Journal of Business Ethics (2010) 91:599–614 Ó Springer 2009 DOI 10.1007/s10551-009-0135-8

Christian Fieseler Corporate Social Responsibility Matthes Fleck in the Miriam Meckel

ABSTRACT. This paper uses social network analysis to Among other methods, stakeholder engagement examine the interaction between corporate devoted can be fostered via online platforms to sustainability issues and the blogosphere, a clustered that are devoted to participation and involvement in online network of collaborative actors. By analyzing the corporate decision-making. Using the information structural embeddedness of a prototypical in a virtual platforms provided by a number of technological community, we show the potential of online platforms to developments collectively referred to as Web 2.0, document corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and to engage with an increasingly socially and ecologi- stakeholders are increasingly able to participate, share, cally aware stakeholder base. The results of this study and collaborate online (O’Reilly, 2005, p. 109; 2006). show that stakeholder involvement via sustainability blogs Corporate blogs, a new form of interactive online is a valuable new practice for CSR and publication that provides a platform for exchanging stakeholder engagement. It also opens new horizons for opinions and comments on both emerging and communicating CSR issues to key constituencies online. existing issues, may prove an ideal instrument for companies to use to engage stakeholders. Not sur- KEY WORDS: corporate communications, corporate prisingly, many companies have begun to document social responsibility, corporate weblogs, social networks, their activities using blogs, as Lee et al. (2006) have stakeholder communication shown in the analysis of the blogging strategies of the Fortune 500 companies. This paper looks at a particular practice of corpo- Introduction rate blogging, namely, the implementation of blogs focused on a firm’s social and ecological responsibil- In an environment in which stakeholders are increas- ities, known as CSR blogs. Corporate blogs are typ- ingly active in holding corporations accountable for ically a platform used to discuss pressing issues, and their behavior, companies must not only expose they are particularly effective for engaging stake- stakeholders to their corporate social responsi- holders (Huang et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2008; Smudde, bility (CSR) efforts, but also engage them. Multi- 2005). CSR issues appear to be a natural fit for this national companies such as McDonald’s, whose communication vehicle because stakeholders with an online engagement practices this paper examines, face interest in green and social issues are often particularly public scrutiny from stakeholders online as well as interested in opportunities to engage with firms. As a offline (Barnes, 2009; Greenpeace, 2006; Royle, result, many stakeholders may not only be interested 2005). For instance, several private watchdog Web in invitations for engagement, but may in fact be eager sites and online communities report on the company’s to do so when given the opportunity. alleged exploitation of animals, people, and the Hence, a corporate blog devoted to CSR activities environment. Such growing pressure led McDonald’s may open new frontiers for companies as regards how to participate in various CSR activities, ranging from they interact with their shareholders, consumers and sustainability reports to engagements with NGOs concerned citizens interested on such issues. How- such as Greenpeace (Royle, 2005). ever, at the same time, a company providing such a 600 Christian Fieseler et al. weblog (or blog for short) becomes part of the blog- Research issues osphere and its rules, a network of personal opinions that follow particular dynamics and modes of inter- Corporate social responsibility and responsiveness action. Given this challenge, and especially in light of growing stakeholder reliance on Internet Stakeholder consultation and dialogue is increasingly sources for information about products and compa- a part of mainstream business (Business for Social nies (Dellarocas, 2003, 2006), a deeper understanding Responsibility (BSR), 2003). The motivation for of structural processes within the blogosphere is nec- greater interaction is attributed to both corporate essary. This study attempts to increase this knowledge goodwill and changing stakeholder demands, which in the particular domain of corporate sustainability are becoming increasingly more critical, especially blogging, based on an explorative case study of with regard to social and environmental issues (e.g., McDonald’s, the company with the most prominent Carroll, 2007; Frederick, 2008). Corporate social CSR blog at the time of this writing. McDonald’s has a responsiveness has been a topic of academic study for blog entirely dedicated to its CSR policy (http:// several decades, beginning with Ackerman’s (1975) csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com). Although not extremely three characteristic behaviors of responsive firms. well established in the blogosphere, the blog is Responsiveness implies that companies monitor and growing in popularity, and continues to rank higher assess environmental conditions, attend to stake- on Technorati than any other CSR blog (rank holder demands, and design plans and policies to 98,459). The blog itself is written by Bob Langert, respond to changing conditions. Carroll (1979) McDonald’s Vice President of CSR, and is dedicated observed that responsiveness alone is conceptually to informing the public about the five key issues rel- inadequate to replace the economic, legal, ethical, evant for McDonald’s: balanced active lifestyles, and discretionary strands of responsibility, as com- responsible purchasing, people, the environment, and panies can be very responsive to environmental the community. conditions or social pressures, but they may act This study uses social network analysis to irresponsibly or unethically in the process. Wartick understand the structure and relationships between and Cochran (1985) added that responsiveness different actors around this prototypical sustain- complements responsibility but does not replace it. ability blog as well as to determine the implications As Wood (1991, p. 693) argues, ‘‘The process of for the broader question of corporate communi- responsiveness contributes an action dimension that cations and stakeholder management. The results is needed to complement the normative and moti- show that corporate blogs are one of the most vational concept of social responsibility,’’ along with versatile corporate media to document the inter- motivating principles and observable outcomes of connectedness between a company and its stake- corporate and managerial actions. holder base. On a cautionary note, we want to From a corporate perspective, there are several point out that the paper focuses on the nature of reasons that companies are paying increasing attention relations built around a corporate blog and the to responsiveness. CSR processes may lead to policies structure of the dialogues held in such a network. and outcomes of corporate practices that are more The investigation of whether these relationships are adapted to societal expectations, thus creating a rep- meaningful is outside the scope of this paper, as utation among stakeholders that will help to attract such relationships imply commitment by the cor- resources, enhance performance, and build a com- poration no matter which corporate media is used. petitive advantage (Fombrun et al., 2000). In order to We begin with a review of the literature related to realize those benefits, companies should communi- CSR and Web 2.0, and then we provide an cate their corporate social responsibilities (APCO, overview of the research methods and the social 2004). Socially and economically responsible corpo- network analysis performed on the McDonald’s rations can enjoy more resilient stakeholder rela- blog. Finally, we discuss the implications of this tionships, which lowers the likelihood of regulatory study for researchers and practitioners. interventions and conflicts with pressure groups and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 601

NGOs (Guay et al., 2004). Evidence suggests that a balance to strike. However, if executed skillfully, the responsible and responsive company successfully re- information platforms collectively referred to as Web tains current employees and is attractive to potential 2.0 will provide a wide range of opportunities for employees (Fombrun et al., 2000). Furthermore, companies to interact with customers and other CSR activities are an important instrument for cre- stakeholders, thereby offering new potential for ating public goodwill and improving a company’s product differentiation and competitive advantage. image and reputation among customers (Barone et al., 2000; Hoeffler and Keller, 2002; McAlister and Ferrell, 2002). A credible commitment to CSR can CSR and the blogosphere help reduce conflicts with NGOs, prevent govern- ment interventions, and strengthen a company’s In contrast to static Web sites and reports, the devel- brand (Barone et al., 2000; Bhattacharya and Sen, opment of Web 2.0 and weblogs has significant 2004; Brown and Dacin, 1997; Creyer and Ross, potential for engaging customers and stakeholders in a 1997; Madrigal, 2000). dialogue. The term Web 2.0 was first coined by Despite such benefits, as Dawkins (2005, p. 109) O’Reilly (2005, 2006) to summarize various social points out, communication is the missing link in the and technical developments in the Internet realm. The practice of corporate responsibility. Lewis (2003, technical foundations that constitute Web 2.0 are, first p. 361) finds that although many companies are truly and foremost, technologies such as AJAX and XML, committed to fulfilling their corporate responsibili- which enable easy sharing and linking of documents ties, they often fail to communicate actively enough online. Predominant platforms of this new web era are with their stakeholders. According to CSR Europe wikis, blogs, and social networks. However, Web 2.0 (2000a, b), companies already use a wide range of is not only a technological movement, it is also a social channels for CSR communication, including social one. The most notable phenomena are social book- reports, web sites, and advertising (Birth et al., 2008, marking (Albrycht, 2006), grassroots responsibility, p. 185). Nonetheless, any initiative that a company citizen (Gilmor, 2004), and the sponta- takes to achieve trust and legitimacy through neous emergence of smart mobs, informed groups of responsible corporate behavior necessarily includes citizens, who use blogs and wikis (Dearstyne, 2007) its capacity to respond to demands from stake- for their campaigns (Rheingold, 2002; Trufelman, holders and to communicate with them. For com- 2005). Hoegg et al. (2006) attempt to provide a panies, communicating responsible behavior to their comprehensive definition for these technological and stakeholders is of vital importance (Capriotti and social developments by defining the term Web 2.0 as Moreno, 2007). CSR activities contribute to the ‘‘the philosophy of mutually maximizing collective perceived integrity and authenticity of a firm’s var- intelligence and added value for each participant by ious brands. On the other hand, tying sustainability formalized and dynamic information sharing and issues to companies always also entails the risk of creation.’’ In this way, rather than reducing Web 2.0 public scrutiny and criticism, especially in the con- to mere software applications, the authors emphasize text of online forums such as corporate blogs. the social impact of the collective collaborative work Many researchers point to the growing impor- that is enabled through technology. tance of corporate Web sites in the communication In this rapidly evolving field of online communi- of organizational responsibilities (Esrock and Leichty, cation and collaboration, weblogs, one of the main 1998, 2000; Maignan and Ralston, 2002). Stuart and communication platforms of the Web 2.0 era, have Jones (2004, p. 85) argue that Web sites are a valuable strong potential for engaging stakeholders on sus- communication tool for corporations. They argue tainability issues. In their simplest form, weblogs are that a corporate Web site is able to persuade, inform, online publications consisting of short entries, which and educate stakeholders as well as to interact with are usually written in an expressive and authentic style them. However, many corporate Web sites currently and arranged in reverse chronological order. One of remain static and do not use the full potential of the most important features of blogs is the built-in dialogue-based communication. Integrating CSR function that enables commentaries on each of the issues with corporate objectives remains a difficult entries (Kolbitsch and Maurer, 2006; Rosenbloom, 602 Christian Fieseler et al.

2004; Shi et al., 2007). The commentary function central research rationale of this paper is to determine enables open discussion on every entry that is made, whether CSR blogs allow companies to establish and therefore fosters dialogue between blog authors relationships with the various actors in the blogo- and readers (Zerfass and Boelter, 2005). A blog can be sphere, and to analyze how these relationships affect further defined as ‘‘a web page where a web logger corporate communications and stakeholder man- ‘logs’ all the other web pages she finds interesting’’ agement. (Blood, 2004, p. 53), and the process of blogging can be considered as follows: ‘‘To blog is to continually post one’s own ideas, opinions, Internet links Research methods (including those for other blogs), and so on about things on one’s own Web site, which is called a web This case study of the McDonald’s CSR blog uses log’’ (Smudde, 2005, p. 34). These definitions the analytical methods derived from social network emphasize the fact that blogs are online publications analysis, which describe social environments as rela- that are regularly updated and are based on the per- tionship patterns among interacting units (Wasserman sonal opinions of their authors. and Faust, 1994). Very few studies report the appli- It is worth emphasizing that the option to com- cation of social network analysis to the business ethics ment on blog entries offers the possibility to link to research community to date. With the examination of other blogs. These links can refer either to a single online stakeholder relationships still in an early stage, entry or to the blog in its entirety. The comments single-case studies are considered an adequate means and links on all blogs in existence on the Internet for first attempts to explore phenomena and to build form a clustered network termed the blogosphere theories (Benbasat et al., 1987; Eisenhardt and (Schmidt, 2007). Due to the complexity and vitality Graebner, 2007; Yin, 2003). of the blogosphere, it is almost impossible to accu- We further adapted the methods of social network rately estimate the total number of blogs forming analysis to accommodate the network structures of this collaborative network. Established blog search the Internet. Networks can be described in simple engines, such as technorati.com or blogpulse.com, terms as a set of discrete elements (known as vertices track more than 133 million blogs worldwide or actors), and as a set of connections (known as edges) (Technorati, 2008). This is not an easy task, consid- that link the elements. These vertices and edges can be ering the vitality of the blogosphere: almost one out formed by almost any object, such as people and of two blogs is abandoned after merely 3 months, but friendships (Rapoport and Horvath, 1961), comput- a new blog is set up every 1.4 s (Sifry, 2007). These ers and communication lines (Faloutsos et al., 1999), numbers demonstrate the rising importance of user- chemicals and reactions (Fell and Wagner, 2000; generated content for almost every part of society. Jeong et al., 2000), scientific papers and citations Lenhart (2006) points out that 90% of weblogs are (Price, 1965), and hyperlinks and the Web sites in dialogue-based. Often, the comments that accom- which they are embedded. pany a post are more compelling to many readers Much of the vocabulary of social network anal- than the post itself. In addition, many blog audiences ysis, such as actor centrality, path lengths, cliques, represent coherent groups of experts or individuals. and connected components, is derived from graph Even large companies such as Cisco, Dell, Ford, and theory (Newman et al., 2006), which requires a HP have used blogs to reach opinion leaders, inno- certain amount of adaptation in order to apply to vators, and early adopters (Kent, 2008). In this con- online networks. Thus, there is the developing field text, this study explores the various interactions of hyperlink network analysis, which uses the tools within the blogosphere around a corporate sustain- and methods derived from social network analysis. ability blog. In general, a corporate blog dedicated to In an extension of this field, scholars have begun to CSR issues aims to inform and persuade a firm’s key assign actor attributes to Web sites, since they reflect constituencies over the long term (Fleck et al., 2007). the communicational choices and agendas of their We expand upon this idea and strive for a deeper respective owners (Jackson, 1997). Web sites func- understanding of the embeddedness of a sustainabil- tion as nodes through which information travels ity blog within the blogosphere. Accordingly, the among users. Hence, hyperlinks represent a network Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 603 among people, organizations, or nations, which al- note that researchers using services such as Technorati lows an interpretation of the social structure of on- and Issuecrawler are relying on third-party data. A line communication based on the structure of potential, albeit limited, remedy is the possibility of hyperlinks (Park, 2003). Given that blogs are a collecting blog network data manually by surfing from highly individual manifestation of a Web site, social blog to blog, as shown by Herring et al. (2005). network analysis is an appropriate way to explore We decided to collect data for the McDonald’s networks formed by weblogs. sustainability blog using custom php software (Kir- Based on this approach, this research relies on a chhoff, 2007). The software uses the API of Tech- snowball technique to analyze an ego-network norati.com to collect all blogs linking to the centered on a well-established blog, McDonald’s McDonald’s CSR blog. The data were collected using CSR blog entitled ‘‘Open for Discussion.’’ Snowball the snowball technique with two iterations starting techniques, which start from one or a set of focal from the focal blog. In the first step we identified 228 actors, are extremely popular among network sci- nodes, and 18,311 nodes were identified in the second entists as a way to collect data. In a second step, all iteration. From those 18,539 nodes, we identified the actors connected to the focal set of actors are 2,596,770 links. We also counted multiple links be- identified, and the procedure is repeated with the tween two Web sites. Altogether, 1.5 GB of plain text newly identified actors, further extending the net- data representing the URLs was collected. The dataset work (Hannemann, 2001). There is no set rule for was then exported to the network analysis software when to finish the procedure, but it is generally package UCInet 6.0 (Borgatti et al., 2002) and visu- deemed satisfactory if (a) the number of newly alized with Netdraw (Borgatti et al., 2002) and Pajek identified actors tends to be zero or (b) if the 1.02 (Batagelj and Mrvar, 1998). Our analysis pro- researchers’ capacities have reached a limit (Jansen, duced a framework that indicated the degree to which 2003). On a cautionary note, this procedure is this particular corporate blog is embedded in the unable to identify isolated populations, which means blogosphere and its relationships with customers, that relationships and solidarity in ego-networks media outlets, and stakeholders. This framework is tend to be overstated (Hannemann, 2001). This discussed in detail below. must be taken into account when interpreting the Additionally, in order to illustrate our findings and results of snowball methods. Despite these limita- provide further information on the investigated blogs, tions, snowball methods remain valuable tools for we collected archival material on the McDonald’s investigating the social environment of a focal actor, CSR blog. Providing additional material of a different and they have already been successfully applied in nature is a very common approach in case study re- blog research (Herring et al., 2005). search (Yin, 2003), as well as in social network analysis The main sources for data on the blogosphere are (Jansen, 2003; Scott, 2000; Wasserman and Faust, the blog of interest, the blog host (web services such as 1994). For instance, we extracted the number of blogger.com who maintain multiple weblogs), and posts, the authors, and their positions from the blog search engines. Studies by Schuster (2004) and archive. To quantify the discussions taking place on Bachnik et al. (2005) show that the blog host provides the ‘‘Open for discussion’’ blog, we counted the fre- a wide range of network data. In addition, the blog quency of comments from users on posts and the search engine Technorati provides a multitude of data reaction of McDonald’s bloggers to the posts. The to researchers, including both incoming and outgoing overall intention for conducting this additional anal- links that can be collected using Technorati’s Appli- ysis was to look at not only the structure of the cation Program Interface (API). In addition, the community, but also its context. However, we cau- Technorati rank provides valuable insight into the tion that we did not intend to discover any semantic respective popularity of each blog. The Issuecrawler or content structure within parts of the blogosphere. application used in a recent study by Bruns (2007)is Instead, we focused on the constraints and opportu- another means of automated data collection that can nities for dialogue resulting from the surrounding be used to compile a list of URLs. It is important to network structure, which is presented below. 604 Christian Fieseler et al.

Empirical results May 2008 had an average length of 375.4 words, and each post generated an average feedback of 3.1 user McDonald’s CSR blog is currently the most comments in response. On average, every other user prominent CSR blog in the blogosphere, although comment led to a reaction from one of the 11 according to Internet statistics provider Alexa McDonald’s bloggers. Within the blog, McDonald’s (2008), less than 1% of the web traffic generated provides not only the name of the author, but also his by the www.mcdonalds.com domain is generated or her job title. Most of the authors work within the by the domain www.csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com. This McDonald’s CSR office, while one is from the human means that the majority of Web site visitors are resources department and another from an environ- primarily looking for information about the com- mental department within the company. Their posi- pany that does not necessarily involve discussion tions range from senior manager to vice president. with the company or its representatives. People may This indicates that the company prefers that only be interested in basic information such as where to high-ranking officials blog, rather than to portray itself find a restaurant, the current stock price, employ- as a blogging company like Microsoft or Sun Micro- ment opportunities, or the ingredients in a product. systems, where almost every employee is allowed and Although less than 1% sounds quite small, the CSR encouraged to blog (Lee et al., 2006). The McDon- blog is a niche for the most active users known as ald’s strategy of reacting to comments demonstrates an lead consumers or opinion leaders. This division into approach of creating a very active and open com- two major types of web traffic can be assumed to munication with stakeholders, which rarely occurs in apply to other companies as well. For example, most corporate blogs of Fortune 500 companies. The usual users visit the Dell Web site to order or configure a lack of reactions seen on corporate blogs is of no value computer instead of to communicate with the to the blogging company, because it terminates the company. The few who do engage in dialogue, dialogue and inhibits valuable user feedback (Fieseler however, provide valuable feedback. Therefore, we et al., 2008). conclude that mostly highly engaged customers and Beginning with these user reactions and com- stakeholders take advantage of the opportunity to ments, we looked in subsequent iterations at the interact with a company via its weblog. network formed between the company and the From January 2007 to May 2008, there were 53 blogosphere. As described in the previous section, entries by 11 different authors (see Table I). Accord- the degree to which a blog is embedded within the ing to the typology of corporate blogging strategies blogosphere can be analyzed using techniques from developed by Lee et al. (2006), McDonalds uses a top- social network analysis. down approach in which a group of employees blogs Our investigation of the blog began with an anal- about a niche topic. Similar strategies are used at Dell, ysis of the ego-network and with identification of the Cisco, EDS, and Amazon, while for instance Boeing most prominent and active actors within the blogs. In and GM rely on blogs from a leading executive. Each the language of network science, the ego is the focal entry or post from McDonald’s from January 2007 to node (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005; Jansen, 2003), which is, in our case, the McDonald’s CSR blog. Next, we looked at the context in which all of the TABLE I identified core blogs are embedded. This is necessary Statistics about McDonald’s CSR blog to understand the motives and background of the blogs that link directly to the McDonald’s CSR blog. Statistics about McDonald’s CSR blog The nodes or blogs that directly connect to the McDonald’s focal blog make up the neighborhood Number of posts 53 (Hanneman and Riddle, 2005). From there, the ego- Number of authors 11 Average post length (words) 375.4 network was enhanced by a further iteration, and we Average number of comments per post 3.1 again identified the most prominent actors. A second Average number of answers per post 1.4 iteration provided information about those parts of the blogosphere that were closely related to the Web site statistics from Alexa (2008). McDonald’s CSR blog. In network analysis, this is Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 605 often referred to as a two-step-neighborhood ego- review, and marketing blogs, as well as a large number network, meaning that there is a maximum of two of personal blogs that form the immediate vicinity of steps distance between a blog and the focal node the McDonald’s blog in the blogosphere. The rela- (McDonald’s). Because the Internet is a decentralized tionships represented by the links are the comments network, with the number of sites and links growing and recommendations of highly engaged users, and exponentially with each iteration, we reasoned that a are therefore a useful indicator of the activity and third iteration would not provide significantly more engagement of the opinion leaders who form a net- knowledge. Previous research from Gruhl et al. work. We formally measured each comment and link (2004) and Kumar et al. (2004, 2005), who also as an edge between two nodes in the ego-network of analyzed large blog networks, showed that there are the McDonald’s CSR blog. either very densely clustered networks of intense The network consists of 228 nodes with a density discussion over a short period of time or almost no of 0.2548, which means that one quarter of all the community structures in blog networks. Both find- possible relationships among the blogs within the ings suggest that an impact will only be made on other network actually exists. Each relation is thereby an blogs within the nearest neighborhood of a focal blog. indicator for a communicational action between at In addition, the 18,539 blogs we identified are at the least two bloggers. Usually, those actors do not know larger end of manageable datasets. Previous studies the other actors’ real-world egos, but instead engage from Kumar et al. (2004) and Herring (2005) have with their online alter egos in discussions about spe- also relied on population sizes from 10,000 to 25,000 cific issues. In potential contrast to face-to-face blogs for their interpretation of blog community communication, this online conversation occurs in a structures. public forum. For the McDonald’s blog, the network Figure 1 shows the ego-network of the McDon- discussion is about CSR, and is written in an authentic ald’s CSR blog, which is represented by the large and personal style. circle in the center. All the other blogs within the An investigation of the relationships among nodes network are shown as surrounding smaller circles. We also provides useful information about the promi- mainly identified blogs about CSR issues, technology nence of each actor. In simple terms, the more an

csr-blogs-mcdonalds-com

Figure 1. Ego-network of the McDonald’s CSR blog [1-step neighborhood n = 228, arrows indicate the direction of the relationship, visualized with NetDraw (Borgatti et al., 2002)]. 606 Christian Fieseler et al. actor is involved in relationships with others, the i.e., those with many ties. In this way, prestige is a more prominent he is. As most networks follow a more refined concept than centrality, but it requires power distribution, only a few key bloggers would directional data (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). be expected within the McDonald’s networks. Analysis of the most prominent blogs helps to This is also visible in the graphic representations define the surroundings of the McDonald’s CSR generated by UCINET software packages, including blog and the overall agenda of the network’s most Netdraw (Figure 1) and Pajek (Figure 2), where important players. We decided to measure blog the number of incoming arrows indicates the prominence based on the level of activity of each prominence of the blog within the network, based blog within the network. The level of activity of an on the number of incoming links calculated by actor can be measured by Freeman’s degree of cen- Indegree. trality. The NrmDegree was chosen as a measure of Prominence in networks is a vague concept and is the activity of each blog relative to the size of the difficult to measure. The idea guiding the term is network. The NrmDegree is the Freeman degree often referred to as status (Katz, 1953; Moreno and normalized by the size of the network. It is also Jennings, 1938; Proctor and Loomis, 1951; Zeleny, interesting to investigate the overall activity or 1940). Prominent actors with high status can be prominence of a blog relative to all other blogs defined as those who are extensively involved in within the network. Therefore, we decided to relationships with other actors (Wasserman and measure SHARE, the centrality measure of the actor Faust, 1994). Knoke and Burt (1983) divide the divided by the sum of the centralities of all the actors concept of prominence into two different classes: in the network (Freeman, 1979; Hanneman and centrality and prestige. The first category, actor Riddle, 2005; Wasserman and Faust, 1994). SHARE centrality, answers the question of whether an actor allows us to interpret a blog’s importance within a is involved in many relationships or not, although given network. A high degree within the McDon- whether the actor is receiving or transmitting ald’s network means involvement in many relation- information within the network is of no particular ships (for example, through comments and links), and interest. Expressed simply, a central actor is involved more importantly involvement with other blogs. A in many (non-directional) ties (Bavelas, 1948). The low degree indicates a marginal importance of a blog second category, prestige, involves prestigious actors, within the McDonald’s network.

Figure 2. Ego-network of the McDonald’s CSR blog based on two iterations [2-step neighborhood ego-network, n = 18,539, visualized with Pajek 1.02 (Batagelj and Mrvar, 1998)]. Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 607

Table II shows the most active blogs within the Consumerevangelist (www.churchofthecustomer. ego-network of the McDonald’s CSR blog. com) is a well-known blog written by Ben McCon- Although the McDonald’s CSR blog is the focal actor nell, who has published books about turning con- in the network, working to initiate engagement and sumers into passionate advocates of a company. The relationships with other blogs, other blogs are more link between McDonald’s and this blog results from prominent in the network. Based on the number of 37 posts regarding primarily customer issues and the incoming links (Indegree, Table II), the first three company’s products. McConnell is read by many blogs are responsible for more than 70% of the net- journalists and is often cited in the traditional media. work’s activity. This is unsurprising, as these domains Forbes, for example, calls his work ‘‘the word of represent blog-hosting services (AOL, Wordpress, mouth gospel’’ (McConnell and Huba, 2008). Blogher), which are aggregators for numerous private McConnell has become a considerable source of blogs and therefore represent a large number of pri- influence with relevant importance as a virtual opin- vate conversations. ion leader. Among the remaining prominent blogs, atin- PSD blog (http://psdblog.worldbank.org/)isan achile, consumerevangelist, and PSD blog can be acronym for Private Sector Development blog, and described as blogs that discuss CSR issues and topics. is maintained by the World Bank. Their relationship Since these blogs reflect on issues relevant to CSR to McDonald’s results in six posts about develop- communication, and they were clearly identified as mental and ecological issues. According to state- important nodes within the network, we took a ments in the ‘‘About us’’ section of the blog, ‘‘The closer look at the content of these blogs to under- Private Sector Development blog (PSD blog) gath- stand their relationship with the McDonald’s CSR ers together news, resources and ideas about the blog. role of private enterprise in fighting poverty. The Atinachile (www.atinachile.cl) presents informa- blog is informal and represents the quirks and tion about a local Chilean citizens’ movement. Their opinions of the bloggers, not the World Bank interest in McDonald’s results in 14 posts naming the Group’’ (Worldbank, 2008). Although the blog is a McDonald’s company. One of these posts empha- semi-official source of information, it is a credible sizes the importance of innovation for Chile’s source for people with interest in development development. McDonald’s was used as an example policy. Similar to the consumer evangelist blog, the to underline the innovative power of the company. PSD blog is an important virtual opinion leader for Emerging threats and opportunities for local Chilean McDonald’s within a certain community with restaurants were discussed. Such blog posts are highly specialized interests. valuable information for McDonald’s, as they pro- From a public relations perspective, these actors in vide insight into local sentiment. the McDonald’s network can be considered opinion

TABLE II Overview of the most active blogs in the ego-network of the McDonald’s CSR blog

Rank Blog name Degree NrmDegree Share

1 journals.aol.com 9002 0.754 0.344 2 wordpress.com 5392 0.452 0.206 3 blogher.org 5296 0.444 0.202 4 journals.aol.com.journalseditor.magicsmoke 555 0.046 0.021 5 www.atinachile.cl 528 0.044 0.020 6 customerevangelists.typepad.com 520 0.044 0.020 7 blog.holtz.com 382 0.032 0.015 8 moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com 346 0.029 0.013 9 psdblog.worldbank.org 337 0.028 0.013 10 csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com 274 0.023 0.010 608 Christian Fieseler et al. leaders. The blogs magicsmoke, blog.holtz, and Internet, and has been described previously in the moblogsmoproblems deal with topics related to literature (Albert et al., 1999). marketing, communication, and technology. It Figure 2 shows the extended network, including seems that the McDonald’s launch of an ambitious 18,539 blogs. The McDonald’s CSR blog is project to bring discussions of CSR issues into an depicted at the center of the network. Radiating emerging technological environment is gaining the around the main object of investigation, the previ- attention of actors with diverse perspectives and ously identified blogs are shown as connected to a agendas. complex network with numerous actors and rela- Among the blogs mentioned above, only three tionships. At the periphery of the network, weakly can be considered as opinion leaders on issues rele- connected nodes or groups of nodes are clearly vis- vant to communicating CSR issues. Nevertheless, ible. A structure as complex as this is difficult to we identified a large number of individual conver- interpret from the perspective of a single actor with sations between the company and various stake- regard to one other actor, but clearly it is almost holders that were aggregated by bloghosters such as impossible for McDonald’s to proactively manage AOL, Wordpress, or blogher, or that came from such a large, complex, and diverse network. How- stand-alone actors such as privately run blogs. ever, the company can potentially monitor its sur- In conclusion, only 5% of the network link rounding elements in the blogosphere to identify activity refers to CSR-dedicated topics, while the emerging issues and to express its position in an greatest proportion of identified conversation is authentic and expressive style. The unofficial and anecdotal in character and involves day-to-day on- personal character of a blog also provides various line conversations. In addition, we identified those opportunities to create less formal conversation with theme aggregators that report on the novelty that a stakeholders and to test their reactions to certain multinational company would dedicate a blog to positions better than through other corporate media CSR. Those aggregators have different agendas, such as press releases or annual reports, which are including branding, marketing, and technology re- more formal. view. Starting from the focal blog dedicated purely Table III shows the most active blogs in the to CSR, this topic is touched upon by many other extended network. Again, bloghoster and search blogs with heterogeneous backgrounds in various engines play an important role within the network. contexts. It is worth emphasizing that these results The three most prominent actors are responsible for indicate that, within the McDonald’s blog network, only approximately 30% of the network activity. CSR issues are not the exclusive topic of discussion, This again reflects the decentralized character of the but instead provide the momentum to engage others Internet. The importance of the McDonald’s CSR in discussion, linking, and commenting about the blog has decreased within the larger network. It is blog and the company. not surprising that, within the extended ego- The analysis of blogs directly linked to the network, the importance of CSR-related topics and McDonald’s CSR blog provides information about discussions remains small and even broader in scope the vicinity of the focal blog, immediate concerns, than in the original ego-network. Among the ten and the structurally most important influencers. It is most active blogs, none are dedicated to CSR issues. also important to look at the wider context and Thus, we conclude that the influence of the surroundings of the blog. To analyze the degree to McDonald’s CSR blog is minimal compared to that which the McDonald’s CSR blog is embedded of the remaining network actors. within the blogosphere, we performed one further Nevertheless, McDonald’s gains access through iteration of data collection using the snowball this blog to a diverse spectrum of communities that technique. In addition to the 228 nodes linked to the discuss a wide range of topics and issues. In this way, focal actor (the McDonald’s CSR blog), another our analysis shows that although the direct impact of 18,311 nodes were identified as linked within one sustainability blogs is not proximate, and in the further iteration of data collection using the snowball broader periphery it is very diffuse, they nevertheless technique. This exponential growth of the network enable companies such as McDonald’s to foster is typical for large decentralized networks such as the meaningful relationships within the blogosphere, Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 609

TABLE III Overview of the most active blogs in the network around the McDonald’s CSR blog

Rank Blog Degree NrmDegree Share

1 journals.aol.com 875,347 0.016 0.195 2 peopleconnection.aol.com.journals 141,119 0.004 0.054 3 wordpress.com 107,020 0.003 0.041 4 blogsearch.google.com.blogsearch 26,301 0.001 0.010 5 blogher.org 17,361 0.001 0.007 6 www.midmarketmaven.com 13,420 0.000 0.005 7 slashdot.org 13,286 0.000 0.005 8 reddiggulo.us 12,297 0.000 0.005 9 blip.tv 11,835 0.000 0.005 10 www.webpronews.com 10,743 0.000 0.004 979 csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com 274 0.000 0.000 relationships that involve business contacts as well as heterogeneous character of the Internet. Blogs that customers. Moreover, blogs serve as a basis for in- are closely tied to the McDonald’s blog discuss issues tense dialogue between companies and their stake- in a much more narrow sense and in a way that is holders, though not in the traditional sense of more closely related to the initial character of a post, dialogue, but rather in a form suiting social media, as while more distant blogs discuss issues from a diverse will be shown in the following section. set of perspectives. Nevertheless, both types of blogs enable McDonald’s to diffuse into communities it would otherwise reach only with difficulty. Discussion and conclusions It is important to note that the audiences of online discussion platforms are rather small in comparison Although balancing the needs of all the stakeholders to the mass media audience. In contrast to the large has been part of CSR efforts all along, the dynamics and predominately passive audience of mass media, are changing with the advent of Web 2.0. Previ- blogs only attract those who actively look for con- ously, CSR efforts primarily involved strong versation and engage in discussions within the and organized pressure groups that raised awareness blogosphere. This scenario is both positive and through campaigns. However, opportunities for negative: the McDonald’s CSR blog does not have a grassroots efforts to engage multinational companies direct impact on a large public sphere, but it can are growing. The built-in function of blogs to indirectly reach this larger sphere through opinion comment on posts provides every user with the leaders. Sustainability blogs reach a very active and opportunity to react to statements made in a cor- well-informed clientele, which is a customer porate blog. By the same token, this feature gives demographic of great interest for marketers since corporations the opportunity to react to user com- they tend to be early adopters, influencers, and ments, thus enabling a dialogue-based relationship multipliers. Already in the 1950s, Katz and Lazarsfeld between the company and its stakeholders. (1955) developed the so-called Two Step flow of However, even in the case of McDonald’s, the Communication theory, which advanced the notion influence of the company’s blog on the overall that information flows do not usually form a direct, network agenda remains marginal. Our results show uninterrupted connection between a communicator that the discussions held on the McDonald’s CSR (such as a media outlet) and a recipient. Instead, blog do not necessarily permeate the blogosphere. information follows a moderated line extending Only those parts of the blogosphere bound tightly to from a communicator to an opinion leader, and the blog itself share issues and topics, whereas more finally to that leader’s followers. So far, extensive distant parts tend to reflect the decentralized and research has addressed the individual characteristics 610 Christian Fieseler et al. of these opinion leaders, but only a small portion of customers and stakeholders can initiate meaningful this research has examined the network structure conversation on critical issues outside the McDon- around these leaders. For instance, Coleman et al. ald’s blog. Therefore, it is necessary to know the (1957) and Burt (1987) investigated information elements surrounding the focal blog in the blogo- diffusion in networks by focusing on the character- sphere to identify such discussions, and then to know istics of the individuals. Relatively few studies have and learn from them and ideally participate in them. been devoted to the description of word-of-mouth The motivation for more interaction with stake- influence on image formation and decision-making holders stems not only from corporate goodwill, but in large-scale networks (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004; also from changing stakeholder demands. Stake- Leskovec et al., 2007). holders are becoming increasingly more critical, In contrast to the traditional concept of a dialogue especially with regard to social and environmental with the public, we propose the concept of micro- issues. The conclusions derived from this single-case dialogues to describe this special case of symmetric design can of course only be a first step toward a communication. Micro-dialogues are created be- richer and more complex theory as proposed by tween an organization and highly engaged audiences Eisenhardt and Graebner (2007). Future research in in online spaces, and they deal with a previously the field of web-based CSR, also with regard to defined range of topics and issues. Micro-dialogues micro-dialogic processes on different levels and are special in the sense that weblogs and other par- stages might prove very worthwhile to better ticipative media have almost no gate-keeping understand and manage social responsibility in even mechanism, enabling conversations without formal more networked societies. As can be seen from the hierarchies. In the case of the McDonald’s blog, example of the presidential campaign of Barack stakeholders can freely and directly interact with a Obama, which utilized online social networks to multinational company on critical issues such as keep abreast of critical social issues, micro-dialogic working conditions or environmental stewardship processes are indeed effective. Quantitative and Instead of formal hierarchies; discussions in weblogs conceptual research that links theory and concepts allow any and all interested parties to read and from business ethics, social network science, and also comment, which results in a public review dialogic communications toward a more integrative process that engenders authenticity, transparency, framework of CSR in a Web 2.0 environment could and credibility. help attain sustainability communication a similar This way, Web 2.0 facilitates and structures more effectiveness. direct engagement between companies and stake- There are several ways that companies can foster holders. It may lead to conversations that involve CSR engagement in the blogosphere. As the raising issues, discussing priorities, and solving and present research shows, every company can use implementing. Eventually, CSR initiatives will in- publicly available data about weblogs as a starting volve stakeholders more directly and dynamically point to analyze how embedded their own blog is than previous channels of communication. The within the larger blogosphere. Based on our anal- McDonald’s CSR blog is strongly connected to ysis, we suggest using a combination of three types various actors within the blogosphere, but the of information about the weblog to view it from present study shows that only closely connected different angles. actors share topics with the focal blog. The influence Sources of data for such a network-based com- of the focal blog shrank to marginal with another munication approach are known as web metrics, and iteration, which leads to the conclusion that most can be obtained from providers such as Google or micro-dialogues remain confined within a certain Alexa, who provide basic information about each community. The viral effects of Web 2.0 that site. Such static data provide information about pas- receive so much attention in the media are much sive stakeholders who only read the blog and their less frequent than micro-dialogues among highly activity. Information about ingoing and outgoing engaged communicators about very specific issues. links could be collected through the bloghoster or Of course, there are relevant micro-dialogues that do from services like Technorati. The information about not directly involve the company, meaning that the surrounding structure gives the company the Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere 611 opportunity to identify the most influential stake- highly important. In addition, the identification of holders in the network. Furthermore, analysis of the structurally important actors within the network agenda of the most active blog provides insight into helps to understand the popularity of certain issues, the stakeholders’ fields of interest and the various which is sometimes surprising. surrounding communities. Finally, the blog itself is a The results of this study applying social network valuable source for data, as it provides insight into analysis to corporate sustainability blogs suggest that users and their behaviors (Carson, 2008; Griffin, blogs can reach engaged and critical audiences in a 2007; Ka Cheung et al., 2007). A closer look at each long-tailed Internet more effectively and cost- post helps to answer simple questions such as whether efficiently than do face-to-face or offline communi- readers prefer short or long posts, which topics create cation methods. Therefore, we conclude that CSR the most feedback, and which issues are read often blogs could become useful communication tools in the but not commented on. Judd et al. (1991) and Viney future. They provide a new means of access to stake- (1983) have already pointed out that content analysis holders with interests in specific topics, such as sus- is a reliable and valid method to discover a variety of tainability issues. Blogging about sustainability issues psychological states. As this exploratory case study takes patience and openness, and interaction should be shows, integrated analysis of these three types of data sincere and transparent in order to be fruitful. gives an in-depth overview about conversations on a Web 2.0 is regarded as a buzzword by some, blog. Clearly, such data must be gathered continu- while others primarily see the technical features of ously to be relevant. this new web era. In contrast, we like to emphasize This procedure is not only about gathering that Web 2.0 has fundamentally changed the stake- information passively. It is also about engaging ac- holder environment of organizations by connecting tively in micro-dialogues. One interesting variant of the various and diverse perspectives of all stake- corporate blogging is for a company to blog about holders through platforms such as blogs. Those concrete challenges in its CSR strategy, or to let platforms allow organizations to engage with their certain stakeholders write about their perspective on, stakeholders on issues of almost every kind. How- or provide input about, CSR initiatives. As our ever, such dialogues can only be fruitful if the analysis has shown, the blogosphere is a very diverse company accepts that it is now only one voice space with interest in specific micro-topics. A blog among many others. Furthermore, it must be willing provides various opportunities to fulfill stakeholder to allow stakeholder engagement on its own plat- demands for discussing these issues, whereas other forms, even when that engagement is critical. If not, large-scale corporate media are unable to do so. stakeholders will find a way to express criticism Therefore, we argue that companies should listen without interacting with the company. carefully to users’ demands. In addition, social media demand a certain amount of community self- management to ensure a successful platform with References meaningful relationships. Companies that fear such openness may prefer to use media other than a blog. Ackerman, R. W.: 1975, The Social Challenge to Business From the perspective of online community (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA). management, we therefore recommend taking the Albert, R., H. Jeong and A. L. 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