Corporate social responsibility attribute rankings

This research presents the findings of a rank order evaluation of corporate social responsibility attributes by a target public (N = 72) of a contemporary corporate social responsibility campaign. The results indicate that publics value corporate honesty above other corporate social responsibility behaviors.     

Walk the line: Active Moms define corporate social responsibility

While many have suggested that corporate social responsibility is in part a response to stakeholders, little research has been done that gives primacy to the targeted publics’ voice, interpretations, and responses to corporate social responsibility. This research examines the meaning and attributes that Active Moms, an often targeted stakeholder group, assign to corporate social responsibility. In nine focus groups (N = 72), participants suggested that authentic CSR (a) is a combination of socially responsible business practices and campaigns to engage issues which impact their lives, (b) must be marked by longevity and consistency, (c) makes the most sense when linked to core business practices, (d) is distinct from philanthropy, and (e) is evaluated using a blend of rationality and emotionality.     

Effects of apologies and crisis responsibility on corporate and spokesperson reputation

This study is aimed at the effects of making apologies in a crisis situation and attributed crisis responsibility on corporate- and spokesperson reputation. In a 2 × 2 scenario experiment (spokesperson making apologies versus no apologies; and accidental versus preventable crisis), 84 respondents judged corporate and spokesperson reputation. We found that the crisis has more impact on corporate reputation than on the spokesperson's reputation. This indicates that the crisis is seen as a collective responsibility of the organization, rather than the personal responsibility of the spokesperson.     

Effects of online news forum on corporate reputation

This study tests the effects of online discussions about a company in an online news forum on people's perception of the corporate reputation of the company. The study is a 2 (tone of comments: negative versus positive) by 2 (number of comments: one versus five) factorial design experiment (n = 80). We found significant interaction effects between the two factors (tone versus number of comments) with regard to people's perception of the company's social responsiveness and employee treatment.     

Framing effect on the public's response to crisis: Human interest frame and crisis type influencing responsibility and blame

This study investigated the effects of a human interest frame and types of crisis in news coverage of a corporate crisis on people's responses to the crisis. To examine the effects, this study used 2 (human interest frame versus non-human interest frame) × 2 (an accident versus a transgression) mixed factorial design. The results indicate that the human interest frame influenced participants’ emotional response to the crisis and the emotional response influenced by the human interest frame was a significant predictor of blame and responsibility in a transgression crisis.     

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.     

How organizations framed the 2009 H1N1 pandemic via social and traditional media: Implications for U.S. health communicators

Through a quantitative content analysis, this study reveals how 13 organizations differently framed the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic crisis via their traditional (n = 211) and social media (n = 534) responses. When framing the crisis as a disaster, a health crisis, or a general health issue organizations relied more on traditional than social media. However, they tended to use social media as much as traditional media when framing the pandemic as a general crisis. In addition, organizations relied more on traditional media to address emotions than on social media. Together, the study's findings provide applied and theoretical insights for scholars and crisis managers.     

Social upgrading and cooperative corporate social responsibility in global value chains: the case of Fairphone in China

In this article, we explore how a lead firm's strategy for corporate social responsibility influences the social upgrading of a supplier in a global value chain. Based on a single case study approach, we investigate the interaction between Dutch smartphone producer Fairphone and its Chinese supplier Guohong. On the one hand, the case illustrates how a cooperative approach to corporate social responsibility can lead to progress in suppliers' social upgrading. In particular, we highlight the role of a so‐called workers' welfare fund as a mechanism not only for improving measurable labour standards but also for enabling rights. On the other hand, the case demonstrates how the limited production and technological capabilities of the suppliers, a competitive market environment and lead firms' limited strategic access to the supply chain might constrain the extent of social upgrading through a cooperative approach towards corporate social responsibility in a global value chain.     

Organizational contingencies,organizational blogs and public relations practitioner stance toward publics

Public relations practitioners in this study who perceived social media (e.g., blogs) to be a normal part of their organization's day-to-day communication were less likely to choose an accommodating stance toward a key public than practitioners in “low-tech” conditions. Forty-three practitioners with a mean of 14.5 years professional experience participated in a 2 × 2 (contingencies for dialogue × technological orientation of organization) experiment. The data reveal a disconnect between the potential relational benefits of social media and the stance public relations practitioners in this study chose when social media were introduced as a regular part of their working environment.     

Restoring reputations in times of crisis: An experimental study of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the moderating effects of locus of control

This study attempts to provide empirical evidence for Coombs’ (2007) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT), which provides guidelines for matching crisis response strategies to crisis types to best restore organizational reputations in times of crisis. The impact of crisis type and crisis response strategies on perceptions of corporate reputation is measured for 316 consumers participating in a 3 (crisis type: victim crisis, accidental crisis, preventable crisis) × 3 (crisis response: deny strategy, diminish strategy, rebuild strategy) between-subjects experimental design. The results show that preventable crises have the most negative effects on organizational reputation and that the rebuild strategy leads to the most positive reputational restoration. Moreover, the more severe people judge a crisis to be, the more negative are their perceptions of the organization's reputation. The interaction effect between crisis type and crisis response strategies on corporate reputation is not significant. However, a person's locus of control has a moderating impact on the relationship between crisis response strategy and organizational reputation. Specifically, the results show that people with an external locus of control prefer the use of deny strategies more than people with an internal locus of control.     

McDonald's Japan: A case study of effective public relations

This case study presents how McDonald's Japan improved its corporate image through food education as corporate social responsibility activity. Email interviews with a CSR representative and seven public school teachers who experienced the company's educational program reveal the company has successfully improved its corporate image, which may have contributed to its increased sales performance.     

Social responsibility and corporate web pages: Self-presentation or agenda-setting?

The recent growth of the Internet and World Wide Web has become a focus for both the popular press and social science scholars. The authors of this study examined how large corporate entities are making use of the Web to present themselves as socially responsible citizens and to advance their own policy positions.Analysis of a random sample of Fortune 500 companies revealed 90% had Web pages and 82% of the sites addressed at least one corporate social responsibility issue. More than half of the Web sites had items addressing community involvement, environmental concerns, and education. Few corporations, however, used their Web pages to monitor public opinion on issues or advocate policy positions. The number of social responsibility items on a Web page was positively correlated with the size of an organization and the implementation of tools to make a Web site more navigable, but was unrelated to a corporation's ranking within its industry. The researchers also distinguished between messages that proclaim the corporation does “no-harm”, and items that extol an organization's “good deeds.” Industry groups differed on the no-harm subscale but not good deeds.     

Corporate Social Responsibility Practices,Corporate Identity,and Purchase Intention: A Dual-Process Model

The relationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, corporate identity, and purchase intention were evaluated for 4 corporations: Microsoft, Nike, Philip Morris, and Wendy's. Discretionary CSR practices and moral/ethical CSR practices emerged as significant predictors of the corporate social values dimension of identity. Relational CSR practices, however, contributed mainly to the expertise dimension of corporate identity. Also, familiarity with CSR practices of a corporation had a significant effect on corporate identity, which in turn affected purchase intention. For 2 of the 4 companies, Nike and Wendy's, both corporate expertise and corporate social values were significant predictors of purchase intention. For Microsoft, only the expertise dimension was predictive of purchase intention, whereas for Philip Morris, only the corporate social values dimension was a significant predictor of purchase intention. The results are interpreted within a dual-process model of corporate identity.     

The influence of corporate social responsibility and customer–company identification on publics’ dialogic communication intentions

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of consumers’ perceptions of the company's corporate social responsibility on their intentions to engage in dialogic communications with a company (i.e., feedback), and to investigate the mediation role of their identification with the company in such effects. The findings indicated a significant relationship between corporate social responsibility and publics’ intentions to engage in dialogic communications. Also, customer–company identification was found to mediate such effects.     

Corporate apology and crisis communication: The effect of responsibility admittance and sympathetic expression on public's anger relief

An online experiment was constructed as a 2 × 2 factorial design of independent variables (active-passive responsibility admittance vs. high-low sympathetic expression) on public's anger relief with between-subjects comparison. An apology statement with active responsibility was more likely to relieve public anger than an apology statement with passive responsibility. There was no difference on public anger relief between a highly sympathetic apology statement and its counterpart. In the organization-public relationship, people may not show the same mercy to the organization as they do to other people.     

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.     

The role of corporate social responsibility in online identity construction: An analysis of Turkey's banking sector

This study focuses on Turkey's banking sector and investigates the role of public relations and corporate social responsibility practices in constructing organizational identities through a thematic content analysis of banks’ corporate websites. Based on social identity theory, the research reveals that regardless of its core business function, an organization must communicate non-economic social concerns to construct a public identity and gain legitimacy.     

(Not so) crude text and images: staging Native in ‘big oil’ advertising

Transnational energy companies' representations of Indigenous bodies and landscape in corporate advertising and social responsibility reporting can be thought of as staged and operating on more than one level of meaning. Understanding these representations as performative makes clear these are ongoing social and cultural constructs embedded in a body of discourse that is marked by White culture's own desire for permanence and fixity in relation to a privileged positioning. The staging of Native bodies and landscapes, in part intended to allay growing public concerns about environmental impacts associated with fossil fuel production, is achieved through the strategic use of images and text. Semiological analysis helps to make explicit the manner in which oil and gas transnationals' displaying of a racialised Native subject in the context of ‘partnership’ serves as a greenwashing strategy consistent with Canada's own dominant national narratives. Recognising advertisements and corporate social responsibility reports not as neutral knowledge but as sites of knowledge production reveals myths and stereotypes that serve to prevent, rather than encourage, true sustainability.     

Examining the interplay of an organization's prior reputation,CEO's visibility,and immediate response to a crisis

In one of only a few crisis communication research studies taking a relational approach, examining the effects of a company's prior reputation in publics’ responses to a given crisis situation, Lyons and Cameron (2004) found that both reputation and response profoundly affected publics’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward an organization involved in a crisis situation, using hypothetical, fictitious organizations and crises. Using actual organizations and crises, our research team designed a 2 (reputation: good vs. bad) × 2 (crisis response: apologetic vs. defensive) × 2 (CEO visibility in immediate crisis response: visible vs. invisible) within-subjects experiment (N = 102) to examine the variances in stakeholders’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a company after being exposed to online video that delivered a corporate crisis response. Findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response to a crisis is as acceptable to crisis stakeholders as an apologetic response if the CEO is visible (or audible) in the response and if the pre-crisis company-stakeholder reputation is positive. Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate response to a crisis resulted in the best stakeholder attitudes and purchase intentions.     

Issues management and inoculation: Tylenol’s responsible dosing advertising

Issues management developed as a long-term process interested in the continued health and success of organizations. This essay presents a contemporary issues management case that uses inoculation and a priori solutions as issues management tactics. The case study involving Johnson & Johnson’s responsible dosing campaign demonstrates that organizations perceived to have a high standard of corporate social responsibility are not above using deceptive tactics to protect their brand.