Social media dissemination of counter accounts and stakeholder support – evidence from greenpeace’s “Save the Arctic” campaign on Facebook

Abstract

ABSTRACT Prior studies have examined NGOs’ accounting practices and the implications of such practices within the social media realm. However, we know little about how NGOs use social media to disseminate counter accounts and the impacts of such dissemination beyond social media platforms. This paper examines whether NGOs’ dissemination of counter accounts can mobilise stakeholder support in a campaign against corporate actions. Drawing on Castells’ network-making perspective and the notion of dialogic accounting, I argue that social media dissemination of counter accounts strengthens NGOs’ network-making power so that a wide range of corporate stakeholders can be engaged, and a strong network can be potentially formed to increase the effectiveness of NGOs’ campaigns. Drawing on a unique dataset of Greenpeace “Save The Arctic” (STA) global petition signatories and stakeholder interactions from a sample of 8,336 Greenpeace Facebook messages related to the STA campaign, I find that stakeholder support is positively associated with stakeholder interactions with disseminated counter accounts and the number of Facebook accounts connected in disseminating such information. Additional analyses also reveal that Greenpeace disseminates counter accounts via social media to attract policymaker attention and the disseminated counter accounts are associated with public opinions towards climate change. Overall, this study sheds light on the implications of NGOs’ dissemination of counter accounts on social media in initiating social activism and accumulating power against irresponsible corporate practices.