Scepticism in CSR Advertisements

The aim of the present paper is to make a contribution to CSR communication theory by investigating the level of substantial information provided in CSR print advertisements in the UK and Brazil. The paper evaluates CSR advertisements using textual analysis.The empirical evidence demonstrates that companies provide a low level of substantial information when advertising CSR.The paper provides empirical evidence as to the extent that corporations use substantial information in their advertisements

A Critical Reflection on the Role of Dialogue in Communicating Ethical Corporate Social Responsibility through Digital Platforms

Organizations are under increasing pressure to communicate their position on social responsibility in a changing environment whereby more critical demanding citizens are using digital platforms to express their opinions about the actions of corporations. These changes, demand a corporate culture of listening, management commitment, responsible action and more effective forms of CSR communication with stakeholders. The emergence of digital platforms such as Facebook or Twitter provide managers with a mechanism for a dialogue with stakeholders to communicate their CSR initiatives and policies. While these digital platforms have the potential for corporations to listen and respond to stakeholder concerns in an open and honest discourse, frequently CSR communication are perceived as serving instrumental goals. This chapter argues that CSR communication through digital platforms grounded in the ethical premise of responsibility and the concept of dialogue could change this perception. The implications for organizations are that they can enact an ethical premise of CSR using digital platforms if managers adopt a dialogic mindset, and listen and respond to the views of stakeholders. The chapter makes recommendations for an implementation process of the ethical premise of CSR. Finally, our critical reflection provides researchers with a conceptual lens for future empirical studies

Achieving consumer trust on Twitter via CSR communication

Purpose Corporations are under increasing pressure to communicate their position and policies with regards to corporate social responsibility (CSR), informing consumers about the corporations’ good intentions and actions in order to appear trustworthy. Corporations have been asked to engage in a dialogue with their consumers. However, academic literature still lacks empirical research that examines how consumers react to asymmetric versus symmetric communication strategies.  Design/methodology/approach: The present paper closes this gap and evaluates how consumers react to different CSR communication approaches on social media, specifically on Twitter. The study is based on a sample of 507 respondents in the UK, representing a welleducated population of social media users. The sample was divided into two sub-samples, one receiving a set of tweets with an asymmetric CSR communication approach (N = 242), the other one with a symmetric CSR communication approach (N = 265).  Findings: Our main finding is that an asymmetric communication approach performs generally better than a symmetric communication approach. However, consumers’ involvement and their own personal information processing mechanisms also play a significant role when evaluating the trustworthiness of corporations.  Originality/value: The paper provides insights in how corporations should communicate with consumers on Twitter and what characteristics they should take into consideration to achieve consumer trust

Developing marketing students' social consciousness: Experience at Brighton Business School

In this paper, the authors share and discuss their experience of how the marketing subject team of lecturers at Brighton Business School brings social concerns at the heart of their teaching, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level, in an attempt to develop students’ social consciousness and train social and environmental leaders of the future with a big- picture vision of the systems they will have to work within. There is a need for marketers who can drive change at organisations by coming up with new product or service ideas supported by business models that also help to address societal needs (Doyle, 2008). Addressing grand societal challenges demands a new kind of innovation, changing existing social paradigms, innovations that must create new social networks and capacities that evolve into new social structures and systems (Benneworth & Cunha, 2015). This corresponds to a shift in society’s expectations of business, forcing marketing educators to retool curriculum content (Borin & Metcalf, 2010). All the more since marketing has often been perceived as part of the problem rather than the solution to societal problems such as pollution, overconsumption, the depletion of natural resources, unhealthy lifestyles, and human rights abuses (Rowntree & Koernig, 2014). If developing learners’ capacities for social innovation has become part of universities’ objectives, and if particular courses have been designed in business schools to develop students as agents of change (Nicholls et al., 2013; Hesselbarth & Schaltegger, 2014), the biggest part of core marketing modules taught in business schools throughout America and Europe still consist nowadays of strategic marketing, principles of marketing, marketing research, and marketing communications (Küster & Vila, 2006). The field of nonprofit or social service marketing is more rarely included (Harrigan & Hulbert, 2011). How can marketing lecturers focus on the areas of “people” and “planet” that appear to be lacking in their subject as most commonly taught? This communication is divided into five sections. First, the authors briefly review what social consciousness consists of and why it is of importance to marketing learners. The authors then report, as marketing faculty members at Brighton Business School, their own experience of how they tried and developed marketing students’ social consciousness in their modules and courses. First author describes how she, as marketing lecturer, embedded social matters into traditional modules of strategic marketing and international marketing at Masters’ level. Second and third author explain, as MSc in marketing and BSc business with marketing course leaders, how ethics, CSR, sustainability, social marketing and other social matters were integrated within their courses, both at postgraduate and undergraduate level. The final section contains discussion and conclusions

WEBSITES CORPORATIVOS NA COMUNICAÇÃO DE RESPONSABILIDADE SOCIAL EM DISTRIBUIDORAS DE ENERGIA: UM ESTUDO LONGITUDINAL

O fenômeno da Responsabilidade Social das Empresas (RSE) na gestão dos negócios vem sendo objeto de estudos que questionam o comportamento das empresas na construção de uma sociedade mais justa. Este trabalho busca analisar em quatro grandes empresas do setor de distribuição de energia, como a RSE está sendo divulgada por meio de seus websites corporativos, levando em consideração que a Internet é uma poderosa ferramenta de comunicação. Após breve revisão teórica, é aplicado um conjunto de indicadores de divulgação de RSE por meio de websites corporativos. Como resultado, observa-se que as empresas analisadas utilizavam seus websites em 2006 principalmente para a divulgação do balanço social, mas o mesmo não pode ser dito sobre os resultados de seus projetos sociais, uma vez que as informações não estavam naquela época disponíveis por este meio eletrônico. Três anos depois pode ser observado que as quatro empresas apresentam em seus websites corporativos detalhes sobre seus investimentos sociais incluindo projetos, parceiros e resultados obtidos

COMUNICAÇÃO DA RESPONSABILIDADE SOCIAL NOS WEBSITES DE DISTRIBUIDORAS DE ENERGIA: UM ESTUDO COMPARADO BRASIL E FRANÇA

O uso dos websites corporativos como ferramenta de comunicação da responsabilidade social vem recebendo atenção dos grupos de interesse e passando por um processo de melhoria contínua no que diz respeito à apresentação tanto em forma quanto em conteúdo. O presente texto objetiva fazer uma comparação entre as três maiores empresas do setor de distribuição de energia do Brasil e a empresa estatal da França. Como resultado, pode-se observar que as empresas divulgam de forma insuficiente suas ações e projetos sociais na Internet, com exceção da Cemig, que teve um desempenho superior em relação à comunicação pela web. Em conclusão, não foram encontradas diferenças significativas em relação aos indicadores de divulgação entre as empresas apesar das características culturais. No entanto, o volume de informações divulgadas pela empresa francesa em cada indicador é consideravelmente maior, caracterizando também uma grande preocupação com a comunicação da responsabilidade social em detalhes

Corporate social responsibility communication presentation through print advertisements

Companies are faced with increasing expectations on the part of stakeholders to engage in social responsibility and are consequently expected to communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts to a varied, influential, and alert audience. Despite this, CSR communication remains an emerging field, with research focusing on corporate social disclosure mainly through websites and corporate reports, while little is known about CSR advertisements. This thesis addresses this gap in the research and explains how companies publicise their CSR actions through print advertisements in order to disclose the CSR image they want to signal to their public(s). This thesis examines companies' self-presentation via disclosure of social and environmental information, adopting impression management and self-presentation concepts derived primarily from the social psychology literature. As the thesis investigates CSR image, legitimacy theory provides a theoretical prism as it attempts to explain social and environmental disclosures from corporations in order to present a socially responsible image. Six propositions were developed from the literature to create a conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was then substantiated through the use of semiotics and textual and visual analysis of 26 CSR adverts grouped into six CSR advertising campaigns in magazines circulated in the UK and Brazil and the respective non-financial reports from the six companies that communicated their CSR efforts more frequently over a 12-month period. The contribution of this doctoral research has been to develop a conceptual framework from the literature and then evaluate it in an empirical study of CSR advertising campaigns. Specifically, this thesis contributes to knowledge and theoretical development as it identifies the communications strategies firms adopt to legitimise their CSR image through, for instance, both 'informing' and 'diverting attention'.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo