Moving Beyond Dialogic Communication: How Social Media Supports CSR Stakeholder Engagement Among German Climate Activists

Abstract

In times of multiple environmental and social crises, corporate communication and engagement practices related to sustainability, summarized here under the umbrella concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), are becoming increasingly important. Social media has the potential to support interaction between companies and their stakeholders in the context of CSR. However, the current form of social media is not designed to support dialogic interaction, making the realization of this potential difficult. Nevertheless, this study argues that social media can still fulfill functions that support stakeholder engagement for CSR. Although research often focuses on the effectiveness of corporate communication in eliciting responses on social media, stakeholders' perspectives on online communication have received less attention. This case study is based on nine interviews with German climate activists and analyzes stakeholder communication from their perspective. Drawing on the interviews and the critical tasks of stakeholder engagement outlined in the literature, this study identifies barriers to interaction between companies and stakeholders and proposes five alternative functions of social media in this context. These are (1.1) responsible agency and (1.2) being part of the climate (filter) bubble—finding allies; (2.1) pre-testing ideas and (2.2) allowing (constructive) confrontation, to soften the dialogic fronts; and (3) monitoring key concerns.