The importance of communicating stakeholder value: Examining the impact of value-driven company CSR communication on organization-public relationships, reputation and attitude

Despite a long line of research postulating that for a company to achieve positive outcomes from its CSR efforts, it must build relationships with stakeholders to understand what they value, there is limited guidance on how to develop these relationships. Utilizing the stakeholder theory and relationship management theory as framework, this study examined the mediating effects of reputation and perceived relationship quality and type on the impact of CSR communication (what a company communicates and how it communicates the message) on stakeholder attitude, and the moderating effect of what stakeholders value in a company’s CSR efforts on the relationship between CSR communication and stakeholder attitude, reputation, and perceived relationship quality, and type. Through an online survey of consumers of four different companies (N = 847), the results showed that reputation, perceived relationship quality, and perceived communal relationships fully mediated the relationship between CSR messages stakeholders’ observe and stakeholder attitude. Stakeholders’ use of company communication channels directly impacted stakeholder attitude. Additionally, although the value stakeholders place on CSR did not moderate the CSR communication-attitude relationship, it did indirectly impact the relationship through perceived OPR quality, perceived communal relationships, and perceived reputation. The findings suggested that the impact of a company’s CSR communication can be more effective on positive outcomes if they prioritize company-stakeholder relationships and reputation, and that what stakeholders value should be considered when creating effective CSR messages.