JSR

Stakeholder engagement has been an important research topic across many disciplines. In this study, we examined the concept of stakeholder engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and identified how organizations engage stakeholders in their CSR communication by analyzing successful CSR programs. Two coders conducted a content analysis of 146 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award-winning CSR campaigns implemented during the past ten years. The results show that many organizations have engaged stakeholders in their CSR programs in various ways to increase awareness about social issues, change stakeholder behavior, and create favorable attitudes toward the organizations. As for CSR communication strategies, stakeholder response strategies were frequently observed, which is relevant to the two-way asymmetric communication model. Many organizations receive feedback from their stakeholders and demonstrate how they integrate their stakeholders’ concerns. The result also shows that social media is widely used for digital engagement. However, despite its potential to become an interactive, dialogic space, response strategy is used more often than involvement strategy. Although co-creating a CSR strategy with stakeholders and making a shared decision (i.e., stakeholder involvement strategy) is ideal for building a mutually beneficial relationship between an organization and its stakeholders, few organizations have employed this strategy. This study also found that partnership is a common stakeholder engagement strategy in CSR communication. Many organizations have used third-party endorsement and engaged nonprofits, opinion leaders, and social media influencers in their CSR communication.

corporate social responsibility (CSR); CSR communication; engagement in CSR; PRSA Silver Anvil Award; stakeholder engagement