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Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere

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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.

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  1. Institute for Media and Communications Management, University of St. Gallen, Blumenbergplatz 9, CH-9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Christian Fieseler, Matthes Fleck & Miriam Meckel

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  1. Christian Fieseler
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  2. Matthes Fleck
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  3. Miriam Meckel
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Correspondence to Christian Fieseler.

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Fieseler, C., Fleck, M. & Meckel, M. Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere. J Bus Ethics 91, 599–614 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0135-8

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