The impact of post-crisis ESG on organizational resilience in times of COVID-19

Building upon the attribution theory, this study investigates how post-crisis ESG feedback relates to organizational resilience after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using cross-sectional data from 1846 Chinese public firms (2021 to 2022), we assess the linkage of the discrepancy between actual ESG performance and stakeholder expectations with firms’ stability and recovery. Our results indicate that only positive post-crisis ESG performance feedback significantly enhances organizational resilience, highlighting the critical role of stakeholder expectations in evaluating ESG effectiveness during crises.