T(w)alking responsibility: A case of CSR performativity during the COVID‐19 pandemic

This paper centers on a case study of CSR performativity during the COVID‐19 pandemic. In the extant CSR literature, CSR performativity has focused on “walking the talk” and/or “talking the walk,” wherein narrative and action around CSR are typically treated as two different things with their relationships questioned. We focus on what has been called “t(w)alking” wherein speech is understood to be performative and wherein speech acts and CSR are merged, becoming one and the same thing. Performativity then entails what is (and what is not) said, whereby CSR involves taking responsibility for speech and/or silences. Our thesis is that the COVID‐19 pandemic led to the “presenting” of CSR as performativity, in the presence of Levinas' Other, as noble (speech) acts. We examine what became of CSR performativity in a for‐profit medical services provider when the COVID‐19 pandemic turned fatal for its main client group: the infirm elderly. The performativity of the statement: “The elderly and their carers must be protected” turned out to be crucial and set the stage for the provider's emergency action. Following on insights derived from Nietzsche and Levinas, and more specifically from their views on the particularity of ethical action, we find that CSR morphed into ethical performativity in the case study at hand. Against the backdrop of the views of these thinkers, the research potential of the performativity of “t(w)alking” in future CSR studies emerges and is critically discussed.