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Corporate Relations with Environmental Organizations Represented by Hyperlinks on the Fortune Global 500 Companies’ Websites

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Abstract

This study investigates corporate relationships with environmental organizations by examining hyperlinks in the corporate environmental responsibility (CER) sections of the Fortune 2008 Global 500 corporate websites. It is assumed that hyperlinked organizations either represent their current inter-organizational relationship or create symbolic relationships among organizations. Results show that Asian companies have fewer hyperlink relations with other organizations compared with those in North America and Western Europe. Network analysis also confirms that U.S. companies are explicitly connected with stakeholders for CER practices, and governmental organizations have a relatively central role in the global CER system. Nonprofit organizations are the most frequently hyperlinked with Fortune Global 500 corporations.

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Abbreviations

CSR:

Corporate social responsibility

CER:

Corporate environmental responsibility

NPO:

Nonprofit organization

IGO:

Intergovernmental organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, 359 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY, 14260, USA

    Daejoong Kim & Yoonjae Nam

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  1. Daejoong Kim
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  2. Yoonjae Nam
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Correspondence to Yoonjae Nam.

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Kim, D., Nam, Y. Corporate Relations with Environmental Organizations Represented by Hyperlinks on the Fortune Global 500 Companies’ Websites. J Bus Ethics 105, 475–487 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0980-0

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