Outbreak of COVID-19: Economic Shocks and Corporate Responses in India

Abstract

Although COVID-19 caused initial shocks to the Indian economy, a quick recovery was visible within a few months. We systematically analyze corporate responses during the lockdown period and argue that corporate resilience through proactive responses played a key role in this recovery. We find that, apart from operational continuity, Indian firms mostly focused on reducing employee costs and launching new products or services for surviving the crisis.