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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|66 pages
Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms
chapter 1.3|15 pages
Strategic imperatives of communicating CSR through digital media
chapter 1.4|17 pages
“The Devil’s in the details”
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
chapter 2.4|15 pages
Communicating corporate social responsibilities (CSR) in digital media
part 3|60 pages
Fostering stakeholder engagement in and through digital corporate social responsibility communication
chapter 3.2|14 pages
The imperative needs of dialogue between CSR departments and PR practitioners
chapter 3.3|18 pages
Integrated CSR communication
chapter 3.4|15 pages
Hedonic stakeholder engagement
part 4|83 pages
Leveraging effective digital corporate social responsibility communication
chapter 4.2|16 pages
Effectiveness and accountability of digital CSR communication
chapter 4.3|13 pages
The role of social media in communicating CSR within fashion micro-organizations
chapter 4.4|29 pages
Corporate social responsibility and word of mouth
part 5|43 pages
Digital activism and corporate social responsibility
chapter 5.1|14 pages
Digital activism
chapter 5.2|12 pages
Catastrophe, transparency and social responsibility on online platforms
chapter 5.3|15 pages
Plotting CSR narratives
part 6|39 pages
Digital methodologies and corporate social responsibility