Sheng Yuan
2 articles-
Which Topic Category Is More Engaging on Chinese Corporations’ Facebook Accounts: Corporate Ability or Corporate Social Responsibility? ↗
Abstract
<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background</b>: Corporations are increasingly leveraging social media to communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and corporate ability (CA) messages. Concurrently, the overseas expansion of Chinese corporations is significantly affecting global environmental sustainability and CSR practices. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Literature review:</b> Drawing upon the conceptual framework of stakeholder engagement proposed by Kujala et al., this study measures the engagement effects of specific CSR/CA topics communicated by Chinese corporations on Facebook. Although previous research has compared the effectiveness of CSR and CA topics, it has resulted in a lack of consistent findings on which specific CSR/CA topics spark more responses from stakeholders. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. Which CSR/CA topics are likely to generate the higher amount of public engagement (measured by the count of likes, shares, and comments) on social media? 2. Which CSR/CA topics are likely to elicit comments with the most positive tone on social media? 3. Does the tone of corporate posts correlate with that of the public comments that they evoke? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research methodology:</b> Using content and sentiment analysis, this study examined 11,628 corporate posts and 235,976 fan comments on the Facebook accounts of 34 large Chinese corporations to investigate the influence of message topics and emotions on public responses. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results:</b> The results indicated that CA topics elicited more responses than CSR topics did, but public comments on the latter were more favorable. Among the CSR topics, “public health commitment” generated the most responses, and “supporting cultural/sport events” received the most favorable comments. “Industry leadership” generated more favorable comments than other CA topics did. Overall, topics differed significantly in terms of the number of responses and the tone of comments that they yielded. The tone of CSR posts was positively correlated with the tone of the ensuing public comments, but such a relationship was not observed with CA posts. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> Corporations should constantly scrutinize stakeholder responses to different topics posted on their social media accounts and adjust topic proportions accordingly to optimize communication outcomes. Scholars can enrich theories of Western roots through Eastern perspectives by studying how Chinese corporations communicate messages globally.
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Comparing International Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility by Chinese and Korean Firms on Social Media ↗
Abstract
Background: More and more multinational corporations (MNCs) based in East Asia are adopting international social media to communicate messages on corporate social responsibility (CSR), but little research has investigated their content qualitatively. Literature review: I reviewed the literature related to the convergence and divergence of corporate behaviors under the framework of the institutional theory. Comparative studies on web-based CSR communication (CSRC) were also addressed, and CSR development in China and Korea was described as the research context to develop hypotheses and research questions. Research questions: 1. How do Chinese and Korean CSRCs resemble each other in international social media? 2. What are the differences between Chinese and Korean CSRCs in international social media? Research methodology: I selected six Chinese companies and six Korean firms from the 2019 Forbes 2000 world's-largest-corporations ranking, and analyzed the content of their English-language Facebook accounts using “Leximancer,” a powerful textual analysis software package. Results: Results indicated that the CSR messages of Chinese and Korean firms resembled each other at a macrolevel but differed at a microlevel. In addition, the CSR messages of Chinese companies were more likely to reflect national strategic agendas, while Korean firms placed greater emphasis on short-term events and legal compliance. Conclusions: Chinese and Korean corporations have adopted an approach of “global topics, native framing” in their CSRCs to achieve a balance between internal and external legitimacy.