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Companies increasingly communicate about corporate social responsibility (CSR) through interactive online media. We examine whether using such media is beneficial to a company's reputation. We conducted an online experiment to examine the impacts of interactivity in CSR messages on corporate reputation and word-of-mouth intentions. Our findings suggest that an increase in perceived interactivity leads to higher message credibility and stronger feelings of identification with the company, which also boost corporate reputation and word-of-mouth. This result implies that using interactive channels to communicate about CSR can improve corporate reputation. Our results also show that the detrimental impacts of negative user evaluations on corporate reputation are much higher than the favorable impacts of positive evaluations. This finding suggests that, despite the effectiveness of interactive communication channels, firms need to carefully monitor these channels.

The Impact of Interactive Corporate Social Responsibility Communication on Corporate Reputation

Theory building with big data-driven research – Moving away from the “What” towards the “Why”

Observations of the spontaneous play behaviors of a group of captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) revealed that each individual calf’s play became more complex with increasing age, suggesting that dolphin play may facilitate the ontogeny and maintenance of flexible problem solving skills. If this is so, play may have evolved to help young dolphins learn to adapt to novel situations. Novel play behaviors were more likely to be produced by dolphin calves than by adults, demonstrating that calves were the main source of innovative play behaviors in the group. Calves were also more likely to imitate novel play behaviors first produced by another dolphin, suggesting that calves contribute significantly to the spread of novel behaviors within a group. All in all, these data suggest that peers may be important catalysts for both cultural innovation and cultural transmission, and that the opportunity to interact with peers may enhance the effect play has on the emergence of flexible problem solving skills.

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Role of Peers in Cultural Innovation and Cultural Transmission: Evidence from the Play of Dolphin Calves - eScholarship

Managing stakeholder perceptions: Organized hypocrisy in CSR disclosures on Facebook

The homogenization of the banking segment has made it difficult for banking institutions to practice the quality of services that are needed in order to retain consumers. Thus, these days, finding ways to increase consumer loyalty—especially green loyalty—has become a challenge for the banking industry around the planet. Research has long acknowledged that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic concern that could help organizations to increase consumer loyalty. However, the impact of CSR practices on green consumer loyalty is rarely addressed in the extant literature. Hence, the present research investigated the impact of CSR on green consumer loyalty with the mediating effect of co-creation in the banking industry of Pakistan. The study also introduced green banking initiatives as a moderator between the mediated relation of CSR and green consumer loyalty, with the intention that such a moderator would strengthen this indirect relationship. The structural equation modeling technique was used for the data analysis. The results confirm that CSR enhances consumer loyalty, and that co-creation partially mediates this relationship. Furthermore, green banking initiatives further strengthen this relation. The results of the current survey could help banking institutions learn how they can develop core strategic considerations based on the integration of CSR co-creation and green banking initiatives.

Csr, co-creation and green consumer loyalty: Are green banking initiatives important? A moderated mediation approach from an emerging economy

We posit a key goal of firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts is to influence reputation through carefully crafted communicative practices. This trend has accelerated with the rise of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, which are essentially public message networks that organizations are leveraging to engage with concerned audiences. Given the large number of messages sent on these sites, only some will be effective and achieve broad public resonance. Building on signaling theory, this paper asks whether and how messages conveying CSR-related topics resonate with the public and, if so, which CSR topics and signal qualities are most effective. We test our hypotheses using data on public reactions to Fortune 500 companies’ CSR-focused Twitter feeds, using the retweeting (sharing) of firms’ messages as a proxy for public resonance. We find resonance is positively associated with messages that convey CSR topics such as the environment or education, those that make the topic explicit through use of hashtags, and those that tap into existing social movement discussions.

Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining Public Reactions to Firms’ CSR Efforts on Social Media

The repertoire of socio-sexual and sexual behaviors of cetaceans is relatively unknown. The purpose of the current study was to advance the existing knowledge of socio-sexual behavior of beluga whales through the development of a behavioral catalog that lists the full repertoire of sexual and socio-sexual behaviors. A behavioral catalog was developed initially from 800 hours of observations, collected across a 7-year period from 11 belugas ranging in age (birth to 30+ years), sex, and social...

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Developing a Catalog of Socio-Sexual Behaviors of Beluga Whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) in the Care of Humans

Play is a behavioral phenomenon most commonly observed in the young of both solitary and social species. Documentation of play in cetaceans varies across species and settings. Cetacean play behavioral repertoires include a broad range of actions, such as the manipulation of diverse objects, blowing bubbles, chasing conspecifics, and swimming in spirals through the water. As is common in research on animal play, cetacean play has been grouped into categories by its form, including locomotor play, object play, and different variations of social play, such as affiliative games, play fighting, and socio-sexual play. Research has primarily focused on recording the topography of cetacean play and the demographics of the individuals engaging in play. However, these classifications are insufficient to address the possible developmental and societal functions of cetacean play behaviors, or the mechanisms with which play behaviors are spread between conspecifics and acquired by young members of cetacean populations. This article applies several developmental and social learning theories in order to organize current knowledge and guide future research.

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Learning to Play: A Review and Theoretical Investigation of the Developmental Mechanisms and Functions of Cetacean Play

Across the animal kingdom, immature animals are characterized by their playfulness and diversity of behavior, but are their actions enriching to adult conspecifics? The purpose of this study was to assess if beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) calves influenced the behavioral repertoire of adult conspecifics, specifically with regard to play behaviors, social interactions, and solitary swimming. Video recordings made between 2012 and 2015 (200+ hrs) were randomly selected using the following social groupings: adults only (n = 13), adults with juvenile (n = 28), mother-calf pairs (n = 24), mother-calf pairs with juvenile (n = 26), and mixed groups (n = 84) that included different ages and sexes. Each recording was coded using a 1-min instantaneous sampling method for 7 behavioral categories that were grouped into 4 major categories: mother-calf swim, social interactions, play, and solitary swims. Results indicated that the social grouping influenced the behavioral categories even when number of animals in the social grouping was controlled. Adults displayed solitary swims significantly (p < 0.001) more often when grouped with each other (adjusted M = 86%) or with juvenile belugas (adjusted M = 85%) than any other combination in which calves were present (adjusted M ranged between 42% – 64%). The presence of calves also significantly (p = 0.002) increased the number of play activities observed for adults (Adults only: adjusted M < 0%; Mixed: adjusted M = 11%). The percent of social interactions did not significantly (p = 0.196) change across the different social groupings. The results demonstrate that the presence of beluga calves decreased the percent of time adults spent in solitary swims and increased the percent of time adults spent in other activities, including play behaviors and social interactions. The presence of beluga calves is associated with increased diversity of the behavioral repertoires of adult conspecifics.

Sarah Dietrich

Papers

Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining Public Reactions to Firms’ CSR Efforts on Social Media

Developing a Catalog of Socio-Sexual Behaviors of Beluga Whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) in the Care of Humans

Learning to Play: A Review and Theoretical Investigation of the Developmental Mechanisms and Functions of Cetacean Play

Young Belugas Diversify Adult Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) Behavior

Preliminary Findings in Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) Tactile Interactions