Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Reputation During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Kuwait’s Oil Sector

Al-Husaini, F.

As interest in corporate social responsibility has grown in the state of Kuwait, so has the need to better develop coherent and significant CSR activity, and the COVID-19 pandemic represents a test of how major corporations in Kuwait can respond through their CSR activities. The Kuwait Oil Sector, led by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) took responsibility for providing Kuwait’s Ministry of Health with urgent aid through CSR projects such as building the largest quarantine facilities in the country, constructing the Kuwait Field Hospital, and developing several media campaigns to highlight such extensive efforts to the general public and promote individual responsibility during COVID. These three pillars of KOC CSR demonstrate their position as a prominent citizen within Kuwaiti society and illustrate how the Kuwait Oil Sector’s response during a national crisis has impacted reputation. The interpretation of the three pillars of CSR during COVID also reveals that during the pandemic, a focus on Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) activities can enrich material CSR initiatives by involving community members. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.