مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

In today’s society and business world, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a highly relevant topic. By communicating their CSR activities to the public, many companies try to improve their reputation, consumer loyalty, and consumer trust (Stanaland, Lwin, &Murphy, 2011) or attract high potential employees (Berger, Cunningham, & Drumwright, 2007).While the literature offers numerous definitions, Aguinis and Glavas (2012) specify CSR as “context-specific organizational actions and policies that take into account stakeholders’ expectations and the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental performance” (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012, p. 933). CSR activities can be distinguished from other organizational activities by two characteristics: they benefit society or general interest, and they are not obligated by law (De Jong & Van der Meer, in press).

In the literature on the effects of CSR on stakeholders much attention is given to the concept of CSR fit. CSR fit involves the similarity between characteristics of an organization and characteristics of its CSR activities (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore, & Hill, 2006; Du, Bhattacharya, & Sen, 2010). Although there are some studies suggesting the opposite, it is generally assumed that CSR fit positively influences the effects of CSR activities on external stakeholders, mostly consumers (De Jong & Van der Meer, in press).An important aspectthat has so far been underexposed in the literature about CSR fitis the role of news media. Much of the information stakeholders receive about CSR activities of organizations will be mediated by news media, which may amplify, interpret, and modify the CSR information provided by organizations. As independent monitors of organizations’ activities (Zhang & Swanson, 2006), news media can be expected to take a critical perspective on organizations’ CSR activities. The research reported in this article fills this gap in the literature. We analyzed the relationship between CSR fit and media coverage in two steps: an expert review determining the fit between organizations and their CSR activities, and a content analysis of the media coverage of those activities. Our research question was: What is the impact of CSR fit on the media coverage about CSR activities?