Tackling Fuzziness in CSR Communication Research on Social Media: Pathways to More Rigor and Replicability

Abstract

Research analyzing the antecedents and effects of CSR communication on social media based on real-world data has surged in recent years but suffers from a severe lack of construct clarity. Based on an extensive literature review and the analysis of intercoder congruency on a content classification task on Instagram, we argue that CSR communication is a fuzzy concept and that diverging theoretical conceptions of CSR and CSR relatedness, as well as different operationalizations, have led to highly inconsistent and difficult-to-replicate results. To improve rigor and replicability in future CSR communication research using social media analytics, we develop guidelines for identifying CSR communication on social media that address common pitfalls in existing research designs.