Social media on the route to circular economy transition from a dialogic perspective: evidence from the agri-food industry

Abstract

PurposeThis paper investigates circular economy communications and stakeholder dialogic engagement with circular economy posts published by European agri-food companies on Twitter from the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores the use of social media as a dialogic tool to activate circular economy engagement in order to involve all supply-chain actors on the route to a circular transition.Design/methodology/approachA coding framework based on the reclassification of the Glossary of Circular Economy, according to a 4-R paradigm (reduce, reuse, recycle and recover), was developed for the analysis. All tweets published by a sample of European agri-food companies, starting from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until data extraction, were collected, purified and analysed.FindingsAgri-food companies showed a higher level of engagement through social media, even if mainly focused on “recycling” and “general circular economy” issues. In general, awareness among social network users of the need to be part of the circular economy transition emerged. Moreover, the highest percentage of posts published by the companies' Twitter accounts was informative rather than interactive. In addition, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the circular economy has arisen as a central topic of debate and a driver for the rethinking process of the agri-food business community.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this research represents the first study focused on circular economy engagement through social media from the company perspective in the agri-food industry.

Guest editorial: Circular economy in the agri-food, tourism and hospitality industries in the post-pandemic era

“…In the field of eco-efficiency and communication to stakeholders of the environmental value, Esposito et al (2024) have investigated the circular economy communications and the stakeholder dialogic engagement with circular economy posts published by European agrifood companies on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the research is to explore the use of social media as a dialogic tool to activate circular economy engagement and involve all supply-chain actors toward the circular transition.…”

“…In the field of eco-efficiency and communication to stakeholders of the environmental value, Esposito et al . (2024) have investigated the circular economy communications and the stakeholder dialogic engagement with circular economy posts published by European agri-food companies on Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Social media to disseminate circular economy information. An empirical analysis on Twitter

“…In recent years, the advent of digitalization has provided new digital platforms for the dissemination of CE information (Esposito, Sica, et al, 2023). In particular, it has introduced the use of social media (Dumay, 2016) which have radically changed the disclosure landscape (Bryl et al, 2022).…”

“…They therefore allow to overcome the limits of traditional corporate documents and to create interactive communication with users (Bryl et al, 2022). Social networks can therefore represent an ideal solution to inform and dialogue with stakeholders about the circular models of production and consumption used (Esposito, Sica, et al, 2023).…”

“…However, from an academic point of view, although the first studies on the CED are spreading, the communication channels examined are mainly represented by traditional corporate documents such as integrated reports (e.g., Barnabè & Nazir, 2021, 2022 and sustainability reports (e.g., Dagiliene et al, 2020;García-Sánchez et al, 2022;Opferkuch et al, 2021;Tiscini et al, 2022;Vitolla et al, 2023), while little attention was paid to the CED through social media. Currently, in fact, the academic literature includes only a very limited number of contributions on the dissemination of CE information through social media (Esposito et al, 2022;Esposito, Sica, et al, 2023). Therefore, a greater need for contributions aimed at understanding the dynamics relating to the CED through these platforms is evident.…”