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How can companies succeed in forming CSR reputation?

Sun Young Lee (Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)

Corporate Communications: An International Journal

ISSN: 1356-3289

Article publication date: 3 October 2016

5264

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the channels companies use to communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages and to test the effectiveness of those channels – specifically, press releases, corporate websites, CSR reports, corporate Facebook pages, and TV advertising – on forming companies’ CSR reputations.

Design/methodology/approach

The two primary methods used in this study were secondary analysis of existing data and content analysis. The study sample was the 101 companies in the Reputation Institute’s 2014 CSR ranking of the 100 most highly regarded companies (two companies were tied) across 15 countries.

Findings

Corporate websites and CSR reports were the most common channels for CSR communications, but press releases – through their impact on news articles – and general corporate Facebook pages were the only effective channels in forming CSR reputation.

Originality/value

This study provides empirical evidence of the effectiveness of various CSR communication channels; it not only focuses on CSR reputation, a specific aspect of corporate reputation which has not been studied in this context before, but also examines several different channels simultaneously, in contrast to previous studies which have only investigated one or two channels at a time.

Keywords

Citation

Lee, S.Y. (2016), "How can companies succeed in forming CSR reputation?", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 435-449. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-01-2016-0009

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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