CSR 2.0: How storytelling changes the game for CSR disclosure on
YouTube.
Lara Nooy 10261044
Supervisor: Dhr. Dr. Pytrik Schafraad Semester 2, 2017 – June 29, 2017
Master’s Thesis Graduate School of Communication Corporate Communication
Abstract
Nowadays, organizations do not only understand the importance of transparency when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), but they also understand the importance of the way in which it is communicated. A content analysis was conducted to examine the differences in online engagement effectuated by the use of storytelling strategies in CSR communication of YouTube videos of 20 Dutch multinationals. The results indicate that organizations often use the storytelling (begin-middle-end) structure in their CSR videos. Also, the use of three storytelling elements prove to be applicable in the prediction of the online engagement. The use of people, the mention of allusion and a clear purpose in CSR videos are indicated means to get more online engagement. In contrast to previous studies, present study concludes that the information strategy is most ideal for the communication of CSR. Conclusively, this research suggests that organization should combine the information strategy with storytelling elements in order to effectively achieve online engagement.
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility; CSR communication strategies; storytelling; social media.
Introduction
Once upon a time, companies realized that telling stories were an effective and useful strategy to achieve many of their corporate goals. For centuries now, people have used storytelling to convey events, wisdom, culture, situations, knowledge and legends from generation to generation (Baraibar-Diez, Odriozola & Sanchez, 2016; Boyce, 1996). Storytelling has been proven to be an effective form of communicating a message between individuals, groups and organizations. (Rhodes & Brown, 2005). Stakeholders are confronted with excesses of information that can lead to information overload, which results in
stakeholders not paying any interest or remember new information given to them (Boyce, 1996). Stories can help stakeholders understand complexity and are easy to remember and can therefore help to diminish the information overload (Hansen, Norlyk, Lundholt, 2013).
Organizations understand the importance of communicating their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. The medium through which CSR is communicated has proven to be important (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). CSR is broadly defined as “A commitment to improve (societal) well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate resources” (Kotler & Lee, 2005) and occupies a prominent place on the global corporate agenda in today’s socially conscious market environment (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). CSR activities have been used by organizations to address stakeholders social concerns, create a favorable corporate image and develop a positive relationship with stakeholders (Yoon, Gürhan-Canli & Schwarz, 2006). Stakeholders use their knowledge about an organization's’ CSR activities in the decision-making processes. Furthermore, Sen, Bhattacharya and Korschun (2006) conclude that not only the consumption behaviors of individuals are influenced by CSR activities, but that the disclosure of CSR activities by organization will help build and strengthen the stakeholder relationships.
in order to strengthen external reputation, but little contribution is made covering storytelling to communicate aspects of CSR strategy (Chaney & Martin, 2016; Baraibar-Diez, Odriozola & Sanchez, 2016; Gill, 2015; Freitag & Stokes, 2009;). The benefits of using storytelling to engage stakeholders can be easily extrapolated to the field of CSR communication
(Humpreys & Brown, 2008). Storytelling provides the ability to synthesize contrarily to CSR reports.
Organizations use different channels to communicate their CSR activities, such as annual reports, specially designed sustainability reports and various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Social media can serve as an informal yet highly credible CSR communication channel (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). These media allow organizations to easily and directly engage with stakeholder in a dialogue, which allows for the emergence of a joint setting of the corporate CSR agenda and shared values (Colleoni, 2013; Kent & Taylor, 1998). Social Media channels such as YouTube make it possible for organizations to showcase their stories about their business activities including its CSR activity, to millions of people (Kesavan, Bernachi & Mascarenhas, 2013).
Limited research has been conducted to examine the effectiveness in terms of engagement of videos, which use storytelling to communicate the organizations’ CSR activities. Therefore, the current study examines the responses of stakeholders to different CSR communication strategies used in YouTube videos. It also investigates the relationships between these two. The present study uses a content analysis to examine 20 Dutch
multinationals’ CSR outings and the corresponding user engagement on YouTube. The results of this study can be used to help organizations understand how storytelling can be effectively used for CSR communication.
RQ: How does the use of different CSR communication strategies and storytelling elements in YouTube videos affect the online engagement?
Theoretical framework CSR
Over the past ten years, CSR practice has become an important and integrated practice for many organizations (Du, Bhattachary & Sen, 2010). CSR has proven to benefit the
organizations’ reputation and can, moreover, achieve competitive advantage for the organization (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; Fombrun, 2005; Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). Research shows that good CSR practice can positively affect the profit, consumer loyalty, social license, brand differentiation, corporate identity and stakeholder support (Fombrun, 1996; Booth & Matic, 2011; Yan, 2011). Companies that communicate their CSR activities are more likely to redirect the stakeholders’ attention to buy their products or services regardless of the potentially higher price (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; Fombrun, 2005). The CSR communication can serve as a potential differentiator because it not only adds value to the company, but also to the products or services (Yan, 2011).
The CSR concept can be described through the triple bottom line (Elkington, 1997). This is an accounting framework that incorporates three dimensions of organizational performance: social, environmental and financial (Hall, 2011; Elkington, 1997). These three are also commonly called the three P’s: people, planet and profit (Illia, Romenti, Rodriquez-Canovas, Murtarelli & Carroll, 2015; Elkington, 1997). Caroll (1997) describes CSR as: “The social responsibility of organizations that encompass the economic, legal, ethical and
discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time” (pp.500). The importance of meeting certain expectations of the stakeholders comes across in the definition of Dalhsrud (2008). According to Dalhsrud (2008): “CSR is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” (pp.7). Freeman (1994) defines stakeholders as “Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the firm’s
objectives”. Stakeholder theory describes that it is a company’s aim to meet the needs of stakeholders in order to achieve profit (Russo & Perrini, 2010; Freeman, 1994). Moreover, the basic idea of stakeholder theory is that businesses, and the executives who manage them, actually do and should create value for customers, suppliers, employees, communities, and shareholders. (Russo & Perrini, 2010; Steurer, Langer, Konrad & Martinuzzi, 2005; Freeman, 1994). One of the most identified needs of stakeholders is transparency about all practices, including CSR (Morsing & Schultz, 2006; Tulder & Van der Zwart, 2003; Clarkson, 1995).
There are different strategies in which CSR activities can be communicated to stakeholders. Morsing and Schultz (2006) distinguish three different CSR communication strategies, which are largely based on the public relation model of Grunig and Hunt (1984). The information strategy is a one-way communication strategy, from the organization to its stakeholders (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). In this strategy, communication is viewed as a strategy that only tells and does not listen, with the sole purpose being informing. It does not
necessarily have a persuasive intent, but this strategy has the aim to communicate to the public as objectively as possible (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Moreover, this strategy informs stakeholders about the organization good intention, actions and decision-making to strengthen the positive stakeholder support (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Both the response strategy and the involvement strategy are based on a two-way communication model, whereby communication flows to and from the public (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). The response strategy entails that the company does not change its strategy as a result of the public
relations, but rather attempts to change public attitude and behaviors with the help of feedback (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). The involvement strategy assumes a dialogue with its stakeholders (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). Persuasion may occur, but it comes from both the stakeholder as the organization while they each try to persuade the other to change (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). This strategy implies that the company as well as its stakeholders will change
ideally as a result of engaging in a symmetric communication model (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). In order to achieve this, organization should invite concurrent conversations with
stakeholders to explore their concerns, rather than solely imposing a particular CSR initiative. CSR communication through social media
There are a variety of communication channels through which CSR activities can be disseminated. An organization can communicate its CSR activities through official
documents, such as annual reports or press releases, through TV commercials, magazine or billboard advertisement, and product packaging or they can dedicate a section of its official corporate website to CSR (Wen & Song, 2017; Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). With the emergence of Web 2.0 it is now possible for organizations to communicate their CSR activities directly to their stakeholders (Lee, Oh & Kim, 2013; Cosimato & Troisi, 2015). Moreover, through social media, organizations are able to interact and engage with their stakeholders. Furthermore, with the introduction of new media, in particularly interactive social media, the dialogical conception of the relationship between an organization and its stakeholders has gained increased attention (Andriof & Waddock & Rahman, 2002; Palazzo & Scherer, 2006). The attractiveness of the relational approach is related to the emergence of a new informational society that resulted in stakeholders’ empowerment (Castells, 1997). Social media can be described as “A group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and
exchange of User Generated Content (UGC)” (Kapland & Haelein, 2012, p. 61). Moreover, it is an online interactive environment where both formal and informal content can be shared (Erdoğmus & Cicek, 2012). There is a growing usage of social media among organizations (Kesavan, Bernacchi & Mascarenhas, 2013). Organizations use social media to inform, engage and have a dialogue with their stakeholders (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010).
and as such have become a veritable industry for building idea and knowledge communities, and specially for instantly diffusing ideas, messages and promotions worldwide to target audiences”(p.5). Therefore, it can be concluded that organizations should deploy social media for its communication strategies, and above all, use it as a CSR communication tool and medium (Kesavan, Bernacchi & Mascarenhas, 2013).
There are different social media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The latter is an online video platform, where users can upload and react to short videos. While most organizations also have the ability to embed videos on their own websites, videos posted on YouTube have proven to attract more visitor traffic than organizational websites (Walters & Jones, 2011; Solis & Breakenridge, 2009). Walters and Jones (2011) also
conclude that the inclusion of YouTube is a wise marketing and public relations strategy as it is the fourth most visited website worldwide. Therefore, organizations should not ignore this phenomenon or ignore the fact that they can take advantage of it (Bonson, Bednarova & Escobar-Rodriguez, 2014). The content on YouTube is created by both stakeholders as well as organizations (Andrejevic, 2009). Considering stakeholder theory, YouTube allows for organizations to communicate transparently, because it enables organizations to create content about their organizational activities. Therefore it can be assumed that YouTube is a great social medium through which organizations can communicate their CSR activities. Moreover, YouTube enables the creation of dialogue between a company and its
stakeholders.
The three strategies of CSR communication, as described by Morsing and Schultz (2006), all entail some form of dialogue or engagement with the stakeholders. The present study proposes that all three CSR strategies, when used on YouTube, vary in levels of
engagement. The levels of engagement on YouTube are operationalized and measured by the amount of video likes, comments and views (Wen & Song, 2017). The involvement strategy
aims to engage stakeholder in a mutual construction of CSR communication (Lee, Oh & Kim, 2013). Moreover, in order to be successful, it does not only require feedback from the
stakeholders, but it is important to involve stakeholders to understand and concurrently adapt to the flagged concerns (Wen & Song, 2017; Morsing & Schultz, 2006). Therefore, the stakeholder involvement strategy suggests that companies engage frequently and
systematically in dialogue with their stakeholders in order to explore mutually beneficial action (Wen & Song, 2017). The achievement of the explored action is, however, based on the assumption that both parties involved in the dialogue are willing to change (Morsing & Schultz, 2006). It can be assumed that when organizations communicate their CSR activities with the information strategy or response strategy, the CSR videos will have fewer likes, views and comments, than when organizations use the involvement strategy. The following hypothesis is proposed:
H1: CSR videos with the involvement strategy will result in more online engagement than the CSR videos with the information or the response strategy
The involvement strategy prescribes a form of negotiation that is based on the need of the stakeholders. By engaging in dialogue with stakeholders, the company ensures that it has knowledge of stakeholders’ concurrent expectations but also of its potential influence on those expectations, as well as letting those expectations influence and change the company itself (Morsing & Schultz, 2006; Wen & Song, 2017). Moreover, to get closer to online stakeholders and to be able to correspond with expectations, CSR communication on social media should satisfy the demands while simultaneously engaging stakeholders in CSR dialogue, as also suggested by the involvement strategy (Wen & Song, 2017; Schmeltz, 2014). Therefore, present study predicts that CSR videos with the involvement strategy will have more positive comments than those CSR videos with the information or response strategy. The following hypothesis is proposed:
H2: CSR videos with the involvement strategy will lead to more positive online engagement than CSR videos with the information or the response strategy
Storytelling
Nowadays, stakeholders face excesses of CSR information that can lead to negative perception of legitimacy (Du, Bhattachary & Sen, 2010). The rationality of individuals is limited, and stakeholders are swamped with information overload that is difficult not only to analyze, but also to filter to obtain the information they are interested in (Baraibar-Diez, Odriozola & Sanchez, 2016). CSR initiatives of an organization can easily provide content for a story. Storytelling is a “Narration that tells of particular acts, occurrences or events presented in the form of text or art and has the ability to transcend age-groups, cultures and genders, and captures the imagination and attention of listeners regardless of background” (Kearny & Heineman, 2002; Sinclair, 2005, cited by Gill, 2015). In this sense, stories are seen as a medium for sharing knowledge in internal, external, verbal and written
communication (Sinclair, 2005). Stories consist of narratives, with a clear starting point, middle and an end (Dailey & Browning, 2014). Storytelling helps to give sense to certain information, events or circumstances and they enable stakeholders to reflect on stories in their own way (Maitlis & Lawrence, 2007). Organizations can use storytelling on social media to make direct connections with stakeholder and to intensify the relationship with the
stakeholders (Gensler, Völckner, Liu-Thompkins & Wiertz, 2013). Therefore the following hypothesis is proposed:
H3: CSR videos with the storytelling structure will have more online engagement than CSR videos without this structure
Effective corporate storytelling should consist of four components being people, appeal, allusion and purpose (Marshall & Adamic, 2010). Narratives told by the right person to the proper audience with an inspiring emotional appeal, which allude to a company’s
history and role in the market and have a particular purpose in mind, are far more likely to have a positive effect on stakeholders (Marshall & Adamic, 2010; Wen & Song, 2017; Gill, 2015).
McKee and Fryser (2003) argue that a good corporate story should contain a
personalized message. It should also have an emotional appeal when engaging stakeholders (Barnes, 2003). Also, stakeholders should be able to identify with certain elements of the story, for example the display of appealing personages in a video, in order to have some level of engagement (Gill, 2011). Additionally, organizations gain stronger consumer attachments through the use of human characteristics (Wen & Song, 2017). Therefore, when organizations communicate about their CSR activities, the use of personal characteristics in combination with storytelling might be highly effective. The following hypothesis is proposed:
H4: CSR videos with human representatives will have more online engagement, than CSR videos without human representatives
In order to personally appeal to stakeholders, organizations can use different
narratives in the CSR stories. An organization can use either a first or third person narrative. The first-person narrative has proven to result in more reliability than the third person narrative (Wen & Song, 2017; Nielsen, 2004). The use of first-person pronouns, such as I or we, to refer to the organization, usually helps to establish relationships with stakeholders by engaging them into conversations (Wen & Song, 2017). It furthermore generates a sense of community and in-group identification (Wen & Song, 2017; Rafaeli & Sudweeks, 1997). This method therefore reduces the impersonality of mass communication (Fairclough, 1989). In contrast, the use of third-person pronouns such as they or to the organizations’ name typically attempts to state information as facts in a detached and impersonal objective way (Pollach, 2005). Therefore, it can be assumed that the use of the first-person narrative will engage stakeholders more than the third person narrative does. The following hypothesis is
proposed:
H5: CSR Videos with the first person narrative will generate more online engagement than CSR videos with the of third person narrative or CSR videos without the use of pronouns
As mentioned before, an effective corporate story should have a clear connection with the organizations past or its role in the market. An important factor when communicating CSR is the perceived congruence between the CSR and the organization (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010). Stakeholders often expect companies to engage in CSR activities that have a fit or a logical association with their core corporate activities (Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; Cone, 2007; Haley, 1996). Therefore, a company should highlight this fit or the congruence between the CSR and the organizations’ past or its role in the market. Also, Du, Bhattacharya and Sen (2010) conclude that the communication of the CSR fit will lead to more favorable stakeholder reactions. Thus, the following hypotheses is proposed:
H6: CSR videos with allusion to the organization will have more online engagement, than CSR videos without allusion to the organization
Good stories should have a clear purpose (Gill, 2015). Examples of those purposes are to amuse or to inform (Dudukovic, Marsh & Tversky, 2004). Whilst research has yet to transport theories to Youtube, current study argues that because YouTube is a social media just like Facebook, the same theories can, to a certain extant, be applied. The motives for stakeholders for Facebook consumption can be described with the Uses and Gratifications theory (UG). This theory argues that people are goal-directed and purposive in their social media consumption. Examples of these motives are the consumption of information or amusement. Research has concluded that people most often watch, share or like entertaining content on social media channels such as Facebook Cvjikj & Michahelles, 2013; Hanson & Haridakis, 2008). Therefore, the following is proposed:
videos with the purpose to inform
Research has not yet looked into the other possible purposes, than to inform or to amuse, that are used in social media posts, or more specifically in YouTube videos. Therefore, present study aims to identify the different purposes and to research how these purposes influence the online engagement. The following sub question is formulated: SQ: Which purposes can be identified and how do these purposes affect the online engagement?
CSR communication strategy and storytelling
The three CSR communication strategies differ on the degree of personalized and interactive relationship between the organization and the stakeholders. Specifically, the information strategy is the least personalized and the involvement strategy is the most personalized (Wen & Song, 2017). The information strategy focuses on designing appealing concept messages to inform stakeholders about favorable corporate CSR decisions and actions (van Riel, 1995) and it is unnecessary to incorporate any third-party endorsement (Morsing & Schultz 2006). Moreover, the involvement strategy is devoted to relationship building through inviting and establishing proactive dialogue with stakeholders (Trapp, 2014). As the involvement strategy rests on dialogue and stakeholder involvement, stakeholders themselves and other relevant human personages should be involved and represented in the CSR videos (Heikkurinen & Ketola, 2012; Morsing & Schultz, 2006). In other words, the involvement strategy suggests that companies interact with stakeholders in a more personal and engaging way to establish and maintain an ongoing conversation (Lee, Oh and Kim, 2013). Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H8: The involvement strategy is likely to use more storytelling structure than the information or response strategy
mediated by the use of storytelling structure
Methods
To answer the RQ a quantitative content analysis was conducted. This method could capture all specific characteristics used in the YouTube videos and could measure the actual engagement. The content analysis was carried out on a sample of 279 CSR videos, gathered in the month May in the year 2017.
Material
A clustered sample was conducted to determine which organizations were to be coded. Because of the lack of research on Dutch multinationals and their CSR
communication, they were chosen as the sampling unit (Wen & Song, 2017). The organizations in the sample were determined by the Forbes biggest revenue Dutch
organizations list of 2015, as can been seen in Appendix A. This is a list often used in CSR research (Wen & Song, 2017; Snider, Hill & Martin, 2003; Wanderley, Lucian, Farache & Filho, 2008; Preuss, 2012). Moreover, Forbes provides an overview of the most profitable companies across the world. In total twenty Dutch organizations were sampled out of this list. The selected organizations had to have a YouTube channel, where the spoken language in the videos had to be either Dutch or English. To answer the research question, only videos that were uploaded in 2016, were coded. Videos on YouTube were chosen because YouTube makes it possible for organization to create and share short videos with all stakeholders, regardless of location. Also, short videos are a great way to tell stories (Adams & Webster, 2012; Dreon, Kerper & Landis, 2011; Snelson & Sheffield, 2009) Moreover, YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community and is proven to be a very effective business tool for increasing popularity of a company (Bonson, Bednarova & Escobar-Rodriguez, 2014). Research has indicated that companies, based in the European region, often share YouTube videos either with environmental and social content or to showcase
environmentally friendly behavior and good practices (Brown, 2011; Wright & Hinson, 2010; Bonson, Bednarova & Escobar-Rodriguez, 2014). Therefore, it can be concluded that
YouTube is often used by organizations as a platform to share various CSR activities. The final sample only consisted of YouTube videos, which had displayed some sort of CSR activity of the organization (N = 279).
Measures
The YouTube videos were analyzed using a codebook, which is attached in Appendix B. The coders had to repeatedly fill in an online survey in order to code the material. The codebook consisted of four parts. The first part was a general part, were the coder had to fill in the organization, the sector of the organization, duration of the video, the amount of views on the video and the date the video was published. Other parts consisted of items about the CSR communication, storytelling and the online engagement.
CSR Communication. The CSR presence was measured through a dichotomous scale (yes/no). To determine if CSR was present the definition of Caroll (1979) was used. Secondly, the CSR subject was measured. The nominal scale consisted of three categories: people, planet and profit. This scale is derived from the triple bottom line theory (Freeman, 1984; Nielsen & Thomsen, 2007). Finally, the CSR communication strategy was measured. Morsing and Schultz (2006) have identified three different CSR strategies. The information strategy was measured with three different items. These items were drawn from Wen & Song (2017). A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on the statements. This
revealed that there was one component with an eigenvalue above Kaiser’s criterium of 1 (2.97). The component explained 99.0% of the variance. The Chronbach’s Alpha of the three items was .99. The factor loadings of the items were all .99. The response strategy was measured with four items (Wen & Song, 2017). A PCA showed that there was one component with an eigenvalue above 1 (3.62). This component explained 90.6% of the
variance. The Chronbach’s Alpha of these items was .96. However, when the item “Does the video say to have included an opinion poll or market survey“ was deleted, the scale proved to be more reliable. Therefore, this item was deleted and the final Chronbach’s Alpha was .97. The factor loadings ranged from .93 to .98. To measure the involvement strategy three items from the scale of Wen & Song (2017) were used. The Chronbach’s of these items proved to be highly reliable .98. A PCA showed that there was one component with an eigenvalue above 1 (2.91). The component explained 97.0% of the variance. The factor loading ranged from .97 to .99.
Storytelling. The requirement to characterize something as a story is that it should have a beginning, middle and end structure (Ibarra & Lineback, 2005; Janssen, van Dalfsen, van Hoof & van Vuuren, 2012; Hendriks & Schutte, 2007). Therefore, the story presence was measured with three items, which measured if the story had this structure. The PCA for this scale showed that there was one component with an eigenvalue above 1 (2.87). The
component explained 95.5% of the variance. The scale proved to be reliable with a Chronbachs Alpha of .98 and factor loading ranging from .97 to .99.
An effective corporate story should consist of four elements: people, appeal, allusion and purpose (Marshall & Acadmic, 2010). For a story to have a maximum impact the
storyteller should be a charismatic person (Marshall & Acadmic, 2010; Wen & Song, 2017). Therefore, the people element is both measured through a dichotomous human presence scale (yes/no) and a nominal scale of the type of person present in the video. The next element is appeal. Appeal can be described as the emotional or personal connection the story has to audience (Marshall & Acadmic, 2010). A nominal scale is used, drawn from Wen and Song (2017), where the use of different forms of pronouns was used. The third element allusion measured how the story, portrayed in the video, relates to the core business of the
should have a clear relation to the organizations past, values and products or services. The PCA of the three items showed one eigenvalue above 1 (1.73). The Chronbach’s Alpha was .75 with factor loadings ranging between .75 and .76. The last element purpose is described as the strategy, goal or reason the video has (Gill, 2015; Marshall & Acadmic, 2010). The scale is derived from Lovejoy, Kristen & Saxton (2012).
Online engagement. The online engagement is measured through the amount of comments, amount of likes (thump up minus the thumps down), comments and views (Cvjikj & Michahelles, 2013; Wen & Song, 2017). Also, the connotation of the first ten reactions is measured, in order to indicate if the engagement is positive or negative. The reactions of the organization on the video were not measured. Also, a reaction on a reaction was not
measured as a reaction. Procedure
First, all three coders were trained by the author of the instrument. After a pre-test, covering five percent of the material, and a thorough revision of the instrument, all videos were definitely coded. All three coders coded ten percent of the total corpus. After all three coders finished the ten percent the inter-coder reliability was computed. Finally only one coder coded the other ninety percent. All coders had to finish all videos of one organization before starting on the next one. Before starting on the next organization all coders had to take an hour of rest. The coders were also instructed to take a ten-minute break between every five videos.
Reliability
To ensure the measures were consisted, three coders coded ten percent of the material. Then, the inter-coder reliability was measured using Krippendorff’s Alpha. The Kalpha of the variables ranged between .67 and 1 (for the complete overview of all variables, see Appendix C), which means that all items can be accepted according to Krippendorff (2004)
Results Descriptive statistics
In total, the organizations posted 914 videos on YouTube in 2016. On average, the organizations had 10.41 videos (SD = 5.61). The organizations posted a minimum of 3 videos and a maximum of 102 videos. The videos were 191.46 seconds on average (SD = 618.33), with the shortest video being 5 seconds (ING Group) and the longest video being 10805 seconds (NXP Semiconductors). The videos had 39045.62 views (SD = 238880.64), 42.75 likes (SD = 361.79) and 5.50 comments (SD = 61.11) on average.
Table 1
CSR activity displayed in the videos specified on sector of organizations
Total CSR CSR subject
People Planet Profit
Sectors N % N % N % N %
Chemical 51 18.3 19 10.9 25 27.8 7 50.0
Electronics 29 10.4 24 13.7 5 5.6 0 0
Financial services 36 12.9 30 17.1 5 5.6 1 7.1
Food & beverages 62 22.2 43 24.6 15 16.7 4 28.6
Food processing 2 .7 0 0 2 2.2 0 0
Oil & gas 29 10.4 19 10.9 9 10.0 1 7.1
Professional services 2 .7 2 1.1 0 0 0 0 Publishing 1 .4 1 .6 0 0 0 0 Retail 46 16.5 21 12.0 24 26.7 1 7.1 Telecommunication 19 6.8 15 8.6 4 4.4 0 0 Transport 2 .7 1 .6 1 1.1 0 0 Total 279 100 175 100 90 100 14 100 Note. N = 279
In 2016, 30.4% (279) of all videos were about CSR. The organizations posted 10.30 videos about CSR on average (SD = 6.07). Wolters Kluwer posted the least videos about CSR (1; .4%) and Unilever posted the most videos about CSR (51; 18.3%). When the video displayed the organizations’ CSR activities, the video was most often about CSR activities regarding people (175; 62.7%). Planet (90; 32.3%) followed and profit (14; 5.0%) was the least described topic when the video was about CSR. Table 1 lists the CSR activity on YouTube in the videos specified for the sectors. Organizations in the food & beverage sector had the most CSR videos (22.2 %). They were most often about planet (10.9%). The
publishing sector (.7%) had the least videos about CSR, namely 2 (.7%). CSR communication strategies
The most often used CSR communication strategy in 2016 was the information strategy. This strategy was used in 156 (55.9%) of the CSR videos (M = 1.44, SD = .49). The response strategy was used in 60 (21.5%) of the CSR videos (M = 1.76, SD = .42) and the involvement strategy was used the least, only 55 (19.7%) CSR videos used this strategy (M = 1.80, SD = .40). Table 2 shows how the information, response and involvement strategies were used by organization specified by the sectors. Both the information strategy (17.9%) and the response strategies (40.0%) were most often used by organizations in the food & beverages sector. The involvement strategy (25.5%) was most frequently used by
organizations in the retail sector.
The information strategy was most often used when the CSR video was about the planet (91; 58.3%). When the CSR subject was about people the involvement strategy was most frequently used (46; 83.6%), followed by the response strategy (35; 58.3%). The CSR subjects have a significant weak effect on the use of the information strategy, χ2 (4) = 12.66, p < .013, τ = .023 and the use of the involvement strategy, χ2 (4) = 14.35, p < .006, τ = .037. No significant effect could be found for the use of response strategy, χ2 (4) = 2.31, p < .245.
Table 2
CSR communication strategy use specified for the sector of the organizations CSR communication strategy
Information Response Involvement
Sectors N % N % N %
Chemical 28 17.9 17 23.3 7 12.7
Electronics 19 12.2 6 8.3 4 7.3
Financial services 20 12.8 8 11.7 7 14.5
Food & beverages 30 17.9 27 40.0 10 16.4
Food processing 2 1.3 0 0 0 0
Oil & gas 23 14.7 3 0 3 7.3
Professional services 1 .6 0 0 1 1.8 Publishing 0 0 0 0 1 1.8 Retail 25 17.3 4 5.0 13 25.5 Telecommunication 6 3.8 5 8.3 7 12.7 Transport 2 1.3 0 0 0 0 Total 156 100 70 100 53 100 Note. N = 279
CSR communication strategies and the online engagement
The online engagement was measured with the amount of likes, comments and views. To analyze if CSR videos with the involvement strategy would result in more engagement than CSR videos with the information or the response strategy an independent t-test was conducted. CSR videos with the information strategy (M = 67.28, SD = 482.93) had more likes on average than videos without this strategy (M = 11.49, SD = 14.08). An independent t-test showed that this difference was significant, t(247) = 5.57, p = .02, 95% CI
[-31.06,142.64], Cohen’s d = .16. Also, CSR videos that used the information strategy had significantly more comments (M= 12.76, SD = 95.18) on average than videos that did not use this strategy (M = .36, SD = 1.11), t(274) = 7.53, p = .006, 95% CI [-4.72, 27.45], Cohen’s d = .18. Both of the found significant differences appeared to be weak. No significant
difference could be found for average of the views, t(274) = .57, p = .449.
When the response strategy was not used the CSR video had significantly more views on average (M = 9.73, SD = 82.94) than when the response strategy was used (M = .38, SD = 1.11), t(264) = 5.95, p = .015, 95% CI [-30.46, 11.77], Cohen’s d = .16. However, the
independent t-test showed this to be a weak difference. No significant differences could be found for the amount of likes, t(264) = 2.02, p = .156 and comments, t(264) = 2.78, p = .097. When the involvement strategy was used in the CSR video, no significant difference could be found in the average of amount of likes, t(276) = 1.66, p = .198, comments, t(276) = 2.37, p = .124 and views, t(276) = 1.66, p = .198.
Conclusively, the first hypothesis that CSR videos with the involvement strategy will result in more engagement than the other CSR strategies can be rejected, because the
independent t-test showed no significant difference of any of engagement measures when the involvement strategy was used.
To test if the engagement of the three different strategies was mainly positive or negative a Chi-square test was computed. The information strategy, χ2 (40) = 20.29, p = .996, as the response strategy, χ2 (60) = 36.96, p = .992 and involvement strategy, χ2 (40) = 16.58, p = .999 appeared to have no significant effect on the connotation of the reactions.
Conclusively, the second hypotheses can also be rejected, because the involvement strategy did not lead to more positive engagement than the other strategies.
Storytelling and online engagement
272). An independent t-test was computed to test if the CSR videos with the storytelling structure had more online engagement on average than CSR videos without this structure. CSR videos with the storytelling structure (M = 52105.73, SD = 31483.81) had significantly more views on average than CSR videos without this structure (M = 5640.73, SD = 1046.54), t(269) = 2.35, p = .019, 95% CI [7597.79, 85332.21], Cohen’s d = .03. This difference on average can be interpreted as very weak. The differences in average of the online engagement when the storytelling structure was used in CSR videos, did not appear to be significant for the amount of likes, t(269) = 1.58, p = .116, or amount of comments, t(269) = 1.31, p = .192. Therefore the third hypothesis can only be partly accepted, because the results show that only the difference of the amount of views was influenced by the use of the storytelling structure
In the sample of 272 CSR videos that used storytelling, 254 videos used a human representative (91.03%). Of these human representatives, 7.9% were celebrity endorsers (22), 25.8% consumers (72), 24.7% corporate leaders (69), 39.9% employees (103), 30.1% experts (84), 7.2% partners and 15.1% other (42) such as local communities. However, it must be noted that more than one type of human representative could be present in the video. An independent t-test was conducted to test if there are significant differences in the averages of the online engagement between CSR videos when a human was present and when it was not. When a human was present in a CSR video it had significantly more average views (M = 53180.51, SD = 319060.28) than when a human was not present (M = 6259.52, SD = 16149.72), t(277) = 1.95, p = .021, 95% CI [6993.12, 86848,86], Cohen’s d = .21. This difference in views can be interpreted as weak. However, the human presence did not significantly influence the difference of the average of the amount of likes, (277) = .56, p = .178 or comments, (277) = .64, p = .208. The fourth hypothesis can be partly accepted, because human presence does have an effect on the amount of views. It does not however, have any effect on the amount of likes or comments.
Only 13 (4.7%) CSR videos with storytelling did not use any pronouns. In total 30 CSR videos used the third person (10.8%) and 236 CSR videos used the third person. An ANOVA was conducted to investigate if there were significant differences in the online engagement when different pronouns were used. The use of pronouns did not have a significant effect on either the amount of likes F (2, 276) = .54, p = .585, amount of comments, F (2, 276) = .82, p = .444, or amount of views, F (2, 276) = 1.60 p = .203. Therefore, hypothesis 5 can be rejected.
Hypothesis 6 stated that CSR videos with allusion would have more online
engagement, than videos without allusion. In 38.7% (108) of the total CSR videos that used storytelling there was allusion. CSR videos with allusion had 21523.26 views (SD =
64883.74) and 19.74 comments (SD = 100.78) on average, whilst CSR videos without allusion had 3891.13 views (SD = 10715.86) and .36 comments (SD =1.07) on average. An independent t-test showed that this differences was significant for the views, t(133) = 34.27, p < .001, 95% CI [-30508.37, -4755.89], Cohen’s d = .38 and comments, t(133) = 17.13, p < .001, 95% CI [-38.35, -.41], Cohen’s d = .38. However, this effect can be interpreted as weak. No significant difference could be found for the amount of likes. Ergo, the sixth hypothesis can be again partly accepted because the presence of allusion did have an effect on the amount of views and comments. However, it did not have an effect on the amount of likes.
Only 8 (2.9%) CSR videos had no clear purpose. An one-way ANOVA was conducted to test how the purpose of the CSR video effects the online engagement. The ANOVA showed that the purpose of the CSR video had a significant small effect on the amount of likes, F (5, 273) = 2.64, p = .024,η2 = 0,05. The Games-Howell post-hoc for multiple comparisons showed that only the difference in the likes between a CSR video with the purpose to inform and to amuse, Mverschil = -228.88, p = .006. The ANOVA of the purpose
of the CSR video and the amount of views, F (5, 273) = 1.13, p = .346 or the amount of comments, F (5, 273) = 1.13, p = .201 was not significant. Conclusively, H7 can be partly accepted, because the videos with the purpose to amuse did have more likes than videos with the purpose to inform. However, nothing can be said about the effect on the other online engagement measures.
The results show five different purposes of CSR YouTube videos. Table 3 shows that CSR videos that had the purpose to amuse had the most likes (M = 241.11, SD = 980.78), most views (M = 152387.54, SD = 675476.65) and most comments (M = 36.59, SD =
175.13). CSR videos without a clear purpose had the least likes (M = 8.63, SD = 14.33), CSR videos with the purpose to voice its opinion had the least amount of views (M = 1542.10, SD = 675476.65) and comments (M = .25, SD = .44). However, as mentioned before the
ANOVA showed to be only significant for the amount of likes. Table 3
Overview of the descriptives of the purposes of the CSR videos and the online engagement
Purposes Likes* Views Comments
N M SD M SD M SD
To inform 186 12.26 18.34 42237.78 218862.08 3.51 38.47 To amuse 37 241.11 980.78 152387.54 675476.65 36.59 175.13 To voice its opinion 20 14.25 16.08 1542.10 2770.21 .25 .44 To persuade 18 10.56 9,82 3451.17 6037.86 .44 1.04 To activate 10 10.60 12.37 4208.80 9187.58 .40 .97
Not clear 8 8.63 6.33 4340.00 7694.36 1.25 2.4
Total 279 42.74 361.79 48976.12 304709.03 7.29 71.34 *Significance ANOVA < .05
CSR communication strategies and storytelling
The Chi-square test was computed to analyze the difference in use of the storytelling structure between the CSR communication strategies. The information strategy, χ2 (2) = 2.38, p = .224, as the response strategy, χ2 (2) = 1.41, p = .357 and involvement strategy, χ2 (1) = .52, p = .467 appeared to have no significant effect on the use of the storytelling structure.
Therefore, the eight hypothesis that stated that the involvement strategy is likely to use ore storytelling than the information or response strategy can be rejected.
The final hypothesis stated that the involvement strategy should have an effect on the online engagement, but that the effect is mediated by the use of storytelling. A multiple regression showed that storytelling had no significant mediating effect on the amount of likes, F (2, 271) = .29, p = .749 views, F (2, 271) = .51, p = .603 or comments, F (2, 271) =
.246, p = .782 when the involvement strategy was used. Conclusively, H8 can be rejected.
Discussion
Although CSR activities were mostly communicated through traditional media
channels in the past, organizations have also noticed the importance and potential of using the new media channels, including social media. Social media have made it possible for
organizations to communicate their CSR activities directly to their stakeholders, regardless of time and location (Du, Bhatacharya & Sen, 2010; Lee, Oh & Kim, 2013; Cosimato & Troissi, 2015). Also, because of social media, organizations are now able to interact and engage, more easily, with their stakeholders. Storytelling is identified as a highly effective way of
communicating messages (Gill, 2011). It is memorable, it enables the transformation of complex matters into understandable messages and, perhaps most importantly, averts
information overload. This study is focused on how Dutch multinationals are using YouTube videos to communicate their CSR activities through storytelling and the present study,
environment.
The results of the content analysis of 279 CSR videos on YouTube demonstrate the positive effects of storytelling elements on generating engagement on YouTube. First, the results have shown that the storytelling structure is frequently used when organizations communicate their CSR activities. Also, the storytelling structure did result in more online engagement. Moreover, the use of the storytelling elements, people, allusion, appeal and purpose, have shown to be applicable for the prediction of the online engagement (Gill, 2015; Marshall & Adamic, 2010). Specifically, CSR videos that had human presence had
significantly more views. Furthermore, CSR videos that made a reference to the organizations past or the organizations service or product had significantly more views and comments. Also, the purpose of the CSR video has proven to be an important attribute. The results show that CSR videos had more likes when the video had the purpose to amuse then when the video had the purpose to inform. However, the use of pronouns did not prove to have any significant effect on the online engagement.
Even though theory (Wen & Song, 2017) argues that the involvement strategy would be most suited to create online engagement, present study disagrees. This is, however, not a new finding, because Morsing and Schultz (2011) had previously concluded that while the involvement strategy is the most optimal strategy, it is not very often used in practice. This is in line with this study where the information strategy was the most used strategy and where the involvement strategy was the least used. Furthermore, present research has indicated that when the information strategy was used in CSR videos it had more likes and comments than the videos wherein the information strategy was not used. Also, when the response strategy was used, videos had fewer views than when the strategy was not used. Conclusively, whilst research indicates that the involvement strategy is the most optimum, current study argues that the information strategy is the most ideal for the creation of engagement in regards with
the CSR videos on YouTube.
Lastly, storytelling was most often used through the information strategy. Because the storytelling as well as the information strategy have proven to have a positive effect on the online engagement, we could conclude that it would be ideal that both strategies would be combined in CSR videos.
Theoretical implications
This research fills in the gap of the CSR communication literature related to the organization’s use of social media, underscoring the importance of YouTube as a medium to build and maintain relationships between stakeholders and organizations. Whilst, the field of CSR communication strategy has been largely applied to CSR communication (Wen & Song, 2017; Morsing & Schultz, 2006), research has failed to include storytelling. This study establishes theoretical linkages between storytelling and CSR communication. Interestingly, research has indicated the overload of CSR communication and has hinted how storytelling could play a vital part in this problem, but has not yet researched this sufficiently. This study suggests, that storytelling and CSR communication strategies could be combined. If
storytelling is used in a proper manner it will stimulate more online engagement under the pretense that the story combines certain elements of storytelling with the appropriate CSR communication strategy. Nonetheless, YouTube is a great media channel to combine these two. Overall, this study suggests that YouTube is a highly relevant channel for the research of efficient CSR communication and more studies are needed to better understand the dynamics between this unique media platform and CSR communication practices.
Managerial implications
As mentioned before, CSR has become increasingly important for organizations. Not only the actual communication of CSR is important, but also the way this information is disseminated has received a great sense of attention (Du, Bhatacharya & Sen, 2010). The
results of this study provide important guidance to CSR practitioners and communication professionals in terms of communication strategy and message design during the
communication of CSR messages on YouTube.
First, the use of people, the mention of allusion and a clear purpose in CSR videos are indicated means to get more online engagement. Therefore, when designing CSR messages on social media, practitioners should strive to include all of these aspects.
Second, the information strategy has proven not only to be the most used strategy, but also the most optimal strategy for the creation of online engagement. That is why, when developing a CSR message, the information strategy instead of the response or involvement strategy would be the most favorable to be included. However, it should also be noted that the video should also be amusing.
Limitations
This study is not without its limitations. First of all, the sample only includes Dutch multinationals, which restricts the generalizability of the results. Also, while all organizations had a YouTube channel, some organizations posted far more videos than others and some organizations had more subscribers than other. When an organization has more subscribers one could assume that the video will automatically get more views. Also, if an organization posted videos more often, it creates continuously and could help explain why some
organization would attract more online engagement then others. Future research should be advised to look into these variations in frequencies and include it in the online engagement measure.
Second, the measure of online engagement was not as effective as one might have hoped. In this research, the views, the likes and comments were measured as online
engagement. This is a widely used scale to measure the online engagement on social media such as Facebook (Cvjikj & Michahelles, 2013; Wen & Song, 2017). Therefore, present
study assumed that it was also applicable for YouTube. However, the current study did not take into account that some organizations might have turned off the comment field. It was, for example, not possible to post any comment on the videos of Delta Lloyd. Therefore, it might have had a negative effect on the validity and reliability of the scale. Also, some organizations might have ‘promoted’ their videos, which might explain the variations of the amount of views and the large standard deviations. YouTube allows organizations to sponsor videos in order to appear in between videos as advertisements. This is, however, only an assumption and future studies should look into this phenomenon. Also, it is questionable if the amount of views can effectively state something about the number of people that actually attentively watched the video or only about the appearance of the video on someone’s screen.
Also, this study has tried to illuminate the outliers. However, it was not possible to exclude these, because there were too many. Most of these outliers were because of the amount of views varied so much. Therefore, it is highly recommended for future research to look into this.
Lastly, the YouTube videos of the organizations were not liked as often as one would have expected. In comparison to videos of celebrities or bloggers, the videos of the sampled organizations did not receive as much online engagement in the form of likes. Finally, some organizations did not use their YouTube channels for the transmission of information of their organization, but solely for promotional purposes. Heineken, for example, only posted adds on their YouTube channel.
Conclusively, while present research has indicated that the online engagement can be measured on YouTube, it also possibly includes a number of considerable problems as mentioned above. Future research should perhaps try to measure the online engagement with an experiment, which could possibly diminish the flagged issues such as outliers of amount of view, the number of videos of each organization, the turned off comment sections and the
lack of likes.
This research has conducted a content analysis. Therefore, we cannot state anything about the causality of the relationship of the use of storytelling and a particular CSR
communication strategy and the online engagement, because we only can state something about the occurring relationships or effect and we cannot state what caused the effect for certain. Therefore, future research should be advised to include an experiment in their research to test if the found effect could be causality explained.
Finally the final sample was very small (N = 279). Therefore, some aspects did not appear as much as other. This could explain why this study had such different outcomes than predicted by the literature. Also, this could be an explanation why a lot of the tests were not significant, because there were large differences between some groups in the variables. With a larger sample, future research could diminish these differences.
Conclusion
A successful global organization needs to communicate transparently about their social responsibility practices. It also is advised to use the power of social media to communicate their CSR activities. This study discovers that the information strategy and storytelling seem to align well with the attributes of YouTube and could, therefore, generate more online engagement. CSR practitioners and PR professionals who intend to promote their CSR activities should understand the unique features of the particular social media platform and should accommodate their message strategies according to the findings of this study.
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