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Doctoral Colloquium New Trends and Developments in Marketing
Venice – January, 23rd 2014
Research Proposal
Social Media Marketing in the CSR Field
Annamaria Tuan
PhD Candidate in Business Studies
Department of Economics and Statistics
University of Udine
Abstract
The aim of the research is to gain insights about the connections between Social Media Marketing (SMM)
and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The literatures about SMM and CSR have until now been
largely disconnected; however, there are some theoretical pools from which these literatures draw, which
helps us examine the dynamic and multi-faceted relationships that companies form with stakeholders.
Managing CSR efforts has become increasingly important in the firm’s strategy. Nevertheless, an
important role is given by the communication of the CSR in order to engage stakeholder and allow the cocreation of value (Normann and Ramirez 1993, Rullani 2004). Thanks to the advent of the Social Media,
the main channels of engagement and communication for business are changing. Rather than publishing
the annual report document, Social Media amplify the communication of real life impacts, of how people
are affected and the need for discussion. CSR communication is not just putting out a report once a year,
but it is about informing on a regular basis, close to events, with responses and updates in real time.
Thanks to Social Media the thirst for information facilitated by Social Media asks for more ongoing and
regular engagement in CSR and will expose business to a much more direct and visible scrutiny by the
general public.
In this context Social Media might be considered as an effective marketing tool to communicate CSR
efforts and to create value for firms by engaging stakeholders.
Given the lack of academic literature about the connection between SMM and CSR, as highlighted by
Korschun and Du (2013) and by Fieseler et al. (2009), in this research we are interested to know how the
adoption of Social Media could be effective in the communication of CSR strategy and allow firms to
enhance value creation.
After a review of the literature concerning CSR and Social Media Strategy from a marketing perspective,
we investigate these topics through a multiple case study analysis (Yin, 1984).
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Media Marketing, Value Creation, Marketing
Communication, Stakeholder Theory
Academic and managerial marketing issues
The overarching goals of this research project can be translated into two research tasks with some subquestions for each:
1. Social Media Marketing (SMM): even though firms are increasing the adoption of Social Media in
their marketing and communication strategies and this phenomenon has received attention in the
practitioner literature, it has, however, remained under-investigated in scholarly research
(Garrigos-Simon et al. 2012, Mangold and Faulds 2009, Macnamara and Zerfass 2012). We
consider Social Media Marketing within an economic and managerial perspective: the evolution of
the production of value based on knowledge which is created, disseminated and shared, where ICT
plays a role of enabling drivers (Rullani 2004a, 2004b).
By analyzing SMM we will provide a comprehensive classification of the vast amount of
keywords related to this topic. In addition we will investigate the professional profile of the Social
Media Manager, the manager who deals with Social Media in order to gain insights about his tasks
and, in particular, his organizational position.
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RQ1: Is Social Media Marketing a subset of tools within the relational perspective of
marketing or is it only a PR tool?
RQ2: Can Social Media Marketing be identified as an organizational process which enables
the enhancement of value co-creation between firms and customers and in general with
overall stakeholders?
RQ3: How can we define the Social Media Manager? Which is his role and his organizational
position?
2. Corporate Social Responsibility: the topic of CSR has recently experienced rapid growth along the
years in a wide variety of fields. Attention toward CSR has also been echoed by the marketing
literature (e.g. Maignan and Ferrell 2004, Morsing et al. 2008, Sen and Bhattacharya 2001).
Neverthless CSR research has not become a widely studied topic in premier marketing journals.
As a consequence, this research provides the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to
mainstream marketing theory by investigating how firms, both large and SMEs, are
communicating their CSR efforts by using Social Media. Also SMEs could be able to generate
competitive advantage and improve stakeholder relationships thanks to a well-strucutured CSR
strategy. Literature about this connection is very scant because research studies has focused mainly
on large firms.
 RQ1: Which is the connection between CSR and Marketing? Is CSR considered as an
important part of firms strategy or is just a marketing tool for promoting the business?
 RQ2: Do Social Media help companies, which are pursuing a socially responsible agenda,
only to gain a strong reputation or should help them to create value?
 RQ2: How can the use of Social Media lead to a positive impact on the CSR Strategy?
 RQ3: How can Social Media engage stakeholders in the co-creation of value in the CSR field?
Literature review
Managing corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts has become increasingly important in the firm’s
strategy. The benefits that socially responsible business practice can bring to a firm, such as customer
loyalty, long-term sustainability and competitive advantage, have been well established by literature
(Bhattacharya and Sen 2004). Nevertheless, in order to properly manage stakeholder relationships and
company reputation, a firm not only needs to integrate CSR in the overall strategy but the right marketing
and communication tools must also be used (Fieseler et al. 2009). The integration of social responsibility
into the marketing strategy of firms is increasingly becoming an important issue (e.g. Fiocca and
Sebastiani 2009, van de Ven 2008, Jahdi and Acikdalli 2009, Du et al. 2010). Being perceived as socially
responsible across stakeholder help companies to build a corporate reputation of social commitment
(Maignan and Ferrell 2004, Du et al. 2010, Lyes et al. 2012). Maignan and Ferrell’s work (2004) provided
a framework outlining the eight steps to be adopted in order to properly implement CSR from a marketing
perspective. It begins with the identification of the values and norms that could have some implications for
CSR and, after the implementation and the promotion of CSR initiatives, it finishes with the stakeholder
feedback, which is of fundamental importance in order to rethink and reassess the process in base of
stakeholder requests.
Even though “any initiative undertaken by corporation to gain legitimacy and the confidence of the public
through responsible corporate behaviors must be accompanied by a capacity to communicate with and
respond to the demands of stakeholders” (Moreno and Capriotti 2009, p. 161), there are conflicting views
about the communication of CSR efforts. While some researchers suggest that communication about CSR
activities does not necessarily result in positive effects for companies (Sen and Bhattacharya 2001), others
find that firms communicating their social efforts are viewed more positively and credibly (Swaen and
Vanhamme 2004). Given that CSR communication is directed to many potential audiences, ranging from
investors to customers and employees, it is important for a company to tailor its CSR communication to
the specific need of stakeholder groups (Du et al. 2010). Morsing et al. (2008) developed a model for CSR
communication which suggests two interdependent processes to communicate CSR to a variety of
stakeholders. Firstly, firms should start by involving and committing employees on corporate CSR
policies. Secondly, they could target their direct corporate CSR communication towards an exclusive
groups of experts (“the expert CSR communication process”) and, finally, towards the public in general
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Doctoral Colloquium New Trends and Developments in Marketing
Venice – January, 23rd 2014
(“the endorsed CSR communication process”). Du et al. (2010) refer to a tradeoff between controllability
and credibility in communicating CSR and argue that the more controllable the source of communication
is, the less credible the message will be perceived to be. As a consequence they suggest the use of blogs
and Social Media in order to create credible word of mouth about the organization’s CSR among its
stakeholder (Fieseler et al. 2009). Also Fieseler et al. (2009) and Korschun and Du (2013) suggest that
employing Social Media in the CSR context can generate substantial value for companies and society and
assert that virtual CSR dialogs1 lies in the intersection between Social Media and CSR. Anyway, despite
the increasing emphasis on marketing research on CSR, relatively little attention has been paid to the use
of Social Media and to the management of virtual CSR dialogs with stakeholders.
Social Media2 are indeed changing the ways in which consumers can connect with firms and become
aware of the CSR efforts. Social Media have empowered consumers to connect, share and collaborate,
creating spheres of influence that have fundamentally altered the way marketers engage in influencing
activities (Cherubini and Pattuglia 2012, Driessen et al. 2013, Finotto and Micelli 2010). The interactive
nature of Social Media is likely to blur the role integrity of sellers and customers by expanding the role of
customers and including them in the creation of value becoming co-creators and co-producers (Cherubini
and Pattuglia 2012, Fieseler et al. 2009, Micelli 2000, Pastore 2009, Toffler 1980, Vargo and Lush 2004).
With the rise in Social Media, the power is even more shifted from the marketing managers to individuals
and communities (O’Reilly 2005, Mangold and Faulds 2009, Kietzmann et al. 2011, Pastore 2009, Finotto
and Micelli 2010, Vernuccio et al. 2012, Mortara and Sinisi 2012). Value is therefore created in a network
of relationships of stakeholders (Rullani 2004a) and not only by the supplier, as stated by the logic
dominating Porter’s traditional value chain.
Nevertheless, as pointed out by the Lundquist research (2012), the majority of Italian firms are not using
Social Media. There is a “fair degree of uncertainty with respect to allocating marketing effort and budget
to Social Media” (Weinberg and Pehlivan 2011, p. 275). Few of today’s marketers operate within a
systematic approach to managing their company’s Social Media Strategy (Hanna et al. 2011, Kaplan and
Haenlein 2010, Macnamara and Zerfass 2012) even if it is crucial for firms to have a set of guidelines that
can be applied to any form of Social Media in line with business objectives. “It is not enough to merely
incorporate SM as standalone element of a marketing plan” (Hanna et al. 2011, p. 273).
One of the leading questions regarding SMM is the measurement of the return on investment. Hoffmann
and Fodor (2010) suggest that returns from SM investments will not always be measured in cash, but also
in customer behavior tied to particular social media applications. Marketing managers are interested in
metrics useful to explain success or fails of their marketing campaigns: brand awareness, visitors, number
of download of applications, number of participants during an event, product visibility (Cosenza 2012). PR
managers, instead, wish to know the sentiment, the share of voice, the citations and they are mainly
focused on reputation, which is also the aim of Corporate Communication (Cornelissen 2008, Invernizzi
2004, Siano 2012).
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Company’s strategic utilization of SM to proactively engage stakeholders in CSR activities (Korschun and Du, 2013, p.
1495)
2 Social Media are defined as “internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”
(Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p. 61). The array of Social Media expands daily but we can mention the following list based on
Woodcock et al. (2011, p.64):
Blogs;
Social Networking Sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter,…);
YouTube;
Photosharing (e.g. FlickR);
Interest sharing (e.g. Pinterest);
Interactive applications;
Virtual communities
Location based networks (e.g. Foursquare);
Aggregating channels (e.g. comparison sites);
Discussion groups/user forums.
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Tentative theorethical framework
Relationship
Marketing
Traditional Marketing
Corporate Social
Responsibility
SMM
Stakeholder
theory
Co-creation of value
with stakeholders
Proposed methodology
 Systematic Literature review: In order to be able to define the streams and themes related to Social
Media Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility research, a conventional keyword-based
search strategy was adopted. The online journal database Scoups Science Direct was searched to
provide a comprehensive bibliography of the academic literature by using the following
descriptors: Social Media Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Customer Relationship
Marketing, Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR Marketing, Value Creation, CSR in SMEs.
 Qualitative research: for the empirical part of this research, a multiple case study design is chosen.
As recommended in the literature a qualitative case study approach is particularly well suited to
explore a relatively new fiedl in which the available body of knowledge is limited (Eisenhardt
K.M. 1989). This stage will particularly be used to find evidence for the validity of the hypothesis
and to generate insights in order to adjust the constructs of the framework. In order to gain a
holistic undestanding of the relationships between CSR and SMM, different data collections
instruments will be used, including expert interviews, internal documents, questionnaires,
company publications like annual and sustainability reports. From the various kinds of interviews
discussed in the literature, guidelines interviews are chosen for this study. Using a set of
standardized questions, the interviewee is asked to focus on the topic of interest while leaving
enough room to contribute additional information of to emphasize aspects which might be
important for the case study but not had been considered by the researcher before. When it could
be possibile, we will interview the Social Media Managers and the CSR Managers
Preliminary findings
The preliminary main findings are:
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Doctoral Colloquium New Trends and Developments in Marketing
Venice – January, 23rd 2014
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Social Media Marketing is a subset of instruments within the relational perspective of marketing;
Social Media Marketing and Relationship Marketing have in common the strategic perspective of
co-creation of value thanks to the interaction of clients who become co-producer of the value of
the firm;
Social Media are mainly used to enhance reputation among stakeholders;
In large firms sustainability is better codified and formalized;
SMEs consider CSR not as an add-on but as part of the overall strategy of the firm even if they
practice non-systematic, non-formalized and non-structured CSR;
Facebook is not the right Social Media to communicate about CSR.
Expected theoretical and managerial implication
Thanks to this research we can have both theoretical and managerial implications:
Theorethical implications:
 Provide a literature review about the keywords related to the topic “Social Media”;
 Gain insights about the Social Media Strategy which has not been investigated by academic
literature, even if, as suggested by Macnamara and Zerfass (2012), the lack of policies and
guidelines for Social Media Strategy expose organizations to significant risks;
 Gain insights about the organizational role and the organizational position of the Social Media
Manager;
 Analyze the implications of Social Media in the communication of the CSR efforts;
 Undestand how Social Media provide stakeholder engagement in the CSR field.
Managerial implications:
 Provide suggestions about how to engage stakeholder in virtual dialogues thanks to Social Media;
 Provide suggestions about the choice related to the organizational position of the Social Media
Manager;
 Undestand the benefits related to a well defined CSR Strategy and which are the most suitable
Social Media to communicate about CSR in order to engage stakeholders and allow the cocreation of value.
Anticipated contribution to knowledge
This study makes several important contributions to the field of marketing:
1. It will be help to provide a clear undestanding about the topic of Social Media Marketing which
has not received a clear positioning by the marketing literature yet.
2. It will help to fulfill the research gap about the connection between Social Media and CSR as
suggested by Korschun and Du (2013).
3. Useful insights for practitioners will emerge.
Main References
Bhattacharya C.B, Sen S. (2004). Doing Better at Doing Good: When, Why and How Consumers Respond
to Corporate Social Initiatives, California Management Review, 47 : 9 - 25
Cherubini S. Pattuglia S. (2012). Social Media Marketing. Consumatori, imprese, relazioni, Franco Angeli
Cornelissen J. (2008). Corporate communication. A guide to theory and practice, Sage, London
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Driessen P.H., Kok R.A.W., Hillebrand B. (2013). Mechanisms for stakeholder integration: bringing
virtual stakeholder dialogue into organizations, 66, : 1465-1472
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Fieseler C., Fleck M., Meckel M. (2009). Corporate social responsibility in the blogosphere, Journal of
Business Ethics, 91 : 599 - 614
Finotto V., Micelli S. (2010). Web e Made in Italy: la terra di mezzo della comunicazione d'impresa,
Mercati e Competitività, 4 : 101 - 119
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Fiocca R., Sebastiani R. (2009). Marketing, competitività e sviluppo sostenibile. Le evidenze della ricerca
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Doctoral Colloquium New Trends and Developments in Marketing
Venice – January, 23rd 2014
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