IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-05289833.html

Does a Competitive Business Strategy Make Firms More Resilient? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Tanveer Ahsan

    (Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business)

  • Ammar Ali Gull

    (DVHE - De Vinci Higher Education)

  • Sabri Boubaker

    (EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School)

  • Riadh Manita

    (NEOMA - Neoma Business School)

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of COVID‑19 and business strategy on the performance of Chinese-listed firms. Using a sample of 2,606 Chinese non financial listed firms over 2010-2022, we provide evidence that the COVID‑19 (business strategy) pandemic has a significant negative (positive) impact on firm performance and business strategy positively moderates the negative relationship of COVID‑19 on firm performance. We further show that firms with a proactive business strategy had better resilience during the COVID‑19 pandemic than firms with a defensive business strategy. We also find that these relationships are more pronounced for state-owned and large firms. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness tests and contribute to the growing debate on the role of business strategy during crises, offering insights to regulators and policymakers.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanveer Ahsan & Ammar Ali Gull & Sabri Boubaker & Riadh Manita, 2025. "Does a Competitive Business Strategy Make Firms More Resilient? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," Post-Print hal-05289833, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05289833
    DOI: 10.59876/a-6bdp-jh81
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05289833v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-05289833v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.59876/a-6bdp-jh81?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen A. Bentley & Thomas C. Omer & Nathan Y. Sharp, 2013. "Business Strategy, Financial Reporting Irregularities, and Audit Effort," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 780-817, June.
    2. Mark Gertler & Simon Gilchrist, 1994. "Monetary Policy, Business Cycles, and the Behavior of Small Manufacturing Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 309-340.
    3. Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin & Chris Florackis & Aydin Ozkan, 2014. "Financial flexibility, corporate investment and performance: evidence from financial crises," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 211-250, February.
    4. Ke, Yun, 2022. "The impact of COVID-19 on firms’ cost of equity capital: Early evidence from U.S. public firms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PA).
    5. Fuxiu Jiang & Kenneth A Kim, 2020. "Corporate Governance in China: A Survey [The role of boards of directors in corporate governance: a conceptual framework and survey]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 24(4), pages 733-772.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu, 2020. "Investment Behaviour and Firms’ Financial Performance: A Comparative Analysis Using Firm-Level Data from the Wine Industry," International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, ToKnowPress, vol. 9(1), pages 75-94.
    2. repec:isv:jouijm:v:9:y:2020:i:1:p:75-94 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Rehman, Obaid Ur & Wu, Kai & Liu, Jia, 2024. "COVID-19 exposure, financial flexibility, and corporate leverage adjustment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    4. Finaldi Russo, Paolo & Nigro, Valentina & Pastorelli, Sabrina, 2024. "Bank lending to small firms: Metamorphosis of a financing model," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 13-31.
    5. Valérie Oheix & Dorothée Rivaud-Danset, 2009. "Why do firms borrow on a short-term basis ? Evidence from European countries," Working Papers hal-04140880, HAL.
    6. Koivu, Tuuli, 2008. "Has the Chinese economy become more sensitive to interest rates? : Studying credit demand in China," BOFIT Discussion Papers 1/2008, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    7. Berger, Allen & Gao, Haoyu & Li, Xinming & Peng, Yuchao & Xie, Bingyuan, 2025. "The Perils of Speed: Branch Expansion and Bank Performance," MPRA Paper 125305, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Duygan-Bump, Burcu & Levkov, Alexey & Montoriol-Garriga, Judit, 2015. "Financing constraints and unemployment: Evidence from the Great Recession," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 89-105.
    9. Kaiyuan Yang & Xiaoyan Huo & Ruyi Li & Stavros Sindakis & Sakshi Aggarwal, 2024. "Analyzing Corporate Governance Model with Chinese Characteristics and Accounting Information Disclosure: a Quasi-natural Experimental Study Based on a Special Institutional Arrangement," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9841-9865, June.
    10. Oznur Ozdamar & Eleftherios Giovanis & Sahizer Samuk, 2020. "State business relations and the dynamics of job flows in Egypt and Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 519-558, December.
    11. Ingo Fender, 2000. "Corporate hedging: the impact of financial derivatives on the broad credit channel of monetary policy," BIS Working Papers 94, Bank for International Settlements.
    12. Christopher F Baum & Mustafa Caglayan & Bing Xu, 2017. "The Impact of Uncertainty on Financial Institutions," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 939, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 20 Sep 2018.
    13. Kevin x.d. Huang & Jie Chen & Zhe Li & Jianfei Sun, 2014. "Financial Conditions and Slow Recoveries," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 14-00004, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    14. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    15. Giuseppe Cinquegrana, 2014. "Effetti differenziali delle politiche monetarie sugli investimenti delle imprese industriali italiane: un?analisi con metodologia panel," RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA E STATISTICA DEL TERRITORIO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 40-78.
    16. Peydró, José-Luis & Jasova, Martina & Mendicino, Caterina & Panetti, Ettore & Supera, Dominik, 2021. "Monetary Policy, Labor Income Redistribution and the Credit Channel: Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee and Credit Registe," CEPR Discussion Papers 16549, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Shujun Chao & Shanyong Wang & Haidong Li & Shu Yang, 2023. "The power of culture: Does Confucian culture contribute to corporate environmental information disclosure?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2435-2456, September.
    18. Fernández de Guevara, Juan & Maudos, Joaquín & Salvador, Carlos, 2021. "Effects of the degree of financial constraint and excessive indebtedness on firms’ investment decisions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    19. Alam, M. Jahangir, 2020. "Capital misallocation: Cyclicality and sources," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    20. Cristina Fernández & Roberta García & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Benedicta Marzinotto & Roberta Serafini & Juuso Vanhala & Ladislav Wintr, 2017. "Firm growth in Europe: An overview based on the COMPNET labour module," BCL working papers 107, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    21. Janghee Cho & Hyunbae Chun & Hongjun Kim & Yoonsoo Lee, 2017. "Job Creation and Destruction: New Evidence on the Role of Small Versus Young Firms in Korea," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 173-187, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05289833. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.