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Copyright by Rachel Lim 2013 The Thesis Committee for Rachel Lim Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Building a socially responsible image in the homepage of the Fortune Global 500 companies APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: ____________________________________ Wei-Na Lee ____________________________________ Gary Wilcox Building a socially responsible image in the homepage of the Fortune Global 500 companies by Rachel Lim, B.S.Adv. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin August 2013 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratefulness to my supervisor, Dr. Wei-Na Lee, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the beginning to the end enabled me to develop the idea of this paper. I am very thankful to have this opportunity during my Master’s study. I would also like to express my thankfulness to Dr. Gary Wilcox for supporting and giving his time to look through this work. iv Abstract Building a socially responsible image in the homepage of the Fortune Global 500 companies Rachel Lim, MA The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Wei-Na Lee A company can create a socially responsible image by having the public associate it (the company) with corporate social responsibility (CSR). Many researchers have asserted that a socially responsible image benefits a company in many ways. Zenisek (1979) clarified the complexity of CSR by approaching the concept through an organizational behavior approach. He constructed a CSR model that consisted of critical aspects—the ideological, operational, and societal aspects–in the relationship between a company and society. By applying Zenisek’s (1979) CSR model, this study conducts a content analysis of the corporate website homepages of Fortune Global 500 companies. The objective is to explore the variability in creating a socially responsible image through CSR communication by revenue, industry category, and country-of- origin. The results indicate that there are differences in communicating CSR aspects of CSR as well as CSR issues according to a company’s revenue, industry category, and country-of-origin. The study provides fresh insights for practitioners to approach CSR communication in business. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES…………..…………………………………………………………………………. vii LIST OF FIGURES…………………..………………………………………………………..………viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................. 5 CSR COMMUNICATION ................................................................................................. 7 CORPORATE WEBSITES .............................................................................................. 11 HOMEPAGE AND HEADLINE ........................................................................................................ 12 CSR AND THE ORIGIN OF COUNTRIES .................................................................... 14 CSR COMMUNICATION AND INDUSTRIES ............................................................. 15 CSR AND REVENUES ................................................................................................... 16 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 17 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 19 CODING SCHEME DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 19 INTERCODER RELIABILITY ....................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER5: DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ........................... 32 CSR COMMUNICATION AND REVENUE .................................................................. 32 CSR COMMUNICATION AND COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ............................................ 33 CSR COMMUNICATION AND INDUSTRIES ............................................................. 35 IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ......................... 37 TABLES .................................................................................................................................................. 40 FIGURES .................................................................................................................................................. 57 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................ 86 CODESHEET ................................................................................................................... 86 CODEBOOK .................................................................................................................... 88 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 93 vi LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1 INTER-CODER RELIABILITY TEST BY DESCRIPTIVE VARIABLES (QUESTIONS 7-100).......... 40 TABLE 2 INTER-CODER RELIABILITY FOR COMPANIES (1-100)................................................................... 41 TABLE 3 INTER-CODER RELIABILITY FOR DESCRIPTIVE VARIABLES (QUESTION 1-6) ........................ 42 TABLE 4 CSR ASPECTS IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY ..................................... 43 TABLE 5 CSR DIMENSIONS IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY .............................. 44 TABLE 6 CSR ASPECTS IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ........................................ 45 TABLE 7 CSR DIMENSIONS IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ................................ 46 TABLE 8 PERCENTAGE OF COMPANIES EXHIBITING CSR-RELATED ELEMENTS IN HOMEPAGES .... 47 TABLE 9 COMMUNICATING CSR IN THEIR HOMEPAGE HEADLINE BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY ......... 48 TABLE 10 COMMUNICATING CSR IN THEIR HOMEPAGE HEADLINE BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.......... 49 TABLE 11 GROUP STATISTICS OF PRESENCE OF CSR IN THEIR HOMEPAGE HEADLINE .................... 50 TABLE 12 COMMUNICATING CSR ASPECTS BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY ................................................... 51 TABLE 13 INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST BETWEEN COMPANIES ‘NO CSR’ AND ‘YES CSR’ IN THEIR HOMEPAGE HEADLINE ........................................................................................................... 52 TABLE 14 GROUP STATISTIC FOR COMPANIES COMMUNICATING ‘NO-CSR’ AND ‘MORE THAN 1 CSR ASPECTS’ ........................................................................................................................................ 53 TABLE 15 INDEPENDENT SAMPLE T-TEST FOR THE MEAN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ‘NO-CSR’ AND ‘MORE THAN 1 CSR ASPECTS’............................................................................................................ 54 TABLE 16 CORRELATION BETWEEN ‘REVENUE OF THE COMPANY’ AND ‘NUMBER OF CSR ASPECTS’ ................................................................................................................................................. 55 TABLE 17 CSR DIMENSIONS IN THE SOCIETAL ASPECT BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ................................ 56 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1 CSR DIMENSIONS BY CSR IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINE ................................................................. 57 FIGURE 2 INDUSTRY CATEGORY BY CSR IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINE ........................................................ 58 FIGURE 3 PROPORTION OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN COMMUNICATING CSR IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES ............................................................................................................................................. 59 FIGURE 4 AVERAGE REVENUES BY CSR IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES........................................................ 60 FIGURE 5 PROPORTION OF CSR ASPECTS IN HOMEPAGE HEADLINES ...................................................... 61 FIGURE 6 CSR ASPECTS BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.......................................................................................... 62 FIGURE 7 AVERAGE REVENUES BY COMMUNICATING CSR ASPECTS ..................................................... 63 FIGURE 8 COMMUNICATING THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY.......................... 64 FIGURE 9 CSR DIMENSIONS IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY ....................... 65 FIGURE 10 THE SOCIAL DIMENSION IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY........ 66 FIGURE 11 THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY . 67 FIGURE 12 THE STAKEHOLDER DIMENSION IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY INDUSTRY CATEGORY ............................................................................................................................................. 68 FIGURE 13 COMMUNICATING THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ........................... 69 FIGURE 14 CSR DIMENSIONS IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ....................... 70 FIGURE 15 COMMUNICATING THE ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSIONS IN THE IDEOLOGICAL ASPECT BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN ...................................................................................................................