Divulging Hard Aspects of Soft Law- A Case Study of How a Debt Collection Company Engages in CSR During Times of Recession

Abstract: During recession companies are presumed to act defensively, and research on the financial crisis 2008 suggests that the extent of CSR initiatives substantially decreases during macroeconomic turndown. Simultaneously, a growing amount of people become financially fragile, placing increased pressure on the CSR work of debt collection companies. Society is likely entering a new recession in 2023, but it is not evident that companies will act congruently to what previous research on CSR suggest. Due to the (i) increased centrality of CSR and (ii) non-cyclical nature of debt collection companies, the research on strategic CSR choices made by debt-collection companies during an anticipated recession is inadequate. The following research paper thus investigates this phenomenon by 11 interviews combining historical and current data with future anticipations. The case study was conducted on a leading debt-collection company, complemented by a benchmark and external stakeholder perspectives as further means to validate the results. Stakeholder theory was used to understand industry dynamics. These findings were subsequently applied as foundation for the restructuring of Köse and Yelkikalan's model of crisis impact on CSR (2012). The results suggest that integrated social dimensions of CSR investments will be kept to a larger extent than what previous research indicate. Arguing that CSR may no longer be considered a fully optional undertaking, this thesis questions traditional models and propose a contemporary approach towards them. Lastly, it provides new industry specific perspectives on how to navigate CSR initiatives under the intensified resource constraints implied by a recession.