Comparison of the liquidity position between certified B Corp and non-B Corp companies during the COVID

Abstract

On March 11th, 2020, the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm bell by classifying the COVID-19 as a pandemic. In consequence, many countries established a lockdown, cutting off sales for many companies and triggering a liquidity shortage for firms. Companies tried to solve the shortages by extending their lines of credits, taking out new short and long-term loans, adjusting operations, and so on. But liquidity is influenced by external factors, such as the condition of the customer (McCann et al., 2020), the access to the banking sector (Paelman et al., 2022) or macro-economic factors (Chen et al., 2008) for instance. Thus, we ask ourselves if the adoption of a CSR strategy could modify positively the liquidity position of a company, especially during the COVID crisis. However, we found in the literature a lack of consistency on how to measure a CSR strategy, and we decided to choose the label B Corp, which points the level of excellence in the sustainable practices. We performed multiple linear regressions with 66,817 year related observations, out of which 98 are certified B Corp. We found mixed results that firms, which are certified in their sustainable practice by the label, benefited from additional protections in their liquidity position, during the pandemic. However, we found significant results related to B Corp located in sectors impacted by the COVID. Indeed, those certified companies had on average a lower liquidity position between 2019 and 2021, in comparison with the year 2018.