Decision Making; Marketing Philosophy; Business Ethics.

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1. Introduction

During the time of writing, the novel coronavirus is still spreading with no certainty of how it

will end. We are writing this article during the first period of lockdown in the UK and being

“responsible citizens” by complying with the social distancing measures. Whilst academics

like us are still busy with our usual research activities, we are learning to adjust to a new

reality and way of work (and life, though the boundary is diminished during lockdown) with

online meetings with colleagues, research students, and of course quite ‘dauntingly’ online

teaching. What is more, we have to do this with little prior warning or training. Probably one

of the most important ways to cope with this lockdown to avoid any deterioration of mental

and physical wellbeing is to take advantage of the situation to reflect on something that we

cherish the most in our research, in our case corporate social responsivity (CSR) and

marketing.

What we do know is that the world has changed. Like other global events with

planet-wide impact, Covid-19 has fundamentally changed how we see the world, the ways in

which we think, and how we conduct our lives. Notwithstanding the human tragedy of lost

lives, broken families, and scarred communities, the economic and social changes caused by

a pandemic-driven lockdown will constitute a cultural legacy which will live long in our

memories and those of future generations. The pain is personal, emotional, psychological,

societal, economic, and cultural; and it will leave scars. In many regards, we view Covid-19

as analogous to that which Taleb (2008) calls a ‘Black Swan Event’ – a shocking event that

changes the world (as similarly also noted concurrently by a number of authors and editors –

see for example Grech, 2020; Mazzoleni et al., 2020). While Taleb (2008) discussed a range

of examples of such past events (such as the events of 911) his analysis highlighted that

human responses to such shocks tend toward critical reverse prediction. That is, after shocks

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that change culture happen, people within those shocked culture almost immediately

rationalize such events by reflecting that they could have been predicted and probably

avoided. Is Covid-19 an example of this – we think so? After Covid-19 the world will not be

the same and notwithstanding numerous apocalyptic movies, conspiracy theorists, and

political opportunists, we cannot but help to hope that future pandemics can be avoided if we

learn the lessons, we cannot help but think should have been learned before Covid-19.

And the impact of Covid-19 on global economy is likely to be unprecedented since

the 1930s Great Depression (Euronews, 2020). Therefore probably the Covid-19 pandemic

represents one of the most significant environmental changes in the modern marketing

history, which could potentially have a profound impact on corporate social responsivity

(CSR), consumer ethics, and the basic marketing philosophy. The short-term impact of

Covid-19 is immediately and effortlessly felt, due to the widespread lockdown and social

distancing measures globally. However the pandemic will end, it is already set to have long-

lasting profound economic, social, political, and cultural impacts. In this paper, we discuss

some preliminary ideas on how this pandemic can influence the field of CSR and marketing

philosophy. In terms of CSR, we will discuss its impact on CSR opportunities and trends, and

consumer ethics. In terms of marketing, we will focus on its potential implications on the

core marketing concepts, the context of marketing, and marketing strategy.

2. Covid-19: Opportunities, Challenges and Trends

2.1. Corporate Social Responsibility

Covid-19 poses challenges to firms and organizations with regard to ethical conducts and

CSR. It has been reported that some firms/retailers have tried to profiteering from this crisis.

In order to curb the potential wide spreading of profiteering, in the UK for example its

competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), set up a special

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taskforce to crack down on companies profiting from the pandemic by inflating prices or

making misleading claims about products (Butler, 2020). Inevitably this crisis has put

companies under test for its commitment to ethical business conduct and CSR. Some may

argue that the financial strains, both short-term and long term, caused by the outbreak could

significantly pushed firms to pursue short-term gains, sometimes even through fraud and

misconduct, and reduce long-term CSR investment, probably due to lack of slack resources

and mounting pressure for survival.

Fortunately, we have observed that many companies not only have resisted unethical

business practice during this crisis, but also have proactively engaged in various CSR

activities, particularly those that can offer immediate help and assistance to the fight against

the virus. Undoubtedly, the current pandemic offers a wide range of significant opportunities

to those with more mindful and acumen approach to CSR. For example, UK manufacturing

companies transformed their factories to produce ventilators, personal protective equipment,

hand sanitizer, and so on, with some of them donating, instead of selling, these products.

Telecommunications giant Vodafone introduced free access to unlimited mobile data for

many of its pay monthly customers and upgraded its vulnerable pay monthly customers to

unlimited data offer for free (BBC, 2020a). Supermarkets in the UK have allocated opening

hours specifically for the elderly and NHS workers, and donated Easter eggs and general food

to food banks and charitable organizations (Fairshare.org.uk, 2020; Lindsay, 2020). The UK

tea brand PG tips partnered with Re-engage (a charitable organization aiming to tackle the

issues of social isolation and loneliness for older people) to train volunteers to call the oldest

in the UK during the lockdown (Jones, 2020). Companies donated their original commercial

campaign airtime to promote good causes. Banks waived interest on overdrafts over a period

of time. And the list goes on.

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 A firm’s genuine and authentic CSR will build stronger rapport among its customers

and the general public, as they have built up strong expectation from leading brands,

particularly their favourable brands, during the current crisis with regard to their efforts in

combating the virus. Consumers would feel proud of their brands helping their employees,

donating money and equipment during the crisis. The bond established between the brand and

consumer during this crisis era can be more meaningful and lasting than during “peaceful”

times. Therefore, Covid-19 pandemic offers great opportunities for companies to actively

engage with their CSR strategies and agenda. However, the pandemic has pushed many firms

to the brink of collapse. It is becoming even more important to understand what drives some

firms to be more ethical and socially responsible, particularly when resources are restricted

and survival is under threat. What are the institutional and governance factors?

What has happened so far is that governments all over the world have established

economic aid packages to ease the imminent pressure particularly to those most vulnerable

businesses, such as small businesses and tourism/travel/hospitality firms. These measures

should encourage firms to maintain ethical business practices and fulfil their CSR

commitment to their various stakeholders. There is also evidence that during crises and under

uncertainty senior leadership plays a key role in this regard. For example, Jack Ma, the

cofounder of Alibaba, though Jack Ma foundation and Alibaba foundation, donated

coronavirus test kits and other medical supplies to many countries around the world (BBC,

2020b). Jack Dorsey, the founder and boss of Twitter pledged to donate 1bn US dollars

towards effort to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic (BBC, 2020c). Bill Gates has been diligently

encouraging global cooperation on this front. Therefore this pandemic represents a great

context to examine how institutional factors and leadership influence firms’ CSR and ethical

conducts.

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 On the other hand post-coronavirus a salient, and also renewed, issue regarding CSR

would be the business case of CSR, particularly in the medium and long run. The pandemic

exposes businesses’ vulnerability to extraordinary external forces, such as the black swan

event of this pandemic. As the business environments are becoming more turbulent and

volatile, with a predicted greatest depression since The Great Depression during 1930s, what

are the implications for CSR? Will firms invest more on CSR, or will they succumb to short-

term business pressure? How can business leaders be convinced of the importance of CSR

under amounting survival threats? There could be two contrasting viewpoints and predictions

on this. On one hand, it might discourage firms from investing in CSR due to the need for

firms to focus on their core operating business for short-term survival. On the other hand,

history has told us that shifts in environmental forces (e.g., oil crisis in the 1970s) have

facilitated the development of CSR.

Therefore, a more optimistic view is that Covid-19 pandemic will accelerate post-

pandemic CSR development in the long run, as more and more firms and businesses realize

that their long-term survival and development hinges on achieving a delicate balance between

profitability and harmony with its various stakeholders. Probably the more relevant and

pressing question is not about whether to invest in CSR or not, but more about how to invest

in CSR to achieve the mutually beneficial and interdependent social/environmental and

economic goals. The pandemic will teach us a lesson that “we are all in this together”, which

undoubtedly will raise people’s expectation of businesses being more socially responsible.

Therefore, we can envision the post-pandemic period as a one that the thriving businesses are

those with strong CSR commitment and effective CSR strategies and efficient

implementations. Greenwash, pinkwash, and lip services will no longer survive closer

consumer and public scrutiny.

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 Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated some ingrained social issues, such as

poverty and inequality. The general narrative is that Covid-19 does not discriminate in terms

of the medical fact that people from different demographic backgrounds are equally

susceptible to the illness. However, Covid-19 does discriminate as there are growing data

showing that people from BAME backgrounds are more likely to contract the virus and

become seriously ill or even die from it (Booth, 2020; Butcher & Massey, 2020). Many

explanations beyond medical terms have been offered. Most of these explanations speak to

the truth that there is still higher level of inequality in the developed world in terms of wealth,

health, education, and so on. This offers significant opportunities for CSR. Companies should

focuses more of their efforts on tackling social issues on these fronts during this pandemic as

well as in the long-run. The United Nation (UN) has made a call for efforts to build more

inclusive and sustainable post Covid-19 economies that are more resilient in facing global

challenges, such as pandemics, climate changes, and others, instead of going back to the

world as it was before (UN.org, 2020).

2.2. Consumer ethics

Classic frameworks of ethical decision making stress the joint impact of personal and

situational/contextual factors (Ford & Richardson, 1994; Treviño, 1986). Personal factors

can include consumer personality traits, moral values, moral identity, implicit morality

beliefs, and so on. Situational/contextual factors can be issue characteristics, social

influences, group and intergroup dynamics, and so on. The Covid-19 pandemic, as an

unprecedented situational and contextual factor, has significant implications for the

understanding on consumer ethical decision making during the pandemic as well as

potentially post-pandemic in the long run. During the pandemic, numerous consumers are

grounded to their homes with limited external access except the internet, due to lockdown

8
and other social distancing measures. Consumer decision making can be irrational during

crises like current pandemic, as evidenced by stockpiling of food, medicines, hygiene and

sanitation products, and even toilet papers all over the world. Some might argue that, panic

buying (incl. stockpiling) is the perfectly rational consumer behaviour during crises like this

with a significantly high level of uncertainty (Lufkin, 2020). Nevertheless, it seems that

consumer decision making is currently driven purely by self-interest and emotions, such as

fear, anger, and anxiety. This has forced the supermarkets to take measures such as rationing

and designating opening hours for key workers and seniors. On the other hand, consumers

have exhibited many altruistic behaviours during the pandemic, including resisting panic

buying and buying groceries for vulnerable residents (e.g., over 70s)(Guardian, 2020).

Therefore this crisis provides an excellent opportunity to examine the interplay between

personal and situational/contextual factors in influencing consumer ethical decision,

including the factors relating to the nature and ongoing situations of the pandemic at the

contextual level, and personal factors, such as consumer personality differences, rationality,

and consumer emotions such as fear, anxiety, animosity, and positive emotions such as hope.

The pandemic has given opportunity and time to the consumers to reflect on the basic

meaning of consumption and the impact of their consumption not just on themselves but on

others and the general society and the environment. Before the pandemic, consumers have

taken for granted how their basic needs, such as food and shelter, can be easily met through

the wide availability of various products and services that can help meet those needs.

Actually consumers were “spoilt” with “choice overload”. Moreover, consumption is also

driven by consumers’ pursuit of products and services that can help meet their higher social

(e.g., social belonging and self-esteem) and self-actualization needs (Maslow, 1943). The

pandemic shocked consumers with the idea and even a highly probable reality that their basic

needs might not be met in the sense that food and basic necessities might not be available to

9
them. Whilst in the developed world, basic consumer needs are still likely to be met, there

will be some shifts in terms of how consumers appreciate and value those needs being met.

At the same time it changes consumers’ perspective on how to pursue higher social and self-

actualization needs. There is likely to be a significant shift towards responsible and prosocial

consumption in the sense that consumers consciously reflect on how to consume and make

product/brand choices to be more responsible to themselves, others, the society, and the

environment.

The pandemic is teaching consumers a lesson that we are interconnected in terms of the

impact of our product/brand choices, therefore we should be conscientious of those choices.

Consumers will be more likely to judge themselves or others to form a fundamental

evaluation of ones’ self-concepts (consumer identity) based on their responsible consumption

and prosocial product/brand choices (He, Li & Harris, 2012). In other words, consumers’

higher level of social and self-actualization needs will be more likely to be met by their

responsible and prosocial behaviours as consumers. Although responsible and prosocial

consumers will become a larger consumer segments, the pandemic will cultivate a different

consumer segment that focuses on instinct hedonic gratification. Covid-19 pandemic is a

collective traumatic event for many consumers, causing them physical, psychological, and

emotional distresses and harms. Some consumers can respond to it with a coping strategy that

heightens urgency to pursue the pleasant experience of satisfying their emotional and sensory

needs. Delaying gratification in this regard will be seen as less desirable due to higher level

of perceived uncertainty about the future. Both segments have implications for marketing,

particularly socially responsible marketing, which should be aiming to promote socially

responsible consumption and resisting the temptation to take advantage of consumers’ need

for instinct hedonic gratification.

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 What is the impact on sustainable tourism and travel consumption? Given that tourism

sector accounts for 10% of the world GDP and jobs, the impact on ethical consumer

behaviour cannot be ignored (Weforum.org, 2020). The immediate impact is unprecedentedly

severe with most airplanes grounded, tourist sites shut, and hotels/restaurants closed, due to

the social distancing measured introduced globally. However, what are the medium-term and

long-term impacts? In the medium-term, there could be a surge in consumption, when

consumers cannot wait to get out of their homes and visit places, travel, and dine outside. An

alternative forecast is that there might be a slow return, due to prolonged consumer fear of the

virus and health and safety concerns. A more important question is how does the pandemic

shift responsible and sustainable tourism and travel consumption? During the post-pandemic

era, will consumers restrict their travel either for leisure or business? How would restricted

travel negatively impact on those firms and people traditionally relying on the prosperity of

this sector? Would consumers need to resort to their own moral judgements when deciding

whether, when and how to travel? Given that a lot of us has to our surprise found and

pleasantly experienced the effectiveness of online meetings and conference calls, it would be

highly possible that many of us will try to keep this newly found treasure by restricting

business travels. On the leisure front, similarly it is likely that more people will, before

booking the next travel, ask questions such as whether that travel is essential and what are the

local and domestic alternatives, as more people are moving towards more responsible and

sustainable consumption.

Another area of consumer ethical decision making subject to the influence of Covid-19

pandemic is the notion of buying domestic vs. foreign products. As noted earlier, the

disruption of the global supply chain also forces and encourages consumers to buy local

produce and locally-manufactured products, if they can or if local produce/products are

generally available. Despite a strong call for global unity, solidarity, and cooperation in

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finding solutions to this pandemic, the current pandemic has already caused some significant

geopolitical tensions, which are manifesting their implications through the surge of

nationalist sentiments of consumer behaviour, consumer animosity —consumer negative

feelings toward products from a specific foreign country due to antipathy toward the country

and its people (Harmeling, Magnusson, & Singh, 2015), and consumer ethnocentrism—

believing that it is not appropriate or moral to buy products from foreign countries (Ma,

Yang, & Yoo, 2020; Sharma, Shimp, & Shin, 1994). The issue of buying domestic vs. foreign

products is not only simply an issue of availability, quality, and cost, but an issue relating to

consumer ethics in the sense of whether is the right (or wrong) thing to do. The Covid-19

pandemic will catalyse a renewed interest in this field. More research needs to be conducted

to investigate the trends of consumer nationalism, ethnocentrism, animosity, and how they

impact on consumer ethical decision making.

Another potential area with an increase in consumption is health and wellness. The

immediate increase in purchase and consumption relates nutrition and medical products, such

as vitamin supplements, pain relievers, fever reducers, and so on, that have direct link to the

novel Coronavirus. The more interesting question is to what extent consumers shifts to more

consumption of health and wellness products in the long run. Will consumers generally

become more health-consciousness in their product choices? Given the strong evidence that

health and fit people are less likely to be severely ill with the virus (O'Connor, 2020), we

expect a strong shift towards health and wellness consumption, not only in the food and

nutrition sectors, but also in the fitness sector. Accordingly this offers significant marketing

opportunities. For marketing scholars, more academic attention should be paid to

understanding the factors influence health and wellness consumption. For policy makers, the

post-crisis era will be a golden opportunity for governmental agencies and other health

organizations to promote healthy consumption and product choice.

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 In sum, it is evident that Covid-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on consumer

ethical decision making during the pandemic. Given that the pandemic is likely to last for a

significant period of time on a global scale, its impact is likely to be long lasting after the

pandemic however it is going to end. Consumers have cultivated some habits, particularly

relating to increasingly salient role of the ethical dimension in their decision making, some of

these habits will likely stick or even fundamentally shift towards more responsible and

prosocial consumption.

3. The Impact on Marketing Philosophy

In discussing the plethora of ways in which Covid-19 has changed our disciplines and

practices, marketing is an interesting study. We believe that the effects of Covid-19 have

been profound and pervasive so to structure our review, we explore how the pandemic has

altered the core marketing concepts, the context of marketing, and marketing strategies.

3.1. Core Marketing Concepts

The wide-ranging and deeply-felt upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic will affect the

marketing discipline in multitudinous ways. As our very lives and societies are uprooted,

changed, and shaped by events, so will the philosophies, ideologies, and fundamental

principles that anchor our field. While much of this change is difficult to prophesize, it seems

probable that these events will have a profound impact on core marketing philosophies,

mindsets, and concepts. Marketing is grounded in the philosophy and ideology of the

marketing concept wherein we endeavour to identify and respond to the needs and wants of

targets markets better than competitors (see for example Kotler et al. 2019). More

enlightened and progressive commentators and organizations have espoused variations of the

societal marketing concept; wherein organizations balance short-run consumer wants with the

long-run welfare of society (see Kotler and Zaltman 1971; Kotler et al. 2019). In the

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aftermath of Covid-19 it seems likely that consumers, societies, and organizations will

critically re-evaluate and question such philosophies and priorities. Economists,

philosophers, and marketers have primly advocated long-termism while ‘real-world’

pressures have constrained many policy-makers, companies, and executives to more

immediate and pressing concerns. In this regard, the bottom-line and short-run goals have

been promoted above longer-run, more ethereal objectives (see Anwar and Bassiouuny,

2020). Will a pandemic constitute a sufficient shock to marketing directors and scholars to

question their companies and their own core goals and underlying ideologies? At this stage,

this is difficult to predict but as the death toll rises and we are all faced with post-pandemic

world, socially-isolated, lock-downed practitioners and academicians have a lot of time to

reflect on the worth of their life and business orientations, and their significance.

Marketers have also championed the benefits of acknowledging and driving

meaningful customer evaluations of value, satisfaction, and loyalty. Indeed, for half a

century the credo of customer sovereignty to propel positive customer interpretations and

reflections of product offerings has been the mainstay of many Marketing 101 modules and

innumerable consultant-driven initiatives and careers. However, mid-pandemic consumers

were not driven by considered evaluations of varying brands or by long-run value or by

future loyalty reflexions but were frustratingly constrained by limited choice, product

accessibility, and immediate demand. In some regards, rather than marketing myopia (Levitt,

1960) where marketers over-focus on the physical characteristics of their products they short-

sightedly overlook customer latent needs, the Corvid pandemic was more the case of

consumers’ pandemic-driven tunnel vision of panic buying and hoarding (Lewis, 2020)

while, possibly, in the future, marketers will be rebuked and castigated for their of

hypermetropia (the opposite of myopia) during such crises for failures to focus on the want

satisfying attributes of their products. Retrospective studies into such behaviour and

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companies’ crisis management will undoubtedly generate much insight into these issues.

Post-pandemic theorists and practitioners are likely to face a radical different marketing

landscape and much changed customers. Opinions, beliefs, values, habits, and behaviours

evolve due to both good and bad experiences; the Covid-19 outbreak will, sadly, have had a

profound impact on all of these. Pre-Covid, marketers were fixated on the efficient and

effectiveness of their value-capturing from customers in the form of customer loyalty, share

of the market/customer, and customer equity. Post-pandemic, previously standard and

seemingly incontrovertible metrics such as customer lifetime value, share of customer, and

customer equity, are likely to be critically questioned. While it seems rather unlikely that

such metrics will be entirely disregarded, it seems probably that marketers and customers will

tailor and supplement such measures.

While some far-sighted theorists have long since argued that the marketing landscape

was edging from evolution to revolution (see Potts, 2018), the Covid-19 crisis appears to

have exponentially accelerated such changes and the post-pandemic marketing world will

bear many wounds which heal leaving inevitable scars. The essence of marketing can be

viewed as exchange. Such exchange pivots on shared agreement, perceptions of value, and

communication – each of which was radically altered for many buyers and suppliers during

the events of Covid-19. The dominance of face-to-face interactions and exchange which was

(in many contexts) slowly being eroded by online exchange was suddenly severely curtailed

by many governments with online exchange suddenly dominant. Politicians and social

commentators, many of whom had previously scolded consumers for abandoning high-street

shops and town centres, moved their views regarding online exchange to the point where they

acknowledged that pre-Internet, the impact of such a pandemics would have been two or

three or even a hundred times worse (See e.g., Abbruzzese et al., 2020). Communication

means between buyers and suppliers immediately changed as lockdowns were imposed and

15
travel restricted. Skype, WhatsApp, and Zoom (and a plethora of others) exploded in use and

the digital age of online, mobile, and social media marketing went from pre-adolescent

through a turbulent teenage right through to adulthood in matter of weeks. Future studies will

map and deconstruct such events while the post-pandemic scenery seems likely to be very

different.

3.2. The Context of Marketing

While changes to core marketing concepts occurred and continue to happen, such changes

will reflect the turbulence that Covid-19 caused in the marketing environment. Recessions,

down-turns, wars, revolutions, earthquakes, and volcanos seem minor blips when compared

to global lockdowns and expansive state interventionism on scale previously witnessed not

for a millennium.

The marketing microenvironments of organizations have been hit by a tsunami of

change that outweighs any previous fluctuations and reverberations. The ways in which

companies operate have been altered by social distancing and forced lockdowns that

necessitate radical changes to operations and set-ups. The supply chain globally was largely

severed during lockdown and local supply-chains stretched to breaking-point across most

industries and sectors. Distribution firms have gone from been derived as ‘white van pests’

and ‘damned nuisances’ to being praised as national saviours by consumers, in cases, quite

literally starving for goods (SIRC, 2020; cf. Hatchman 2020). Across the globe, restaurants

switched from fine dining to take-out makers; fast-food deliverers expanded their role to

become supermarket shoppers and deliverers (see Whitbread, 2020). Advertising and media

companies have needed to develop campaigns and responses in days when earlier efforts took

months and years. Public safety campaigns and other social marketing efforts will be

scrutinized and lessons learned and enshrined in new theories and grounded insights. The

16
context of competition has also changed. During the pandemic consumers, publics, and

government required and, in some cases, forced, collaboration for the good of all. In this

regard, past competitors became collaborators out of need – the Formula 1 initiative to

design, manufacture, and supply ventilators at incredible speed being an illustrative example

(see de Menzies, 2020). Post-pandemic, retrospective research will scrutinize such efforts

and practitioners from previously adversarial organizations may well reflect on the benefits

and reward of collaboration.

In the marketing macro environment, fundamental changes happened for which the

repercussions will resound for decades. Economically, the global economy has been

profoundly affected. Dwarfing the impact of austerity regimes, Covid-19 measures closed

entire sectors, forced industries to move, almost exclusively, online, and radically changed

the nature of consumer spending. Prior to lockdowns grocery retailers in particular had

unprecedented sales while online entertainment and connectivity organizations thrived on

massively increased demand. Other sectors the like housing and automotive industries were

hit extremely hard and the rebound and waves of fluctuating demand and supply will likely

continue for many years. Politically, almost all countries saw sweeping changes to ideologies

that severely imposed on previously-cherished doctrines of freedom of movement and

market-economics amongst many others. The state took over many industries in many

countries and the long-run implications of this will resound within countries, regions, and

global economies. Technologically, while politicians hailed the Internet as a lifesaving

medium (quite literally in virus-tracking countries – particularly in Asia) (The Japan Times,

2020), the adoption of technology to replace face-to-face interaction was widespread. As

such, media commentators have suggested that the pandemic forced twenty years of

technology adoption in twenty-four hours. Science and technology were thrust into the

forefront as scientists, modellers, and researchers were granted immediate funds to pursue

17
vaccines, antibody testing, and virologic modelling. Socially Covid-19 has changed and will

change individuals’, groups’, managements’, and governments’ mindsets and philosophies.

Culturally, people’s views of themselves, of others, of organizations, of nature and of the

universe have shifted. While few predicted the timing of such events, futurologists and long-

term scenario planners have long laboured to highlight the potential of such dramatic and

tragic episodes to affect the world (see Malaska, 2000). What the precise nature of such

shifts in our society and our culture will be is unclear but marketers should be at the forefront

in exploring, elucidating, and responding to such changes.

3.3. Marketing Strategy

Changes to the marketing environment and the marketing landscape forced organizations to

develop a strategic agility pre-, during-, and post-pandemic. While strategists have long

advocated agility in strategy making, the lightning speed of the spread of Covid-19 required

organizations to develop such entrepreneurial agility as to constitute flexibility to the point of

hypermobility! While innovative commentators lauded the need for strategic agility to create

new markets that reach new consumers and customers – blue ocean strategy (see Kim and

Mauborgne, 2004), pandemic-inspired/forced/required agility required executives and

managers to develop systems, operations, and tactics that reached customers (more life-water

strategy than necessarily blue or red ocean). Nonetheless, many organizations found

previously hidden or untapped sources of entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that saw

inventiveness and sheer gumptiosness triumph in the face of adversity (see Armstrong 2020).

Marketing strategy scholars will indubitably desire to explore such new-found agility and

embed such flexibility in their strategic processes. While implementing change has always

proved troublesome, impending crises appears to free previously untapped and much valued

18
resourcefulness. Exploring, describing, and promoting such approaches should prove

illuminating.

What will the post-Covid-19 marketing strategy world involve? First, it seems

probable that espoused organizational goals will change. Vision statements are supposed to

be long-run and not subject to the vagaries of environmental blips. However, Covid-19 feels

more than a little like a Black Swan shock than a blip. Organizations reflecting on the post-

pandemic world will need to re-evaluate their visions, missions, and their objectives to

account for the changes to their customers, competitors, amongst other shifts. Goals and

objectives that incorporate long-term survival, strategic agility, meaningful social

responsibility, possibly centred on a societal marketing orientation seem likely.

The extent which market oriented organizations reacted more effectively and

efficiently than more product or production oriented firms will also prove interesting. Mid-

pandemic governments and agencies rapidly adopted market driving strategies to educate,

control, and manage essential services, demand-supply, and public behaviour. Post-

pandemic research will unquestionably focus on how differing strategic orientations benefited

or constrained organizational responses (especially in terms of responsive timeliness).

During period of unprecedented demand, production orientations and strategic flexibility

were required while post-pandemic competitor advantage will likely accrue to organizations

able most responsively to gain first mover advantage.

Whatever the most appropriate strategic orientation, the post-Covid-19 marketplace is

irrecoverably different. A key facet of this is the exponentially increased move to online

communications and change. What was a very fast growing medium was (at least briefly

during lockdown situations) totally dominant (or, at least, prevailing). All industries and

sectors found the change instantaneous and profound. Whether this change merely

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accelerated an on-going trend or is reversible is debatable. Industries that previously pivoted

on face-to-face interaction found ways and means to engage (and survive) via online means

and it seems likely that much of this change will settle (see for example Butler, 2020).

Another element to that organizations will need to acknowledge is the semi-collapse,

partial failure and, at the very least, pausing of globalization. For decades organizations have

persuade globalization with much scholarly and practitioner comments on the need of local

responsiveness and glocalization (see for example Crawford and Chin 2015). However, the

pandemic proved most challenging for global firms; global supply changes stopped,

international campaigns faltered, and worldwide initiatives simply vacillated, stuttered, then

lurched to a standstill. Consumers previously clamouring for globally-renowned brands were

constrained to local markets, outlets, and products. Will consumers turn their back on firms

and outlets that literally fed them when they were hungry? Possibly. Possibly not? The future

seem far less certain than a few short months ago.

These changes seem likely to be met with some subtle and some pervasive changes to

organizational goals. Whereas previously many academicians and executives smiled

patronizingly at futurologists’ seemingly imaginative scenario plans and fanciful predictions

of doom and gloom, I suspect that many of us will be more attentive and less dismissive.

Will firms rebalance their strategies to account for such issues? They might do so completely

(which is probably overly zealous) but a balance towards stability and agility seems likely.

4. Conclusions and future research directions

In this article, we have offered some initial thoughts on how the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic

influences CSR, consumer ethics, and marketing philosophy. This pandemic offers great

opportunities for firms to actively engage in various CSR initiatives during the crisis, and

potentially catalyse a new era of CSR development in the long run. For consumers, ethical

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dimension of consumer decision has become salient during the pandemic, which is also likely

to shift consumers towards more responsible and prosocial consumption. Such changes seem

likely to be mirrored by firms and organizations. Fundamental changes to our lives will

affect our beliefs, attitudes, and opinions so that astute marketers will adapt their policies and

strategies to reflect. Will there be a long-standing resurgence in the social marketing concept

and more responsible business orientations? We hope so. Whatever the changes in seems

highly likely that the ways marketing has operated in the past will need to change and will do

to meet the new reality.

We conclude this article by asking our academic community to engage in rigorous

research on the following research questions. Although the immediate impact of Covid-19

pandemic seems to be evident, what could be the long-term impact on CSR and consumer

ethical decision making? What are the opportunities and challenges for CSR in the long run

post-coronavirus? Will the short-term change in consumer habit leads to long-term sustained

shift of consumer ethical behaviour, if yes how? How will Covid-19 change our marketing

philosophy? Will an outcome of this pandemic be an increased incorporation of social and

societal issues into our driving philosophies? In terms of customer behaviour there is an

urgent need to explore how citizens, customers, and consumers responded (both positively

and negatively) to varying lockdown restrictions. Changes to behaviours may well be evident

(such as the move to online shopping and entertainment) but alterations to attitudes, values,

beliefs are likely to be subtle. Similarly, while Covid-19 drove sector, firm, and

organizational innovation, research is need to explore the drivers of effectiveness and to

detail which changes will prove beneficial in the long term.

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Hongwei He is a Chair Professor of Marketing at Alliance Manchester Business School, The
University of Manchester and a Senior Associate Editor for Journal of Business Research. He
served as an Associate Editor for Group & Organization Management in the past. Professor
He's main research areas are Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Branding,
Consumer Psychology and Organizational Behaviour (mainly from identity, emotion, and
moral perspective), and Leadership. Professor He has co-edited three special issues in
journals incl. Journal of Organizational Behavior, Group & Organization
Management, and Industrial Marketing Management. His work has been widely published or
forthcoming in a variety of leading academic journals including Annals of Tourism Research,
British Journal of Management, European Journal of Marketing, Group & Organization
Management, Human Relations, Human Resource Management, Industrial Marketing
Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of
Organizational Behavior, The Leadership Quarterly, etc..

Lloyd C. Harris is the Head of Department and Professor of Marketing at Birmingham

Business School, Birmingham University. After working in retail and service
organizations, he received his PhD in marketing from Cardiff University and his DSc.
from Warwick University. His research results have been disseminated via a range of
marketing, strategy, H.R.M. and general management journals. He has published widely
in these fields and has published over one hundred pieces. He is particularly proud of
papers that have been published in the Journal of Retailing, Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science, Journal of Management Studies, Human Resource Management,
Organization Studies and the Annuls of Tourism Research. He has consulted and run
programmes for many leading private and public organizations; especially focusing on
retailing and service organizations.

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