Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility through Twitter: a topic model analysis on selected companies

[EN] Social media are fundamental in creating new opportunities for firms and they represent a relevant tool for the communication and the engagement with customers. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the communication of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on Twitter. We consider the listed companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index and we implement a topic model analysis on their timelines. In order to identify the topic discussed, their correlation, and their evolution over time and sectors, we apply the Structural Topic Model algorithm, which allows estimating the model including document-level metadata. This model proves to be a powerful tool for topic detection and for estimating the effects of document-level metadata. Indeed, we find that the topics are overall well identified, and the model allows catching signals from the data. Finally, we discuss issues related to the validity of the analysis, including data quality problems.Salvatore, C.; Bianchi, A.; Biffignandi, S. (2020). Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility through Twitter: a topic model analysis on selected companies. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 269-277. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2020.2020.11646OCS26927

Modeling some entrepreneurship factors

Entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a major factor of economic growth, productivity and competitive economy. Many countries are making efforts to support entrepreneurship and are interested in knowing how government policies and other factors can influence the amount and type of entrepreneurship. For this purpose they need to understand the determinants of and obstacles to entrepreneurship. In spite of the large interest in entrepreneurship, due to the lack of internationally comparable data, the understanding of this phenomenon and its determinants remains still an open problem. In 2006 OECD launched the Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme (EIP), which was joined by Eurostat in 2007. In Measuring Entrepreneurship: A Digest of Indicators (2008) a common set of concepts and definitions is presented. Furthermore, consistent data across different countries are published: even if these data do not represent the whole set of indicators which is needed for studying the entrepreneurship process, they represent a preliminary database of internationally comparable statistics. Using this database (Structural and Demographic Business Statistics (SDBS)) and others (R&D database, Market Regulation database and Education at a Glance) we perform initial analysis of entrepreneurship across countries. Our interest is in understanding its determinants and in particular those related to education. Preliminary conclusions about the role of different educational level on entrepreneurship are obtained as a reference theoretical frame for more detailed analyses based on single country data

Corporate Social Responsibility Activities Through Twitter: From Topic Model Analysis to Indexes Measuring Communication Characteristics

The communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) highlights the behavior of the business toward CSR and their framework of sustainable development (SD), thus helping policymakers understand the role businesses play with respect to the 2030 Agenda. Despite its importance, this is still a relatively underexamined and emerging topic. In our paper, we focus on what businesses communicate about CSR through social media and how this relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We identified the topics discussed on Twitter, their evolution over time, and the differences across sectors. We applied the structural topic model (STM) algorithm, which allowed us to estimate the model, including document-level metadata (time and sector). This model proved to be a powerful tool for topic detection and the estimation of the effects of time and sector on the discussion proportion of the topics. Indeed, we found that the topics were well identified overall, and the model allowed catching signals from the data. We derived CSR communication indexes directly from the topic model (TM) results and propose the use of dissimilarity and homogeneity indexes to describe the communication mix and highlight differences and identify clusters

process innovation alliances and the interplay of firm age early evidence from italian small firms

We investigate whether and how process innovation of small enterprises is influenced by allying with another firm. Drawing on resource-based view of the firm and integrating findings from studies on the liabilities of age and newness, we argue: 1) for a direct association between strategic alliances and process innovation, and 2) in favor of a moderating role of firm age on this relationship. The results from a representative sample of 159 Italian small firms shed new light on the role of strategic alliances in explaining process innovation, and support this proposal. We find a significant and positive relationship between strategic alliances and process innovation, and a moderating effect of firm age on this relationship. This suggests that a younger firm benefits more than an older one from the increase in process innovation activities occurring as a result of alliances with other firms. The age of the firm appears to dictate the nature of relationship between strategic alliances and process innovation. Significant and novel theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.</p

Analysis of two degree levels in terms of post-university employability

Recently two levels of graduate degree have been introduced in the Italian University system. This study identifies the key factors underlying postgraduate employability. A comparison of the two degree levels, together with the main profiles of the two groups of graduates, is provided. Segmentation analysis (the CHAID algorithm) is applied to the 2009 population of graduates surveyed so as to profile graduates and identify employability factors. The findings could potentially support a decision-making perspective: they underline important factors that ease the entrance of graduates into the working environment