Corporate Social Responsibility

Overview

In today’s environment, corporate social responsibility has emerged as an important management concept. Publics expect companies to be engaged in responsible activities that make a significant contribution to communities, the environment, and society.

Though corporations have adopted more sustainable and responsible practices, they often struggle to communicate about them effectively. Practitioners find that promoting environmental successes can be risky as they sometimes are met with skepticism or backlash from activist groups. Too, traditional methods of promoting social impacts, community involvement or diversity may be drowned out by the volume of CSR communication in media.  The Arthur W. Page Center has developed an ongoing project to help organizations better address questions regarding CSR communication.

Read more about our CSR research on the Page Center blog. 

2012/2013 Call: Corporate Social Responsibility

Outcomes to date

Work from this grant was featured in a special issue of the Public Relations Journal, published in October 2014.

Projects funded

“Successful Communications about Diversity: An investigation into best practices and future trends” Jennifer Barlett, Queenland University of Technology

“Communicating the Social Impact of CSR Programs: Analyzing Corporate Discourse in Social Impact” Kati Berg and Sarah Bonewits Feldner, Marquette University

 “Predictors to Evaluate Effective CSR Communications” Sora Kim and Mary Ann Ferguson, University of Florida

“Communicating the Social Responsibility of Cross-Sector Collaborations: Experimental Analysis of Message Strategies and Credibility” Richard Waters, University of San Francisco

“Communicating Sustainability: The impact of corporate environmental activities on key publics” Denise Bortree, The Pennsylvania State University

“Does Ethics Matter? An Analysis of How Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts on Facebook Affect Stakeholders Perceptions and Intended Behavior” Marcia DiStaso, The Pennsylvania State University, and Tina McCorkindale, Applalachian State University)

“Corporate Social Responsibility Re-Examined : Measuring the Influence of ‘Corporate Social Advocacy’ Communications on Consumer Purchase Intention” Melissa Dodd, SUNY Oswego, and Dustin Supa, Boston University

“Effective global public relations using United Nation’s MDGs: a research proposal” Ram Kesavan, Oswald Mascarenhas and Michael Bernacchi, University of Detroit Mercy

“Seeking Laurels: Building reputations for corporate social and environmental responsibility” Jenna Stites, The Pennsylvania State University

“Employees as CSR Ambassadors: The role of skepticism" Tom Watson, Anastasios Theofilou and Georgiana Grigore, Bournemouth University