How controversial businesses communicate CSR on Facebook: Insights from the Canadian cannabis industry

Abstract

This study advances our current understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in a controversial industry by analyzing CSR-related Facebook posts from seven Canadian public cannabis companies. Our findings indicated that these companies’ CSR communication on Facebook was mostly instrumentalist, lacked transparency, and used effective multimedia characteristics. In addition, associations between communication strategies and public engagement on social media (e.g., # of likes, comments, and shares) revealed both opportunities and ethical concerns regarding CSR communication in controversial businesses.