CSR as Strategy?

1. DATE MONTH YEAR
CSR Communication Conference, Amsterdam 26-28
October, 2011
A review of CSR communication research: management and
marketing approaches (new title!). Work-in-Progress.
Anne Ellerup Nielsen (aen@asb.dk) & Christa Thomsen (ct@asb.dk)

2. Purpose
› Review the CSR communication literature to outline
management and marketing approaches to CSR
communication
› Synthesize the means by which CSR communication
activities can add value for stakeholders with a focus on
employees, consumers and stakeholders in general
› Present a research agenda for future research to allow
greater mutual lunderstanding among CSR
communication researchers

3. Design/methodology/approach: Literature
search
Selection criteria:
› Search focusing on: a) “CSR communication” and “CSR dialogue”
(small sample); b) “CSR” combined with “communication” (large
sample)
› Database: Business Source Complete, the dominant database
within business and economics
› Academic journals & international peer-reviewed articles (English
language)
› Period 2000-2011 (search 1st of August)
› Possible source of error: search criteria

4. Literature search: results
› 49 articles reporting a conceptual, theoretical and/or empirical
investigation of ”CSR communication” (small sample)
› 247 articles reporting a conceptual, theoretical and/or empirical
investigation of ”CSR” combined with ”communication” (large
sample) - not explicitly included in this work-in-progress!
› Published in 31 international academic journals. Some journals are
more dominating than others, e.g. the Journal of Business Ethics
› Overrepresentation of articles with a marketing research.
= CSR communication is an emergent field and a field of research
(still) not in its own right!

5. Literature search: identification of research
streams
Topical focus:
› Conceptualizing CSR communication:
› The management communication approach to CSR
communication:
› The marketing communication (incl. Public Relations) approach
to CSR communication
* General picture: a large spectrum of both quantitative and
qualitative methods, i.e. surveys, content analyses, interviews and
field work

6. Research stream (1): Conceptualizing CSR
communication (a)
The scope of our review is the definitions or understandings of CSR
communication and the contribution that CSR communication research
may provide for companies in terms of CSR communication models
and frameworks.
› Research which explicitly refers to definitions, understandings and
interpretations of CSR communication is rare (Podnar, 2008)
› Research which explicitly refers to CSR communication models
and/or frameworks includes four papers from the small sample
(Morsing, Schultz & Nielsen, 2008; Maon, Lindgreen & Swaen, 2010;
Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; O’Riordan & Fairbrass, 2008).

7. Research stream (1): Conceptualizing CSR
communication (b)
› A general understanding of CSR communication as
functionalistic, and CSR communication tailored to different
stakeholders.
› Perceived contribution of CSR communication: enhance
businesses’ image and reputation amongst customers,
employees and other stakeholders.
› Central concepts: inside-out communication, endorsement and
stakeholder dialogue, a need for corporations to pay attention to
message content and communication channels.

8. Research stream (2): The management
communication approach to CSR communication
(a)
Research with explicit reference to the CSR communication of
managers at different levels with internal and external target
groups of which the purpose is to realize a positive communication
climate and a positive reputation.
Distribution of papers in three categories:
› a) strategic use of CSR management communication
› b) operative use of CSR management communication
› c) CSR management communication in specific contexts (country
specific approaches vs. sector-, firm and industry specific
approaches)
17 articles (out of 49 in the small sample) are selected and
commented on.

9. Research stream (3): The marketing
communication (and PR) approach to CSR
communication
Research focusing on registering, measuring and/or discussing
consumers’ and publics’ attitudes, beliefs and/or assessments of CSR
Distribution of papers in two categories and two sub categories:
a) The marketing approach to CSR communication
› Perception studies.
› Development studies
b) The public relation approach to CSR communication
› Attitude studies
› Value, image and reputations studies
13 articles (out of 49 in the small sample) are selected and commented 9
on.

10. Discussion and conclusion
Insights:
› CSR communication is still an emerging field, but, the number of
publications on the subject has significantly increased, especially
during the last three or four years.
› Marketing approaches to CSR communication dominate over
management approaches
› Research focuses on both strategic and operational CSR
communication.
› Research on the importance of country of origin and industry sector
is increasing.

11. Discussion and conclusion
› Modern companies still don’t seem to have moved from a reactive
complicance-oriented management of CSR communication into a
proactive, stakeholder-oriented (co-creative) approach to CSR
communication.
› CSR communication is primarily viewed as a process for
managing e.g.a company’s social risk and not as a process for
connecting with stakeholders.
› Classical and functionalistic (e.g. Effect studies) perspectives
dominate.
› Stronger communication theorerical anchoring is required

12. Thank you!
Questions?