ABSTRACT

This handbook is a resource for students, faculty, and researchers who are focused on understanding the role communication plays in the formation and execution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Bringing together authors who are thought-leaders and emerging scholars from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, it examines the issues central to CSR communication including: theoretical underpinnings, form and content of CSR messaging, the boundaries of engagement, and the tensions associated with CSR communication. It offers a unique combination of functional and formative approaches to CSR communication designed to expose readers to a blend of approaches. With attention to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this handbook also explicitly addresses recent societal changes and how those changes will impact CSR communication research and practices in the future.

Offering both a strong introduction to topics for novices as well as a more advanced interrogation of CSR communication for more knowledgeable readers, the handbook is appropriate for advanced students and researchers in public relations, strategic communication, organizational communication, and allied fields.

CSR Communication Research Section I: Mapping the Field of CSR Communication Chapter 1. CSR communication from a public relations perspective Chapter 2. Organizational communication and Corporate Social Responsibility: Critical perspectives and reflections on the public good Chapter 3. CSR communication from a rhetorical and semiotic perspective Chapter 4. Communicating CSR across cultures: From a global and local to glocal challenges Chapter 5. Articulating the value of an institutional perspective in CSR communication research Chapter 6. Constitutive views on CSR communication: The communicative constitution of responsible organization, organizing, and organizationality Chapter 7. Towards a multi-dimensional network model of CSR initiatives Chapter 8. A conversation about three key yet underexplored tensions in contemporary notions of CSR communication Section II: Form and Content of CSR Communication Chapter 9. CSR communication message effects Chapter 10. Visual strategies for CSR communication Chapter 11. CSR communication and the commodification of compassion Chapter 12. CSR communication and social media Chapter 13. CSR and crisis communication: Exploring the research on CSR crisis communication Chapter 14. Corporate social advocacy Chapter 15. A conversation about conceptual and methodological challenges in CSR communication research Section III: Exploring organizational influences on CSR communication Chapter 16. CSR communication in stigmatized industries Chapter 17. Toward a relational CSR model: CSR communication of Global Fortune 100 during the COVID-19 Pandemic Chapter 18. Corporate social responsibility in small- and medium-sized fast-growth private firms: How is CSR conceived, enacted, and communicated Chapter 19. Overcoming the dark side of CSR communication and employee relations Chapter 20. CSR communication and organizational leadership: How does CSR communication contribute to responsible organizational leadership? Chapter 21. Organizational history and CSR communication Chapter 22. A conversation about the communicative constitution of CSR and its implications for organizations and society Section IV: Exploring social and stakeholder influences on CSR communication Chapter 23. CSR communication and legitimacy creation Chapter 24. Understanding CSR partnership communication from a portfolio approach Chapter 25. The collaboration communication conundrum: NGOs as CSR actors, beneficiaries, and adversaries Chapter 26. CSR in the community: Implications for communication, development, and engagement Chapter 27. Contesting the meaning and boundaries of "safety" as CSR in the mining industry Chapter 28. Controversial Corporate Social Responsibility: The challenge ahead? Chapter 29. A conversation about the future of CSR communication research