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Increasingly, universities are adopting social media as a strategy to improve their competitive advantage. However, little is known of whether or not stakeholders are actually engaging with universities in such online environments. The purpose of this paper is, first, to analyze the level of stakeholders’ engagement via social media, particularly Facebook, in European and US universities. Second, to examine the influencing factors that boost online interactions, in particular, “location,” “transparency,” “size,” “academic performance” and “activity.”

An engagement index and a multivariate regression analysis were carried out. Regarding the sample, European and US universities belonging to the “Top 100” of the Academic Ranking of World Universities were analyzed.

Despite the large online community that US universities possess, European universities attain the higher level of online engagement from its stakeholders. In particular, the greatest level of engagement is achieved by European universities of greater size, in terms of students, with lower academic performance and a lower level of online activity.

This study contributes to existing literature by identifying the actual social impact of social media to build successful relationships with the stakeholders of higher education entities.

This paper can contribute to the current scarcity of literature concerning social media to improve new models of accountability in higher education entities with different managerial models.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly communicating and interacting with stakeholders through digital media. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the SME owner-managers’ attitudes toward the pace of technological innovation, and it examines their perceived use and ease of digital media for stakeholder engagement.

The research methodology integrated measuring items from the technology acceptance model, the pace of technological innovation and corporate social responsibility, to better understand the SME owner-managers’ rationale for using digital media. The respondents were expected to reveal their attitudes toward commercial, ethical and social responsibilities.

A factor analysis indicated that the SME owner-managers were perceiving the usefulness of digital media to engage with marketplace stakeholders. Whilst, a stepwise regression analysis reported positive and significant relationships between the pace of technological innovation and the SMEs’ perceived usefulness of digital media for communication purposes. The results also revealed that young owner-managers from large SMEs were more likely to utilize digital media than their smaller counterparts.

This contribution implies that both small and micro businesses are utilizing digital media to improve their stakeholder engagement. This study indicates that the pace of technological innovation, the SMEs’ perceived ease of use of digital media, as well as their commercial responsibility were significant antecedents for the SMEs’ online communication.

This study aims to center on understanding how stakeholder engagement processes improve online child protection in telecom companies. The literature review and findings shed light on the management of networks to identify, prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts of information and communication technologies (ICTs)[1] and to find opportunities in terms of new policies and services development.

Three multinational telecom companies were analyzed with a qualitative focus combining three research tools: the analysis of 81 corporate reports, self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

Firms establish a collaborative network with a large number of stakeholders such as public authorities, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, representatives of families and expert researchers. The outcomes of these networks range from the development of new products and services (filters, child safety software and protection apps) to the co-creation of new corporate policies with a high social impact (self-regulation, sectorial codes, awareness initiatives and reporting).

This study outlines guidelines for the industry in identifying, engaging and making decisions in a collaborative way when managers have to engage with multiple stakeholders regarding child protection. The academic debate and the empirical findings have many practical implications for ICT companies whose users are children and teenagers.

Despite its significance, stakeholder management is underexplored in the literature of protection for young people. The academic field and the professional arena appear to have little to say regarding how executives manage engagement processes.

This study aims to propose a set of metrics in order to assess reactivity, dialogic communication and stakeholder engagement (popularity, commitment and virality): stakeholders' mood and social legitimacy on corporate Facebook pages. These metrics can offer a better understanding and measurability of this social media/social network/online communication management tool.

Three theories (dialogic, stakeholders and legitimacy) were considered in the development of these metrics. Empirical evidence was collected from a sample of 314 European companies. Then ten active companies were used to validate the proposed metrics on Facebook.

The constructed set of metrics was found to be valid and efficiently usable according to the principles of the applied theories. Moreover all the proposed metrics could be adapted for such sites as Google+.

Limitations can only be identified within the validation process as the metrics were only applied to ten representative companies from the Eurozone.

The proposed metrics will help users, marketing/PR/communication professionals and company managers to measure their and their competitors' popularity, commitment, virality (metrics which reflect stakeholder engagement), and the mood of stakeholders, and use content analysis in order to measure social legitimacy via CSR information disclosure on Facebook. Thus the online reputation of a company can be practically measured.

This paper is the first proposing metrics to assess stakeholder engagement and social legitimacy on a corporate Facebook page that can be used in both academic and professional circles to a gain a better understanding of corporate online communication via Facebook.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze antecedents of listed corporations’ propensity to adopt online shareholder platforms. It differentiates two strategic investor relations (IR) frames, shielding and engaging, and explores their effect on ICT adoption.

Findings are based on a survey of 82 corporations listed on the Swiss, German and Austrian stock exchanges. The authors apply multiple linear regression analysis to test a multi-faceted adoption model.

The authors find that resource constraints, familiarity with online media and efficiency considerations drive listed corporations’ willingness to adopt online shareholder platforms. Beyond these operational antecedents, strategic considerations significantly affect adoption: IR functions geared toward shareholder engagement are more likely to apply interactive platforms, while IR departments geared toward shielding the corporation from shareholder interventions will be less attracted to the participatory affordances of online media.

This study is limited in scope to corporations listed on the Swiss, German and Austrian stock exchanges and cannot account for antecedents distinct to other regulatory environments.

IR functions need to carefully develop and apply communication strategies, which in turn will inform ICT adoption. The authors find that IR departments geared toward a two-way symmetrical communication model are more attracted to the participatory affordances of online platforms. Thereby, they are more likely to innovate by employing current digital applications.

This study contributes to research on the benefits of digital media to two-way symmetrical and dialogic corporate communications. It is the first study to explore these relationships in the context of IR. It further contributes to research on the strategic role of IR by developing and applying two distinct strategic frames to the subject of ICT adoption in IR.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the dialogic theory of public relations can help strategic communication practitioners support and enhance the relationship between individuals and organizations.

This inquiry applied the dialogic theory of public relations by investigating leading media companies’ context-based strategic use of Twitter. Researchers conducted a qualitative content analysis of 1,800 tweets from 18 top-performing media organizations.

This study identified strategies, rooted in dialogic theoretical principles that media organizations used to engage stakeholders. Media companies employed strategies based on dialogic principles, including promoting organizations as industry and thought leaders, integrating social media, and using an interactive, synergistic organizational voice.

These strategies support the need to expand theoretical conceptualizations and use of dialogic principles to study online communication.

Findings offer practical strategies for practitioners managing organizations’ Twitter communication to foster engagement. In particular, practitioners should consider organizational context and subsequent content advantages.

Findings offer practical and theoretical contributions to the debate of interactivity.

The chapter presents the implementation of ethics education via challenge-based learning (CBL) in three European settings. At TU Eindhoven (the Netherlands), a mandatory first-year User, Society, and Enterprise course on the ethics and history of technology offers a CBL alternative on ethics and data analytics in collaboration with internal student and research teams. The University of Lübeck (Germany) initiated the project CREATE – Challenge-based Learning for Robotics Students by Engaging Start-Ups in Technology Ethics, which enables 60 students in Robotics and Autonomous Systems to integrate ethical and societal considerations into technological development processes, in cooperation with start-ups from a local accelerator. In Spain, CBI-Fusion Point brings together 40 students from business and law (ESADE), engineering and technology (Polytechnic University of Catalonia), and design (IED Barcelona Design University) for an innovation course focused on the application of CERN-developed technologies to real-world problems. The chapter documents the process of setting up three CBL courses that engage students with grand societal topics which require the integration of ethical concerns from the design stage of technological development. The authors also reflect on the challenges of teaching ethics via CBL and the lessons they learned by delivering experiential learning activities rooted in real-life challenges and contexts marked by high epistemic uncertainty. The contribution reflects the transition to remote teaching and presents strategies employed to enhance online communication and collaboration. The chapter thus provides guidance for instructors interested in teaching ethics via CBL and recommends further lines for action and research.

The social nature of the Web 2.0 environment creates marketing opportunities via shared learning through online exchange of views. Web 2.0 creates opportunities and poses challenges for, amongst other things, the management of education and business reputation. This paper aims to look at Web 2.0 and explore the uses to which it might be put in furthering entrepreneurship education in general and education business links in particular. It seeks to describe, explain and analyse the use of Web 2.0 as a marketing communication and educational tool that can add value to existing links between education and business in the UK education system.

Issues around entrepreneurship education and education business links are explored in relation to the social web (Web 2.0) online marketing environment. The paper offers an indication of the uses to which schools, colleges and universities put the social web. It looks at how businesses use Web 2.0 to market and communicate with their education stakeholders about a range of issues. In the social web the rights, duties, obligations, needs and expectations of different stakeholders compete, conflict with and complement one another. Web 2.0 offers scope and space to enhance entrepreneurship education, teaching, learning and assessment. It is a tool that can add value to entrepreneurship education provision and delivery.

The paper explores how businesses and education providers (schools, colleges and universities) position themselves to build effective, efficient and productive relationships in the era of Web 2.0. It looks at how businesses, especially small businesses, might communicate and position their offering through this medium with schools, colleges and universities as well as with their own customers, consumers and other stakeholders to add value, build brand and enhance reputation. Information and misinformation in the Web 2.0 environment are an issue that needs to be addressed in order to engage with and limit potential reputational damage. Used appropriately, Web 2.0 provides opportunities for new forms of stakeholder engagement and can be an efficient and effective tool for communication in as well as across the business and education sectors. In helping develop education business links Web 2.0 is a tool that can further entrepreneurship education through use in action learning environments. It serves as a distribution vehicle for sourcing and accessing information.

The paper develops knowledge, grows understanding and offers new insights into online education business communication practices and web brand management. It adds to and brings together academic debates in the areas of entrepreneurship education and social media. Online communities of interest use Web 2.0 to discuss, debate, network, and influence. They seek to lobby as well as shape and form opinion across the political and business spectrum. A model is developed to explain and account for the growth of knowledge through education and business in the Web 2.0 arena. As a communication platform Web 2.0 services the free flow, exchange and distribution of information. It can help build brand value and is an important innovative marketing tool for both education and business.

This study explores the levels of Facebook engagement of the two largest Europe-based shipping lines, Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), to discover the marketing orientation of the topics advertised and to ascertain whether they tend to be about brand recognition, new transport services, or value propositions for stakeholders.

The Facebook posts of Maersk and MSC were analysed using social media text mining and social network analysis (SNA); in- and out-degree centrality analysis was performed to determine the key terms in their posts. NetMiner software was used to collect the respective data on Maersk and MSC. The inquiry period was set between May 2020 and February 2021.

The results indicated a divergence in their post contents, with higher engagement and a wider, more active follower base for MSC than for Maersk. Maersk primarily posts about logistics services and supply chain solutions. MSC communicates about new and large container vessels. Both companies seek greater brand recognition and information sharing through social media.

These results can be used by the stakeholders to evaluate whether Maersk and MSC truly deliver on their respective value propositions communicated online through their social media engagement. It can also help Maersk and MSC gauge the level of effectiveness of their communication with stakeholders and modify their digital engagement strategy accordingly.

This study aims to explore the strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value for the corporate entity and the society in which they operate and their influence on the corporate manager’s cognitive abilities and decision-making.

The authors used an interpretive research approach leveraging the strengths of qualitative method of content analysis and comparative and critical analyses to report the results. Interpretive methods incorporate social theories and standpoints that view reality as the social construction of understandable events in the context of organizational communication.

The findings of this study suggest that corporations are assumed to follow and execute the principles of engaging stakeholders to achieve corporate social responsibility (CSR) claiming to manage a sustainable and responsible business practices that recognize local cultures, human rights and protect the environment. However, little attention has been paid to the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and corporate sustainability (CS) as opposed to the growing concerns about strategies corporations use in engaging stakeholders to sustain healthy corporate partnerships and create value – especially the processes that take place during engagement and decision-making including cognitive offloading.

Stakeholder engagement requires practical approaches that enable corporations and individuals charged with decision-making responsibilities to understand, respond and fulfill their CSRs. To achieve CSRs, corporations and managers responsible for relevant decision-making would need to involve stakeholders in social performance planning, as social reporting/auditing has long been advocating for preventing managerial biasness, groupthink and increased information dissemination via detailed reporting practices toward more collaborative stakeholder relationships. Thus, it is crucial for corporations to implement enhanced stakeholder and managerial decision-making strategies such as integrative approaches to achieve balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for innovative approach to resolving them. While cognitive decision-making is at play, in practice, managers tasked with making decisions must ensure the most effective stakeholder engagement strategies that are transparent and inclusive are used.

The main contribution of this study is its argument regarding the tools corporations use in engaging key stakeholders and the cognitive reasoning of the individuals responsible for CSR and CS. The study further contributes to interpreting the integrative approach to achieving balance in the trio elements of sustainability as well as the growing use of paradox perspective to understand the nature of the tensions being sought to balance and, in the process, provide an opportunity for a better evaluation of complex sustainability issues for an innovative approach to resolving them.