The purpose of this paper is to examine multinational corporations’ (MNCs) response strategy in social media to effectively communicate their international CSR practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine multinational corporations’ (MNCs) response strategy in social media to effectively communicate their international CSR practices.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment was conducted by adopting a case of an MNC’s globalized CSR campaign in United Arab Emirates. The interaction effects of corporate communication strategy and company’s response sidedness were examined as well as a mediating role of the perceived altruism.
Findings
The current study suggests how two-sided response strategy can be applied and benefits MNCs’ international CSR campaigns. The findings demonstrate that a company’s two-sided response helps to increase people’s attitude toward the company and word-of-mouth intention through enhanced perceived altruism when the company has no prior CSR experience in a host country.
Practical implications
The current study provides insights on how to respond to negative publicity in social media. MNCs are suggested to use different response strategies based on their prior CSR experience in a host country.
Originality/value
The success of CSR depends on how consumers take the message and perceive a company’s motive of CSR. The current study examines how to best respond to the consumers’ criticism by utilizing message sidedness strategies depending on the company’s presence of CSR.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate cross-cultural perspectives of corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on Carroll’s (1979, 1991) hierarchical CSR model. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate cross-cultural perspectives of corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on Carroll’s (1979, 1991) hierarchical CSR model. The present study examines the role of government and business trust in shaping publics’ expectations of business responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data were derived from a cross-sectional survey in the USA, UAE and South Korea (N = 1,121). This paper compares publics’ prioritizations of business responsibilities across countries and examines how public trust in the government and business is related to CSR perceptions.
Findings
The paper presents evidence that publics’ perception of CSR differs significantly across the countries. Moreover, in a trusting society like the UAE, publics tend to put more emphasis on economic and philanthropic duties for business, whereas in a distrusting society like South Korea, publics consider legal and ethical responsibility to be important.
Originality/value
This study adds to the current understanding of diverse publics’ perception of CSR across culture and societies by highlighting the role of public trust in government in defining CSR.
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Hyejoon Rim, Jin Hong Ha and Spiro Kiousis
– This paper aims to explore the links among health authorities’ public relations efforts, news media coverage, and public perceptions of risk during the H1N1 pandemic outbreak.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the links among health authorities’ public relations efforts, news media coverage, and public perceptions of risk during the H1N1 pandemic outbreak.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a triangulation of research methods by comparing public relations materials, media coverage, and public opinion. The data were collected from a federal government web site, national newspapers, and national polls.
Findings
The data revealed a positive relationship between information subsidy attention and media attention to the H1N1 disease as well as the severity attribute. The salience of the severity attribute in information subsidies was linked with increased H1N1 salience in media coverage, extending the testing of the compelling-arguments hypothesis to an agenda-building context. However, there was no association between salience of the severity attribute and public risk perceptions.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides evidence for public relations effectiveness. However, the limited influence of the severity frame on the public's risk perception suggests a gap between news coverage and the public's view. Framing that effectively empowers the public to engage in desired behavior should be further studied for the success of a public health campaign. The study is limited to examining the severity attribute. A future study should pay more attention to different issue attributes or other frames. The media sample was limited to newspapers and thus lacks generalizability.
Originality/value
The study contributes to public relations scholarship by demonstrating how information subsidies influence media agendas and public opinion in a health communication context. The public health authorities’ role in influencing media agenda should be stressed.
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Hyejin Kim and Hao Xu
The purpose of this paper is to examine the way the message source and presence of positive social cues influence the evaluations (attitude toward the corporate social…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the way the message source and presence of positive social cues influence the evaluations (attitude toward the corporate social responsibility (CSR) message and company, and word-of-mouth intention to support the campaign) of the decreased use CSR messages on Facebook.
Design/methodology/approach
In the context of Facebook, this study adopted 2 (message source: a CSR message in a sponsored ad format vs a CSR message posted by another Facebook user) × 2 (social cue: highly salient, positive social cues vs no social cues) factorial experimental design.
Findings
The main effects of message source types and presence of positive social cues on decreased usage CSR campaigns proved to be effective in generating better consumer responses to the company and campaign.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are expected to advance the CSR literature by offering a detailed understanding of CSR campaigns that discourage consumption of the company’s own product to support a social cause. It is suggested to test the effects with other CSR examples to increase the ability to generalize the results further.
Practical implications
The results suggest campaign strategies on social media for public relations practitioners and corporate managers who work for companies conducting social responsibility campaigns that discourage consumption of their own products.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the CSR literature by examining the concept of CSR campaigns that advocate decreased usage, which has received scant scholarly attention to date.