Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere

Christian Fieseler, Matthes Fleck, Miriam Meckel

Journal of Business Ethics · 2010 · Volume 91 · Issue 4

Abstract

This paper uses social network analysis to examine the interaction between corporate blogs devoted to sustainability issues and the blogosphere, a clustered online network of collaborative actors. By analyzing the structural embeddedness of a prototypical blog in a virtual community, we show the potential of online platforms to document corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and to engage with an increasingly socially and ecologically aware stakeholder base. The results of this study show that stakeholder involvement via sustainability blogs is a valuable new practice for CSR communications and stakeholder engagement. It also opens new horizons for communicating CSR issues to key constituencies online.

Keywords

corporate communications, corporate social responsibility, corporate weblogs, social networks, stakeholder communication

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