Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility in the Digital Era

Although literature on corporate social responsibility is vast, research into the use and effectiveness of various communications through digital platforms about such corporate responsibility is scarce. This gap is surprising; communicating about corporate social responsibility initiatives is vital to organizations that increasingly highlight their corporate social responsibility initiatives to position their corporate brands for both consumers and other stakeholders. Yet these organizations still sometimes rely on traditional methods to communicate, or even decide against communicating at all, because they fear triggering stakeholders’ skepticism or cynicism. A systematic, interdisciplinary examination of corporate social responsibility communication through digital platforms therefore is necessary, to establish an essential definition and up-to-date picture of the field.

This research anthology addresses the above objectives. Drawing on marketing, management, and communication disciplines, among others, this anthology examines how organizations construct, implement, and use digital platforms to communicate about their corporate social responsibility and thereby achieve their organizational goals. The 21 chapters in this anthology reflect six main topic sections:

• Challenges and opportunities for communicating corporate social responsibility through digital platforms.
• Moving toward symmetry and interactivity in digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Fostering stakeholder engagement in and through digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Leveraging effective digital corporate social responsibility communication.
• Digital activism and corporate social responsibility.
• Digital methodologies and corporate social responsibility.

Dr. Adam Lindgreen is Professor of Marketing at Copenhagen Business School where he heads the Department of Marketing. Dr. Lindgreen received his Ph.D. from Cranfield University. He has published in California Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Product and Innovation Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of World Business, among others.

Dr Joelle Vanhamme is Professor at the Edhec Business School. Dr Vanhamme received her PhD from the Catholic University of Louvain. She has been Assistant Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Associate professor at IESEG School of Management, and a Visiting Scholar with Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology, Hull University’s Business School, Lincoln University and the University of Auckland’s Business School. Her research has appeared in journals including Business Horizons, California Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management and International Journal of Research in Marketing.

Dr Francois Maon received his Ph.D. in 2010 from Catholic University of Louvain (Louvain School of Management). After a visiting scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley, he now works as an Associate Professor at IESEG School of Management where he teaches strategy, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility. He is widely published in academic journals and books including Journal of Business Ethics and A Stakeholder Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility.

Dr. Rebecca Watkins is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cardiff’s Business School. Dr. Watkins received her Ph.D. from the University of Southampton. Her research explores emerging consumer behaviours in digital contexts including the new ethical issues raised. Current projects include an exploration of digital materiality and work on tribal entrepreneurship within online spaces. Her research has appeared in Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Marketing Management, and Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, amongst others.