RT Article
T1 Organising Corporate Responsibility Communication Through Filtration: A Study of Web Communication Patterns in Swedish Retail
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 100
IS 1
SP 31
OP 43
A1 Frostenson, Magnus
A1 Helin, Sven
A1 Sandström, Johan
A2 Helin, Sven
A2 Sandström, Johan
LA English
YR 2011
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785641492
AB Corporate responsibility (CR) communication has risen dramatically in recent years, following increased demands for transparency. One tendency noted in the literature is that CR communication is organised and structured. Corporations tend to professionalise CR communication in the sense that they provide information that corresponds to demands for transparency that are voiced by certain stakeholders. This also means that experts within the firm tend to communicate with professional stakeholders outside the firm. In this article, a particular aspect of the organisation of CR communication is examined, a phenomenon that we refer to as the ‘filtration effect’. By comparing CR communication in parent companies and their subsidiaries, we show empirically that there is considerably less CR communication on the subsidiary level compared to the parent level. We see filtration as a sign of conscious organising of CR communication that implies particular attention to certain stakeholder groups with clearly defined demands and expectations on companies. The strong filtration effect noted in the study suggests that CR communication does not seem to be very much adapted to customers, which may be problematic both from a communicative and ethical perspective. The study covers Sweden’s 206 largest retail firms.
K1 Transparency
K1 Sweden
K1 Retail
K1 Internet
K1 filtration
K1 CSR
K1 CR
K1 Consistency
K1 Communication
DO 10.1007/s10551-011-0771-7