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Abstract:The interest in corporate sustainability has increased rapidly in recent years and has encouraged organizations to adopt appropriate digital communication strategies, in which the corporate website plays a key role. Despite this growing attention in both the academic and business communities, models for the analysis and evaluation of online sustainability communication have not been developed to date. This paper aims to develop an operational model to identify and assess the requirements of sustainability communication in corporate websites. It has been developed from a literature review on corporate sustainability and digital communication and the analysis of the websites of the organizations included in the "Global CSR RepTrak 2015" by the Reputation Institute. The model identifies the core dimensions of online sustainability communication (orientation, structure, ergonomics, content-OSEC), sub-dimensions, such as stakeholder engagement and governance tools, communication principles, and measurable items (e.g., presence of the materiality matrix, interactive graphs). A pilot study on the websites of the energy and utilities companies included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 2015 confirms the applicability of the OSEC framework. Thus, the model can provide managers and digital communication consultants with an operational tool that is useful for developing an industry ranking and assessing the best practices. The model can also help practitioners to identify corrective actions in the critical areas of digital sustainability communication and avoid greenwashing.

Despite the fact that culture is central in globalized and digitalized contexts, few studies have investigated how organizations are influenced by cultural dimensions in communicating their social responsibility efforts. Through the lens of cultural dimensions, this study aims at comparing communication displayed on corporate websites of top sustainable organizations. The aim is reached evaluating how Hofstede's cultural dimensions, reflected in corporate social responsibility (CSR) content, vary between companies in Asian context and other organizations worldwide. A coding scheme to analyze cultural impact on CSR communication content disclosed on websites was carried out. Findings show that Hofstede's cultural dimensions and online CSR communication belong to different levels of analysis: One is innate and diffusive, whereas the other one is intentional and rational. Differently from extant studies on cultural dimensions, results suggest that cultural dimensions are factors that should be analyzed as social aspects, whereas online CSR communication should instead be explored as strategic feature.

The growing interest in corporate sustainability (CS) orientation and the increasing attention on stakeholder engagement practices suggest to adopt new models and methods of decision-making for online corporate communication management. The working paper aims at highlighting the most significant principles, tools and content of communication for sustainability through corporate websites in order to create a successful value-proposition. The study draws from different fields of study, integrating approaches such as the Service Science Management and Engineering+Designand Viable Systems Approach. The proposed framework for CS communication on corporate websites has been defined in order to create value for the organization and increase reputational capital. The framework includes four main dimensions containing measurable sub-items. They focused on: orientation to sustainability; items belonging to the structure related to stakeholder engagement and CS governance tools; items related to content (in terms of their impact on core business and their adherence to communication principles); and process. The paper presents typical limitations of the deductive approach based on literature review. The framework could be used as a comprehensive tool to identify and avoid greenwashing traps in CS communication. This working paper could be considered a first step in a stream of research on a field of study not yet well explored to some extent.

Obiettivo del paper: Il paper mira a valutare e migliorare i requisiti della comunicazione per la sostenibilità nei corporate website attraverso un modello operativo costruito ad hoc. Metodologia: La costruzione del modello avviene sulla base delle indicazioni derivanti sia dalla rassegna della letteratura in tema di corporate sustainability e digital communication, sia dall' analisi dei website delle organizzazioni classificate dal Reputation Institute nel "Global CSR RepTrak 2015". Per sperimentare l' applicabilità del modello, si procede poi ad uno studio pilota tramite la valutazione dei website di organizzazioni appartenenti ai settori bancario e farmaceutico. Risultati: Il modello è costruito sulla base di un' architettura di fattori distinti a più livelli: macro-item, item e micro-item. Esso consente di misurare e valutare i requisiti di comunicazione per la sostenibilità nei website, con attribuzione di score alle singole imprese ed elaborazione di ranking di settore. Il meccanismo di attribuzione dei punteggi nel modello prevede eventuali penalizzazioni per il greenwashing. Il modello permette, inoltre, di individuare aree di criticità che necessitano di interventi correttivi. Limiti della ricerca: Il modello non ha la pretesa di essere esaustivo, in quanto si focalizza su un numero limitato di fattori. La semplificazione derivante dall'impiego di variabili dicotomiche se da un lato può apparire un punto di debolezza, dall' altro garantisce la riduzione della soggettività e dell' ambiguità in sede di rilevazione dei fattori nei siti web. Implicazioni pratiche: Lo studio offre ai responsabili e ai consulenti della comunicazione digitale uno strumento operativo da cui ricavare utili indicazioni per valutare e migliorare la comunicazione per la sostenibilità nei website delle organizzazioni profit e non profit. Originalità del paper: Il modello operativo rappresenta la prima proposta in ambito accademico di uno strumento di valutazione e miglioramento dei requisiti di comunicazione per la sostenibilità per i siti web.

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Organizations are increasingly involving stakeholders in their CSR activities through social networks. Despite the growing interest by academics and practitioners in this field of research, empirical studies are still limited, highlighting a gap in the identification and the use of effective measurement tools for evaluating sustainable marketing performances on social networks. The study aims to develop a framework to measure and assess stakeholder engagement strategies, in terms of CSR information and involvement, on Facebook pages of sustainable organizations. The framework is based on a set of dimensions (macro-item, item and micro-item) and adopts different types of variables (dichotomous and indices) and techniques (manual detection, Facebook developers tools, content analysis through the NooJ, and Likealyzer). A pilot study on firms classified by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (2015) confirms the applicability of the framework, showing that organizations prefer a “one-way” communication approach (CSR information strategies), rather than a “two-way” communication approach (CSR involvement strategies). The framework constitutes a tool aimed at analyzing and measuring the CSR communication strategies on corporate Facebook pages. It provides managers and consultants of digital communication useful indications to improve sustainable marketing activities and stakeholder engagement strategies on Facebook.