Conveying Sustainability: Product-Related CSR Communication in Social Media
(A2023-114193)

AUTHORS

Judith Derenthal, Georg-August-University Göttingen; Robert Nickerson, San Francisco State University; Waldemar Toporowski, University of Goettingen

ABSTRACT

As sustainable products become increasingly important to consumers firms have started to include product-related Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contents into their social media communication. Although there is research on CSR communication in social media, the specific effects of product-related CSR in contrast to general CSR communication have been widely neglected by research. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify which aspects to consider in product-related CSR communication in social media. To achieve this goal, we apply an established taxonomy development method with three iterations. The resulting taxonomy consists of three parts: general communication dimensions, social media specific dimensions and dimensions specific to product-related CSR content. The taxonomy helps future research and practitioners to better understand which product-related CSR communication characteristics are important to consider as they influence consumer behaviors.