- 1.917.410.0627
Craig E Carroll
Rice University, Strategy, Adjunct
- Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations, Big Data, Communication Management, Corporate Public Discourse, Communication in the Public Interest, Identity and Identification, and 25 moreRhetorical Theory and Criticism, Journalism, Business Communication (in Communication), Organizational Communication, Political Communication (Communication), Media, Strategic communication (Communication), Public Relations, Corporate Reputation, Communication, Mass media, Framing, Agenda-setting Theory, Agenda Setting, Second-level agenda setting, Corporate Social Responsibility, Media effects, Strategic Communication, Media Research, Stakeholder Engagement, Corporate Communication, Organizational Identity, Framing and agenda setting research, Corporate Image, and Reputation Managementedit
- Craig Carroll, PhD is the founder and director of The OCR, a research think tank devoted to corporate affairs functio... moreCraig Carroll, PhD is the founder and director of The OCR, a research think tank devoted to corporate affairs function. He is a former faculty member at USC Annenberg and UNC Chapel Hill. He has taught as graduate adjunct faculty member at the University of Florida, New York University, Singapore Management University, IE University and Copenhagen Business School.edit
In this paper, we examined how companies are employing new media to engage in dialogue with their stakeholders about corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related matters. Through a qualitative theory-building study conducted in three... more
In this paper, we examined how companies are employing new media to engage in dialogue with their stakeholders about corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related matters. Through a qualitative theory-building study conducted in three stages over a period of 2 years, we discovered that corporations with reputations for CSR have built virtual spaces for dialogue about CSR, but that these spaces remain empty of dialogue. Our theory-building model highlights how the mix of four dialogue processes (i.e. directing, moderating, building open-scripts, and crowd-sourcing multi-dialogue) may allow companies to create open dialogue about CSR initiatives and avoid leaving these spaces empty. Contributions for CSR studies are discussed.
Research Interests: Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, Dialogue, and 10 moreCommunication Management, Strategic Communication, Employee engagement, Public Engagement, Transparency, Stakeholder Engagement, ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance issues), Communication and Public Relations, Strategic CSR, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concepts of key messages and key message integrity, and examines their viability for communication management scholars and practitioners in evaluating media relations activities. Key message... more
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concepts of key messages and key message integrity, and examines their viability for communication management scholars and practitioners in evaluating media relations activities. Key message integrity addresses not only what messages transfer, but also how well.
The authors analyzed 18 nonprofit organizations’ key messages and the messages’ integrity levels using content analysis on one month of their news coverage. In-depth interviews with eight of their media relations practitioners helped validate the concepts and the results.
The authors found five unique categories and functions of key messages: information concerned with dissemination, raison d’être concerned with purpose, categories concerned with positioning, resource management concerned with accounting for resources, and social relevance concerned with legitimacy. Findings also revealed varying levels of transmission and message integrity across the categories. Interviews revealed insights into challenges for communicating organizational key messages to the news media.
This study lays the foundation for additional research on key messages and key message integrity as useful metrics for communication management scholars and practitioners.
The authors analyzed 18 nonprofit organizations’ key messages and the messages’ integrity levels using content analysis on one month of their news coverage. In-depth interviews with eight of their media relations practitioners helped validate the concepts and the results.
The authors found five unique categories and functions of key messages: information concerned with dissemination, raison d’être concerned with purpose, categories concerned with positioning, resource management concerned with accounting for resources, and social relevance concerned with legitimacy. Findings also revealed varying levels of transmission and message integrity across the categories. Interviews revealed insights into challenges for communicating organizational key messages to the news media.
This study lays the foundation for additional research on key messages and key message integrity as useful metrics for communication management scholars and practitioners.
Research Interests: Information Theory, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, Media Framing, Public Relations & Social Media, and 10 moreAgenda-setting Theory, Corporate Communications, Corporate Reputation, Media Research, Public relations, Corporate Communication, Social media, online communication, Corporate Identity Management, Framing and agenda setting research, Agenda-building theory, Political Messages, and Corporate Agenda-Setting Theory
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This study examined the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a public issue over 25 years using a content analysis of two national news- papers and seven regional, geographically-dispersed newspapers in the U.S. The... more
This study examined the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a public issue over 25 years using a content analysis of two national news- papers and seven regional, geographically-dispersed newspapers in the U.S. The present study adopted a comprehensive definition encompassing all four CSR dimensions: economic, ethical, legal, and philanthropic. This study examined newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, op-ed columns, news analyses, and guest columns for three aspects: media attention, media prominence, and media valence. Results showed an increase in the number of opinion pieces covering CSR issues over the 25-year period. The prominence of each of the four CSR dimensions varied over time. Each of the four CSR dimensions had its moment of media prominence when it was more important than the other dimensions. The most prevalent valence of the opinion pieces was negative; the volume of negative pieces increased over the 25 years, whereas the number of opinions with positive, neutral, and mixed tones showed little change over time. The study concludes by tracing the implications of the role of the news media for business ethics research.
Research Interests: Business Ethics, Communication, Organizational Communication, Journalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, and 13 moreMedia History, Propaganda, Public Relations, Measurement and Evaluation, Journalism History, Social Media, Political Prisoners, Media, Environmental Sustainability, Agenda-setting Theory, Economic and Business Journalism, PR research, and Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations
Research Interests: Media Studies, Journalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, and 10 moreMedia effects, Environmental Sustainability, Agenda-setting Theory, Corporate Reputation, Mass media effects, Innovation journalism, Media Dependency Theory, Media Efffects on Society, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations
Research Interests: Management, Journalism, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, Strategic Management, and 14 moreMedia effects, Media Framing, Public Relations & Social Media, Priming, Agenda-setting Theory, Second-level agenda setting, Corporate Communications, Corporate Reputation, Mass media, Public relations, Corporate Communication, Social media, online communication, Framing and agenda setting research, Affective Priming, Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations, and Impact of Social Media on Society and Organizations
This study examined whether corporate public agenda setting or corporate agenda building exerts a stronger influence on firms’ public prominence. After controlling for the effects of firms’ advertising expenditures and existing levels of... more
This study examined whether corporate public agenda setting or corporate agenda building exerts a stronger influence on firms’ public prominence. After controlling for the effects of firms’ advertising expenditures and existing levels of prominence, results showed that in the absence of media salience, firms’ public agenda-setting efforts had no influence on their change in prominence. In the presence of media salience, however, firms’ public agenda-setting efforts had a negative influence on their change in prominence. In the context of public prominence, the study supports the news media's role as a third-party endorsement of firms as newsworthy entities. Future research should re-examine these relationships in the age of social media.
Research Interests: Management, Communication, Media Studies, Journalism, Organizational Theory, and 24 moreCorporate Communication, Advertising, Public Relations, Media effects, Media Framing, Public Relations & Social Media, Priming, Agenda-setting Theory, Corporate Reputation, Mass media, Reputation, Publicity, Press Release Distribution, Framing, Agenda Setting, Reputation Management, Framing and agenda setting research, Communication and Public Relations, Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation, PUBLIC RELATION, Agenda-building theory, Media and corporate reputation management, Corporate Agenda-Setting Theory, and Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations
Research Interests: Q Methodology, Corporate Image, Organizational Identity, Multiple Identities, Corporate Reputation, and 7 moreCorporate Identity, Organizational reputation, Corporate Identity Management, Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation, Organizational image, Communication, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Identity, and Managing Corporate Reputation
This volume examines agenda-setting theory as it applies to the news media's influence on corporate reputation. It presents interdisciplinary, international, and... more
This volume examines agenda-setting theory as it applies to the news media's influence on corporate reputation. It presents interdisciplinary, international, and empirical investigations examining the relationship between corporate reputation and the news media throughout the world. Providing coverage of more than 25 countries, contributors write about their local media and business communities, representing developed, emerging, and frontier markets' including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Nigeria, Spain, and ...
Research Interests: Business, Business Ethics, Journalism, Business & Society, Public Relations, and 13 moreMedia effects, Agenda-setting Theory, Second-level agenda setting, Corporate Reputation, Mass media, Media Relations, Newspapers and online journalism, Reputation Management, Framing and agenda setting research, Journalism And Mass communication, Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations
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Abstract Managers have often tried to enact a'preferred'organizational experience on others through business concepts such as corporate philosophies, values, vision and mission statements either to create,... more
Abstract Managers have often tried to enact a'preferred'organizational experience on others through business concepts such as corporate philosophies, values, vision and mission statements either to create, maintain, perpetuate or redirect organizational identification processes. While managers cannot control the degree to which constituencies identify with the organization, this does not mean that they stop trying. One way managers attempt to influence organizations is through the introduction of new metaphors refraining ...
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... The author thanks David Boje, Cees van Riel, Charles Fombrun, Gary Hoover, Patrick Spain, David Gracy, Don Carleton, Deborah Morrison, Andy Henderson, John Kimberly, Frank Barrett, Mary Jo Hatch, Esben Karmark, Barbara Czarniawska,... more
... The author thanks David Boje, Cees van Riel, Charles Fombrun, Gary Hoover, Patrick Spain, David Gracy, Don Carleton, Deborah Morrison, Andy Henderson, John Kimberly, Frank Barrett, Mary Jo Hatch, Esben Karmark, Barbara Czarniawska, and David Whetten for their ...
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"With the latest insights from the world of communication studies into the nature of corporate reputation, this new addition to Wiley-Blackwell’s series of handbooks on communication and media reflects the growing visibility of large... more
"With the latest insights from the world of communication studies into the nature of corporate reputation, this new addition to Wiley-Blackwell’s series of handbooks on communication and media reflects the growing visibility of large businesses’ ethical profiles, and tracks the benefits that positive public attitudes can bring.
• Serves as the definitive research collection for a fast-growing field featuring contributions by key international scholars
• Brings together state-of-the-art communication studies insights on corporate reputation
• Identifies and addresses the lacunae in the research literature
• Applies new theoretical frameworks to corporate reputation
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• Serves as the definitive research collection for a fast-growing field featuring contributions by key international scholars
• Brings together state-of-the-art communication studies insights on corporate reputation
• Identifies and addresses the lacunae in the research literature
• Applies new theoretical frameworks to corporate reputation
"
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Research Interests: Communication, Organizational Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Political Communication (Communication), and 10 moreCommunication in the Public Interest, Media, Strategic communication (Communication), Business Communication (in Communication), Priming, Agenda-setting Theory, Second-Level Agenda Setting (Journalism), Mass media, Framing, and Agenda Setting
Online databases such as Hoover’s, Inc., the expansion of the Internet, and the growth of business journalism have all made organizational records much more public and publicly accessible. As a result, organizations have had to become... more
Online databases such as Hoover’s, Inc., the expansion of the Internet, and the growth of business journalism have all made organizational records much more public and publicly accessible. As a result, organizations have had to become much more vocal in defending themselves, not only in terms of identity, but in terms of history. This book is a starting point for those interested in learning about how organizations appropriate their stories of the past and visions of the future for navigating organizational change in the present.
Research Interests: Decision Making, Organizational Culture, Strategic Management, Identity (Culture), Strategic Planning, and 9 moreStrategic Communication, Strategy (Business), Marketing Strategy, Organization and Strategy, Strategy, Corporate Strategy, Tactical media, Business Strategy, and Business Plans & Marketing Strategy
Research Interests: Business Ethics, Human Rights, Sustainable Development, Strategic Management, Environmental Sustainability, and 8 moreCSR Ethics, CSR in MNCs, Business & Ethics, corporate sustainability and CSR, CSR Business and Society, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSR and Business Ethics, and Best Practices In CSR
The Foundations of a Theory Explaining Organizational News: The VT4 Framework of Organizational News Content and Five Levels of Content Production. We examine the influence of journalists, routines, news organizations, influences... more
The Foundations of a Theory Explaining Organizational News: The VT4 Framework of Organizational News Content and Five Levels of Content Production. We examine the influence of journalists, routines, news organizations, influences external to news organizations (PR, advertising, interlocking boards, technology, economy, media systems on the news about organizations. For any one organization, we consider its media visibility, media tone, media topics, media ties, and timing.
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Research Interests: Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, Stakeholders, and 16 moreStrategic Communication, Communication Ethics, Public Relations Ethics, Corporate Accountability, Stakeholder Relationships & Issues Management, Corporate Rhetoric, Transparency, Public relations, Corporate Communication, Social media, online communication, Stakeholder Theory, Disclosure, Corporate Governnace Disclosure in the Annual reports, Stakeholder Engagement, Organizational Rhetoric, Global Reporting Initiative, Global Compact Initiative and Its Social Impact, and International Business and Corporate Communication
As this chapter makes clear, focusing solely on performance and achievement attributes is a matter of searching for something only by looking where it is easiest to find. The body of research from other organization-related disciplines... more
As this chapter makes clear, focusing solely on performance and achievement attributes is a matter of searching for something only by looking where it is easiest to find. The body of research from other organization-related disciplines has built up a wealth of knowledge about these attributes. It is time for communication to expand the focus into new areas, examining reputational attributes that may offer as much or more insight into what corporate reputation is, how it is formulated, managed, and changed. Future research should consider bearing out organizational communication performance dimensions that can function as reputation attributes, enabling the discussion, reflection, benchmarking, and rewarding of organizations systems, practices, and processes that create more desirable organizations, workplaces, products and services, and contributions to society.
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This chapter examines the journalism and mass communication disciplines for what they offer to the study of corporate reputation. Most of the early communication research devoted to corporate reputation began in the mass communication... more
This chapter examines the journalism and mass communication disciplines for what they offer to the study of corporate reputation. Most of the early communication research devoted to corporate reputation began in the mass communication field. It reviews the four primary research domains within journalism and mass communication for their primary focal points, noting along the way where existing corporate reputation research currently takes place and where it could take place. The chapter begins with an overview of the major paradigms. Journalism and mass communication research has three major paradigms: the social science approach to media effects, the interpretive paradigm, and the critical/cultural paradigm. The chapter charts the journalism and mass communication field for its programs of research, noting its theories and key findings where they occur.
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Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Psychology, Social Psychology, Communication, Corporate Communication, and 19 moreDigital Media, Media effects, Consumer Behavior, Priming, Agenda-setting Theory, Second-level agenda setting, Corporate Reputation, Mass media, Advertisement, Framing, Agenda Setting, Digital Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Media and Culture, Consumption Culture, Sociology of Journalism, News Analysis, News ethics, and Agenda-Setting Applied to Organizations
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Accountability refers to the state of being liable and answerable to someone for something. It establishes relationships, defines ‘‘the rights of society (or groups/stakeholders within society) and relates to the rights that emerge from... more
Accountability refers to the state of being liable and answerable to someone for something. It establishes relationships, defines ‘‘the rights of society (or groups/stakeholders within society) and relates to the rights that emerge from the relationship between the accountable organization (the accountor) and the accountee’’ (Gray, Bebbington, & Collison, 2006). Being accountable requires the object of accountability to be capable of being observed, monitored, and evaluated through its willingness to provide reliable information. There must, as well, be clear consequences for failure (Carroll, 2016). In business, accountability has been equated with governance (Brennan & Solomon, 2008) and corporate social responsibility reporting (Gray, et. al., 1997; Newell, 2005; Valor, 2005; Bendell, 2005; Utting, 2008). Scholars have also investigated the role of intermediaries and gatekeepers, such as auditors and credit rating agencies, in upholding - or failing to uphold - corporate accountability (Coffee, 2002; Partnoy, 1999). Yet despite these recent studies, corporate accountability remains under-researched and under-theorized, especially when compared to political accountability.
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This chapter investigates companies' disclosure alignment and transparency signaling within the 2011 CSR annual reports of 36 U.S. firms in the Global Forbes 2000. DICTION 6.0 was used for the text analysis. The study found that... more
This chapter investigates companies' disclosure alignment and transparency signaling within the 2011 CSR annual reports of 36 U.S. firms in the Global Forbes 2000. DICTION 6.0 was used for the text analysis. The study found that CSR reports are fairly similar to corporate financial annual reports but can be classified more accurately as a hybrid discourse with normative elements matching genres emanating from science, business, government, religion, and social movements. Despite the relatively short time that CSR reports have been in existence, this chapter provides evidence that CSR reporting has become institutionalized quickly. The measures of transparency signaling and disclosure alignment reveal that companies know the rules for reporting and are following them. CSR reporting on societal and environmental impacts and performance receive the most focused discussion, while human rights, labor, and product responsibility discussions are at minimal levels. The study ends with future research directions.
Research Interests: Business, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, Accounting, and 15 moreEnvironmental Sustainability, Corporate Accountability, Corporate Rhetoric, CSR Ethics, Disclosure, Corporate Governnace Disclosure in the Annual reports, Audit, CSR in MNCs, corporate sustainability and CSR, Global Reporting Initiative, CSR Business and Society, Diction, Global Compact Initiative and Its Social Impact, CSR and Business Ethics, and Best Practices In CSR
This paper introduces unpacks media favorability into two dimensions and investigates their relationship with firms' public esteem. A firm's focal media favorability refers to the overall evaluation of a firm presented in a stream... more
This paper introduces unpacks media favorability into two dimensions and investigates their relationship with firms' public esteem. A firm's focal media favorability refers to the overall evaluation of a firm presented in a stream of media stories. A firm's peripheral media favorability refers the overall evaluative tone accumulating from a stream of media stories where a firm is mentioned, yet is independent of how the focal firm is portrayed relative to the content. The study used a content analysis of The New York Times (n = 2,711) articles dating six months preceding the 2000 Annual Reputation Quotient, a nationwide public opinion poll (n = 22,359) on firms' reputations. Relationships were found between firms' focal media favorability and their public esteem for respondents with more knowledge of the firms' attributes and between firms' peripheral media favorability and their public esteem for respondents having little to no knowledge about the firms&...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concepts of key messages and key message integrity, and examines their viability for communication management scholars and practitioners in evaluating media relations activities. Key... more
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concepts of key messages and key message integrity, and examines their viability for communication management scholars and practitioners in evaluating media relations activities. Key message integrity addresses not only what messages transfer, but also how well. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyzed 18 nonprofit organizations’ key messages and the messages’ integrity levels using content analysis on one month of their news coverage. In-depth interviews with eight of their media relations practitioners helped validate the concepts and the results. Findings – The authors found five unique categories and functions of key messages: information concerned with dissemination, raison d’être concerned with purpose, categories concerned with positioning, resource management concerned with accounting for resources, and social relevance concerned with legitimacy. Findings also revealed varying levels of transmission and messag...
Research Interests: Computer Science, Information Theory, Corporate Communication, Public Relations, Communication Management, and 12 moreMedia Framing, Public Relations & Social Media, Corporate Communications, Corporate Reputation, Media Research, Corporate Identity Management, Framing and agenda setting research, Language Culture and Communication, Agenda Setting Theory, Political Messages, Corporate Agenda-Setting Theory, and Agenda Building Theory
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Page 1. The Expressive Organization Linking Identity, Reputation, and the Corporate Brand Edited by MAJKEN SCHULTZ, MARY JO HATCH, and MOGENS HOLTEN LARSEN Page 2. The Expressive Organization Page 3. Further ...
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PurposeWicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors. This paper explores how public relations (PR) – as a... more
PurposeWicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors. This paper explores how public relations (PR) – as a boundary-spanning function at the nexus of corporate and political discourse – can support societies to tackle wicked problems.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper synthesizes literature on PR with a service ecosystem perspective. The authors use the service ecosystem design framework to structure the PR literature and develop a model of service ecosystem shaping for social change, which highlights the important role that PR can play in shaping processes.FindingsThe authors explicate how PR can (1) facilitate value cocreation processes between broad sets of stakeholders that drive positive social change, (2) shape institutional arrangements in general and public discourse in particular, (3) provide a platform for recursive feedback loops of ref...
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Research Interests: Business and Reputation
Humans are natural storytellers. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we constantly create and share stories about what happened and why, as well as scenarios for what might happen next. Stories powerfully convey values, place them in... more
Humans are natural storytellers. Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we constantly create and share stories about what happened and why, as well as scenarios for what might happen next. Stories powerfully convey values, place them in context for the future and allow us to identify future opportunities. Within organizations, stories can be helpful in dealing with critical issues—such as those targeted by the company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives—by highlighting the positive and negative outcomes of individual and collective behaviors. Inter - nal stories are important to motivate people and create messages that are memorable enough for people to take action.
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Research Interests: Marketing, Business Ethics, Applied Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, and 14 morePolitical Science, Public Relations, Dialogue, Communication Management, Strategic Communication, Employee engagement, Public Engagement, Transparency, Business and Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Communication and Public Relations, Strategic CSR, Quality of Life Research, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
This chapter investigates companies' disclosure alignment and transparency signaling within the 2011 CSR annual reports of 36 U.S. firms in the Global Forbes 2000. DICTION 6.0 was used for the text analysis. The study found that CSR... more
This chapter investigates companies' disclosure alignment and transparency signaling within the 2011 CSR annual reports of 36 U.S. firms in the Global Forbes 2000. DICTION 6.0 was used for the text analysis. The study found that CSR reports are fairly similar to corporate financial annual reports but can be classified more accurately as a hybrid discourse with normative elements matching genres emanating from science, business, government, religion, and social movements. Despite the relatively short time that CSR reports have been in existence, this chapter provides evidence that CSR reporting has become institutionalized quickly. The measures of transparency signaling and disclosure alignment reveal that companies know the rules for reporting and are following them. CSR reporting on societal and environmental impacts and performance receive the most focused discussion, while human rights, labor, and product responsibility discussions are at minimal levels. The study ends with f...
Research Interests: Business, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communication, Accounting, and 15 moreEnvironmental Sustainability, Corporate Accountability, Corporate Rhetoric, CSR Ethics, Disclosure, Corporate Governnace Disclosure in the Annual reports, Audit, CSR in MNCs, corporate sustainability and CSR, Global Reporting Initiative, CSR Business and Society, Diction, Global Compact Initiative and Its Social Impact, CSR and Business Ethics, and Best Practices In CSR
Research Interests: Business, Communication, Media Studies, Journalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, and 13 moreDevelopment communication, Public Relations, Media Education, Media Literacy, Social Media, Media, Media Research, Social Science Research Network, Social Communication, Visibility, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, Alternate Media, and Development Communication
Accountability refers to the state of being liable and answerable to someone for something. It establishes relationships, defines ‘‘the rights of society (or groups/stakeholders within society) and relates to the rights that emerge from... more
Accountability refers to the state of being liable and answerable to someone for something. It establishes relationships, defines ‘‘the rights of society (or groups/stakeholders within society) and relates to the rights that emerge from the relationship between the accountable organization (the accountor) and the accountee’’ (Gray, Bebbington, & Collison, 2006). Being accountable requires the object of accountability to be capable of being observed, monitored, and evaluated through its willingness to provide reliable information. There must, as well, be clear consequences for failure (Carroll, 2016). In business, accountability has been equated with governance (Brennan & Solomon, 2008) and corporate social responsibility reporting (Gray, et. al., 1997; Newell, 2005; Valor, 2005; Bendell, 2005; Utting, 2008). Scholars have also investigated the role of intermediaries and gatekeepers, such as auditors and credit rating agencies, in upholding - or failing to uphold - corporate accounta...
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PurposeThis study aims to reveal the quantity, quality and cultural differences of negative corporate social performance (CSP) disclosures in large firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Firms are expected to be... more
PurposeThis study aims to reveal the quantity, quality and cultural differences of negative corporate social performance (CSP) disclosures in large firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Firms are expected to be transparent about the impacts and outcomes of their CSP. A central aspect of transparency is balance, which means disclosing both positive and negative CSP.Design/methodology/approachContent analysis was applied to 75 CSR reports of large firms chosen from the Forbes Top 500 list. The firms belong to three cultural clusters: Anglo, Confucian Asia and Germanic/Nordic Europe.FindingsFirms made few negative CSP disclosures, yet the quantity of negative CSP disclosures varied among cultural clusters. Reports from Germanic/Nordic Europe showed the highest number of negative CSP disclosures, reports from Confucian Asia showed the lowest number and the Anglo cluster's number fell in between. The Asian firms communicated corrective actions more often than firm...
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In this chapter, we provide an overview of how news organizations work and develop a theoretical account of communicative interactions between corporate communication professionals representing commercial companies and journalists working... more
In this chapter, we provide an overview of how news organizations work and develop a theoretical account of communicative interactions between corporate communication professionals representing commercial companies and journalists working for news organizations. This account conceptualizes these interactions as a discursive process in which professionals and journalists construct and negotiate frames about an event or issue related to a company. This process tends to be guided on both sides by the individual’s professional identity (as communication professional or journalist) and the identity of their organization.