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The current study examined companies' use of social media platforms for CSR communication during the pandemic lockdown. We examined 1768 companies' posts on Weibo and tested how the content and the features of the posts influenced retweets and likes. We used "fit" to describe a circumstance where an outside factor made a certain business more capable to alleviate the situation. We defined it as high in the perceived firm-situation fit. Results showed that for high-fit companies, the inclusion of pandemic content and CSR had a significant positive effect on retweets, while for low-fit companies, pandemic content hurt the number of retweets; the CSR factor did not influence retweets. The inclusion of CSR information had a significant positive effect on likes for both high-fit and low-fit companies. The results indicated that consumers have more moral expectations of high-fit companies to provide help during the pandemic lockdown. Moreover, increased interactivity has a significant positive effect on retweets and likes. Drawing from these results, practical suggestions on how to use social media platforms for future CSR communication to promote social good were also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the electric power industry through a thematic analysis of corporate communications. As AI technologies proliferate, industries—such as the electric power industry—are undergoing significant transformations. The research problem addressed in this study involves understanding how electric power companies perceive, adopt, and implement AI, as well as the implications of these developments. By employing a qualitative thematic analysis approach, we examined a corpus of corporate communications from innovation leaders, including annual reports and sustainability reports, in the electric power sector. The data spanned 2020 to 2023, capturing a crucial period of AI integration in the industry. Our analysis reveals several key findings. Firstly, there is a clear trend toward increased utilization of AI in various facets of the electric power sector, including grid management, predictive maintenance, and customer service. Companies actively invest in AI technologies to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve service quality. Secondly, the corporate discourse has shifted significantly, with companies emphasizing AI's role in sustainability efforts. Moreover, our analysis identified challenges and concerns associated with AI adoption in the electric power industry. In conclusion, the thematic analysis of corporate communications provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of AI in the electric power industry. The findings underscore the transformative potential of AI technologies, highlighting opportunities for enhanced efficiency and sustainability. However, they also emphasize addressing challenges to ensure responsible and beneficial AI integration. This study contributes to the growing literature on AI in industries, offering practical implications for electric power companies, policymakers, and stakeholders navigating the AI-driven future of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Arts & Social Sciences (JASS) is the property of Sultan Qaboos University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study explores student perception and identification with cobranded HEIs in the UK. Due to the success of many international partnerships, domestic academic partnerships have increased tremendously in the UK. However, little is known about student perception and identification with cobranded HEIs in local academic partnerships such as in the UK. Semi-structured interviews are conducted to explore student perception of cobranded HEIs in the UK. Thematic analysis using QSR NVivo 12 is employed. Findings indicate factors that determine students’ relationship with cobranded HEIs in the UK. Interview findings were shared with five academic experts to subjectively validate them for future empirical investigations. Theoretically, the study contributes to cobranding in higher education and corporate branding literature by showcasing the factors that influence students’ decision to enrol in cobranded HEIs. Based on identified factors, academic managers can devise a marketing strategy to achieve competitive advantage, increase student recruitment and retain existing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Erciyes Communication / Erciyes İletişim Dergisi is the property of Erciyes University, Faculty of Communication / Erciyes Universitesi Iletism Fakultesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study aims to conceptualize, rethink and systematize methods used for measurement and evaluation (M&E) corporate communication. Design/methodology/approach: The reflection is based on 462 key English-language books and papers devoted to M&E in the fields of corporate communication and public relations from the 1970th to 2023. Keywords in the titles and abstracts found the necessary materials. A critical analysis of the central concepts, models and methods described in the literature was conducted. As a result, a new model that unifies and structures the M&E toolkit is proposed for discussion. Findings: Despite the significant contribution to developing a wide range of M&E models, they are still not perfect and universal. In addition, this system of approaches is continuously self-evolving and changing under the influence of digital innovations, so it requires steady rethinking and updating. On the other hand, most previous studies focused on communication management processes, losing focus on communication aspects. This led to the need for an alternative view based on proven theories to fill this gap. The proposed model combines quantitative and qualitative M&E methods for the five main components of corporate communication (communicator, audience, content, channels and result), covering a wide range of tools, from statistical and sociological research to big data analysis and neuro research. Originality/value: This work contributes to developing the M&E theory of corporate communication, systematizing existing methods and opening new research perspectives. From a practical point of view, companies can use the presented approach for a more accurate and objective internal evaluation of the main components of corporate communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private and public companies, as well as public authorities and governments, resort to corporate communication to build trust relationships with their stakeholders and, in this way, reinforce their corporate brands. However, they face different challenges including social transformations and cultural changes. This study evaluates how the FIFA World Cup 2022 impacted Qatar's brand. To do that, we conducted a review of the literature about corporate communication and nation branding, and then, we carried out a quantitative content analysis of how the leading newspapers in the world's most influential countries (United States, China, United Kingdom, France, and Germany) covered this event from a corporate communication perspective. These newspapers were selected based on highest circulation. The results from the analysis showed that media companies from France were the ones making more references to Qatar's History (59); journalists from the United States were the most interested in the Qatar Brand (14); and British newspapers were the ones who published more content about the FIFA World Cup 2022 brand (53). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of integrated corporate communications can be challenging for organizations owing to three main requirements: (i) genuinely committing with corporate social responsibility (CSR) beyond product profitability, (ii) effectively integrating the UN 2030 Agenda, and (iii) meeting the expectations of a wide variety of stakeholders, particularly those belonging to the younger generations. Generation Z is a particularly relevant generation marked by a context of ongoing technological, information, and social changes, as well as financial, pandemic, and war crises. The objective of this study is to analyze how the ethical, environmental, social, and labor responsibilities of the most reputed Spanish organizations are perceived by different generations, with a special focus on Generation Z. To do so, a nationwide survey was conducted among Spanish adults (N = 5,087) and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was applied to identify dissimilarities across generations. Findings show that Generation Z assesses CSR dimensions more positively than the other three generations. Also, women of the two older generations (Boomers and Generation X) assess CSR dimensions more positively than men, while there are no significant gender differences in Millennials and Generation Z. From a Generation Theory perspective, these findings represent a turning point in the theoretical rationale that correlates age with the acceptance of organizations' labor and social commitment. From a Stakeholder Theory perspective, since this study is conducted on the most reputed Spanish organizations, reputation can be hypothesized to be a mediating variable when it comes to engaging with younger generations within the integrated communication paradigm. Although it is important to note that our study did not investigate the underlying reasons for these differences in perception, our findings demonstrate that generational and gender differences in CSR perception exist and that companies should take this into account when developing and communicating their CSR programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability has become the prevailing paradigm, a model of conduct, and a central theme in social and media discourses within the past decade. However, it is still a marginal development concept in the interdisciplinary research field dealing with sustainability communication, especially with meaning-making processes in relevant communicative, for example, in corporate and industry contexts. This paper focuses on how the idea of sustainability is framed, anchored, and disseminated in energy companies' communication via social media channels and how the linguistic methods used by energy corporations concerning sustainability co-create their symbolic value. Specifically, this study has aimed to understand how the sustainability topic was discussed in the Twitter sphere of the most prominent energy companies in 2020. This study makes a three-fold contribution to sustainable research and practice. First, the study identifies the framing structure of sustainability content in social media communication in the energy sector. Secondly, the study identifies social media data as a viable source of sustainability conceptualization and its understanding through communication. Finally, this study illustrates how text mining and natural language processing (NLP) can be used as a research method for managing big text data and a tool for discovering latent communication structures. Sustainability is present and visible in the communication of the energy industry identified by (1) the semantic construction of phrases in communication that show a future, green, and clean orientation, but it is also strongly declarative, referring to what will be and can be done, and with positive emotions related to the communicated messages; and (2) decoupling from climate change and thus avoiding the industry's responsibility for the impact of global warming but promising clean, sustainable energy transformation and to avoid negative emotional connotation. However, one gets the impression that it takes on the character of a rhetorical art form related to the concept of decorum. In this view, the idea of sustainability is interpreted and shaped through the needs of the industry and as a rhetorical tool in building a positive narrative about companies and is used to gain legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The communication of social commitment and sustainability is of renewed interest given the social challenges that pressure societies, companies and institutions at a global level. Although the Sustainable Development Goals were approved in 2015, the coronavirus pandemic has fuelled issues linked to the environment, health and inequality(ies) in the media, public opinion and business and institutional agendas. This article reviews the knowledge generated on this wide-ranging topic in a multifocal analysis organized into two main axes: first, the scientific knowledge provided on the social responsibility/sustainability strategies of corporate actors; secondly, that relating to citizen movements, media discourses/media coverage and social networks. The results indicate that this is an area of growing interest (very pronounced in recent years), where there is no defining consensus and there is a wide range of subtopics that are difficult to narrow down. In the business field, the focus has been on the confusion between sustainability and CSR in information-oriented studies based on company statements and reports. In the area of social participation, it is essential to make difficulties and violence of all kinds visible, although they are also the responsibility of the media. We continue to see threats that pose historical problems, such as class, ethnic and gender inequalities; the economic and health crises; and the climate emergency. They are threats that have become chronic in this 21st century. It is concluded that the field needs to mature in terms of definition and delimitation of concepts, practical approaches and storydoing. In this way, we will move from a stage of awareness to another of compliance with goals and objectives for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic led hospitals to work differently regarding legal procedures and eHealth services and brought a changing and fluctuating healthcare environment that affected communication among clinicians, patients, and families. These organizations were forced to make their corporate communication initiatives more efficient and interact with stakeholders differently, especially with patients and media companies. This paper aims to understand better hospitals' main corporate communication initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic. We show that the most important communication initiatives implemented by hospitals during the COVID-19 outbreak were related to the following main areas: a) professional management of corporate communication, b) transparency, c) human values, d) hospital's brand, and e) online corporate communication. During the pandemic, there was a lack of professional corporate communication in hospitals and the need to execute more than merely conservative communication strategies. There is a solid need to make hospitals' corporate communication initiatives more professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitals use different technological tools to implement corporate communication initiatives and, in this way, improve their relationships with stakeholders (employees, patients, media companies) and build a reputed brand. However, they face different barriers: limited budgets for corporate communication, strict legal frameworks, and stakeholders’ new needs regarding information and emotional support. This paper aims to analyze how the 100 best hospitals in the United States manage smart technologies to promote their brand. To do that, we conducted a literature review about smart hospitals, branding, and corporate communication; and then we defined 34 quantitative indicators to evaluate how the hospitals previously mentioned managed their websites, online newsrooms, about us sections, and artificial intelligence department web sites for reputation purposes. Our results proved that most hospitals respected indicators related to the homepage (8.67/11) but not those referring to online newsrooms (4.44/11) or about us sections (2.66/6). Besides, only 23 hospitals had implemented a department specialized in artificial intelligence that collaborated with external organizations. We concluded that most American hospitals focused their reputation efforts on patients rather than other targets (media companies, employees, suppliers, shareholders); and that these organizations did not integrate enough artificial intelligence projects into their smart branding initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Arts & Social Sciences (JASS) is the property of Sultan Qaboos University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hospitals resort to different initiatives to build their brands, including media relations, events, and marketing campaigns. However, they face several challenges related to legal frameworks, patients’ new demands, and hospitals’ digital transformation. This paper analyzes how the best hospitals in France manage smart technologies to enhance their relationships with stakeholders and reinforce their brands. We resorted to the World’s Best Hospitals 2023 to identify the 150 best hospitals in this country. Then, we defined 34 branding indicators to evaluate how each hospital managed smart technologies for branding purposes. We adapted these criteria to different platforms and targets: homepage (patients), online newsroom (media companies), About Us section (suppliers, shareholders, and public authorities), and artificial intelligence department (employees). When analyzing these criteria, we resorted to a binary system and only considered hospitals’ official websites. Our results proved that 98% of hospitals had a website, but not all respected the criteria related to the homepage (4.54 of 11), online newsroom (2.52 of 11), or About Us section (1.56 of 6). The best hospitals in France, according to the number of criteria respected, were Institut Curie-Oncology (20), Institut Gustave Roussy–Oncology (19), and Hôpital Paris Saint-Joseph (19). We concluded that French hospitals should implement collective branding processes that include all stakeholders, not just patients: media companies, public authorities, suppliers, shareholders, and employees. Moreover, these organizations should implement an in-house artificial intelligence department that leads a digital transformation from a medical, branding, and communication perspective. Finally, French hospitals’ branding efforts on smart platforms should focus more on content about the brand so that stakeholders understand the uniqueness of these organizations.

The growing concern over health and nutrition have led to the proliferation in the consumption of supplements worldwide. In Europe, the market size has reached 13,300 million euros in 2022. Nevertheless, consumers remain uninformed and deceived by products that presume to be remedies for even the most serious diseases. In the context of an industry, in which legal gaps have allowed profitability to displace ethics, it seems urgent to analyze the degree of (ir)responsibility of companies in managing the transparency of the information they provide to the consumer. This work aims to evaluate the transparency of supplements enterprises' corporate communication, exploring three different dimensions of the information provided: disclosure, clarity, and accuracy. A quantitative approach and descriptive statistics were performed using χ², based on the content analysis of 103 corporate websites. This corpus encompasses the entire universe of companies that invested in digital advertising between the years 2017 and 2021. Results show that 61.2% of enterprises do not declare themselves socially responsible on their websites, and only 13 out of 113 have issued transparency reports; product information is confusing in 45.6% of companies and lacking in 19.4%; ingredients are absent in more than half of the corpus, and empirical evidence is omitted in 83.5% of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hospitals resort to different initiatives to build their brands, including media relations, events, and marketing campaigns. However, they face several challenges related to legal frameworks, patients' new demands, and hospitals' digital transformation. This paper analyzes how the best hospitals in France manage smart technologies to enhance their relationships with stakeholders and reinforce their brands. We resorted to the World's Best Hospitals 2023 to identify the 150 best hospitals in this country. Then, we defined 34 branding indicators to evaluate how each hospital managed smart technologies for branding purposes. We adapted these criteria to different platforms and targets: homepage (patients), online newsroom (media companies), About Us section (suppliers, shareholders, and public authorities), and artificial intelligence department (employees). When analyzing these criteria, we resorted to a binary system and only considered hospitals' official websites. Our results proved that 98% of hospitals had a website, but not all respected the criteria related to the homepage (4.54 of 11), online newsroom (2.52 of 11), or About Us section (1.56 of 6). The best hospitals in France, according to the number of criteria respected, were Institut Curie-Oncology (20), Institut Gustave Roussy–Oncology (19), and Hôpital Paris Saint-Joseph (19). We concluded that French hospitals should implement collective branding processes that include all stakeholders, not just patients: media companies, public authorities, suppliers, shareholders, and employees. Moreover, these organizations should implement an in-house artificial intelligence department that leads a digital transformation from a medical, branding, and communication perspective. Finally, French hospitals' branding efforts on smart platforms should focus more on content about the brand so that stakeholders understand the uniqueness of these organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the variation across corporate crisis communication strategies for companies traded in the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges through their use of Twitter during the COVID-19 crisis. We analyze communication activity in light of UAE residents' cultural dimensions and linguistic attributes. Specifically, we assess the impact of the tweets' orientation in terms of social versus business COVID-related tweets based on Hofstede's dimensions of culture (power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism, and masculinity) from one side, and the tweets' language in terms of Arabic versus English COVID-related tweets from the other side. We find evidence to suggest that the impact of COVID-19 related tweets is significantly higher for social tweets relative to business tweets across all the time periods. As for language, mean retweets are significantly higher for Arabic tweets relative to English tweets. Specifically, Arabic social tweets have a significantly higher retweet impact compared to English social, Arabic business, and English business COVID tweet subgroups, consistent with the high collectivism and high uncertainty avoidance of Arabic-speaking cultures. Based on our findings, companies in highly diverse cultural and linguistic settings are urged to be active in communicating with stakeholders in their own languages, taking into account the cultural environment in which stakeholders participate, and with a focus on an appropriate mix of business and non-business (social) messages during periods of significant exogenous shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the communication strategies of multinational corporations in response to the Russo-Ukrainian War and the public pressure to divest from the Russian domestic market. By content analyzing official statements from the top 50 revenue-generating multinational corporations in Russia, the article identifies patterns in corporate narratives about the war, their actions and concerns, and potential solutions. The findings reveal that most companies declare scaling down their presence in Russia while maintaining certain basic obligations, prioritizing employee safety, and expressing concerns about the global economy. While few explicitly condemn Russia’s aggression, many adopt neutral language to avoid naming Russia as the aggressor. Corporations emphasize the importance of diplomacy, adherence to international law, and the pursuit of peace, but often avoid proposing concrete solutions. Despite variations across industries, countries of origin, and decisions to stay or leave Russia, the differences in statements were not significant. The uniformity of corporate statements and evidence that companies frequently do not follow their declared promises suggest potential “bluewashing” – making vague or false claims of social responsibility or anti-war stances to improve their public image. These findings emphasize the need for multinational corporations to develop sincere and original wartime communication strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Hospitals implement artificial intelligence, big data, and telehealth to accelerate digital transformation and improve quality standards. However, their corporate communication strategies remain very conservative (brochures, magazines, websites) and inconsistent with their ambitious organizational goals. Objective: This literature review-based paper analyzes how hospitals should use technology to revamp their online communication strategies and build more meaningful brands. Methodology: To do that, we conducted a literature review on digital hospitals, their branding strategies, and their stakeholders' humanistic needs. Based on that, we proposed an online communication model to help hospitals build credible brands. Conclusion: We concluded that these organizations should focus their communication efforts on sharing credible content that describes how their medical initiatives improve society; they should assist their stakeholders in enhancing their global understanding of healthcare; and they should help the Digital Communication Unit lead an intellectual reflection about how to develop a smart hospital from a technology and humanistic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Communication Management Review is the property of Edward Bernays University of Applied Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT – The safety of journalists who cover conflicts has been an issue that has raised concern within the War in Ukraine (2022) and the one in Gaza (2024), which has led to international organizations to raise awareness among international organizations to develop new measures and strategies to guarantee the protection of journalists. In a context in which organizations become creators of content and build connections with their audiences, this paper analyses the main characteristics, structure, content, and communication channels of the Virtual Press Rooms of international organizations dedicated to the safety of journalists. The use of the Press Rooms as storage for information and the lack of unified criteria in their naming, the lack of a target audience corporate image strategies, opens up new research lines regarding the role of these organizations in supplying documentation to aid journalists. RESUMO – A segurança dos jornalistas que enfrentam conflitos foi um tema que saltou na agenda pública com a Guerra da Ucrânia (2022) e o conflito em Gaza (2023), e levou organizações internacionais a realizar petições públicas para implementar novas medidas e estratégias vinculadas à proteção dos periodistas. Em um contexto em que as organizações se convertem em criadoras de conteúdo e vínculos com seus públicos, este trabalho analisa as características, estrutura, conteúdo e recursos de interação das salas de imprensa virtuais (SPV) das organizações internacionais dedicadas à segurança dos periodistas sobre o terreno. O uso das salas de imprensa como repositório de conteúdo informativo, a desavença de critérios em sua denominação, a falta de um objetivo público definido e a presença de recursos e manuais intermitentes para os jornalistas no terreno, abrem novos horizontes de estudo sobre o papel destas organizações como administradoras de materiais especializadas em segurança durante coberturas de conflito. RESUMEN – La seguridad de los periodistas que cubren conflictos ha sido un tema que ha saltado a la agenda pública con la Guerra de Ucrania (2022) y el conflicto en Gaza (2023), y ha llevado a organizaciones internacionales a realizar peticiones públicas para implementar nuevas medidas y estrategias vinculadas a la protección de los periodistas. En un contexto en el que las organizaciones se convierten en creadoras de contenidos y vínculos con sus públicos, este trabajo analiza las características, estructura, contenidos y recursos de interacción de las salas de prensa virtuales (SPV) de las organizaciones internacionales dedicadas a la seguridad de los periodistas sobre el terreno. El uso de las salas de prensa como almacén de contenidos informativos, la desavenencia de criterios en su denominación, la falta de un público objetivo definido y la presencia intermitente de recursos y manuales para los periodistas en el terreno, abren nuevos horizontes de estudio sobre el papel de estas organizaciones como suministradoras de materiales especializados en seguridad durante coberturas de conflicto.

Private and public companies, as well as public authorities and governments, resort to corporate communication to build trust relationships with their stakeholders and, in this way, reinforce their corporate brands. However, they face different challenges including social transformations and cultural changes. This study evaluates how the FIFA World Cup 2022 impacted Qatar’s brand. To do that, we conducted a review of the literature about corporate communication and nation branding, and then, we carried out a quantitative content analysis of how the leading newspapers in the world’s most influential countries (United States, China, United Kingdom, France, and Germany) covered this event from a corporate communication perspective. These newspapers were selected based on highest circulation. The results from the analysis showed that media companies from France were the ones making more references to Qatar’s History (59); journalists from the United States were the most interested in the Qatar Brand (14); and British newspapers were the ones who published more content about the FIFA World Cup 2022 brand (53).

Hospitals use different technological tools to implement corporate communication initiatives and, in this way, improve their relationships with stakeholders (employees, patients, media companies) and build a reputed brand. However, they face different barriers: limited budgets for corporate communication, strict legal frameworks, and stakeholders’ new needs regarding information and emotional support. This paper aims to analyze how the 100 best hospitals in the United States manage smart technologies to promote their brand. To do that, we conducted a literature review about smart hospitals, branding, and corporate communication; and then we defined 34 quantitative indicators to evaluate how the hospitals previously mentioned managed their websites, online newsrooms, about us sections, and artificial intelligence department web sites for reputation purposes. Our results proved that most hospitals respected indicators related to the homepage (8.67/11) but not those referring to online newsrooms (4.44/11) or about us sections (2.66/6). Besides, only 23 hospitals had implemented a department specialized in artificial intelligence that collaborated with external organizations. We concluded that most American hospitals focused their reputation efforts on patients rather than other targets (media companies, employees, suppliers, shareholders); and that these organizations did not integrate enough artificial intelligence projects into their smart branding initiatives.

Objectives A rapidly growing corporate use of social media can support corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability advocacy of listed companies enhancing the positive image of people with disabilities and social inclusion. Emphasizing CSR towards people with disability (D), abbreviated CSR+D or CSR-D, is customary. The aim of the study is to examine the use of Twitter to highlight advocacy efforts for people with disabilities by the sixty best sustainability-oriented WSE listed companies in Poland. Material and methods We examined keywords and their popularity and context using topic modeling and text mining based on corporate tweets. Tweets’ topics were extracted using the DMM model from 154,496 company media uploads. Then, the occurring themes were determined. Results The results indicate a very limited promotion of CSR activities on Twitter. Accordingly, also limited use of Twitter in communicating disability with no diffusion of topics was observed, despite an overall increase of corporate social media use. Disability issues were are far more often communicated for high-profile events related to disability. Only a few tweets appeared on Down syndrome, with more frequent tweets referring to visual, hearing, or autism disorders. However, tweets about disability receive more users’ reactions and gain a wider audience than example those related to seniors or climate. More results on topics and their popularity due to the sector, time and accompanying events were included. Conclusions The research contribute to understanding of the evolving social media tools and their corporate whereas there is limited or paid access to data.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a decisive reputation tool for companies and as such, a key concept in corporate communication as a phenomenon of intercultural and global significance. This has warranted a comprehensive examination of the language of CSR reports reflecting the principles of the corporate culture. Studies exploring the narratives of CSR reporting currently lack insights into the distribution of meaningful priorities evidenced in language use. This study sets out to explore the linguistic environment of the most frequently occurring language tokens to identify recurrent language patterns used to ensure efficient CSR reporting, and to further establish priority directions in CSR narrative composition evidenced in language use. A corpus-based approach and contextual analysis were adopted to examine CSR reports issued by Microsoft over the last seven years and recognised as an example of best practices in the corporate field. The corpus was compiled using the Prime Machine corpus concordancer tool and comprised 99,176 tokens. Following the study results, the study makes a number of inferences regarding the use of pronouns, “Microsoft + a verb denoting positive action”, “more + than,” “more + adjective”, “Corporate” as part of compound terminological units, as well as a set of key tokens encountered within a descriptive linguistic environment with positive connotation. This, in turn, proved helpful in identifying the hierarchy of priorities distribution revealed in the course of material analysis. The results contribute to a systemic appreciation of corporate language policies facilitating efficient stakeholder communication and can be used in further research investigating related matters of scientific interest.

The purpose of our research is to evaluate the voluntary disclosure strategy and effective communication between issuers and investors on the Polish bond market Catalyst. We conducted a questionnaire among issuers on the Catalyst. To evaluate the data and find answers to the research questions, we used the Qualitative Comparative Analysis. As our analysis shows that management board engagement seems crucial for effective communication, we claim that in relatively smaller capital markets, personal engagement of board members in preparing voluntary disclosure should be considered a proxy of a high disclosure strategy quality. We prove that companies use dialogue with investors in private rather than in public to understand their communication expectations. This finding indicates the essential limitations of previous research evaluating relational connectivity through social media. We point out the existence of many paths to achieve a high level of companies’ perception of investors’ voluntary disclosure needs and companies’ relational connectivity regarding voluntary disclosure. We developed a new approach to measuring relational connectivity, which can be successfully applied to other markets and stock exchanges, allowing verification of previous findings and the development of a new approach to conducting research. We claim that it is necessary to put more pressure on the management board’s engagement in preparing the financial report as it is crucial for understanding investors’ voluntary disclosure needs. Our conclusions question the growing societal pressure on engaging in activity in social media as a key concept of effective communication.

Purpose: Corporations are now taking stands on contemporary and controversial social issues that share no obvious connection to the corporations' business practices. At the same time, political polarization continues to intensify, which begs the question: Are these corporate stands – referred to as corporate social advocacy (CSA) – and political polarization related to each other, and if so, how? The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptualization of the connections between CSA and political polarization through a series of propositions that can be tested in subsequent research studies. Corporations have influence in society, and the ways in which they communicate on controversial social issues could further intensify or help assuage political polarization. Conversely, political polarization may be causing CSA in the first place, which would put into question the legitimacy and desirability of CSA because of the environment from which CSA is cultivated. Design/methodology/approach: This study is designed to be conceptual, and the approach is based on theory building. Findings: The study conceptualizes the relationship between CSA and political polarization to be symbiotic because both are bidirectional causes of each other. Engagement in CSA is also argued to be positively associated with perceptions that corporations contain particular political ideologies, i.e. more "liberal-leaning" or "conservative-leaning." This study also predicts that – dependent on particular conditions – CSA will also lead to an increase in both boycotts and skepticism. Practical implications: This study will contribute to scholars', practitioners' and consumers' understanding of the causes and effects of CSA. The way in which political polarization is potentially causing CSA puts into question the legitimacy of corporations engaging in CSA in the first place. If CSA is cultivated in the soil of political polarization, is CSA desirable for corporations? Conversely, the way in which CSA is potentially causing political polarization also puts the legitimacy of CSA into question. If CSA is causing political polarization, is CSA desirable for society? Social implications: Corporations are an influential part of society, and thus will influence how society views controversial social issues. If the predictions in this study hold, corporations will play an important role in either intensifying or reducing political polarization, and political polarization will also play an important role in how corporations communicate about CSA issues. Originality/value: Research focused on CSA is burgeoning, yet limited studies have examined how CSA and political polarization interact. Although there could be positive aspects of corporate involvement in CSA, this study examines some of the potential negative aspects of corporate involvement in CSA. Future research will also be able to test the propositions proposed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main functions of corporate communication are the planning and coordination of these processes, and it focuses on the creation and transmission of messages related to all activities of the organization. With these communication processes, organizations gain advantages by communicating with different goals such as transferring their corporate identities, creating an image, building and protecting their reputation, raising awareness, and differentiating themselves from other organizations operating in this field. Podcast channels, one of the areas that can be used in the digital environment, are explained as an area where organizations can communicate with their stakeholders on the issues they determine. In this study, it is aimed to examine the usage practices of podcast channels of financial organizations by document analysis technique. In this context, the changes and developments over the years have been revealed based on the number of channels, the number of content and the duration of the content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of South Africa as a developing country, we argue that CSR communication should contribute to both business sustainability and the empowerment of society for societal sustainability. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of senior South African communication practitioners regarding sustainability and the practice of CSR communication to support dual sustainability. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten senior communication practitioners responsible for CSR and/or CSR communication in ten national and international organisations across South Africa. Our findings revealed that although all practitioners recognised sustainability as the purpose of CSR, business sustainability was prioritised, while societal sustainability has only been supported. CSR communication was primarily used to enhance business sustainability by portraying the company as a responsible corporate citizen through corporate communication efforts to enhance its reputation. This is attributed to the fact that the current CSR communication theory is based on corporate communication, which prioritises business objectives. We contend that a more comprehensive theoretical framework, including principles of development communication, would enable CSR communication to significantly contribute to societal sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A rapidly growing corporate use of social media can support corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability advocacy of listed companies enhancing the positive image of people with disabilities and social inclusion. Emphasizing CSR towards people with disability (D), abbreviated CSR+D or CSR-D, is customary. The aim of the study is to examine the use of Twitter to highlight advocacy efforts for people with disabilities by the sixty best sustainability-oriented WSE listed companies in Poland. We examined keywords and their popularity and context using topic modeling and text mining based on corporate tweets. Tweets' topics were extracted using the DMM model from 154,496 company media uploads. Then, the occurring themes were determined. The results indicate a very limited promotion of CSR activities on Twitter. Accordingly, also limited use of Twitter in communicating disability with no diffusion of topics was observed, despite an overall increase of corporate social media use. Disability issues were are far more often communicated for high-profile events related to disability. Only a few tweets appeared on Down syndrome, with more frequent tweets referring to visual, hearing, or autism disorders. However, tweets about disability receive more users' reactions and gain a wider audience than example those related to seniors or climate. More results on topics and their popularity due to the sector, time and accompanying events were included. The research contribute to understanding of the evolving social media tools and their corporate whereas there is limited or paid access to data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how hotel brands communicate on social media before and during the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in relation to the tourism season. Design/methodology/approach: To gain insights into the communication of Italian hotel brands on social media, this study applies a qualitative methodology. Using the text mining technique, topic modelling was conducted on a sample of 5,032 posts from Italian 5-star hotel brands shared on the hotels' official Facebook pages. Findings: The results show that hotel brands used essentially the same communication strategy in the tourism seasons before and after the pandemic outbreak, but with a particular focus on trust, safety and cordiality during the pandemic. Hotel brands focussed intensively on brand awareness, customer engagement and special activities that promote memorable and authentic experiences as well as luxury service quality. Originality/value: This study contributes to the theoretical and empirical sense by bridging the concepts of tourism and hospitality, social media and corporate communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to assess the patterns in the public discourse of successful chief executive officers (CEOs) in terms of performance, with the CEO's strengths and aspects to improve. Design/methodology/approach: This paper aligns with the literature that appraises CEO public discourse and relevance. From the literature review, the strategic levers in CEO discourse toward high performance are identified. The CEO letters in the period 2017–2019 of the top 25 best performing CEOs (BPCs) according to Harvard Business Review ranking 2019 are qualitatively examined through a multiple close reading analytical technique and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is applied to assess the patterns. Findings: The paper delivers a three-dimensional model representing how the identified strategic levers are articulated by BPCs in the BPC's discourse following diverse patterns. This paper points out BPC's strengths, among them a high level of moral reasoning compared to previous studies and improvable areas such as the extended absence of autocritique at the firm and personal level or the lack of leverage on the need for agility and proactive adaption. Practical implications: This paper contributes further CEO awareness of the strategic role of the discourse and offers clues to enhance CEO awareness, as well as criteria for boards of directors to appraise CEO discourse. Originality/value: Adopting a novel approach, this paper addresses the strategic levers triggered by CEOs in their letters from a managerial implication perspective, providing relevant theoretical insight on how they are articulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: Companies' voices on social justice issues, such as racial justice, gender equality and LGBTQ rights, have become increasingly prevalent. To contribute to current knowledge around corporate communication on social justice, this study aims to understand the differential effects of three types of corporate social justice statements – symbolic statements, substantive statements on external actions and substantive statements on internal actions. Design/methodology/approach: A between-subjects experiment was conducted (N = 502), with different types of statements as the independent variable and corporate reputation and perceived corporate relationship-building efforts as outcomes. The three dimensions of perceived authenticity (i.e. perceived benevolence, transparency and commitment) were included as parallel mediators. Findings: This study found that compared to symbolic statements, substantive statements on external or internal actions generated higher perceived authenticity on at least one of the three dimensions, which in turn, led to a more positive corporate reputation and perceived relationship-building efforts. Substantive statements on external actions and on internal actions also had differential indirect effects on the outcomes through different dimensions of perceived authenticity. Partisanship did not have a moderating effect on the mediating effects of perceived authenticity. Practical implications: This study highlights the importance of authenticity in corporate social justice communication and reveals practical implications about how businesses should communicate with publics when engaging in social justice issues. Originality/value: This study is among the earliest efforts to examine the effects of different corporate social justice statements. It contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the impacts of perceived authenticity on publics' evaluation of companies and opens up an avenue for future research to further examine various authenticity dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]