Does involvement in corporate social irresponsibility affect the linguistic features of corporate social responsibility reports?

Abstract

Companies publish corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to inform their stakeholders of their CSR efforts. However, the literature has shown that these reports can be used as a way to offset companies' involvement in corporate social irresponsibility (CSIR). By relying on a cognitive‐linguistic perspective, we investigate whether firms respond to their own irresponsible business conduct by changing their CSR reports' linguistic features and, if so, how. We use a sample of 135 large corporations headquartered in developed countries between 1995 and 2014. An analysis of their CSR reports reveals that the more a firm is involved in irresponsible business conduct, the more likely it is to use narrative (instead of analytical) and deceptive (instead of authentic) language. Moreover, we show that these two trends are particularly evident for highly internationalised firms.

CSR practices and creativity during COVID-19 pandemic in the emerging market: investigating the mediating effect of affective commitment

“…As a result, they are more likely to contribute to the organization's goals through affective commitment (Bouraoui et al, 2019). On the other hand, employees are less committed to the company if their ethical convictions are at odds with the company's values (Corciolani et al, 2020). This view is also supported by Bizri et al (2021) in the Lebanese banking sector context, they found that organization's CSR activities have a highly significant and positive relationship with affective commitment.…”

Toward a Theoretical Framework of Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Clarifying the Gray Zones Between Responsibility and Irresponsibility

“…For example, the United Nations global compact principles can be thought of as hypernorms which help to judge behaviors that are irresponsible (e.g., not respecting human rights, use of child labor, forced labor or slavery). Corciolani et al (2020) call for a universal framework that overcomes concerns about international differences in legal and cultural systems in an empirical study of 135 multinational firms defining irresponsibility through a firm’s involvement in human rights violations. Also, for Küberling-Jost (2019) irresponsible behavior is noncompliance with applicable laws and ethical standards, a behavior that violates generally accepted norms, standards and principles in society, and harms or disadvantages others and the environment.…”

Do CSR activities increase organizational citizenship behavior among employees? Mediating role of affective commitment and job satisfaction

“…On the contrary, socially irresponsible organization results in negative attitudes of the workforce. Employees also tend to be less committed to the organization if their ethical values conflict with the organization's values (Corciolani, Nieri, & Tuan, 2020). This suggests that employees' CSR perception influences their affective commitment toward the organization they are employed.…”