Positive influence of organizational charitable involvement on perceptions of credibility and purchase intention

The influence of charity involvement on perceptions of the organization's communication of charitable activity was examined experimentally. Results suggest that the inclusion of charity statements on an organization's homepage leads to more positive evaluations of organizational credibility and higher purchase intention. In crisis scenarios, charitable involvement neither negatively nor positively influences perceptions of credibility.     

The influence of customer use of corporate websites: Corporate social responsibility,trust, and word-of-mouth communication

This study investigates the potential of organization websites from the customer's perspective. The findings include significant direct effects of customers’ use of corporate websites on their perceptions of a company's corporate social responsibility and their trust in the company, and indirect effects of their use of corporate websites on positive word-of-mouth through trust. The results also indicate a close link between perception of corporate social responsibility and trust.     

The relationship between reputation,employer branding and corporate social responsibility

Reputation management requires coordination between internal understanding and external expectations (Cornelissen, 2011). The focus of this study were external expectations of potential employees. The main goal of the study was to contribute to the understanding of corporate reputation and its connections with perceived corporate social responsibility and employer brands. All three concepts were investigated amongst 550 senior college business students. The units of analysis were top twenty national organizations, rated according to a syndicated study on employer attractiveness. The results show that students assign good reputation to those organizations that are perceived as socially responsible and with a good employer brand. Reputation, at least according to our results, seems to be the umbrella concept that encompasses both perceived corporate social responsibility and perceived employer brands. Organizations that develop different strategies, policies and practices with regards to socially responsible behavior and nurturing employer brands have higher levels of perceived reputation among students. Additionally, students' perceptions and position on the list of the most attractive employers is consistent.     

Understanding how corporate social responsibility partnership factors influence nonprofit supportive intentions

Public relations literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has long detailed the impact of CSR outcomes for corporations. This study seeks to understand how CSR influences the nonprofit partners involved in these initiatives and what types of CSR partnerships lead to nonprofit supportive intentions. This study merges perspectives on organization-public relationships (OPR) with nonprofit management literature. An online 2 (NPO reputation: low vs high) x 2 (partnership duration: short vs. long) x 2 (CSR fit: low vs. high) experiment was conducted. A few key factors emerged in the analysis: Positive nonprofit reputation strongly predicted all OPR outcomes and mission accomplishment. Unexpectedly, the short-duration condition led to more positive outcomes and intentions. Fit did not seem to have a direct effect on outcomes, but the high-fit, short-duration partnership led to increased levels of all outcomes. For mediation, satisfaction and commitment had the strongest indirect effects on nonprofit supportive intentions (donation, volunteer, and word-of-mouth). This study expands the understanding of CSR effects on nonprofit partners, specifically by showing how different CSR partnership types play a role in the relationship-building efforts of nonprofits. Additionally, demonstrating how mission accomplishment can strengthen these relationships helps to disentangle the unique position of nonprofits in CSR, whose reputation and mission are at stake.     

How transformational leadership positively impacts organizational citizenship behavior in successful Chinese social work service organizations

Social work service organizations (SWSOs) have developed quickly, and there were nearly 8,000 of such organizations throughout China in the end of 2017. However, this rapid growth has brought both great opportunities and challenges. Globally, leadership has received increasing attention in the social work profession in the 21st century. Among different types of leadership, transformational leadership has been identified as a key issue in bringing more innovation and motivating employees' organizational citizenship behavior to overcome such challenges. Therefore, this study aimed to focus on social workers from the 170 applicants of the “Top 100 Social Work Service Organizations of 2017” which could be seen as the more successful SWSOs in China to examine how transformational leadership impacts organizational citizenship behavior by considering two mechanisms, workplace social capital and professional autonomy, in different areas throughout China. A two‐step process analysis was employed. First, a structural equation model was theoretically built, and it examined the direct and indirect relationships among all four latent variables, considering two mediation effects. Second, multiple group (high social work developed area group versus low social work developed area group) analyses tested the moderation effect. This study confirmed the key role of transformational leadership in the success of SWSOs and found workplace social capital as a full mediator and professional autonomy as a partial mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. These findings may shed light on the further development of SWSOs from the perspective of enhancing social workers' organizational citizenship behavior.     

Civic involvement in deprived communities: A longitudinal study of England

This study aims to understand how community material deprivation is related to associational membership amongst neighbourhood residents. We posit that aside from personal characteristics and willingness to engage, experiences of neighbourhood deprivation are strongly correlated with how much people devote themselves to associational membership. We identify three mechanisms through which community deprivation can determine individual participation in political, civic, and work voluntary associations: social cohering, norms of obligation, and activated dissatisfaction. We link individual panel data from Understanding Society from 2010 to 2019 with the English Index of Multiple Deprivation at the neighbourhood level. This study finds that neighbourhood deprivation is associated with lower norms of civic obligation which, in turn, lowers a person's propensity for engagement. Individuals with low income and education are less likely to participate in voluntary associations in the first place, therefore the contextual role of neighbourhood deprivation exerts a further external negative pressure on civic participation. We find that membership in political organizations is an exception whereby it is positively associated with neighbourhood deprivation. The results imply that given the many economic and social capital benefits of associational involvement (Putnam, 2000), collective deprivation can produce an additive pattern of economic disadvantage which is reinforced through a lack of social participation.     

虚拟社会背景下的上海社区治理创新

社区是社会的基础和细胞。网络虚拟社会正以其信息多元性、交互性和去中心化等特点,使社区治理面临多方面的挑战。基于上海市6区15个街道(镇)39个社区(居委会)的实证调研表明,虚拟社会在丰富上海社区治理资源的同时,也给社区治理带来了严峻挑战。这主要表现在:虚拟社会的"参与式社区自治"难敌现实社会的"任务型社区自治";虚拟社会呼唤社区治理"崇尚自由"与现实社区治理强调"建构秩序"难以实现有机均衡;虚拟社会期待社区治理实现"多元共治"却遭遇了现实社区推行"自上而下"的治理。为此,网络虚拟社会背景下的上海社区治理创新需要明确的思路是:坚定一个模式——协商合作而不是"独自打保龄球";明确一个原则——强化政府对社区的有效治权而不是无原则的屈从"民意";正视一个态度:积极正视而不是有意回避网络社会给社区治理带来的风险。要做好"顶层设计",提高社区治理效能;尊重居民情感和地位,畅通网络民意渠道,保障居民的知情权、表达权和监督权;加强对网络舆论的引导,形成自觉、自主、自治的网络舆论平台;提升网络安全管理技术水平,完善社区网络预警及保障体系;重心下沉,努力探索社区公共服务新模式。     

In a league of their own: Mental leveling and the creation of social comparability in sport

Social measurement involves comparison across highly varying subjects, possible only when a degree of similarity is perceived among disparate events. Assuming sport as a prototype, this paper argues that such comparability derives from a three-pronged process of mental leveling.By (1) matchingopponents according to characteristics thought to influence the object or trait in question, (2) standardizingtheir performances, and (3) scalingthe resulting competitive leagues against one another, leveling yields a stratified meaning system through which individual performances can be ranked. This examination reveals that creating comparability among discrete objects is not without its price; the same mental gridwork that secures comparabilit withinleagues precludes comparison acrossthem, leading to a stratified system whose classes are separated by formidable mental and institutional boundaries. This point becomes particularly salient when one considers the invocation of this model in realms other than sport.     

Public relations’ place in corporate social responsibility: Practitioners define their role

Qualitative responses from 173 PR practitioners were used to analyze their roles and contribution to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Practitioners identified five roles for public relations in CSR—significant management, philanthropic, value-driven, communication, and none. PR professionals illustrated these roles by describing their contributions to social responsibility programs. They also expressed limitations to their ability to contribute to CSR programs.     

Corporate social responsibility communication of Chinese and global corporations in China

This paper explored how leading Chinese and global companies operating in China communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles and practices to the Chinese stakeholders through a content analysis of these companies’ corporate websites. It was found that companies usually take one of the following three major approaches in their CSR communication: CSR as ad hoc public philanthropy, CSR as strategic philanthropy, and CSR as ethical business practices. Furthermore, this paper examined the effects of country of origin and industry on companies’ CSR communication and found that whether companies are targeting at businesses or consumers has a bigger impact on their CSR communication than whether they are Chinese or global. Finally, despite a tendency towards convergence, Chinese and global companies still present their CSR principles and practices differently because of their different relations with major Chinese and global stakeholders.     

Getting called out: Effects of feedback to social media corporate social responsibility statements

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts via social media are increasingly common and are often key to achieving organizational CSR objectives. Concerns exist about potential damage caused by negative user comments and effects of user feedback to CSR efforts are mostly unknown. Exploring the effects of positive and negative comments to social media CSR statements and subsequent organizational response, this work reports the results of an online experiment (N = 257) that manipulated both user-generated feedback to organizational CSR statements and subsequent organizational responses. Results demonstrate that negative user comments are less of a concern than commonly thought, and call into question the value of organizational response to user feedback.     

The contribution of the intervention in social networks and community social work at the local level to social and human development

ABSTRACT

The primary task of community social work is building social networks by reinforcing people's resources and those of the different environmental and social contexts from three dimensions: personal development, social development and organisational development. The new information technologies today establish a relationship of communication with local communities and citizens that promotes proximity to social networks. Social intervention is supported by a set of methods from human geography that can be used as tools to create maps of the territory and the networks for planning, diagnosing and classifying the management of community network intervention. In this discussion we set out to analyse the contribution of the intervention in social networks as a means of achieving a new configuration of social networks at the local level. This information is obtained from semi-structured interviews with social workers and other professionals in the social sphere in municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants in the Madrid region (Spain). The research results show that intervention in social networks locally multiplies the opportunities to enhance the quality of people's social relationships, thus expanding their social support by strengthening their bonds, their personal network and support systems; secondly, it increases empowerment to facilitate a type of intervention to strengthen human potential and to gain autonomy and full citizenship.     

Evaluation of a cross-sector community initiative partnership: Delivering a local sport program

Corporate community initiatives (CCI) are often established via cross-sector partnerships with nonprofit agencies to address critical social problems. While there is a growing body of literature exploring the effectiveness and social impact of these partnerships, there is a limited evaluative research on the implementation and execution processes of CCIs. In this paper, we examined the implementation and operational processes in the delivery of a professional sport organization's CCI initiative using program theory evaluation. The findings showed discrepancies between the associate organization and the implementers regarding understanding and fulfilling responsibilities with performing certain aspects (maintaining accurate records and program marketing) of the service delivery protocol. Despite program stakeholders being satisfied overall with the program delivery, contradictions between program stakeholders’ satisfaction in the quality of program delivery was found in critical components (marketing and communications) of the service delivery. We conclude that ongoing evaluations are necessary to pinpoint the catalyst of the discrepancies along with all partners valuing process evaluation in addition to outcome evaluation.     

Dimensions of disclosures: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting by media companies

In this study, we examined the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and disclosures of major media companies in the United States. We conducted content analysis to analyze five dimensions of CSR disclosure: environment, community relations, diversity, employee relations and human rights, as well as their media CSR activities. Our findings showed that nine of the ten companies have engaged in different types of CSR activities. These companies’ CSR initiatives differ by the types of the company, and the size of the company also has influence on the reporting of CSR initiatives.     

Sector-dependent framing effects of corporate social responsibility messages: An experiment with non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications can be paradoxical in their effect on consumers attitudes and skepticism toward an organization, buying intentions and the organization's reputation. In this research, we investigated the effects of sector dependence and the framing of CSR messages. A 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment was used with six advertisements for two fictional organizations: one in the alcohol industry (a so-called socially stigmatized industry) and one in a non-alcohol industry. The experiment included 188 participants. The results show that the framing effects of CSR messages are sector specific: in the non-alcohol sector, CSR messages and frames had a positive effect on consumers, whereas in the alcohol sector, they had a negative effect on consumers.     

Corporate social responsibility as a legitimate concern for Chinese enterprises: An analysis of media depictions

This study interprets rationales for greater corporate attention to societal needs, as outlined in the mediated public discourse in China. Findings suggest that (1) there are multiple lines of reasoning regarding the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and (2) social involvement is advocated because CSR constitutes an ideal topic for the articulation of faith in what means success in business ventures. This study offers a culturally informed explication of the instrumental and ethical arguments for CSR.     

Communicating about corporate social responsibility: A comparative study of CSR reporting in Australia and Slovenia

This paper examines how two countries on opposite sides of the world, Australia and Slovenia, are addressing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting issues. The authors see reporting as an important communication tool or channel which can ensure greater corporate transparency and enable a better engagement with multiple stakeholders. The paper aims to provide a review and a comparison of the CSR guidelines and reporting standards in both countries by which this communication is guided. In both countries, reporting is largely voluntary and appears to be driven by market pressures. However, differences appear in national culture as a driver with product, management and financial considerations influencing Australian reporting whereas Slovenian reporting is shaped by employee, community and environmental concerns. From Australian and Slovenian perspectives it seems to be important to increase reporting incentives in both countries and to connect and compare them to global reporting requirements.     

The role of public relations in corporate social responsibility programs in the Colombian electricity sector

This study investigates the role of public relations in managing social responsibility in a group of Colombian electricity sector companies. According to the results, communication professionals who support social responsibility programs do not hold a unified concept of public relations. Furthermore, not all of them acknowledge the currently prevailing model, which regards the practice of public relations as seeking both harmony with its environment and mutual benefit with the public interest.     

Sea change: Santa Barbara and the eruption of corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have proliferated among the world's largest corporations. While the lion's share of scholarly attention has been devoted to the competitive advantage of CSR as a branding strategy, very little notice has been taken of CSR's history, particularly the emergence of CSR programs during the politically turbulent l960s and l970s. The paucity of historical attention has led to several distortions, including the failure to recognize CSR's origins as a survivalist reaction to crisis, and the resulting overemphasis of CSR as an unambiguously ethical model of managerial proactive effectiveness. Based on an examination of newspaper records of a politically crystallizing oil spill in the waters off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and an analysis of CSR's market penetration and rhetoric, this paper offers an alternative framework for reexamining corporate social responsibility.