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Corporations communicate CSR policies through a variety of methods, and the goal of the study is to explore young adult consumers’ communication preferences and the implications for managers to effectively communicate CSR to boost their corporate brand image and reputation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Set within the context of the UK supermarket industry, the study adopts a qualitative research approach and a purposeful sampling method, collecting data from 30 young adult consumers in the south-east of the UK. The data collection method used was online bulletin board focus groups, face-to-face focus groups, face-to-face interviews and an online questionnaire. Research propositions are developed, evaluated and synthesized into a conceptual framework.

The findings show that interactive CSR communication functions as an effective method of improving consumers’ emotional brand value, knowledge and memory of supermarket CSR. The findings have the potential to induce a more positive perception by young adults of supermarket CSR corporate brand image and reputation.

The implications for theory development are in the under-researched area of interactive CSR communication.

The research provides practical strategic recommendations regarding effective communications to help guide managers in their planning and execution of their CSR endeavours.

The research provides new empirical insights into theory and knowledge of interactive CSR communication and how supermarkets can communicate CSR in a manner, which is appealing and engaging for young adult consumers, therefore more likely to strengthen their perception of a supermarket corporate brand image and reputation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential of digital displays to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and sustainable consumption by more specifically informing consumers on the origin and sustainability of products.

An experimental field study was conducted in the Supermarket of the Future at the World Expo where sustainability information was displayed on interactive screens. There were three experimental groups: supermarket visitors who were put in a sustainability mind-set, supermarket visitors without a sustainability mind-set activation and non-visitors.

Store visitors extensively used the interactive displays, they intent to behave more sustainable in the future, and act more sustainable outside the food domain. Sustainability information through digital displays thus triggers consumers to think more about environmental concerns. Consumers who were activated to process sustainability information before entering the supermarket, show increased interest in the innovative shopping concept. Strong evidence that the increased interest translates into more sustainable consumer choices in the supermarket itself is lacking.

The authors obtain insight in consumer use of sustainability information presented on interactive displays in a retail environment and how this in turn affects behaviour. The study reveals that consumers can successfully be motivated to become more sustainable through interactive displays.

The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of consumer engagement with supermarkets' social media accounts. Drawing on regulatory fit theory and social sharing of emotions theory, the authors test if the content posted on the social media brand pages of supermarkets dealing with a topic of high social relevance, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, stimulates social media consumer engagement and if and how the engagement is mediated by the arousal of positive and negative emotions.

The authors retrieved data from the Facebook accounts of the top 20 European supermarkets identified in the Deloitte 2020 Global Powers of Retailing report during the first wave of the pandemic from 1 March to 30 June 2020, collecting a sample of 2,524 posts from 8 different countries. After a content analysis to classify COVID-19 content, the authors applied the Baron and Kenny (1986) methodology to verify the hypothesised relationships.

The findings highlight a positive direct relationship between the social relevance of a topic (COVID-19) and social media consumer engagement mediated by the arousal of positive and negative emotions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest empirical research using Facebook data to investigate the role of the social relevance of content as an antecedent of social media consumer engagement with a specific focus on supermarkets. The paper contributes to the stream of social media literature investigating the antecedents of social media engagement behaviour, exploring the role of topics' choice and aroused emotions, which to date are both under-investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to explore changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in food, soft drinks and packaging industries to capture changes in CSR implementation given increased environmental activism. The paper takes an exploratory approach in reviewing CSR policy changes to explore to what extent companies change CSR policies with increased environmentalism.

A comparative website analysis was used to analyse CSR policies of companies in the food, soft drinks and packaging industries in the UK. The companies were selected for the analysis based on their annual turnover and 23 companies were analysed (seven for the soft drinks industry, eight for the food industry and eight for packaging industry). Five interviews were conducted with packaging and retail professionals, and the findings were analysed by using thematic analysis, which captured trends in responses.

The findings show that companies are implementing and communicating CSR policies heavily focussed on reducing the environmental impact of their work and matching social debates on human rights, with which traditional CSR policies (corporate governance, supporting local communities and consultation with stakeholders) are fading away. Instead, companies have shifted attention towards the gender pay gap, modern slavery and extensive environmentalism. The interviews with packaging professionals and CSR managers from the retail industry show that the packaging industry designs CSR policies in line with requests from supermarkets, which are, in turn, influenced by consumer activism.

This paper shows the circular relationship between media coverage, consumer activism, which comes as a result, and the impact and changes this brings to the industry. To avoid reputation damage, companies should closely follow media debates to pre-empty consumer criticism and activism.

The findings show that companies are “mirroring the zeitgast” and going with trends to meet consumer expectations, which brings into question the sincerity of CSR policies and revives the criticism of capitalism and raises a question whether CSR is used by companies as a smokescreen that on the outset makes a difference to the society but keeps status quo intact.

The paper provides an insight into CSR implementation of three industries that faced heavy criticism from campaigners and the general public for their environmental impact. The paper shows how the CSR policy shifted to match this expectation and thus provides a good ground for studying the evolution of CSR using a case study from three selected industries.

The purpose of the study is to conceptualize the model of the predictors of consumer willingness to purchase green products. This study used the underpinning theories related to consumer willingness by integrating the green concept in deriving the consumer willingness to purchase green products. Based on the underpinning theories of marketing strategies, it was found that marketing mix was still fundamental in business. Therefore, green marketing mix was proposed to describe the consumer's green purchase willingness. Furthermore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays an important role as the key to organizational strategy. Thus, CSR is also included in the proposed framework. As this is a conceptual paper, further empirical study needs to carry out to verify the proposed hypotheses. This study contributes to the market practitioners or entrepreneurs in terms of re-considering marketing mix and CSR in deriving customer willingness to purchase green products. This study extends the literature of behavioural intention by integrating green marketing strategies with CSR in determining consumer willingness to purchase.

A growing number of research report positive effects of gamification, that is the introduction of game elements to non-game contexts, on stakeholder intentions and behaviors. Hence, gamification is proposed as an effective tool for organizations to educate their stakeholders about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability-related topics. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors ask whether gamification can communicate matters of social and environmental concern. Based on three consecutive experimental studies, the authors show that there are boundary conditions to the effectiveness of gamified communication on stakeholder attitude, intention and behavior.

The authors find positive, negative and insignificant effects of gamification on pro-environmental attitude, intention and behavior. Based on these ambiguous results, the authors conclude with a call for more rigorous forms of designing gamified experiences to foster stakeholder learning and highlight and develop several such future research and engagement opportunities.

The study is the first to apply gamification to the context of corporate and in particular CSR communication. It is furthermore one of the first studies that actually research the effects of gamification empirically, and in controlled experimental conditions.

This paper aims to offer a preliminary case study exploration of the corporate social responsibility issues being addressed and reported by the top ten global retailers.

The paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics and origins of CSR and this is followed by an illustrative examination of the CSR issue publicly reported by the top ten global retailers. The paper draws its empirical material from the CSR reports and information posted on the Worldwide web by these retailers.

The findings reveal that each of the retailers has its own approach to CSR and that there are substantial variations in the nature and the extent of reporting. More specifically the paper focuses upon four sets of CSR issues, namely those relating to the environment; the marketplace; the workplace; and the community, and on the measurement of CSR performance.

Retailers are paying growing attention to CSR and the case study suggests a number of fertile grounds for future enquiry and research. That said, the current case is a preliminary exploration of CSR issues as reported on the Worldwide web and more in‐depth work will be needed before more definitive conclusions can be drawn.

The paper provides an accessible review of the CSR issues and agendas being reported by the top ten global retailers and as such it will interest academics and those working in management positions within the retail industry.

Retailers recently have started communicating their corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments to their consumers directly on social media. That is to say, CSR communication has expanded to social media that allow two-way communication, distinct from traditional CSR communication channels. As transparency has been recognised as a crucial factor influencing the effectiveness of traditional CSR communication, this study investigated its role in the social media context.

A two-level, single-factor (i.e. transparency of a mock retail company's CSR communication) between-subjects experimental design was employed, and 237 responses from an online survey were used for PROCESS macroanalysis.

Transparent CSR communication was found to increase the consumers' perceived CSR credibility and attitude toward the company, which influenced consumers' subsequent purchase intention (functionalistic outcome) and intention to respond to the CSR communication (constitutive outcome). The results of the study also corroborated that consumers' level of elaboration when processing CSR communication on social media depends upon their level of concern over the social issue.

The study extends the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to CSR communication in the social media context by validating that consumers' level of information elaboration is determined by their level of concern over the social issue. In addition, it provides the first empirical support for the significance of transparent CSR communication on social media and explains the mechanism of transparency's influence. Transparency indirectly affects consumers' behavioural intentions by forming a favourable attitude toward a retailer. The findings can help retail practitioners communicate CSR commitments persuasively on social media. The study also integrates functionalistic and constitutive perspectives of social media CSR communication, which is notable and discussed in depth.

The chapter aims to bridge theory-practice by proposing an in-depth examination of three cases of companies accused of greenwashing, namely Volkswagen for Dieselgate, Nestlè and Golden Agri-Resources (a palm oil plantation company included in DJSI). The chapter thus reflects on deliberate communicative practices and organisational processes that lie beyond the most visible manifestations of greenwashing. Drawing on these cases, common communication errors and practices of corporate misconduct in corporate sustainability are disclosed. Readers, such as practitioners, who are not interested in academic mechanisms and more in the practical effects of the phenomenon can appreciate the analysis of the cases linked with the presentation of a series of principles and guidelines. Managerial solutions to contrast the different types of greenwashing risks, and to reduce associated negative effects on corporate image and reputation, are presented.