Public relations and social businesses: The importance of enhancing engagement.

Public relations is usually practiced within three clearly defined organizational settings: the public or governmental sector, the private or business sector and the social nonprofit sector. Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the three sectors have blurred, and new types of organizations and initiatives that combine environmental aims with business approaches have emerged. These new organizations and initiatives create a challenge for public relations practitioners: practitioners need to raise awareness among various publics to a new type of organization that combines both societal and business-like characteristics, and they need to promote dialogue and engagement with these publics. This study focuses on social businesses—that is, self-sustainable businesses that address social goals (Yunus, 2007). Based on a representative sample of 202 respondents, this study utilizes the Diffusion of Innovations theory (DOI) (Rogers, 1962) to argue for the importance of engagement to a successful process of diffusion and to demonstrate how DOI theory might enrich public relations theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]