For some time now, companies have been taken environmental, economic and social responsibility, a concept known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In doing so, they hope to enhance their reputation and legitimacy. In recent years, companies have also been expected to take a stand on controversial socio-political issues. While there is extensive empirical research on the content and effects of CSR, the extent, issues, and characteristics of these socio-political positions taken by companies have been scarcely analyzed. Whether and how companies position themselves can be observed through their own communication and journalistic reporting. This project aims to analyze both aspects. Firstly, an overview of the socio-political positions of companies will be provided: to what extent do companies take a stance on socio-political issues, and how do they position themselves? They may express themselves clearly and specifically or choose strategic ambiguity by using ambiguous, vague formulations or phrases. Here, we also want to question the motives and goals behind socio-political (non-)positioning and examine the communication strategies employed by companies. Secondly, the journalistic assessment of these positions and their role in public discourse will be analyzed. How do journalists report on the socio-political positioning of companies, and how do they perceive corporate responsibility and strategic influences on their work? Thirdly, interactions between corporate communication and media reporting will be examined. We want to analyze which political (non-)positioning leads to what type of reporting, and conversely, to what extent the reporting influences corporate communication. These goals will be achieved through automated analysis of communication content and interviews with relevant stakeholders. In subproject 1, different types of publications (social media, press releases, sustainability and annual reports) published by the 40 DAX companies over the last two years will be analyzed using automated content analysis. At the same time, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with communications managers from the DAX companies. In subproject 2, the coverage of the socio-political positions of these companies will be analyzed by means of automated content analysis, and semi-structured interviews with journalists will be conducted to analyze their perceptions of these positions.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
