Fake, Faulty, and Authentic Stand-Taking: What Determines the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Advocacy?

Yim, Myungok Chris

doi:10.1080/1553118x.2020.1856853

Cited by 42 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Second, current CSA literature more frequently takes a top-down approach and views the CSA practice from an organization's perspective without considering individual characteristics (Dodd and Supa, 2015;Park and Jiang, 2020;Yim, 2021). Along with emerging studies considering the role of involvement (Li et al, 2021;Overton et al, 2020;Parcha and Westerman, 2020), this study suggested that social issue activism is an important factor in explaining the effects of stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses.…”

Section: Ccij 271mentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Although these issues have become hot spots in recent years, they have existed for decades. If a company had no history engaging in relevant social advocacy in the past, publics may be more skeptical about the legitimacy of CSA and question whether the company is taking advantage of popular issues and public interests to satisfy commercial goals (Yim, 2021). A company enthusiastically jumping on the CSA bandwagon can be perceived as hypocritical if the legitimacy of advocacy is not well recognized by publics.…”

Section: Csa Stance-action Consistencymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Matching words with actions: understanding the effects of CSA stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses

Zhou

Dong

2021

CCIJ

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PurposeDespite corporate social advocacy (CSA) has become a popular phenomenon, less is known about the potential negative public responses to corporations' CSA involvement and promotion. This paper aims to investigate the main and conditional effects of a new concept, CSA stance-action consistency, on consumers' negative responses to CSA communication.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed a 4 (four types of CSA stance-action consistency) × 2 (CSA record: long vs short) between-subject experimental design. Social issue activism was measured as a continuous variable and treated as a moderator. An online experiment was conducted with participants recruited from MTurk (n = 224).FindingsCSA stance-action consistency significantly predicted negative word-of-mouth and boycott intention. Participants' social issue activism moderated the effects. However, CSA record was not a significant predictor of consumers' negative responses to CSA communication.Originality/valueThis study advances CSA and corporate communication literature by proposing a new concept, CSA stance-action consistency and providing empirical evidence on its effects on consumer responses. Practical implications to CSA promotion were discussed.

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Section: Ccij 271mentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Csa Stance-action Consistencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Matching words with actions: understanding the effects of CSA stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses

Zhou

Dong

2021

CCIJ

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“…The topic of corporate social advocacy has received increasing interest from social sciences researchers in recent years, as many large consumer companies in the United States are openly taking a stand on controversial social or political issues such as same-sex marriage, gun control, immigration, and legalization of marijuana [1][2][3][18][19][20][21]25,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. While CSA is conceptualized in slightly different ways, a widely cited definition of the term is the one provided by Dodd and Supa [2,34], who wrote CSA is a public relations function where firms and/or their CEOs intentionally or unintentionally "align themselves with a controversial social-political issue outside their normal sphere of CSR interest" [2].…”

Section: Corporate Social Advocacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yim [32] contended that the conceptualization of CSA should take into account public expectations. Although CSA may be controversial, the legitimacy of CSA can be "created, maintained, and defended" by the company itself, if the CSA engagement is consistent with public expectations of the company and corporate standards of behavior.…”

Section: Corporate Social Advocacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Meeting Consumers’ Expectations: Exploring Corporate Social Advocacy Communication in China

Song

Lan

2022

Sustainability

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Unlike Western corporations, Chinese companies have yet to widely adopt corporate social advocacy (CSA) as a proactive strategy for corporate communication due to the different cultures and business environments. With only a handful of Chinese companies committing to CSA communication, the consequences of such practice on consumer relationship building and maintenance remain elusive. In light of expectancy violations theory (EVT), this study explores Chinese consumers’ expectations of domestic CSA on the issue of same-sex marriage and the effects of proactive corporate social advocacy communication. Through structure equation modeling of 418 survey responses, this study examines the relationship between the violation of Chinese consumers’ expectations of CSA and the quality of consumer relationships through the mediation of violation valence, violation expectedness, and relationship certainty.

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“…Lock and Schulz-Knappe, 2019;Nielsen and Thomson, 2018), CEO activism (e.g. Rajandran, 2018) and corporate social advocacy (CSA; Yim, 2021), some scholars have taken a different perspective and examined the impact of public expectations on organizational legitimacy (e.g. Brummette and Zoch, 2016;Heath and Waymer, 2017).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legitimacy, autonomy and trust: a recipe for organizations to operate in the public interest

Wilson¹,

Knighton

2021

CCIJ

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PurposeThis study aims to examine the effect of publics' legitimacy evaluations on Arthur W. Page's conceptualization of “reasonable freedom of action” by breaking it into two parts: (1) perceived organizational autonomy and (2) trust in the organization.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted an online experiment using a 2 (legitimacy: low, high) × 2 (legitimacy type: institutional, actional) between-subjects design. Measured variables included perceived organizational autonomy and trust.FindingsOrganizations acting in their own self-interest while ignoring community norms and expectations were perceived to be exercising higher levels of organizational autonomy and have lower levels of trust. The interaction between legitimacy type and level had an effect on perceived organizational autonomy and trust.Research limitations/implicationsPublic's view their relationships with organizations from a perspective that prioritizes responsibility and conformity to community norms and expectations. Also, organizations have more to lose by acting in their own self-interest to resolve institutional legitimacy concerns and more to gain by handling them in a way that includes the public interest than when they are managing an actional legitimacy situation.Practical implicationsSocietal norms, values and beliefs, which may have accommodated, or even supported, an organization's approach to doing business in the past, can change over time, calling into question an organization's legitimacy and its ability to operate in the public interest. As a result, organizational leaders need the Chief Communication Officer to help them understand current societal norms, values and beliefs.Originality/valueThis study addresses a core assumption of the organization–public relationship paradigm that has not yet been studied empirically. It also expands the understanding of organizational autonomy from a public perspective and examines the effect of legitimacy on organizational autonomy and trust.

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Fake, Faulty, and Authentic Stand-Taking: What Determines the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Advocacy?

Cited by 42 publications

References 75 publications

Matching words with actions: understanding the effects of CSA stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses

Matching words with actions: understanding the effects of CSA stance-action consistency on negative consumer responses

Meeting Consumers’ Expectations: Exploring Corporate Social Advocacy Communication in China

Legitimacy, autonomy and trust: a recipe for organizations to operate in the public interest

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