Impact of corporate social responsibility on reputation—Insights from tweets on sustainable development goals by CEOs

Social media analysis in the context of social responsibility approach of football fan groups

As one of sectors that address social problems, sports can pioneer very useful social responsibility efforts with its wide area of influence. Participation in social responsibility projects, especially through popularity of football, reaches much wider audience. It is seen that unofficial fan groups, which are already part of society, can direct very different sports stakeholders with their leadership positions that will affect large masses. Although it is important for this leadership to be done with active participation, it is also fact that it can be much more effective with creative and innovative projects. By examining initiatives in which in general football fans are involved within framework of social responsibility as stakeholders of football, it can be understood which problems in social area are more important from perspective of football fans. Thus, in future, much higher level of benefit can be provided for social problems by using such resources much more effectively and efficiently. In this context, this study was conducted with aim of examining social responsibility-focused Instagram posts of fan groups of three most important sports clubs operating in sports in Turkey in context of participation, leadership, innovation and creativity. In line with purpose of the study, Instagram pages, which run by fan groups, examined belong to Beşiktaş club's Çarşı and UNIBJK fan groups, Fenerbahçe club's Genç Fenerbahçeliler and UNIGFB fan groups, and Galatasaray club's ultrAslan and UAUNI fan groups. 150 Instagram posts from each fan group, dating back to April 12, 2021, and total of 900 posts, were examined through content analysis. In content analysis, social responsibility-focused posts were coded and evaluated. In general, it was observed that the posts were made on axis of Agenda-Setting Approach. It is seen that social responsibility is increasingly becoming strategic necessity among sports stakeholders and is also used as means of strengthening legitimacy. In addition to leadership provided in terms of participation, it has been determined that there are areas that need to be improved in terms of creativity and innovation.

Sustainable development goals as unifying narratives in large UK firms' Twitter discussions

To achieve sustainable development worldwide, the United Nations set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for humanity to reach by 2030. Society is involved in the challenge, with firms playing a crucial role. Thus, a key question is to what extent firms engage with the SDGs. Efforts to map firms' contributions have mainly focused on analysing companies' reports based on limited samples and non-real-time data. We present a novel interdisciplinary approach based on analysing big data from an online social network (Twitter) with complex network methods from statistical physics. By doing so, we provide a comprehensive and nearly real-time picture of firms' engagement with SDGs. Results show that: (1) SDGs themes tie conversations among major UK firms together; (2) the social dimension is predominant; (3) the attention to different SDGs themes varies depending on the community and sector firms belong to; (4) stakeholder engagement is higher on posts related to global challenges compared to general ones; (5) large UK companies and stakeholders generally behave differently from Italian ones. This paper provides theoretical contributions and practical implications relevant to firms, policymakers and management education. Most importantly, it provides a novel tool and a set of keywords to monitor the influence of the private sector on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Perception study of state support programs for companies, in Talca, Chile in times of Covid 19

This work identifies the factors that influence the perception of company managers regarding the state support programs carried out in times of Covid19. A questionnaire was applied to a sample of company executives from the city of Talca, Chile. Descriptive, exploratory factor analysis and structural modeling ratified by the relevant goodness of fit indices were carried out. The results confirm the existence of three factors that affect the perception of managers that include 12 significant items. It is concluded that the investment factor acts as an independent dimension in the model, the classification factor of the companies acts as a mediator and finally the competitiveness factor turns out to be the dependent dimension of the model.

Barriers to institutional social sustainability

Social sustainability is a work field characterised by an emphasis on social aspects, e.g. equity, ethics, health, gender balance, or empowerment, within a broader sustainability context. Although the concept seems to be reasonably well established and deemed worthy of pursuing, some obstacles prevent its wide dissemination. Through a bibliometric analysis focusing on the literature on social sustainability at institutions, with a focus on companies, this paper aims to investigate and describe some of the barriers associated with social sustainability implementation. Apart from identifying that sustainability reporting, environmental disclosure and financial performance play a central role in successfully achieving social sustainability, in the context of which gender-related issues seem more tangential, the results indicated some solutions commonly reported for overcoming barriers and obstacles to a company's social sustainability implementation within different sectors. These solutions have to do, among many other factors addressed in this study, with strengthening communication transparency and trust, contributing to awareness, using technology to document and promote social sustainability. Thus, empowering organizations and citizens, recognized as essential factors to social development, and addressing the challenges in a multi-dimensional way.

Communicating responsible management and the role of blockchain technology: social media analytics for the luxury fashion supply chain

Purpose

To communicate their sustainability and responsible management practices to the public, firms can leverage digital technologies both at the organisational and managerial levels. This study explores how firms' communications of responsible management contribute to sustainability in supply chains, as well as the role of blockchain in promoting responsible management.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a qualitative methodology, the authors perform social media analytics (content analysis and sentiment analysis) on a dataset obtained from the social media posts of managers.

Findings

The study identifies eight key responsible management practices and shed new light on the role of blockchain in responsible management. The study results contribute to theory by linking responsible management practices with existing sustainability practices in the supply chain. The authors also demonstrate that blockchain enhances responsible management.

Research limitations/implications

Reliance on publicly available data from social media, comprising corporate statements emanating from managers is a major limitation in this study.

Practical implications

The eight responsible management practices identified in this study are recommended for managers of different supply chain echelons to promote sustainable supply chain management (SSCM). The study findings also offer new rationale for blockchain adoption in supply chains.

Originality/value

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to link the concepts of responsible management and SSCM. Moreover, the authors obtain empirical evidence from managers in the luxury fashion supply chain.

Rise of Social Media Influencers as a New Marketing Channel: Focusing on the Roles of Psychological Well-Being and Perceived Social Responsibility among Consumers

This empirical research investigated the structural relationships between social media influencer attributes, perceived friendship, psychological well-being, loyalty, and perceived social responsibility of influencers, focusing on the perspective of social media users. More specifically, this study conceptually identified social media influencer attributes such as language similarity, interest similarity, interaction frequency, and self-disclosure and examined the respective effects of each dimension on perceived friendship and psychological well-being, consequently resulting in loyalty toward social media influencers. The authors collected and analyzed data from 388 social media users in the United States via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk with multivariate analyses to test the hypothesized associations among the variables in this study. The findings indicated that perceived friendship was significantly influenced by language similarity, interest similarity, and self-disclosure, but did not have a significant impact on psychological well-being. Additionally, perceived friendship significantly affected psychological well-being and loyalty, and psychological well-being significantly influenced loyalty. Lastly, social media influencers’ social responsibility moderated the path from psychological well-being to loyalty. Based on these findings, this study proposes theoretical and managerial implications for the social media influencer marketing context.

Sustainability Reporting and Corporate Reputation: The Moderating Effect of CEO Opportunistic Behavior

The present study’s main objective is to assess the impact of non-financial sustainability reporting (NFSR) on corporate reputation and the role of the CEO in the opportunistic behavior of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In total, 178 firms were assessed for this paper during 2013–2020. In this study for calculating the NFSR, environmental sustainability reporting (ESR), social sustainability reporting (SSR), governance sustainability reporting (GSR) and ethical sustainability reporting (ETSR), Arianpoor and Salehi’s comprehensive and conceptual model has been used. In addition, the literature states that a CEO’s power can be classified as an opportunity for discretion and opportunistic behavior in CEOs that is in contrast with stakeholder demands. To this end, in this study, CEOs’ power has been used as an indicator for the CEO’s opportunistic behavior, and the CEO pay slice (CPS) index was used to calculate the CEO’s level of power. The results revealed that NFSR affects corporate reputation positively. In addition, ESR, SSR, ETSR and GSR positively affect corporate reputation. Moreover, the CEO’s power affects the relationship between NFSR/ESR/SSR/ETSR and corporate reputation. Because managers desire to engage in social and ethical activities, they try to hide the company’s errors and increase its reputation. The results revealed that the CEO’s power did not affect the relationship between GSR and corporate reputation. Since companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange are under intensive supervision, such as in governance, the impact of a CEO’s power and the interaction of a CEO’s power and GSR on company reputation in this study might, thus, not apply to these companies. It is crucial to investigate NFSR, corporate reputation and CEO power within Iran-specific conditions because of differences in emerging markets and developing countries such as Iran, which have diverse ownership structures, economic status, legal systems, government policies, and culture.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been an articulated practice for over 7 decades. Still, most corporations lack an integrated framework to develop a strategic, balanced, and effective approach to achieving excellence in CSR. Considering the world’s critical situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, such a framework is even more crucial now. We suggest subsuming CRS categories under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be used and that they subsume CSR categories since SDGs are a comprehensive agenda designed for the whole planet. This study presents a new CSR drivers model and a novel comprehensive CSR model. Then, it highlights the advantages of integrating CSR and SDGs in a new framework. The proposed framework benefits from both CSR and SDGs, addresses current and future needs, and offers a better roadmap with more measurable outcomes.

AI-enabled digital identity – inputs for stakeholders and policymakers

Purpose

This conceptual article’s primary aim is to identify the significant stakeholders of the digital identity system (DIS) and then highlight the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on each of the identified stakeholders. It also recommends vital points that could be considered by policymakers while developing technology-related policies for effective DIS.

Design/methodology/approach

This article uses stakeholder methodology and design theory (DT) as a primary theoretical lens along with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) as a sub-theory. This article is based on the analysis of existing literature that mainly comprises academic literature, official reports, white papers and publicly available domain experts’ interviews.

Findings

The study identified six significant stakeholders, i.e. government, citizens, infrastructure providers, identity providers (IdP), judiciary and relying parties (RPs) of the DIS from the secondary data. Also, the role of IdP becomes insignificant in the context of AI-enabled digital identity systems (AIeDIS). The findings depict that AIeDIS can positively impact the DIS stakeholders by solving a range of problems such as identity theft, unauthorised access and credential misuse, and will also open a possibility of new ways to empower all the stakeholders.

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on secondary data and has considered DIS stakeholders from a generic perspective. Incorporating expert opinion and empirical validation of the hypothesis could derive more specific and context-aware insights.

Practical implications

The study could facilitate stakeholders to enrich further their understanding and significance of developing sustainable and future-ready DIS by highlighting the impact of AI on the digital identity ecosystem.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this article is the first of its kind that has used stakeholder theory, DT and IDT to explain the design and developmental phenomenon of AIeDIS. A list of six significant stakeholders of DIS, i.e. government, citizens, infrastructure providers, IdP, judiciary and RP, is identified through comprehensive literature analysis.

Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, Media Reports, and Enterprise Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Given the limited response of enterprises to China’s national policy on the compulsory disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR), a deviation has occurred between policy orientation and reality. To explore the reasons behind this deviation, we investigated whether different types of media reports play an intermediary role in the process of CSR affecting corporate innovation based on the data of the companies listed on China’s Shenzhen Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2019. The results show that the disclosure of CSR by the listed companies can significantly promote corporate innovation, which provides theoretical support for the national compulsory disclosure of CSR. Newspaper media reports and online media reports not only directly promote corporate innovation but also form a positive mediation path in the CSR disclosure and the promotion of corporate innovation. Further analysis shows that, among the five aspects of CSR, the disclosure of employee responsibility had the greatest effect on the corporate innovation, whereas the disclosure of social contribution responsibility only had a short-term inhibitory effect. Both newspaper media and online media reports on CSR disclosure were beneficial to corporate innovation. Positive and neutral reports may play the role of media governance to promote corporate innovation, whereas negative reports can restrain corporate innovation due to the market pressure effect produced by them, which also provides the basis for media supervision by the state.

The Relationship of CSR Communication on Social Media with Consumer Purchase Intention and Brand Admiration

With the advent of the Internet and other digital technologies, contemporary businesses from all sectors are using social media for communication with consumers to engage them meaningfully with a brand. However, the use of social media for corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is relatively new to the existing literature. Likewise, the impact of CSR communication through social media (CSR-S) on consumer emotions and behavior is, to date, underexplored. To address this, the present research aims to test the relationship of CSR-S on brand admiration and consumer purchase intention. The study proposes a direct relationship between CSR-S and purchase intention with a mediating effect of brand admiration. The data were collected from the banking consumers of Pakistan through a self-administered questionnaire. The authors distributed 800 questionnaires and received 463 questionnaires useful for data analysis, so the present research study response rate was around 59%. The data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique in AMOS. The results revealed that CSR-S is positively related to purchase intention (β = 0.233). The results further showed that brand admiration partially mediates this relationship (β = 0.079). The survey respondents confirmed that their bank’s CSR communication helps enhance their purchase likelihood and their feelings of admiration for their bank. These findings will help policymakers at banking institutions better understand the importance of CSR communication on different social media platforms to achieve consumer-related outcomes.

Using Social Media as a Medium for CSR Communication, to Induce Consumer–Brand Relationship in the Banking Sector of a Developing Economy

Social media has emerged as a flexible and interactive communication medium in the present digital era. Contemporary businesses use social media to achieve different communication objectives. However, using social media as a communication medium for corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication with stakeholders like, consumers is not well-explored in the existing literature. Furthermore, prior studies have also failed to consider the blend of CSR communication and social media to achieve consumer-related outcomes, for example, their loyalty and purchase likelihood. To this end, the objective of this study is to examine the relationship of the CSR communication of a bank through social media with consumer loyalty and purchase intention. The current study also proposes brand admiration as a potential mediator between this relationship. The data were collected from the banking consumers through a self-administered questionnaire in a developing economy. The data were analyzed through the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique using AMOS software. The results of the current survey confirmed that CSR communication of a bank on social media has direct and indirect, via brand admiration, relations with consumer loyalty, and purchase intentions. The outcomes of this survey will be helpful for the policymakers to understand the importance of CSR communication on social media to enhance the loyalty, and purchase intention of banking consumers.

How did COVID-19 impact working professionals – a typology of impacts focused on education sector

Purpose

The pandemic COVID-19 brought in large challenges globally among the workforce. There were reports of how employee layoffs and pay-cuts were gradually becoming prominent across industries based on media reports. However, there were no attempts to develop a typology of challenges faced by the workforce.

Design/methodology/approach

This study mined user-generated content from Twitter to bring out a typology of challenges due to the sudden turbulence that is faced from the pandemic. A case study has also been conducted by taking in-depth interviews in the academic sector to deep dive into the nature of these problems.

Findings

The study findings indicate that these challenges are basically stemming from challenges surrounding infrastructure readiness, digital readiness, changing nature of deliverables, workforce demand versus supply problems and challenges surrounding job losses.

Research limitations/implications

There is a need to explore the linkages through inferential research infrastructure readiness, digital readiness, changing nature of deliverables, workforce demand versus supply problems and challenges surrounding job losses on employee welfare during pandemics.

Originality/value

The authors provide inductive insights based on a data-driven research methodology surrounding the sudden challenges faced and possible mechanisms to address these issues faced by a stressed workforce catering to multiple stakeholders.

How do network attributes impact information virality in social networks?

Purpose

Social media platforms play a key role in information propagation and there is a need to study the same. This study aims to explore the impact of the number of close communities (represented by cliques), the size of these close communities and its impact on information virality.

Design/methodology/approach

This study identified 6,786 users from over 11 million tweets for analysis using sentiment mining and network science methods. Inferential analysis has also been established by introducing multiple regression analysis and path analysis.

Findings

Sentiments of content did not have a significant impact on the information virality. However, there exists a stagewise development relationship between communities of close friends, user reputation and information propagation through virality.

Research limitations/implications

This paper contributes to the theory by introducing a stagewise progression model for influencers to manage and develop their social networks.

Originality/value

There is a gap in the existing literature on the role of the number and size of cliques on information propagation and virality. This study attempts to address this gap.

The Incidence of Social Responsibility in the Adoption of Business Practices

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies are evidenced by adopting socially relevant business practices for people, communities, companies, and related institutions. Based on this conception, the present work determines the incidence of ethics and CSR on practices regarding diversity, environment, and community of Chilean companies. The method, applied to a sample of 3179 Chilean companies, was descriptive and correlational. Results demonstrate an incipient level of standardization in the adoption of social responsibility practices. The dimension regarding diversity presented a higher cumulative correlation coefficient, which could lead to a change in CSR practices. It is concluded that the collective impact of the ethics and CSR policies was positive and significant in the adoption of practices related to diversity, environment, and community.

What Affects Usage Satisfaction in Mobile Payments? Modelling User Generated Content to Develop the "Digital Service Usage Satisfaction Model"

Mobile payment services have become increasingly important in daily lives in India due to multiple planned and unplanned events. The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of usage satisfaction of mobile payments which could enhance service adoption. The "Digital Service Usage Satisfaction Model" has been proposed and validated by combining technology adoption and service science literature. First the data was extracted from Twitter based on hashtags and keywords. Then using sentiment mining and topic modelling the large volumes of text were analysed. Then network science was also used for identifying clusters among associated topics. Then, using content analysis methodology, a theoretical model was developed based on literature. Finally using multiple regression analysis, we validated the proposed model. The study establishes that cost, usefulness, trust, social influence, credibility, information privacy and responsiveness factors are more important to increase the usage satisfaction of mobile payments services. Also methodologically, this is an endeavour to validate a new approach which uses social media data for developing a inferential theoretical model.

Organic Growth Theory for Corporate Sustainability

This paper introduces a theory for the evolution of corporates in which the growth and sustainability strategies are developed simultaneously. Since the introduction of corporate sustainability, it has been seen an extra cost for risk mitigation and making “compensating” positive impact. The world has reached a tipping point of volatility, mainly due to climate change but also due to the emergence of COVID-19, therefore the applicability of existing corporate structures is under question and this poses high risk to the existence of our planet. On the other hand, the technology cost for sustainable investment has reached parity in comparison with non-sustainable alternatives. Therefore, our proposed Organic Growth Theory introduces a step-by-step approach so that corporates can grow and be profitable without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It is concluded that a new structure for corporates, called founcorps, would be required to direct corporates to evolve into being a responsible legal entity.

Scoping the Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Research in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Era

Amidst a contemporary culture of climate awareness, unprecedented levels of transparency and visibility are forcing industrial organizations to broaden their value chains and deepen the impacts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. While it may be common knowledge that the 2030 agenda cannot be achieved on a business-as-usual trajectory, this study seeks to determine to what ends the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have impacted CSR research. Highlighting linkages and interdependencies between the SDGs and evolution of CSR practice, this paper analyzes a final sample of 56 relevant journal articles from the period 2015–2020. With the intent of bridging policy and practice, thematic coding analysis has supported the identification and interpretation of key emergent research themes. Using three descriptive categorical classifications (i.e., single-dimension, bi-combination of dimensions, sustainability dimension), the results of this paper provide an in-depth discussion into strategic community, company, consumer, investor, and employee foci. Furthermore, the analysis provides a timely and descriptive overview of how CSR research has approached the SDGs and which ones are being prioritized. By deepening the understanding of potential synergies between business strategy, global climate agendas and the common good, this paper contributes to an increased comprehension of how CSR and financial performance can be improved over the long-term.

Green human resource management and corporate social responsibility

Purpose

In the past, simply fulfilling economic performance alone was critical to ensuring the success of companies and their shareholders, but this traditional perspective is not compatible with society's current demands, as there is increasing social pressure on organizations to become more sustainable and reduce impacts on the environment, promoting sustainable results in their business processes. In this context, the specialized literature states that human resources management (HRM) is considered a central aspect for building sustainable organizations, in particular, the area of green human resources management (GHRM). Thus, this study analyzes the relationship between GHRM and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Brazilian companies. Company's age, size, ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications are the control variables.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors adopted a quantitative approach in conducting the survey. Four waves of email were sent to HR and CSR managers from 853 Brazilian companies from the metallurgical, automotive and chemical industries. In total, 79 questionnaires were fully answered, higher than the minimum sample calculated by the G*Power 3.1 software, which corresponds to a return rate of 9.26%. For the analysis of the results, the partial least squares method was used.

Findings

This research identifies that GHRM practices, in fact, positively influence CSR practices. The findings evidence that practices of performance evaluation, teamwork and recruitment and selection are the most important for a better CSR performance. The research results indicate that the “ISO 9001 certification” control variable also has a positive and significant effect on CSR and that the size of the company, the age of the company and the ISO 14001 certification, in the analyzed sample, were not relevant (as control variables) for CSR.

Originality/value

Current literature highlights the gap between GHRM and CSR. This relationship is not explored in Brazil. The study uses a new theoretical model, and it fills the gap identified in the literature. This paper brings important theoretical and managerial contributions. It is the first in the literature to show, in an empirical way, the positive relationship between GHRM and CSR, contributing in an original way to the state of the art of the GHRM and CSR theme. In addition, this research adds empirical evidence on GHRM and CSR in Latin America/South America/Brazil.

The Influence of Heuristic judgments in Social Media on Corporate Reputation: A Study in Spanish Leader Companies

From a corporate-side perspective, the communication of reputational actions and news of companies becomes critical for success. However, in communication, business, and management studies, heuristics can be understood as simple cognitive processes that allow assessments, predictions, and decisions to be made quickly and efficiently by consumers and economic agents. This aspect can sometimes lead to cognitive biases, especially when little information is available or in situations of high uncertainty. The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of heuristic judgments in social media on corporate reputation ratings obtained in Spanish leader companies. Using data collected in Spain, this paper analyzes the influence of heuristics concerning news items on corporate reputation, measured by the Monitor Empresarial de Reputación Corporativa (MERCO) Index. The main finding of this paper is that the total number of news items has a positive effect on corporate reputation, particularly in the categories of culture-values, results/image, expansion, and sponsorship/donations. Additionally, this work serves as a repository of knowledge applicable to similar situations considering the specificities of each particular case. The importance to intervene on certain variables at different levels of managerial performance is described and implications for companies are discussed in these pages.

Predicting Information Diffusion on Twitter a Deep Learning Neural Network Model Using Custom Weighted Word Features

Researchers have been experimenting with various drivers of the diffusion rate like sentiment analysis which only considers the presence of certain words in a tweet. We theorize that the diffusion of particular content on Twitter can be driven by a sequence of nouns, adjectives, adverbs forming a sentence. We exhibit that the proposed approach is coherent with the intrinsic disposition of tweets to a common choice of words while constructing a sentence to express an opinion or sentiment. Through this paper, we propose a Custom Weighted Word Embedding (CWWE) to study the degree of diffusion of content (retweet on Twitter). Our framework first extracts the words, create a matrix of these words using the sequences in the tweet text. To this sequence matrix we further multiply custom weights basis the presence index in a sentence wherein higher weights are given if the impactful class of tokens/words like nouns, adjectives are used at the beginning of the sentence than at last. We then try to predict the possibility of diffusion of information using Long-Short Term Memory Deep Neural Network architecture, which in turn is further optimized on the accuracy and training execution time by a Convolutional Neural Network architecture. The results of the proposed CWWE are compared to a pre-trained glove word embedding. For experimentation, we created a corpus of size 230,000 tweets posted by more than 45,000 users in 6 months. Research experimentations reveal that using the proposed framework of Custom Weighted Word Embedding (CWWE) from the tweet there is a significant improvement in the overall accuracy of Deep Learning framework model in predicting information diffusion through tweets.