Corporate Sustainability: Study of "New Normal" Factors that Affect Corporate Sustainability
Authors:   Ph.D., Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, United States of America MBA, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, United States of America, Wongsnuopparat Sumas 
Published: July 2021

When we look back on the history of the world, the term “New Normal” has been employed concerning World War I, the global financial crisis of 2007 -2008, the September 11 attacks in the United States, and the global recession of 2008 -2012. Still, this term has never powerfully shocked our hearts. The COVID-19 pandemic has been changing human life since 2020. People gradually move away from everyday life and progressively walk into the “New Normal” life. However, the life of “New Normal” is full of uncertainty. The uncertainty may come from the different variants of the COVID-19 virus, and it may come from the resetting of the global economy. In the “New Normal” life, more and more companies go bankrupt and are about to face bankruptcy. Even though some companies do not want to default, but it has been hard to survive nowadays. Until now, it is hard to know if the “New Normal” life is a brief time in this long history of the world or the “New Normal” life will be a permanent state. Anyway, the “New Normal” factors of “New Normal” life have provided opportunities to force the world to eliminate outdated technologies, eliminate the backward enterprises, reorganize the business framework of companies, optimize the industrial structure, strengthen human resources, re-set the world economy, reorganize the business relationship of the world. History always moves forward according to its natural developmental trend, and no force can resist the law of the development of things. Still, also no power can resist people to pursue a better life. Individuals, groups, regions, and countries are connected based on the relationship between the individual and country is the relationship between the individual and the larger society. In addition, the relationship between the individual and the world is the relationship between the individual and the human organization. Therefore, individuals, groups, regions, and countries must look forward and keep a positive mindset to adopting the “New Normal” factorsin the “New Normal” life. As we can see, many companies are adopting “New Normal” factors, and some are expanding their business network and further towards corporate sustainability despite this COVID-19 pandemic making the challenging situation in this business world. The main research question of this study is “What are the “New Normal” factors that have a significant effect on corporate sustainability?” In this study, eight independent variables including Working from home (W.H), Workforce transformation (R.W), Digital transformation (D.T), Technological transformation (T.N), Psychological effect (P.C), Uncertainty (U.C), Consumer behavioral change (C.N), Government policy (G.V), and one dependent variable Corporate adjustment (C.S) is the studied. This study aims to understand the structural relationship among these potential variables that could influence corporate sustainability in the “New Normal” life. The dataset utilized to test the hypothesis postulated in this study is the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results from this study suggests that Technological transformation, Uncertainty, Consumer behavioral change, Digital transformation, and Government policy significantly affect corporate sustainability in the “New Normal” life. Considering different politics, economy, and cultural backgrounds in countries and industries, we also found that some irreconcilable factors affect technological transformation, uncertainty, consumer behavioral change, digital transformation, and government policy. Finally, this study identified technological transformation, uncertainty, consumer behavioral change, digital transformation, and government policy as significant factors that affect corporate sustainability. Therefore, this study provides some valuable suggestions for all companies to better adapt to the business market in the “New Normal” time. In addition, this study also provides some evidence and ideas for researchers to explore corporate sustainability in the “New Normal” time and post-COVID-19.