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

doi:10.1007/S10551-017-3464-Z

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

Journal Article•DOI•

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

Gregory D. Saxton¹, Lina M. Gomez², Zed Ngoh³, Yi-Pin Lin³, Sarah Dietrich³ - Show less +1 more•Institutions (3)

York University¹, Universidad del Este², University at Buffalo³

01 Mar 2019-Journal of Business Ethics (Springer Netherlands)-Vol. 155, Iss: 2, pp 359-377

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors posit that a key goal of firms' corporate social responsibility efforts is to influence reputation through carefully crafted communicative practices, and they posit that only some messages will be effective and achieve broad public resonance.

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Abstract: 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.

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The Impact of Interactive Corporate Social Responsibility Communication on Corporate Reputation

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David Eberle, Guido Berens¹, Ting Li¹•Institutions (1)

Erasmus University Rotterdam¹

01 Dec 2013

TL;DR: This article conducted an online experiment to examine the impacts of interactivity in CSR messages on corporate reputation and word-of-mouth intentions and found that an increase in perceived interactivity leads to higher message credibility and stronger feelings of identification with the company, which also boost corporate reputation.

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Abstract: markdown____ 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.

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220 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

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

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Arpan Kumar Kar¹, Yogesh K. Dwivedi²•Institutions (2)

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi¹, Swansea University²

01 Oct 2020-International Journal of Information Management

TL;DR: Insight is provided on the methodological adaptations required in “big data studies” to be converted into “IS research” and contribute to theory building in information systems.

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177 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

Managing stakeholder perceptions: Organized hypocrisy in CSR disclosures on Facebook

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Chaoyuan She¹, Giovanna Michelon•Institutions (1)

University of Exeter¹

01 Jun 2019-Critical Perspectives on Accounting

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine stakeholders' perceptions of CSR disclosures by exploiting big data about the interactions between firms and stakeholders in social media and find that stakeholders exhibit diverse reactions towards firms' hypocrisy strategies.

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96 citations

Cites background or methods from "Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..."

...In contrast to Twitter, which has a heavy use of hashtags and less use of photos (Saxton et al., 2017), our Facebook results indicate 70% of posts attach photos or videos and only 36% of posts include a hashtag to initiate discussions....
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...Following Saxton et al. (2017), we also include several controls at the post level....
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...Hashtags initiate public discussions on a topic and increase public response (Saxton et al., 2017), therefore we create a dummy (Hashtag) to control the use of hashtags....
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...We also control for firm size because large firms are likely to attract more divergent demands and reactions (Saxton et al., 2017)....
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...A ‘Share’ reflects how broadly the post spreads among the public, and high levels of re-posting can increase the message visibility and improve the perceptions of message quality and favorability (Saxton et al., 2017)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

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

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Huidong Sun, Mustafa Raza Rabbani, Naveed Ahmad, Muhammad Safdar Sial, Guping Cheng, Malik Zia-Ud-Din, Qinghua Fu - Show less +3 more

21 Dec 2020-Sustainability

TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on green consumer loyalty is investigated, with the mediating effect of co-creation in the banking industry of Pakistan.

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Abstract: 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.

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78 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

CSR communication strategies and stakeholder engagement of upscale hotels in social media

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Deniz Kucukusta¹, Mariia Perelygina¹, Wing Sze Lam¹•Institutions (1)

Hong Kong Polytechnic University¹

13 May 2019-International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how hotels practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication through social media, including which content type and media type receive the highest level of engagement.

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Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate how hotels practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication through social media, including which content type and media type receive the highest level of engagement. Two major aspects are considered, namely, CSR communication activity and stakeholder engagement.,The analysis is conducted for Forbes four-star to five-star hotels in Hong Kong. Facebook data are extracted from the property pages of the sample hotels by Netvizz, which is a Facebook data extraction application. The data analysis includes three steps and combines qualitative and quantitative approaches.,The results indicate that the type of information has a significant influence on engagement and has even more of an affect than the message strategy. Although the number of CSR-related posts is significantly lower than marketing-oriented posts, they achieve a comparable level of popularity and engagement. Posts encouraging CSR practices show the highest level of engagement among CSR-related posts. In terms of media and content types, video achieves the highest engagement, and posts related to discounts achieve the highest engagement.,This study fills the gap in the current literature by conducting a comparison between marketing and CSR communication strategies on social media. It also provides insights on how to draft more effective CSR messages.

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53 citations

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References

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Open Access

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Journal Article•DOI•

The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data

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J. R. Landis¹, Gary G. Koch•Institutions (1)

University of Michigan¹

01 Mar 1977-Biometrics

TL;DR: A general statistical methodology for the analysis of multivariate categorical data arising from observer reliability studies is presented and tests for interobserver bias are presented in terms of first-order marginal homogeneity and measures of interob server agreement are developed as generalized kappa-type statistics.

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Abstract: This paper presents a general statistical methodology for the analysis of multivariate categorical data arising from observer reliability studies. The procedure essentially involves the construction of functions of the observed proportions which are directed at the extent to which the observers agree among themselves and the construction of test statistics for hypotheses involving these functions. Tests for interobserver bias are presented in terms of first-order marginal homogeneity and measures of interobserver agreement are developed as generalized kappa-type statistics. These procedures are illustrated with a clinical diagnosis example from the epidemiological literature.

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64,109 citations

"Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..." refers methods in this paper

...very high level of inter-coder reliability (Landis and Koch 1977)....
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...The intercoder reliability tests conducted on each variable indicated Cohen’s kappa (k) scores ranging from .90 (92.0% agreement) for tweet topic to .95 (96% agreement) for tag topic, indicating a very high level of inter-coder reliability (Landis and Koch 1977)....
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Book•

Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology

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Klaus Krippendorff

01 Jan 1980

TL;DR: History Conceptual Foundations Uses and Kinds of Inference The Logic of Content Analysis Designs Unitizing Sampling Recording Data Languages Constructs for Inference Analytical Techniques The Use of Computers Reliability Validity A Practical Guide

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Abstract: History Conceptual Foundations Uses and Kinds of Inference The Logic of Content Analysis Designs Unitizing Sampling Recording Data Languages Constructs for Inference Analytical Techniques The Use of Computers Reliability Validity A Practical Guide

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25,749 citations

"Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..." refers methods in this paper

...For our analyses we randomly selected 1,500 of the tweets for additional hand coding, an amount that readily passes statistical sampling standards set for content analysis (Krippendorff 2004)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Job Market Signaling

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Michael Spence¹•Institutions (1)

Harvard University¹

01 Aug 1973-Quarterly Journal of Economics

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a model in which signaling is implicitly defined and explains its usefulness, in which the employer is not sure of the productive capabilities of an individual at the time he/she hires him.

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Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses job market signaling. The term market signaling is not exactly a part of the well-defined, technical vocabulary of the economist. The chapter presents a model in which signaling is implicitly defined and explains its usefulness. In most job markets, the employer is not sure of the productive capabilities of an individual at the time he hires him. The fact that it takes time to learn an individual's productive capabilities means that hiring is an investment decision. On the basis of previous experience in the market, the employer has conditional probability assessments over productive capacity with various combinations of signals and indices. This chapter presents an introduction to Spence's more extensive analysis of market signaling.

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12,195 citations

"Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..." refers background or methods in this paper

...This study takes a signaling theory (Spence 1973) approach to understanding the effects of CSR communication on reputation....
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...Accordingly, we frame companies’ CSR communication on social media through the lens of signaling theory (Spence 1973; Bergh et al. 2014)....
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...SIGNALING THEORY, CSR COMMUNICATION, AND REPUTATION This study takes a signaling theory (Spence 1973) approach to understanding the effects of CSR communication on reputation....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment

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Robert D. Benford¹, David A. Snow²•Institutions (2)

University of Nebraska–Lincoln¹, University of Arizona²

01 Aug 2000-Review of Sociology

TL;DR: The recent proliferation of research on collective action frames and framing processes in relation to social movements indicates that framing processes have come to be regarded, alongside resource mobilization and political opportunity processes, as a central dynamic in understanding the character and course of social movements.

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Abstract: ■ Abstract The recent proliferation of scholarship on collective action frames and framing processes in relation to social movements indicates that framing processes have come to be regarded, alongside resource mobilization and political opportunity processes, as a central dynamic in understanding the character and course of social movements. This review examines the analytic utility of the framing literature for un- derstanding social movement dynamics. We first review how collective action frames have been conceptualized, including their characteristic and variable features. We then examine the literature related to framing dynamics and processes. Next we review the literature regarding various contextual factors that constrain and facilitate framing processes. We conclude with an elaboration of the consequences of framing processes for other movement processes and outcomes. We seek throughout to provide clarifi- cation of the linkages between framing concepts/processes and other conceptual and theoretical formulations relevant to social movements, such as schemas and ideology.

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7,717 citations

"Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..." refers background in this paper

...…such as reputation are amenable to change through the use of communicative approaches, especially public discourse (Andrew and Cortese 2011; McCammon et al. 2007) that spreads information or opinions, mobilizes supporters, or changes predominant framings of relevant issues (Benford and Snow 2000)....
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...2007) that spreads information or opinions, mobilizes supporters, or changes predominant framings of relevant issues (Benford and Snow 2000)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Signaling Theory: A Review and Assessment

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Brian L. Connelly¹, S. Trevis Certo², R. Duane Ireland³, Christopher R. Reutzel⁴•Institutions (4)

Auburn University¹, Arizona State University², Texas A&M University³, Utah State University⁴

01 Jan 2011-Journal of Management

TL;DR: Signaling theory is useful for describing behavior when two parties (individuals or organizations) have access to different information as mentioned in this paper, and it holds a prominent position in a variety of management literatures, including strategic management, entrepreneurship, and human resource management.

...read moreread less

3,241 citations

"Do CSR Messages Resonate? Examining..." refers background in this paper

...On Twitter, signals come in the form of companies’ tweets, countersignals (Connelly et al. 2011) come in the form of audience sharing or “retweeting” of the company’s messages, and our hypotheses center on various ways firms can manipulate the breadth, clarity, strength, and quality of the signal…...
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...…a series of hypotheses capturing attributes of signal breadth, Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3673584 clarity, quality, and strength (Connelly et al. 2011) that are organized according to three different levels of the signal – the account, the tweet, and the hashtag....
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...The intended audiences for the CSR signals are broad, covering customers, shareholders, influencers, advocates, media, NGOs, policymakers, governmental organizations, and citizens (Connelly et al. 2011; Du et al. 2010)....
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...…theory’s more general concern with “deliberate communication of positive information in an effort to convey positive organizational attributes” (Connelly et al. 2011, p. 44), we argue the range of CSR communicative signals that can be “informative” goes beyond the disclosure of CSR…...
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...First, analogous to our tweet-level quality argument (H2), we propose CSRrelated hashtags will not only have clarity (as with all tags) but also meet receivers’ information needs and hence have quality (Connelly et al. 2011), resulting in more countersignals:...
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