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

Netzwerkanalyse und CSR-Kommunikation

Bei der Implementierung interner CSR-Kommunikation stehen Organisationen häufig vor der Herausforderung, dass Informationen nicht weitergegeben werden und Mitarbeiter Angebote nicht wahrnehmen, eine Partizipation im Kommunikationsprozess nicht stattfindet. Die Grundannahme von Netzwerktheorien, dass Kommunikationsprozesse strukturell gekoppelt sind, eröffnet im Rahmen der Organisationsforschung neue Möglichkeiten, genau diesen aktuellen Herausforderungen interner CSR-Kommunikation zu begegnen und Lösungsansätze zu entwickeln. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über netzwerktheoretische Ansätze und deren methodischer Umsetzung in der Organisationsforschung und verknüpft diese mit aktuellen Problemstellungen interner CSR-Kommunikation. So wird den Fragen nachgegangen, welchen Einfluss Organisationsstrukturen auf die Genese von interner CSR-Kommunikation haben und wie sich diese Strukturen aufdecken lassen. Gleichzeitig werden die Rollen einzelner Akteure innerhalb einer Organisation analysiert und ihre Bedeutung im Kommunikationsprozess in den Blickpunkt gerückt. Praktische Implikationen dieses Forschungsansatzes werden sichtbar gemacht und neue Wege hinsichtlich der Implementierung und Umsetzung interner CSR-Kommunikation aufgedeckt

Environmental orientation among nascent and established entrepreneurs: an empirical analysis of differences and their causes

This paper investigates differences between nascent and established entrepreneurs with regard to their ventures' environmental orientation. Based on quantitative data of more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, analyses of variance (ANOVA) are conducted. The results show that the average environmental orientation is significantly higher among nascent than among established entrepreneurs. Variables are identified which influence the magnitude of these differences, as they exert different effects on environmental orientation among nascent and established entrepreneurs, such as household income or media reports. Based on the findings, implications for policymakers, entrepreneurs as well as for entrepreneurship education are drawn to use the potential of nascent environmental entrepreneurs more comprehensively. For instance, teaching institutions need to give realistic impressions of the challenges and potentials of environmental entrepreneurship. Similarly, environmental entrepreneurs should think about the specific challenges connected with environmentally-oriented ventures, such as potential trade-offs between environmental and economic objectives, at early stages of their entrepreneurial activity

What in?uences environmental entrepreneurship? A multilevel analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurs’ environmental orientation

This cross-country study statistically investigates the determinants of environmental orientation of entrepreneurial activity. It builds on a new institutional theory framework and uses data gathered in the course of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor to examine the institutional impacts and individual characteristics which influence the degree of environmental orientation of entrepreneurial activity, using a multilevel analysis. Our key findings are threefold: First, the results indicate that environmental orientation is frequently used as a source for securing legitimacy of entrepreneurial ventures. Second, we find lower degrees of environmental orientation among more educated entrepreneurs. Third, for many variables, such as age, gender and income, differences are observed when compared to earlier findings on the determinants of social entrepreneurship. Policy makers can learn from the analysis that policy measures should not only be designed specifically for environmental entrepreneurship, but also be adapted to the domestic economic circumstances, as, for example, environmental taxes only show significant effects on environmental orientation of entrepreneurial ventures in OECD countries. From a practitioner’s perspective, this indicates that a lack of regulation can provide opportunities for environmentally oriented entrepreneurial ideas