A influência da pandemia por Covid-19 nas estratégias de sustentabilidade

: efeitos na reputação corporativa em Portugal

Abstract

Corporate reputational issues are, nowadays, much more demanding if we consider the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the need for credible sustainability strategies and consumers’ growing ESG expectations. Thus, this research focuses on the analysis of the impact that Covid-19 pandemic is having on corporates’ sustainability strategies in Portugal, proposing to investigate any type of influence on their reputation. The main objective of this research is to assess to which extent the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are playing a negative role on corporate sustainability strategies in Portugal, resulting in an equally negative corporate reputation. This investigation took, as a starting point, a sustainability and climate mitigation policy expert’s view, followed by interviews to PSI20’s Chief Sustainability Officers, alongside a survey conducted among Portuguese consumers. It was concluded that despite being consistent, corporate sustainability strategies underwent changes, especially from a temporal point of view. In other words, the Covid-19 pandemic not only required an adaptation to the context, but also accelerated corporate initiatives in order to meet current environmental and social needs. It was also concluded that consumers were concerned about the honesty and credibility of social and environmental initiatives during Covid-19, but a direct influence on corporate reputation was not found.

Date of Award	25 Jul 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Mariana Victorino (Supervisor)