On the Role of Social Media in the ‘Responsible’ Food Business: Blogger Buzz on Health and Obesity Issues

To contribute to the debate on the role of social media in responsible business, this article explores blogger buzz in reaction to food companies’ press releases on health and obesity issues, considering the content and the level of fit between the CSR initiatives and the company. Findings show that...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs: Lee, Hsin-Hsuan Meg (Auteur) ; Dolen, Willemijn M. van (Auteur) ; Kolk, Ans (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Publié: 2013
Dans: Journal of business ethics
Année: 2013, Volume: 118, Numéro: 4, Pages: 695-707
Sujets non-standardisés:B Press releases
B Food companies
B Corporate Responsibility
B Obesity
B Health
B Blogging
B Réseaux sociaux
Accès en ligne: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:To contribute to the debate on the role of social media in responsible business, this article explores blogger buzz in reaction to food companies’ press releases on health and obesity issues, considering the content and the level of fit between the CSR initiatives and the company. Findings show that companies issued more product-related initiatives than promotion-related ones. Among these, less than half generated a substantial number of responses from bloggers, which could not be identified as a specific group. While new product introductions led to positive buzz, modifications of current products resulted in more negative responses, even if there was a high fit with core business. While promotion-related press releases were received negatively in general, particularly periphery promotion (compared to core promotion) generated most reactions. Our exploratory study suggests that companies can increase the likelihood of a positive reaction if they carefully consider the fit between initiatives and their core business, while taking the notion of ‘controversial fit’, relating to the unhealthy nature of original products, into account. Further research avenues and implications, as well as limitations, are discussed.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1955-0