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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the third special issue on corporate social responsibility communication (CSRCom). In this editorial, the authors take the opportunity to share the latest knowledge, research and insights on CSRCom as presented at the third International CSR Communication Conference held in Ljubljana 17-19 September 2015.

Many efforts have been made to map the research field of CSRCom. Two major ontological streams seem to stand out in CSRCom research: functionalism vs constructivism. In this editorial, the authors describe each of them, address the factors which contributed to their implementation within the CSRCom field and provide a rationale for bridging the two approaches.

The papers selected for the issue demonstrate that recent studies of CSRCom are anchored both in functionalism and constructivism but that the attention towards using CSRCom in organisational processes of collaboration and networking is growing. This growth is aligned to the changes in the wider social environment. In this editorial, the authors are bridging both approaches and relating them to the most recent developments in CSR and CSRCom.

This paper concludes that a growing body of empirical studies contributes to an increased understanding of how both functionalistic and constitutive perspectives are relevant and provide key insights for communication managers. It also accentuates the idea that the ability to expand the understanding of CSRCom from that of a means to an end to one, according to which communication represents an important end/goal in itself, that can play a crucial role in dealing with the growing complexity of CSR processes.

Employer branding (EB) has become a powerful tool for organizations to attract employees. Recruitment communication ideally reveals the image that companies want to portray to potential employees to attract talents with the right skills and competences for the organization. This study explores the impact of EB on employer attractiveness by testing how pre-existing employee preferences interact with EB and how this interaction affects employer attractiveness.

A quasi-experiment among 289 final-year students was used to test the relationships between EB, perceived employer image, person-organization (P-O) fit and employer attractiveness, and the potential moderating variables of pre-existing preferences, in this case operationalized as locational preferences. Students are randomly assigned to four vacancies: one with and one without EB cues in two different locations: Groningen and Amsterdam. The authors used standard scales for attractiveness, perceptions of an employer and person-organization fit. The authors test the relationships using a regression analysis.

Results suggest that if respondents have previous predispositions, then their preference can be enhanced using an EB-targeted strategy. Based on these results, the authors can conclude that EB and related practices can be successful avenues for organizations in the war for talent, particularly if they reaffirm previous preferences of potential employees.

The research is original in the way it provides empirical evidence on the relationship between EB and attractiveness, particularly when previous employee preferences exist. This is of value to employers using EB as a tool to influence employer attractiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and measure employees' perception of actual and desired corporate ethical values as a component of corporate identity within a major UK financial institution, against a comparison with their employees' own individual ethical values.

The multi‐method case study uses a mix of secondary data analysis, key interviews and 245 employee questionnaires. The financial institution is selected as it is identified as being in the process of instigating what may be termed a “monolithic” corporate branding strategy while using a “top down” communication approach across its various operations in the UK.

The paper shows that employees' perceive managements' ideal identity to be significantly different to the operational reality that “is” the company, especially in relation to ethical values. These gaps also vary between major divisions within the organisation, as well as between differing staffing levels, adding empirical support to existing theories that corporate identity and corporate brand management will need to take into account many sub‐cultures within any large organisation, as well as the individual values of its employees, and that a top down communication programme that fails to take this into consideration will face many difficulties.

This empirical based case study research focuses upon a comparison between internal perceptions of actual and ideal corporate values as part of the corporate identity, in comparison to employees' own individual values has been largely overlooked within the corporate identity and branding literatures to date.

This chapter explores how various organizations are engaging millennials in the energy transition. In the climate accord from Paris, almost all countries in the world agreed upon reducing greenhouse gasses, so climate change will be limited. In order to do so, we do need to cut down on our use of fossil fuels and we do need to alter our behaviour. In this chapter, we study how organizations are engaging with young people, often referred to as millennials on this subject. Millennials are seen as digital natives, and they grew up with digital communication. Do organizations engage millennials in this energy transition and engage them in a way that millennials do communicate? Our study showed that, with a few exceptions, organizations do not use interactive media and elements that millennials use, and in this, do not engage millennials to join in the energy transition. We give some suggestions on how organizations can engage millennials to a larger extent.