Helpful Hypocrisy? Investigating 'Double-Talk' and Irony in CSR Marketing Communications

Conventional definitions of corporate hypocrisy focus on decoupling talk and action; incidences where an organisation’s ‘talk’ does not to match its ‘walk’. In the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), marketing communications are often aspirational and hence prone to accusations of hypocrisy. Is hypocrisy, however, always undesirable? This case-informed conceptual paper draws upon the Diesel ‘Global Warming Ready’ campaign to investigate how humour – specifically irony – elevates conventional understandings of hypocrisy towards what we term ‘helpful hypocrisy’; a concept that mobilises audiences to critically reflect on complex ambiguities of CSR in non-moralizing ways. In doing so, we distinguish between idealised ‘single-talk’ and extended ‘double-talk’. We develop an analytical model to help analyse the layers of double-talk in the context of ironic CSR marketing communications, and we construct a conceptual model that explains the role of double-talk and irony. Based on our research, we propose an agenda for future research

The Never-Ending Story: Discursive Legitimation in Social Media Dialogue

This paper explores the dialogical dimensions of discursive legitimation in social media sites to understand how organisations produce knowledge of legitimacy in concert with their stakeholders. Drawing on the dialogical theories of Bakhtin and Nikulin, we consider the potential for conceptualising discursive legitimation as a product of dissent: an on-going ‘allosensual’ dialogue comprised of different voices and competing knowledge claims. We explore this through a micro-level analysis of organisation-led social media sites, wherein organisational practices are increasingly subjected to public scrutiny and where knowledge of legitimacy can be significantly shaped. Our dialogical lens highlights three inter-related functions of discursive legitimation. Discursive authorisation represents attempts to assume a credible ‘voice’ in-relation-to-‘other’ voices, within the dialogue. Discursive validation represents attempts to subject truth claims about legitimacy to rational, normative and moral verification. Finally, discursive finalisation represents attempts to harmonise dissent, either by co-opting or antagonising stakeholders towards consensus. Primarily, this paper unpacks the role of social media in legitimation processes, whilst also elaborating on organisational attempts to control stakeholder dialogue in online contexts

Corporate social responsibility communication in social networking sites: unfinalisable and dialogical processes of legitimation

Building upon constitutive models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, which appreciate the role of both organisations and stakeholders in constructing CSR, this thesis suggests that understanding of CSR is on-going and emergent through unfinalisable legitimation processes in social networking sites (SNSs). Constructed upon management research that has examined discursive legitimation processes, this thesis shifts away from CSR communications research into websites, CSR reports and press releases, to descriptively investigate discourse within interaction (dialogue) in the textually rich SNS context. The thesis contributes to the CSR literature by challenging conventional definitions of legitimacy, which suggest that objective, legitimacy ‘realities’ are espoused from ‘transmission’ (sender-orientated) models of communication, to offer interpretations of legitimation processes rooted within discursive and dialogical constructionism. In exploring how discursive legitimation occurs in contemporary networked societies across four UK-based retailers: the Co-operative, Lidl, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s, findings capture the ‘centripetal’ (unifying) forces of normalisation, moralisation and mytholigisation at play in organisation-stakeholder dialogue across the SNSs, but also the ‘centrifugal’ (dividing) forces of authorisation, demythologisation and carnivalisation. These findings problematise the consensual tone of legitimacy as organisation-society ‘congruence’ and reveal the shifting and contradictory expectations that surround CSR. Within a Bakhtinian (1981, 1986) conception of dialogue, the findings most markedly reveal perpetuality (unfinalisability) in CSR communication and the impossibility of exhausting relations in polyphonic (multi-vocal) SNS environments, characterised by ‘dispersed authority.’ Furthermore, in conceptualising SNSs as interactive, agential and co-constructed organisational ‘texts’, findings also illuminate the performative (constructive) nature of SNSs in organising and (re)constituting CSR through organisation-stakeholder dialogue. This thesis provides a framework for understanding legitimation processes in SNSs, with implications for theory and practice

Corporate social responsibility communication in social networking sites: unfinalisable and dialogical processes of legitimation

Building upon constitutive models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, which appreciate the role of both organisations and stakeholders in constructing CSR, this thesis suggests that understanding of CSR is on-going and emergent through unfinalisable legitimation processes in social networking sites (SNSs). Constructed upon management research that has examined discursive legitimation processes, this thesis shifts away from CSR communications research into websites, CSR reports and press releases, to descriptively investigate discourse within interaction (dialogue) in the textually rich SNS context. The thesis contributes to the CSR literature by challenging conventional definitions of legitimacy, which suggest that objective, legitimacy ‘realities’ are espoused from ‘transmission’ (sender-orientated) models of communication, to offer interpretations of legitimation processes rooted within discursive and dialogical constructionism. In exploring how discursive legitimation occurs in contemporary networked societies across four UK-based retailers: the Co-operative, Lidl, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s, findings capture the ‘centripetal’ (unifying) forces of normalisation, moralisation and mytholigisation at play in organisation-stakeholder dialogue across the SNSs, but also the ‘centrifugal’ (dividing) forces of authorisation, demythologisation and carnivalisation. These findings problematise the consensual tone of legitimacy as organisation-society ‘congruence’ and reveal the shifting and contradictory expectations that surround CSR. Within a Bakhtinian (1981, 1986) conception of dialogue, the findings most markedly reveal perpetuality (unfinalisability) in CSR communication and the impossibility of exhausting relations in polyphonic (multi-vocal) SNS environments, characterised by ‘dispersed authority.’ Furthermore, in conceptualising SNSs as interactive, agential and co-constructed organisational ‘texts’, findings also illuminate the performative (constructive) nature of SNSs in organising and (re)constituting CSR through organisation-stakeholder dialogue. This thesis provides a framework for understanding legitimation processes in SNSs, with implications for theory and practice

Sustainable Fashion: Current and Future Research Directions

Purpose: The sustainable fashion (SF) literature is fragmented across the management discipline, leaving the path to a SF future unclear. As of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these insights together or to more generally explore the question of “what is known about SF in the management literature and where could the SF field go from there?”. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the field to identify opportunities for societal impact and further research. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review was conducted from the first appearances of SF in the management literature in 2000 up to papers published in June 2019, which resulted in 465 included papers. Findings: The results illustrate that SF research is largely defined by two approaches, namely, pragmatic change and radical change. The findings reveal seven research streams that span across the discipline to explore how organisational and consumer habits can be shaped for the future. Research limitations/implications: What is known about SF is constantly evolving, therefore, the paper aims to provide a representative sample of the state of SF in management literature to date. Practical implications: This review provides decision makers with insights that have been synthesised from across the management field. Originality/value: This review identifies knowledge gaps and informs managerial decision making in the field, particularly through serving as a foundation for further research

Transdisciplinarity from the Grassroots: Exploring Student-led Dialogues for Sustainability

The responses of higher education (HE) institutions towards the climate crisis and escalating social inequalities have been researched from either “top-down” (i.e., institutionally-led) or “bottom-up” (i.e., student-led) perspectives. As scholars call for enhanced insight into the space between these two poles, this paper provides an autoethnographical account of a “bottom-up” network led by doctoral students – Researchers 4 Sustainability (R4S) – initiated within a UK university to contest “top-down” structures by way of disciplinary silos. Likening disciplines to communicative subsystems, we draw on a social constructivist perspective of dialogue to demonstrate how three forms of dialogue – exploring, explaining and expanding – support not just the transcending of disciplinary boundaries, but crucially, institutional hierarchies, in the creation of sustainability knowledge. Herein, we introduce a framework against which to organise student-led dialogues relative to their inter- and/or trans- disciplinary orientations and offer recommendations for theory and practice

The Never-Ending Story: Discursive Legitimation in Social Media Dialogue

© The Author(s) 2018. This paper explores the dialogical dimensions of discursive legitimation in social media sites to understand how organisations produce knowledge of legitimacy in concert with their stakeholders. Drawing on the dialogical theories of Bakhtin and Nikulin, we consider the potential for conceptualising discursive legitimation as a product of dissent: an ongoing ‘allosensual’ dialogue comprising different voices and competing knowledge claims. We explore this through a micro-level analysis of organisation-led social media sites, wherein organisational practices are increasingly subjected to public scrutiny and where knowledge of legitimacy can be significantly shaped. Our dialogical lens highlights three interrelated functions of discursive legitimation. Discursive authorisation represents attempts to assume a credible ‘voice’ in-relation-to ‘other’ voices, within the dialogue. Discursive validation represents attempts to subject truth claims about legitimacy to rational, normative and moral verification. Finally, discursive finalisation represents attempts to harmonise dissent, by either co-opting or antagonising stakeholders towards consensus. Primarily, this paper unpacks the role of social media in legitimation processes, while also elaborating on organisational attempts to control stakeholder dialogue in online contexts