Table 1.

Variables definition.

Variable	Definition
Financial distress (FD)	FD is the likelihood of a firm’s financial distress, calculated by the Altman Z-score bankruptcy likelihood model and expressed by a dummy variable taking zero for the safe zone and one otherwise.
Cost leadership (CL)	CL is the natural log of a firm’s operating sales to its operating assets at the end of year t.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG)	ESG is the natural log of a firm’s environmental, social, and governance performance at the end of year t, collected from the Standard & Poor’s platform.
Firm size (SIZE)	SIZE is the natural logarithm of a firm’s total assets at the end of year t.
Leverage (LEV)	LEV is the natural logarithm of a firm’s debt to total assets at the end of year t.
Firm age (AGE)	AGE is the natural logarithm of the years from establishment to the end of year t.
Return on assets (ROA)	ROA is the natural log of a firm’s net income to its total assets at the end of year t.
Coronavirus crisis (COV)	COV is the coronavirus crisis, calculated by a dummy variable taking one for the time of the crisis and zero otherwise.
Sector classification (SEC)	SEC is the Sector classification, calculated by a dummy variable taking one for manufacturing firms and zero for non-manufacturing and service firms.