40 research outputs found
Consumersâ perceived corporate social responsibility evaluation and support: the moderating role of consumer information
This study analyzes how consumersâ evaluations of various dimensions of corporate social
responsibility (CSR) affect their support of it and how consumersâ searches for CSR information
influence such evaluations. The empirical analysis relies on data on CSR from a wide
representative sample of 3543 Spanish hotel consumers. We use hierarchical multiple
regressions to test the relationships and use factorial analysis to test the validity of the
different CSR dimensions. The proposed positive effects of legal, ethical, economic,
philanthropic and environmental dimensions of CSR on consumersâ support for corporate
reputation, the selection of an establishment, and future purchase intention are corroborated,
although they are only partially corroborated in the case of the economic dimension. These
relationships are moderated in some cases by consumersâ search for information about hotelsâ
CSR practices. Managerial and economic implications are derived from the results
Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of rhetoric and rhetorical strategies that are implicit in the standalone sustainability reporting of the top 24 companies of the Fortune 500 Global. We adopt Bormannâs (Q J Speech 58(4):396â407, 1972) SCT framework to study the rhetorical situation and how corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) messages can be communicated to the audience (public). The SCT concepts in the sustainability reportingâs communication are subject to different types of legitimacy strategies that are used by corporations as a validity and legitimacy claim in the reports. A content analysis has been conducted and structural coding schemes have been developed based on the literature. The schemes are applied to the SCT model which recognizes the symbolic convergent processes of fantasy among communicators in a Society. The study reveals that most of the sample companies communicate fantasy type and rhetorical vision in their corporate sustainability reporting. However, the disclosure or messages are different across locations and other taxonomies of the SCT framework. This study contributes to the current CSR literature about how symbolic or fantasy understandings can be interpreted by the users. It also discusses the persuasion styles that are adopted by the companies for communication purposes. This study is the theoretical extension of the SCT. Researchers may be interested in further investigating other online communication paths, such as human rights reports and directorâs reports