ABSTRACT

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|66 pages

Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms

chapter 1.1|14 pages

CSR engagement via social media

In theory and practice

chapter 1.3|15 pages

Strategic imperatives of communicating CSR through digital media

An emerging market perspective

chapter 1.4|17 pages

“The Devil’s in the details”

Contested standards of corporate social responsibility in social media

part 2|64 pages

Toward symmetry and interactivity in digital corporate social responsibility communication

chapter 2.1|16 pages

Exploring CSR communication patterns in social media

A review of current research

chapter 2.3|16 pages

Social media

From asymmetric to symmetric communication of CSR

part 3|60 pages

Fostering stakeholder engagement in and through digital corporate social responsibility communication

chapter 3.3|18 pages

Integrated CSR communication

Toward a model encompassing media agenda building with stakeholder dialogic engagement

chapter 3.4|15 pages

Hedonic stakeholder engagement

Bridging the online participation gap through gamification

part 4|83 pages

Leveraging effective digital corporate social responsibility communication

part 5|43 pages

Digital activism and corporate social responsibility

chapter 5.1|14 pages

Digital activism

NGOs leveraging social media to influence/challenge corporate social responsibility (CSR)

chapter 5.2|12 pages

Catastrophe, transparency and social responsibility on online platforms

Contesting cold shutdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant

chapter 5.3|15 pages

Plotting CSR narratives

CSR stories by global fashion brands after the collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh

part 6|39 pages

Digital methodologies and corporate social responsibility

chapter 6.2|18 pages

#CSR on Twitter

A hashtag oversimplifying a complex practice