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The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical analysis, which consists of interviews with executive trainee programs of three international companies. The results of this analysis offer answers to questions currently being discussed in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature, namely, on the effects of CSR communication on top talent attraction.

The study uses structured interviews to analyze the communication perceptions and expectations of (n = 15) top talents when making employer decisions. It compares these with the expectations and intentions of HR managers responsible for programs and communications (n = 15).

The study found that HR managers only partially reflect top talents’ specific communication expectations. In addition to the program-specific CSR content, corporate communications have an overarching optimization potential in the communication mode and information architecture. It is particularly striking that future executives proactively seek CSR content in hiring and access corporate and brand communications for this purpose.

The study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made a digital interview setting necessary and did not allow to react in detail on every physical signal. On top, the study has only 30 participants (15 HR/15 talents) from three different talent programs.

The study identifies practical, gender-specific and industry-specific implications for corporate communications regarding content and mode of communication. Companies should specify concrete measures for recruiting future executives, but they can also indicate efforts and first initiatives, thus setting a more decisive stage for an aspiration.

The study is characterized by its unique data set. Only a few companies have explicit programs for the development of future executives. The study also examines HR managers’ communication planning and expectations and future executives’ effective communication perceptions and perspectives.

Fast fashion brands in Asia are increasingly incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business strategies in response to the mounting environmental and social concerns. The study aims to provide insights into the current landscape of CSR practices and communication within the Asian context through focusing on two prominent Asian brands to understand how these fashion brands articulate and convey their CSR activities on their respective websites.

This study used a qualitative content analysis to critically evaluate the CSR communication used by Uniqlo and Shein, with the incorporation of signalling theory as a theoretical framework to discuss the observed elements on their websites.

The results indicate that the two Asian fast fashion brands actively engage in CSR’s environmental and social dimensions. Notably, the social dimension is more prominently expressed on both brands’ websites than on other dimensions. Through a nuanced interplay of colour, imagery and keywords, these Asian fast fashion brands strategically signify their commitment to environmental stewardship and stakeholder well-being.

This study fills a gap in the literature by examining CSR programs on Asian-owned fast fashion brands’ websites through the application of signalling theory. The research contributes to the theoretical foundation of CSR communication outcome research, offering actionable insights for marketers entering the Asian fashion market to enhance brand reputation and legitimacy.

In line with the growing trend of companies focusing on achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), this research paper aims to propose a classification of values of socially responsible companies aligned with the SDGs that these companies could fulfill.

The authors’ carried out a qualitative semiotic analysis of four companies as part of the corporate environmental communication initiative to focus on the corporate values conveyed in the messages. Using thematic analysis, the authors’ identified the SDGs achieved by their actions. By coding the values and the SDGs, the authors’ performed a top-down hierarchical classification, linking the value system to the SDGs.

This research unveils various relationships between corporate communication values and the practical implementation of specific SDGs. This paper sheds light on the central role of utilitarian values in achieving SDGs 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 13 and highlights the importance of existential values in reaching SDGs 8, 9, 10, 12, 11 and 17. Conversely, no utilitarian values contribute to the realization of SDGs 7, 8, 11, 13 and 17, while no existential values enable the achievement of SDGs 7, 12, 13 and 17.

This research makes a valuable contribution to the achievement of the SDGs by adopting a streamlined approach that aligns with specific company values. The classification of values by SDG provides an in-depth understanding of commitments toward these goals and promotes more coherent integration into corporate culture and business practices. This approach ensures that sustainable progress is aligned with the values communicated in their long-term strategy, enabling businesses to effectively address crises.

This paper aims to synthesize the corporate social responsibility decoupling (CSRD) literature, CSRD's causes and consequences and discuss other organizational attributes examined by CSRD scholars during 2010 and 2020. The authors provide suggestions for a future research agenda in this domain.

The authors' systematic literature review (SLR) uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework to extract CSRD studies. The authors filter collected articles against quality and relevancy criteria and finally review 175 published articles.

A theme analysis identifies and structures the many themes related to CSRD. The authors discuss the drivers of CSRD and reveal the consequences companies face after CSRD. The authors also provide a comprehensive CSRD discussion in the context of developed and developing economies. CSR communication is also identified as a tool for decoupling and recoupling.

The identified themes provide a thorough illustration of CSRD literature for new CSRD scholars. The authors also provide suggestions for future research, such as examining country-level policy-making and implications of CSRD variance and identifying cultural and economic hurdles to achieving core CSR purposes.

Policymakers and scholars may adopt the approach that CSRD is a misreporting of information similar to accounting fraud. This is particularly relevant given that an increasing number of CSRD scandals indicate that the purpose of bringing change through corporate CSR has not been adopted well by corporations.

The authors' study offers a comprehensive literature review for the period of 2010–2020. The studies identified are structured into meaningful themes which can provide groundwork for future researchers.

This study aims to investigate the evolution of sustainability reporting in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against a backdrop of changing legislation. It uses qualitative content analysis within the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication framework proposed by Kotler and Lee (2005) to investigate how corporations in the UAE disclosed information on their CSR activities in 2018 and 2023.

The authors refer to the CSR communication framework proposed by Kotler and Lee (2005), which puts forward a set of marketing communication strategies that can be used to promote a corporation. The authors identify the strategies used by the top 14 companies operating in the UAE in their CSR disclosure in the fall of 2018 and the spring of 2023, respectively. The authors note any changes that have occurred over time and differences between the distinct business sectors.

The findings indicate a continuing reliance on the marketing communication strategies associated with corporate philanthropy, cause promotion and being a good corporate citizen. All of the corporations in the study showed evidence of engaging in an increasing diversity of CSR initiatives and a corresponding diversity in the marketing communication strategies they used to promote them.

Corporations wishing to promote themselves through their CSR activities and build a positive reputation would do well to select a diverse set of CSR activities communicated in a variety of ways.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first longitudinal, comparative study examining the CSR marketing strategies of the top corporations in the UAE. As such, it contributes to the ongoing debate on CSR in the Middle East in general and to understanding more about the approach as well as the changes in approach to CSR in a Muslim-majority Middle-eastern and secular developing economy, the impact of CSR legislation and government regulation on CSR disclosures in different business sectors and the promotional opportunities afforded by effective CSR disclosure within the UAE in particular.

This chapter explores the strategic responsiveness of commodity multinationals operating in developing countries to the uncertainties raised by the emergent European Union (EU) sustainability regulation. The study applies deductive theory triangulation to derive five response propositions, subsequently contrasted with inductive insights from an exploratory single-case study. The research involves in-depth interviews with a mix of senior and middle management and numerous external stakeholders. Empirical findings are discussed through storytelling and retrospective sensemaking and cross-checked against corporate documents, archive material, and online articles for added validation. This chapter concludes that an authentic commitment to corporate social responsibility and creating shared value can enhance the multinational enterprise (MNE)’s resilience and responsiveness to regulatory uncertainty, especially when combined with early signal scanning and real options reasoning. Through varied, first-hand insights, the case study demonstrates the role of reputation, core values, and ethical leadership in support of effective stakeholder engagement capabilities and the MNE’s ability to develop viable collaborative solutions to uncertainties implied by evolving sustainability regulation and stakeholder expectations. Taking an evolutionary view, this chapter introduces a process perspective on sustainability transition, relevant to firms seeking a shift in focus from mere compliance toward strategic responsiveness founded on adaptability and renewal.

This study identifies three main CSR motivations (i.e. strategic benefits, altruism and greenwashing) and explores the relationship between CSR motivations and environmental collaboration by considering the mediating role of environmental commitment and the moderating role of team autonomy.

The data collected from 336 respondents in the construction industry, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping were used to test hypotheses.

The findings show that altruistic CSR enhances environmental collaboration through enhancing environmental commitment, whereas greenwashing CSR damages environmental collaboration through reducing environmental commitment. Although there is no direct association between strategic CSR and environmental collaboration, environmental commitment mediates the effects of strategic CSR on environmental collaboration. Moreover, the positive effect of strategic CSR and altruistic CSR on environment commitment is stronger when team autonomy is stronger, whereas the negative effect of greenwashing CSR on environment commitment is weaker when team autonomy is stronger.

The findings contribute to the understanding of how CSR motivations can act as catalysts for collaborative efforts in addressing environmental issues within construction projects and offer theoretical understanding of team autonomy by illustrating its role in shaping organizational responses to CSR motivations. The findings can provide insights into why and how participating teams can collaborate better on environmental management, enriching the knowledge of environmental management practices in construction projects.

Drawing upon the service-dominant logic (S-D logic) and elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this paper provides an integrative model to investigate how argument quality and source credibility of CSR communication affects customer value co-creation behavior, resulting in increased brand trust. Additionally, it unveils how brand trust and the perception of COVID-19 risk influence both brand love and subjective well-being.

The data of this study were collected through survey questionnaire from 304 coffee shop customers using convenience sampling and tested using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to validate its model.

The research findings confirm the positive association between source credibility and customer value co-creation (i.e. customer participation and citizenship behavior). By contrast, argument quality is revealed to have a significantly positive effect on customer citizenship behavior (CCB) but a non-significant effect on customer participation behavior (CPB). Additionally, the study identifies that customer value co-creation behavior significantly promotes brand trust. Finally, findings indicate that brand trust and the perception of COVID-19 risk significantly influence brand love and subjective well-being.

This study contributes to the literature on CSR communication and S-D logic and provides new insights for marketers and advertisers to manage brands in the post-pandemic scenario through CSR communications. Furthermore, this study theoretically extends the ELM model to the CSR communication research. Finally, this study expands the relevant literature by clarifying the relationships between the perception of COVID-19 risk, brand love and subjective well-being.

The purpose of this study is to generate a better understanding of the nature of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication on social media. In fact social media are one of the most effective communication channels in contemporary business settings. Due to their inner characteristics, they should be the ideal channel for communicating CSR topics. Over the last 15 years, a variety of researches discussed the interplay between CSR and social media, resulting in a rather tangled body of knowledge.

This study proposes a scoping review of published academic literature at the intersection of these two research bodies (i.e. CSR and social media communication) to shed light on the nature of the communication, strategic challenges and practices, as well as their key factors and impact.

To date, academic research related to the nature of CSR on social media is fragmented and blurry. This research sheds light on the challenges of interactive social media communication in CSR and presents an account of key strategies, tactics and possible impacts for these challenging communication practices.

This research generates a better understanding of the nature of CSR communication on social media, strategic challenges and practices, as well as their key factors and impact. It is the tentative of generating a synthetic account of relevant literature in the field.

Despite the ongoing scholarly interest in greenwashing, it is not well known the impact of multiple institutional pressures on greenwashing in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Following the institutional logics perspective, this study investigates how three distinct logics – commercial, public, and social welfare – drive greenwashing and whether organizational capability for blending diverse CSR expectations reverses this link.

The current study conceptualized and tested an original model on how three institutional logics influence greenwashing in CSR, with the mediation effect of hybridization capability as a response to logic plurality. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed on a survey data, which was collected from 150 middle managers in Turkey.

The results show that while commercial logic has no direct or indirect impact on greenwashing, public and social welfare logics drive greenwashing in CSR. However, these effects are reversed when the CSR hybridization capability increases.

This study contributes to the understanding of what predicts CSR greenwashing by integrating a comprehensive theoretical framework involving multiple institutional logics, conflicting stakeholder demands, and organizational hybridity.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that theoretically and empirically analyzed how the exposure of multiple external pressures affects the CSR greenwashing and how it can be reversed by CSR hybridization capability. This capability mitigates the threats and challenges of multiple logics and turns them into an opportunity to gain legitimacy in the eyes of stakeholders by preventing greenwashing.