CSR Communication Tactics and the Micro-Accumulation of Reputational Capital

Abstract

There is growing evidence corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance should be understood as something that is not just reported but communicated. Particularly with the advent of social media, CSR is increasingly seen not just in one-way disclosure but in firms’ mobilizational efforts, two-way dialogue with stakeholders, public educational messages, and a variety of other discursive and conversational tactics. Moreover, some of these tactics are more likely to influence public perceptions of the firm. Examining the 18,722 original messages sent by Fortune 200 firms’ dedicated CSR feeds on Twitter in 2014, I thus identify nine communication tactics and test how they are linked to micro-level changes in two dimensions of corporate reputation. I find the aware- ness dimension of reputation is driven by the use of informational tactics such as disclosure, while reputational favorability is significantly influenced not by the provision of information but by the use of more interactive communicative tactics. This study provides evidence of a number of new, non-reporting-based CSR communication tactics and illustrates how firms acquire reputational capital on a micro-, message-by-message, day-to-day level.

Keywords: analytics, Big Data, communication, CSR reporting, machine learning, reputation, social media