Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Era

Adam Lindgreen, Joelle Vanhamme, Rebecca Watkins, Francois Maon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781472484161
• eBook ISBN: 9781317150633
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Although literature on corporate social responsibility is vast, research into the use and effectiveness of various communications through digital platforms about such corporate responsibility is scarce. This gap is surprising; communicating about corporate social responsibility initiatives is vital to organizations that increasingly highlight their corporate social responsibility initiatives to position their corporate brands for both consumers and other stakeholders. Yet these organizations still sometimes rely on traditional methods to communicate, or even decide against communicating at all, because they fear triggering stakeholders' skepticism or cynicism. A systematic, interdisciplinary examination of corporate social responsibility communication through digital platforms therefore is necessary, to establish an essential definition and up-to-date picture of the field.

This research anthology addresses the above objectives. Drawing on marketing, management, and communication disciplines, among others, this anthology examines how organizations construct, implement, and use digital platforms to communicate about their corporate social responsibility and thereby achieve their organizational goals. The 21 chapters in this anthology reflect six main topic sections:

• Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms.
• Moving toward symmetry and interactivity in digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Fostering stakeholder engagement in and through digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Leveraging effective digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Digital activism and corporate social responsibility.
• Digital methodologies and corporate social responsibility.

Part 1

Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms

1.1 CSR engagement via social media

In theory and practice

Sarah Glozer and Sally Hibbert

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is often understood as a process of anticipating stakeholders’ expectations to provide true and transparent information on economic, social and environmental concerns.¹ Traditionally, the primary platforms for CSR communications were CSR reports, public relations and website content. Today, the ever-increasing capabilities of information and communication technology (ICT) bring the opportunity to not only adopt social media (SM) as a channel for communicating CSR² but also to invite stakeholders into communicative processes, empowering and connecting them as active collaborators and ‘co-creators’ of CSR.³

SM are defined as, “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content”.⁴ Recent literature explores the potential of SM to facilitate more fluid, collaborative⁵ and dialogical⁶ engagement between organisations and stakeholders around CSR activities.⁷ Yet there is limited practical insight into the different approaches adopted by organisations in communicating CSR through SM and the degree of integration with other (non-CSR) communications. Traditionally dominated by the marketing function, SM are being used as contemporary channels through which to build relationships with customers, as well as non-commercial stakeholders (e.g., charities, the media). Integration across these stakeholder groups poses challenges because marketing and CSR are rooted in different management traditions, producing tensions, which are well rehearsed in debates of marketing’s impacts on society.⁸ Stakeholders, however, tend to view their relationship with the organisation holistically, and they are largely unconcerned with internal functional boundaries and difficulties that arise from incompatibility across principles and practices.

In this chapter, we examine practitioners’ views on, and approaches to, implementing CSR communications via SM, with particular consideration of whether CSR can (and should be) integrated with marketing communications. We address this issue by adopting the lens of engagement. Engagement has emerged as a key concept in both CSR and marketing fields, as part of a broader shift towards collaborative perspectives on management.^9,10 However, there are marked differences in how engagement is conceptualized and practiced. In the following pages we examine the challenges that this creates for practitioners facing a shift towards more interactive relationships with customers and stakeholders.

The CSR-marketing interface and the integration of social media communications

Research into CSR implementation highlights that in the majority of organisations, CSR initiatives are introduced alongside routine business functions, particularly at the early stages of CSR integration.^11,12 As CSR activities are expanded over time, managers are faced with decisions on whether and how to integrate CSR activities with those carried out by other functions. Studies that have looked at CSR integration generally adopt the perspective of leadership and organisational change,¹³ examining the broad business context^14,15 and specific areas of activity, such as human resource (HR) management.¹⁶ Yet, there is a lack of attention to the interface of marketing and CSR.

This volume focuses on communications, which is a central activity for both marketing and CSR. In the following pages we make two assertions. First, while marketing and CSR both espouse relational modes of interaction, there are differences in the purpose and principles of these two fields, giving rise to areas of incompatibility within communications practices. Secondly, SM allow organisations to speak to consumers and/or broader stakeholders and enable individuals to communicate with each other.¹⁷ The prominence and potential of SM is such that organisations are under pressure to incorporate them within their communications mix. Yet there is considerable uncertainty on how best to use such tools given that they afford low levels of organisational control, contrasting markedly with traditional communications tools. Below, we contrast relational approaches in marketing and CSR by reference to the concept of engagement to illuminate the differences between the two fields.

Consumer engagement: the marketing perspective

Consumer engagement has gained traction in marketing theory and practice, with the shift towards relationship perspectives,¹⁸ as an approach to building sustainable competitive advantage through satisfaction, loyalty¹⁹ and, in particular, enabling consumers to play an active and collaborative role in their relationships with organisations.²⁰ Customer-based metrics such as trust commitment, brand experience and customer equity have become increasingly commonplace,²¹ replacing firm-focused metrics such as sales and market share. While conceptualisations suggest that engagement reflects cognitive, affective and behavioural dimensions of consumers’ experiences with an entity,²² there is some discrepancy in how these elements feature in definitions of the construct.^23,24 The extant literature, however, largely distinguishes between engagement as a motivated volitional interaction or a psychological state associated with co-creative experiences.²⁵

To date, most attention has been devoted to organisation-to-customer interactions to promote consumer engagement at a firm or brand level.^26,27 However, the importance of consumers’ interactions with one another is widely recognised, based on the theoretical influence of service perspectives that espouse a network view of value creation.^28,29 Scholars have investigated how to encourage engagement through experiences and interactions, focusing upon single platforms (e.g., SM)^30,31,32 and combinations of on and offline platforms, representing the multiple touch points or ecosystem of consumer experiences.³³ Research into the consumers perspective has revealed that consumer are willing to invest greater effort in their relationship with an organisation and other stakeholders because they derive a range of benefits, including functional and hedonic benefits³⁴ and, where there are interactions with third parties (e.g., via SM), social benefits.³⁵ In essence, then, engagement reflects a consumer’s willingness to contribute to and collaborate with a focal entity. The acknowledgement that consumer engagement takes place within network contexts has the potential to bring a societal perspective through attention to organisational activities that affect other stakeholders. However, there is a lack of consumer engagement research that examines value outcomes beyond the self-interested benefits of individual consumption.

Interactions that contribute to consumer engagement are not limited to communications. SM contribute to the communications mix but are distinctive in that they facilitate high levels of interconnectivity and interactivity and, as such, are more dynamic and egalitarian.³⁶ The novelty of these platforms has led to considerable experimentation as practitioners attempt to navigate the risks and opportunities that they afford. Many organisations adhere to traditional practices of managing inside-out communications (e.g., creating messages, controlled by the organisation and distributing them to consumers) and privilege simple cognitive and behavioural aspect of engagement captured by metrics such as ‘likes’, ‘follows’ and ‘views’.^37,38 Others are making the cultural shift to outside-in modes of communications that involve listening, responsive approaches and engaging in conversation and dialogue with consumers.³⁹ But the apparent simplicity of cultivating conversations is deceptive, and understanding interactive communications amongst multiple actors and across networks is complex. There is no shortage of either qualitative or quantitative data, rather it is so plentiful that it is overwhelming and organisations have insufficient resources to analyse it.

Stakeholder engagement: the CSR perspective

CSR scholarship focuses upon the relationships between organisations and a wider range of individuals and groups that affect and are affected by the organisation’s activities.⁴⁰ Building upon stakeholder theory⁴¹ the concept of stakeholder ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• About the editors
• About the contributors
• Foreword and acknowledgements
• Part 1 Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms
• Part 2 Toward symmetry and interactivity in digital corporate social responsibility communication
• Part 3 Fostering stakeholder engagement in and through digital corporate social responsibility communication
• Part 4 Leveraging effective digital corporate social responsibility communication
• Part 5 Digital activism and corporate social responsibility
• Part 6 Digital methodologies and corporate social responsibility
• Index