In the era of the COVID-19 epidemic, where industry is doing its best to get through this very difficult moment, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is playing a critical role. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate if there is any association between company debt level and CSR performance measured by ESG score. To proclaim the importance of this strategy, the cartogram maps, Pearson’s correlation and Friedman’s two-way analysis of variance were used. It was proven, that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need of CSR initiatives. In this situation, CSR offers a mechanism to preserve investor confidence, employee loyalty, and customer trust.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/bm.2023.977