Abstract
In the age of new media , communication still remains the missing piece in the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR ). Traditional media (ruled by one-way communication processes) have failed to promote an open and interactive communication process with different groups of stakeholders . Previous research has also shown that corporate websites have been poorly employed as strategic communication resource for CSR . However, new media (e.g., social media ) have changed how people interact and collaborate with each other. For instance, people are empowered through social media to demand more transparency about corporate operations that can impact society and environment. Today more than ever, thanks to the popularization of social platforms, companies must effectively communicate CSR with the purpose of building stakeholder relationships. But are companies ready to engage in CSR communication through new media ? In other words are they ready to invest in relationships? This chapter proposes a theoretical framework for CSR online communication (both through corporate websites and social media platforms) based on an extensive theoretical review in the area of CSR and Internet communication. This framework was applied through the implementation of a content analysis to 50 corporate websites of Fortune companies and 50 social media official profiles (Facebook and Twitter) of Fortune companies. Results of this analysis showed that companies were not employing these platforms to promote feedback and interactivity regarding CSR .
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aras G, Crowther D (2011) Commentary: the view from management. In: Ihlen O, Barlett JL, May S (eds) The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility. Wiley, Oxford
Basil D, Erlandson J (2008) Corporate social responsibility website representations: a longitudinal study of internal and external self-presentations. J Mark Commun 14(2):125–137
Birth G, Illia L, Lurati F, Zamparini A (2008) Communicating CSR: practices among Switzerland’s top 300 companies. Corp Commun Int J 13(2):182–196
Branco MC, Rodrigues LL (2006) Communication of corporate social responsibility by Portuguese banks: a legitimacy theory perspective. Corp Commun Int J 11(3):232–248
Brennan LL, Johnson VE (2004) Technology management for corporate social responsibility. Technol Soc Mag IEEE 23(1):40–48
Bilic I (2010) Development of web corporate communications function by official web sites and value added ranking: case of Croatia. Bus Rev 15(1):151–158
Boyd DM (2009) Social media is here to stay… Now what? Microsoft Research TechFest. Online http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/MSRTechFest2009.html. Accessed 20 Nov 2012
Burkhardt P (2009) Social software trends in business: introduction. In Tiako P (ed) Software applications: concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA
Burson-Marsteller Communications Group (2010) The Global Social Media Check-up, white paper. http://www.bursonmarsteller.com/Innovation_and_insights/blogs_and_podcasts/BM_Blog/Documents/Burson-Marsteller%202010%20Global%20Social%20Media%20Check-up%20white%20paper.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2012
Capriotti P, Moreno A (2009) Communicating CSR, citizenship, and sustainability on the web. J Commun Manage 13(2):157–175
Chaudhri V, Wang J (2007) Communicating corporate social responsibility on the internet. A case study of the top 100 information technology companies in India. Manage Commun Q 21(2):232–247
Crowther D (2002) The psychoanalysis of on-line reporting. In: Homes L, Grieco M, Hosking D (eds) Distributed technology, distributed leadership, distributed identity, distributed discourse: organizing in an information age. Ashgate, Aldershot
Coope R (2004) Seeing the net potential of online CR communications. Corp Responsib Manage 1:25
Coupland C (2005) Corporate social responsibility as argument on the web. J Bus Ethics 62(4):335–366
Custom Communications (2010) SMI special report-social media sustainability index extract: an essential guide to how the world’s most sustainable companies are communicating their green convictions and deeds through social media
Dawkins J (2005) Corporate responsibility: the communication challenge. J Commun Manage 9(2):108–119
DiStaso MW, Bortree DS (2012) Multimethod analysis of transparency in social media practices: survey, interviews and content analysis. Pub Relat Rev 38(3):511–514
Dou W, Krishnamurthy S (2007) Using brand websites to build brands online: a product versus service brand comparison. J Advertising Res 47(2):193–206
Du S, Bhattacharya CB, Sen S (2010) Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): the role of CSR communication. Int J Manage Rev 12(1):8–19
Esrock SL, Leichty GB (1998) Social responsibility and corporate web pages: self-presentation or agenda setting? Pub Relat Rev 24(3):305–319
Esrock SL, Leichty GB (1999) Corporate world wide web pages: serving the news media and other publics. J Mass Commun Q 76(3):456–467
Esrock SL, Leichty GB (2000) Organization of corporate web pages: publics and functions. Pub Relat Rev 26(3):327–344
Fairclough N (1995) Media discourse. Oxford University Press, NY
Fieseler C, Fleck M, Meckel M (2010) Corporate social responsibility in the blogosphere. J Bus Ethics 91(4):599–614
Fleishman-Hillard (2007) National consumers league study. rethinking corporate social responsibility. http://fleishmanhillard.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/csr_white_paper.pdf. Accessed 16 July 2011
Freeman RE (1984) Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Pitman Publishing Company, Boston, MA
Forehand MR, Grier S (2003) When is honesty the best policy? The effect of stated company intent on consumer skepticism. J Consum Psychol 13(3):349–356
GRI G3 Guidelines (2009) Global reporting initiative sustainability report. https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/GRI-Sustainability-Report-2009-2010.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2016
Golob U, Bartlett JL (2007) Communicating about corporate social responsibility: a comparative study of CSR reporting in Australia and Slovenia. Pub Relat Rev 33(1):1–9
Gomez L, Chalmeta R (2011) Corporate responsibility in U.S. corporate websites: a pilot study. Pub Relat Rev 37(1):93–95
Gomez L (2013) Me gusta o te sigo: Análisis de la comunicación de prácticas de Responsabilidad Social Corporativa a través de los medios sociales. Correspondencias Análisis 3:89–109
Grunig JE, Hunt T (1984) Managing public relations. Harcourt Brace Jovanich, Orlando, FL
Grunig JE (2009) Paradigms of global public relations in an age of digitalization. Prism 6(2):1–19
Hearn G, Foth M, Gray H (2009) Applications and implementations of new media in corporate communications. An action research approach. Corp Commun Int J 14(1):49–61
Hughes AL, Palen L (2009) Twitter adoption and use in mass convergence and emergency events. Int J Emerg Manage 6(3/4):248–260
Ihlen O, Barlett JL, May S (2011) Corporate social responsibility and communication. In: Ihlen O, Barlett JL, May S (eds) The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility. Wiley, Oxford
Isenmann R (2006) CSR online: internet based communication. In: Jonker J, White M De (eds) Management models for corporate social responsibility. Springer, Berlin
Jones B, Temperley J, Anderson L (2009) Corporate reputation in the era of Web 2.0. The case of primark. J Mark Manage 25(9–10):927–939
Kent ML, Taylor M (1998) Building dialogic relationships through the world wide web. Pub Relat Rev 24(3):321–334
Kent ML, Maureen T, White WJ (2003) The relationship between website design and organizational responsiveness to stakeholders. Pub Relat Rev 29(1):63–77
Lovejoy K, Saxton GD (2012) Information, community, and action: how nonprofit organizations use social media. J Comput Mediated Commun 17(3):337–353
Lundquist (2010) CSR online awards survey 2010: time to get real-time and personal. Recuperado de http://www.lundquist.it/research/ Accessed 1 Dec 2011
Mangold G, Faulds D (2009) Social media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Bus Horiz 52:357–365
Maignan I, Ralston D (2002) Corporate social responsibility in Europe and the U.S.: insights from businesses self-presentations. J Int Bus Stud 33(3):497–514
Miranda FJ, Sanguino R, Bañegil TM (2009) Quantitative assessment of European municipal web sites. Developing and use of an evaluation tool. Internet Res 19(4):425–441
Morsing M, Schultz M (2006) Corporate social responsibility communication: stakeholder information, response, and involvement strategies. J Bus Ethics 15(4):323–388
Morsing M, Schultz M, Nielsen K (2008) The catch 22 of communicating CSR: findings from a Danish study. J Mark Commun 14(2):97–111
Nielsen (2011) State of the media: the social media report Q3 2011. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/. Accessed 14 Aug 2012
Paine KD (2011) Measure what matters. online tools for understanding customers, social media, engagement, and key relationships. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Pollach I (2003) Communicating corporate ethics on the world wide web: a discourse analysis of selected company websites. Bus Soc 42(2):277–287
Roddick A (2000) Business as unusual. Thorsons, London
Robbins SS, Stylianou AC (2003) Global corporate web sites: an empirical investigation of content and design. Inf Manage 40(3):205–212
Rolland D, Bazzoni JO (2009) Greening corporate identity: CSR online corporate identity reporting. Corp Commun Int J 14(3):249–263
Rybalko S, Seltzer T (2010) Dialogic communication in 140 characters or less: how fortune 500 companies engage stakeholders using twitter. Pub Relat Rev 36(4):336–341
Schneider AM, Stieglitz S, Lattemann C (2007) Social software as an instrument of CSR. Proceedings of ICT, transparency and social responsibility, Lisbon
Snider J, Hill RP, Martin D (2003) Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century: a view from the world’s most successful firms. J Bus Ethics 48 (2):175–187
Sweetser KD (2010) A losing strategy: the impact of nondisclosure in social media on relationships. J Pub Relat Res 22(3):288–312
Tang L, Li H (2009) Corporate social responsibility communication of Chinese and global corporations in China. Pub Relat Rev 35:199–212
Taylor M, Kent ML, White WJ (2001) How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships. Pub Relat Rev 27:263–284
Thackeray R, Neiger BL, Hanson CL, McKenzie JF (2008) Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of web 2.0 social media. Health Promot Pract 9(4):338–343
Wanderley LSO, Lucian R, Farache F, Sousa Filho JM (2008) CSR information disclosure on the web: a context-based approach analyzing the influence of country of origin and industry sector. J Bus Ethics 82(2):369–378
Waters R, Burnett E, Lamm A, Lucas J (2009) Engaging stakeholders through social networking: how nonprofits organizations are using facebook. Pub Relat Rev 35(2):102–106
Wehmeier S, Schultz F (2011) Communication and corporate social responsibility. a storytelling perspective. In: Ihlen O, Barlett JL, May S (eds) The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility. Wiley, Oxford
Williams SM, Ho Wern Pei C (1999) Corporate social disclosures by listed companies on their web sites: an international comparison. Int J Acc 34(3):389–419
Wright DK (1998) Corporate communications policy concerning the Internet: a survey of the nation’s senior-level, corporate public relations officers. The Institute for Public Relations, Gainesville, FL
Wright DK (2001) The magic communication machine: examining the internet’s impact on public relations, journalism, and the public. The Institute for Public Relations, Gainesville, FL
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gomez, L.M. (2018). CSR Communication Through the Lens of New Media. In: Çalıyurt, K., Said, R. (eds) Sustainability and Social Responsibility of Accountability Reporting Systems. Accounting, Finance, Sustainability, Governance & Fraud: Theory and Application. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3212-7_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3212-7_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3210-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3212-7
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)