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.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITY AbstractPurpose: This paper extends corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory by exploring how firms engage with community. The community is frequently cited as a stakeholder of the firm but in spite of its status in networks has not been the focus of research. Drawing on community theory and Carroll's pyramid for the foundation of our study, we undertake an empirical investigation to advance knowledge in CSR engagement with a particular stakeholder group.Design/methodology/approach: To generate in-depth insight, the study adopts a multiple case study approach involving the purposeful selection of three retail banks in Ghana as units of analysis. It draws on multiple data sources to strengthen its findings. Findings:The study finds that community engagement consists of four spheres of activity:donations, employee voluntarism, projects and partnerships. Philanthropy forms part of largely ad hoc CSR actions by firms. The study also finds that philanthropy is not merely a desired function of the CSR pyramid but an essential one. Social implications:This research imparts increased understanding of how firms engage with an important but frequently overlooked stakeholder group -community. Originality/value: This study presents specific theoretical extensions to CSR through its identification of four core activities of community engagement.Keywords: stakeholder network, corporate social responsibility, community, philanthropy, retail banking.Paper type: Research paper. IntroductionStakeholder theory states that a firm can enhance its corporate strategy by recognizing and addressing the complexity of understanding the roles and interactions of firms and stakeholders (Freeman, 1997). Debates on stakeholder theory also draw on the role of social responsibility (for example Greenwood and Van Buren, 2010), in particular where stakeholder network expectations inform a normative framework of social responsibility (Maignan, Ferrell and Ferrell 2005). For this reason, several researchers assess that engagement with stakeholders and different kinds of communities will impact on the firm (Luoma-aho and Paloviita, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how CSR strategies inform engagement with community. We find that firm CSR strategies consist of five specific spheres of activities as follows: donations, employee voluntarism, projects, partnerships and employee welfare. These activities as yet do not form part of a formalised CSR strategy but are rather more ad hoc, they currently focus on the activity rather than the outcome. Opportunities for optimising the CSR value may not be optimised.The structure of the paper is as follows: a literature review of corporate social responsibility and community, followed by the research design, findings and a discussion and conclusion section. Corporate social responsibilityBy identifying and considering a range of stakeholders firms can gain competitive advantage by engaging with customers and other partners and encoura...

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The paper analyses key elements of communication that may lead to accusations that a company is engaging in practices of greenwashing failing to create stakeholder engagement. According to sensemaking and sensegiving approaches, the theoretical foundations that underpin the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and greenwashing practices are explored and a comparison between two energy companies in the Italian and Dutch context is set up for exploratory purpose. The integration of a company's strategic CSR approach and its communication practices may help to enhance effective stakeholder engagement, prevent accusations of greenwashing and avert the negative associated consequences (e.g., scepticism among stakeholders). The research provides a theoretical contribution to CSR communication by identifying several pitfalls that can lead to the appearance of greenwashing and provides caveats for the further development of both theory and managerial practices