The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Corporate Social Responsibility Activities of Greek Companies

The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the effect of economic crisis in Greece on companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets. We have content-analyzed the CSR reports of twelve companies operating in Greece during the period 2008–2014 in order to identify the companies’ CSR activity patterns. In most of the companies examined, CSR activities reached their peak in 2009 and started declining since then, probably due to the adverse economic circumstances. Furthermore, the companies have reprioritized their CSR interests, doubling their society-related activities and reducing nearly by half those addressing the company personnel. Even though the study examines a limited number of companies, it makes an important contribution to the CSR literature in Greece, where CSR is a rather new concept both in terms of research and practice. Contrary to the majority of studies focusing on the effects of short recession periods on CSR, we focus on a long recession period and show how companies adapt to pressures during a period of adverse economic conditions and the way they learn to redeploy their resources allocated to social causes.