Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
20th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Madrid, İspanya, 13 - 16 Eylül 2023, ss.1-11
Abstract
Communication, especially “sustainability communication” plays a crucial role in today’s world. This communication can have an impact on the consumers’ perception and also on the company. To standardize companies’ communication efforts in this field, various frameworks and standards have been developed to guide companies in reporting their sustainability practices to be better understood by stakeholders and consumers and to facilitate promoting transparency, comparability, and accountability. In this work, first, we made a synthesis of prior research based on a literature review to understand how consumers comprehend corporate sustainability communications. The selection of the articles and related works is based on the presence of the keyword “sustainability communication” in the title, abstract, or author-specified keywords since the year 2000 provided us with 46 results. The analysis of these articles from a standardization point of view led us to have two groups of articles. In the first group, the researchers of 23 articles analyzed the companies communicating according to frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and in the other group of 9 articles, the companies were communicating about their sustainability efforts only during specific campaigns. We synthesized these works in two groups based on their content analysis and related theories of the field. The research showed that the companies in both two groups are moving towards greater interaction with consumers to understand their needs, to offer them the best products and services possible, and to achieve effective communication with them. Accordingly, it is particularly important to understand how consumers interpret different communication campaigns. The attribution theory, the effect of congruence and the impact of standardization are important concepts for the area. We also see the positive effect of long-term communication on the perception of internal motivation through standardization. Our research highlights societal sensitivity and skepticism in the consumer’s perception of sustainable communication and its interpretation of the company’s motivations. The research will help identify the causal determinants of behavior and produce more effective sustainability messages.
This work has been supported by the Scientific Research Projects Commission of Galatasaray University under grant number #FBA-2022-1082.