Corporate Community Research Articles

Dealing with negative social media comments: The giant bullhorn that punctures holes in organizations’ walls, like an arrow to the chest

A negative comment on a corporate social media post can pierce like an arrow to the chest and puncture holes into an organization’s walls. A single negative voice in a sea of positive feedback can feel as though it is blaring from a giant bullhorn, striking fear into corporate community managers that an avalanche of negativity will overtake positivity like a contagious bandwagon. Why would a corporation consider telling its story in the online battlefield of social media and risk exposing its reputation to a cesspool of negativity? This paper will explore why negativity is an online barrier through research, industry advice and best practices – including from the researchers and experts who use the foregoing colourful idioms and metaphors to describe negative online comments. To answer the main question of why an organization would consider engaging on social media in the face of prolific negativity and hate speech, this paper will review the evolution of online emotions and the rise of negativity on social media. The paper will define negative online comments in the corporate context using research on trolls, cyberbullying and online personal attacks. Using the psychology of Pareto’s 80/20 rule and negativity bias, this paper will provide quantitative and qualitative perspectives on negativity to show why companies pay much more attention to negative comments than positive ones, and how analysis of negativity can help a company develop emotional intelligence. Examples will be presented from research and industry to understand and combat negativity and review research on user comments that classifies users to better understand their motivations. Using research on tone and voice in online conversation, this paper will share cautionary case studies that demonstrate how companies that are not self-aware can incite negative comments. Finally, this paper will review research on platform content moderation techniques to understand how social media platforms like Facebook manage negativity and will suggest similar solutions for corporations, including not only the online community’s ability but also our collective responsibility to moderate and overcome the online positivity deficit. Keywords: social media, community manager, online negativity, negativity bias, negative comments, online emotions, user categorization

Casino employees' intention to participate in corporate community involvement activities – an extended value-attitude-intention model

PurposeThe success of corporate community involvement depends on employees' perception of and intention to participate in the associated activities. This paper explores personal and perceived organizational factors that influence casino employees' intention to participate in community involvement activities using the extended value-attitude-intention model.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review on corporate community involvement in the hospitality industry and the value-attitude-intention hierarchy, a theoretical model that links perceived societal value to employees' behavioral intention was established. The model was tested using responses from 322 Macao's casino employees.FindingsResults of structural equation modeling showed that perceived societal value of corporate community involvement and perceived societal pressure significantly influenced employees' attitude toward community involvement while perceived societal pressure also significantly influenced perceived facilitating conditions. Additionally, employees' attitude toward corporate community involvement and perceived facilitating conditions affected their intention to participate in corporate community involvement activities.Originality/valueCasinos use corporate community involvement as a way of counteracting the negative impacts of commercial gaming and supporting local communities. Hence, it is vital to understand the mechanism of engaging casino employees in corporate community involvement activities.

Abstract 2354: Multilevel analysis of colorectal cancer screening in southeastern Pennsylvania

Abstract Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of mortality in the US. There are racial and socioeconomic disparities in CRC incidence and mortality, in part due to underuse of CRC screening. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to examine multilevel factors associated with CRC screening in Southeastern PA. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using the Public Health Management Corporation's Community Health Database household survey (2010-2015) and American Community Survey data (2010-2014) to examine multilevel factors related to CRC screening via sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy. We compared adults age 50+ that received CRC screening within 10 years (N=12963) to non-compliant individuals (N=4585), according to American Cancer Society guidelines. We conducted descriptive analyses to compare individual and residential census tract characteristics of the compliant and non-compliant groups. Multilevel regression models including random intercepts for census tracts (CTs) and CT-level socioeconomic status (SES) were used to examine independent associations with CRC screening compliance. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: In bivariate analysis, we observed that individuals that did not comply with CRC screening recommendations were more likely to be younger, male, non-black, unmarried, less educated, uninsured, and current smokers than those in compliance. Non-compliant individuals were also more likely to live in areas with lower SES, shorter distance to public transportation, lower educational attainment, lower median income, and higher percentages of uninsured, unemployed, poverty and households on public assistance compared to those in compliance. In multilevel regression analysis, being unmarried (OR=1.49, 95% CI=1.34-1.65), uninsured (OR=1.65, 95% CI=1.30-2.10), or living in lower SES census tracts (below the first SES quartile: OR=1.48, 95% CI=1.30-1.69 and between the 2nd and 3rd quartile: OR=1.51, 95% CI=1.29-1.75 vs. above the highest quartile) were associated with non-compliance in CRC screening recommendations. There were no interactions detected between race and census tract SES in these models. Conclusions: We identified multilevel factors (marital status, health insurance status, and residential SES) significantly associated with non-compliance to CRC screening recommendations. Individuals and CTs with low levels of compliance can be identified and targeted for tailored interventions, such as peer support and community education about CRC in future studies. Future studies might examine how the availability and location of screening facilities may relate to CRC screening recommendation compliance rates in different neighborhoods. Citation Format: Charnita M. Zeigler-Johnson, Scott Keith, Kari Moore, Russell McIntire, Preethi Selvan, Steven Melly, Ana Diez-Roux. Multilevel analysis of colorectal cancer screening in southeastern Pennsylvania [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2354.

Women’s entry into the corporate community at the board level

Women’s entry into the corporate community at the board level

Strategi Komunikasi untuk Program Corporate Social Responsibility dalam Pemberdayaan Masyarakat

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a company's commitment not only to increase financial benefits, but also to develop a holistic, institutional and sustainable social, economic and regional development (Suharto, 2008). In practice, CSR is often regarded as corporate giving, corporate philanthropy, and corporate community relations. CSR cannot be separated from the practice of community empowerment or often referred to as community development. What is the relationship between CSR and community empowerment and how is the communication strategy for the CSR program in an effort to empower the community? The methodology in this study is of literature review type. The technique of data collection is done by secondary data techniques obtained through searching relevant books, research results related to the topic of writing, mass media news, and relevant journals. The data obtained are then analyzed and completed with qualitative techniques by describing the data obtained to answer the existing debate. The results of the study found that CSR programs cannot be separated from community empowerment. One of the objectives of CSR is to create empowered communities, especially those around the company. In carrying out CSR activities for community empowerment, the role of a communication strategy is expected. The relevant communication strategies include mass communication and intercultural communication. By using these two communication strategies, it is expected that CSR programs for community empowerment will be more effective and efficient.

GLOBAL CITIZENS: URBAN CITIZENSHIP IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ENGLISH AMERICA

Abstract This essay explores the role that ideas about urban citizenship played in the political and economic development of English colonies across the Americas. Scholars have traditionally portrayed English America as rural in comparison to Spanish and Portuguese Americas. While it is true that English colonial towns did have smaller populations than Iberian cities, ideas about urban political identity were not absent in English colonies. In fact, urban citizens, and their political culture, were at the forefront of English colonization in the early-seventeenth century. In contrast to Iberian America, though, English colonists established fewer new urban communities and instead continued to hold on to their identity rooted in particular English towns and cities. As such, English America became a web of overlapping urban citizen networks still tied to English corporate communities. As a result, when the English monarchs sought to centralize the imperial state in the early seventeenth century, colonists resisted this political and economic encroachment by adopting the structures and rhetoric of urban republicanism. The importance of these urban republican traditions helps to explain the specific form of republicanism that became popular in English America in the decades before the American Revolution. This rich tradition of urban republicanism was largely disconnected from specific urban communities in the New World, and this allowed the ideology to be flexible enough to resist the rationalizing reforms of the late eighteenth century and give rise to a more overtly exclusionary definition of citizenship in the new United States.

CSP and governance in emerging and developing country firms: Of mirrors and substitutes

AbstractA recent debate in the international CSR literature has focused on the question whether CSR serves as a mirror or a substitute of country-level governance. Advocates of the mirror view highlight the role of country level institutions to drive corporate social performance (CSP) levels, whereas proponents of the substitute view find companies to become more active in light of governance gaps. We contribute to this debate by moving the focus to a sample of 264 emerging economy and developing country companies and by comparing the relationship between country-level governance and CSP based on three different CSP dimensions, namely, emissions, human rights, and community performance. Whilst we find corporate emissions performance and human rights performance to align more closely with the mirror view, there is some indication that corporate community performance—possibly traced back to the longstanding tradition of corporate philanthropy in non-Western contexts—instead acts as a substitute to fill institutional voids. We discuss implications of our findings for research and policymakers.

Corporate Community Investment: A Strategic Approach

Companies have a broad responsibility towards all their stakeholders, including society at large. In particular, companies are expected to play a significant role in the socio-economic development of the communities where they operate. Many firms support the activity of non-profit and public organisations providing them with financial resources, in-kind donations and staff time. What in the past was simply considered as a philanthropic practice, today is planned, managed and monitored as a significant investment able to produce long-term benefits for both the community and the company. In this regard, corporate community investment requires a strategic approach to improve the relationship between company and society, enhance people’s well-being and create new business opportunities.

Managing corporate community responsibility in multinational corporations: Resolving institutional duality

Addressing calls to explore how subsidiaries of MNCs operating in different institutional contexts resolve institutional duality, this paper brings together dual theoretical explanations from legitimacy and neo-institutional theory, to examine how decision-making for corporate community responsibility (CCR) occurs across ten subsidiaries operating in Sri Lanka. Using qualitative data, it shows that while subsidiaries’ implementation of local CCR conform to that of their parents at an aggregate level, those subsidiaries encountering higher levels of institutional conflict in the host-country, are sanctioned by their parent companies to de-couple their local CCR projects. These findings raise interesting questions about the dynamism in subsidiary responses to resolving institutional duality relevant for future scholarly research.

A Note on Corporate Community Involvement and Green Behavior of Rural Tourism Enterprise in China

Although rural tourism enterprises have played crucial roles in the prosperity of tourist destinations, the environmental damage coming from the nonenvironmental corporate behaviors is also an impo...

Managing legitimacy through corporate community involvement: The effects of subsidiary ownership and host country experience in China

This article examines the legitimacy rationale behind the corporate community involvement of foreign subsidiaries in China from an institutional perspective. Based on the assumption that the level of community involvement reflects a firm’s desire to seek legitimacy in the host country, we suggest two research questions: 1) How do factors determining the need for legitimacy affect foreign subsidiaries’ community involvement? and 2) How can these relationships be moderated by perceived trust in local business relationships? We hypothesize that a foreign parent’s ownership share has a positive effect on its subsidiaries’ local community involvement, while sufficient host country experience leads to less community involvement. We also propose that the level of perceived trust toward local business partners moderates these impacts of parent firm ownership and host country experience on local community involvement. These hypotheses are generally supported by our analysis of 223 Korean subsidiaries in China.

Formation of an Asian American Nonprofit Organization through the Partnership between Corporate Employee Resource Groups and Community Organizations

ABSTRACTUsing the case study approach, this paper examines the formation of a pan-Asian American ethnic agency between leaders of corporate employee resource groups and Asian American subgroup ethnic agencies. Themes found consist of 1) formation of the partnership to raise funds for a natural disaster; 2) moving forward as a united pan-Asian American nonprofit organization; and 3) challenges ahead that include utilization of funds and power 4t agency community members. A better-resourced organization can facilitate increased chances of success as well as access to its services by the community in which it serves.

Imagined Corporate Communities: Historical Sources and Discourses

AbstractCorporations can be conceptualized as imagined communities, in which a sense of community is created through textual media rather than face‐to‐face communication. Historically the press, and newspapers in particular, provided texts through which nations could be imagined as communities. By analogy, historically company magazines can be seen as texts in which corporations were imagined as communities of employees. Company magazines were ubiquitous in large corporations by the second half of the twentieth century, and many continue in print or online. Three enduring discourses of ‘imagined corporate communities’ are identified from a sample of company magazines from four UK organizations for 1955, 1985 and 2005 – Royal Mail, Cadbury, the BBC and HSBC (formerly Midland Bank) – as well as periodicals for the professional bodies of magazine editors. These discourses explain the perceived role of company magazines and can be described as: ‘esprit de corps’, in which the corporation is imagined as an extended family, public school or tightly knit military unit with its own distinctive spirit; ‘brand community’, where the magazine's readers are imagined as ambassadors for the brand along with consumers; and ‘democratic polity’, where employees are seen as citizens and the magazine represents an independent voice holding management to account.

Can trading partner cultural diversity explain trade?

The importance of culture on economic outcomes has been an element of ongoing research mainly in the disciplines outside of mainstream economics such as sociology and anthropology. From an economic perspective, there is a strong feeling among the corporate community that culture can be influential in business dealings. International trade is one area of business where cultural diversity can matter. This paper investigates the effect of trading partner cultural diversity on trade within the gravity model framework. The gravity model incorporates four measures to capture cultural diversity: religion, ethnicity, language and legal origin. Using data on New Zealand’s trade with Asia and employing the panel corrected standard errors estimation procedure, the empirical findings reveal that Asian diversity in religion and languages is positively correlated with New Zealand–Asia trade. The results reveal that the expected effects of standard gravity variables, and we conclude that the cultural diversity of trading partners positively influences international trade.

Corporate Community Involvement and Chinese Rural Tourist Destination Sustainability

Although rural tourism enterprises have played crucial roles in the prosperity of tourist destinations, environmental contamination due to corporate behaviour is also an important issue to consider. In this study, we introduce corporate community involvement theory to explore the antecedents and contingency effects of corporate green behaviour for tourist destination sustainability from the perspective of tourism corporate social responsibility. Using first-hand survey data collected in Guangdong and Anhui provinces, and matching second-hand data from the statistical yearbook and tourist destination government work reports, we found that corporate community involvement has a positive impact on the green behaviour of rural tourism enterprises. This association is moderated by place identity and the gross tourism receipts of destinations. By doing so, this research extends the scope of tourism environmental governance from ‘the bottom’ (for tourists) to ‘the top’ (for tourism enterprises). Meanwhile, this research provides feasible advice to policymakers by highlighting the coordination value of enterprises’ initiative strategies (e.g., corporate community involvement) and destination contingency.

Neoliberalism at work: Corporate reforms, subjectivity, and post-Toyotist affect in Japan

This article analyzes how the Japanese state and corporations promoted neoliberal restructuring and how employees responded to and reflected upon such changes. I show how neoliberal reforms have aimed to produce greater flexibility for corporations and promote a specific mode of control—“self-management”—among employees. However, rather than rationalizing and legitimizing risk and becoming self-regulating “enterprising selves,” many employees displayed a reflexive and reactive subjectivity that eschewed such neoliberal values. The reaction of many individuals to reforms in Japan can best be understood as “silent resistance” through a combination of discrete competition, turning inward, and stronger desires for stability and security. Economic restructuring thus produced a new kind of “alienation” characterized by narrowing corporate welfare and the breakdown of corporate community. At the same time, employees’ critical reflections reveal a post-Toyotist affect marked by retrenched desires for security and control under the changing national and global economy. Rather than a new, unprecedented subjectivation, the Japanese case of risk-aversive reflexive reaction reveals how existing cultural complexes produce different forms of subjectivity in response to reforms. Further, this nuances our understandings of how the kinds of subjectivities that emerge via the diverse processes of neoliberalization are always contingent upon the multiscalar historical and cultural contexts of work, responsibility, and risk.

Indigenous Well-Being and Development: Connections to Large-Scale Mining and Tourism in the Pacific

This article examines examples of indigenous conceptions of well-being and locally meaningful forms of community development in the Pacific and considers how these coincide, or collide, with development driven by the private sector. The focus is on indigenous communities who live in the vicinity of large multinational corporations, using case studies from Papua New Guinea and Fiji. We investigate how communities' perceptions of well-being intersect with the concept of development as it emanates from the private sector. In order to do this, we explore how communities perceive well-being, what materializes as being significant to its achievement, and what this means in the presence of international capital. Ultimately the purpose of investigating these concepts is to establish a point of reference for considering the effectiveness and value of corporate community development intervention from a community perspective.

Exploration of the Factors that Promote Corporate Community Contribution Activity

Exploration of the Factors that Promote Corporate Community Contribution Activity

Role of Private Sectors in Disaster Risk Reduction: Potential and Challenges

The private sector is an important actor in disaster risk reduction, and its importance has been highlighted after the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted in 2015. The role of private sectors vary from corporate social responsibility activities and creating a corporate community interface to ensuring that innovative technical solutions for disaster risk reduction are a core business. This study elaborates on different models and examples of these roles. Three critical examples come from Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia, where private organizations work closely with national governments and enter into partnership agreements, which ensure the sustainability of their involvement. Other core examples are from civil society, where the private sector works for demand-driven innovation. One challenging issue of private sector involvement is that of the small and medium-sized enterprises, which are often unregistered and need special attention during disasters and post-disaster recovery.

Collaborative community development in mining regions: The Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs in Chile

The mining industry is widely criticized for its corporate community development strategies, which led to accusations of greenwash and low social legitimacy. This problem identified led to the following research question: What model of community relations allows companies to generate shared value, in a broad sense, and create long-term relationships with communities? In order to answer the question posed, this paper explores the innovative experiences of the Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs in the Antofagasta region of Chile. Calama Plus is an ongoing public-private program (2012–2025) established to combat declining standards of living in the city. Creo Antofagasta is also an ongoing public-private program (2013–2035), which is designed to confront the challenges of rapid growth in the city. Based on these two case studies, their underlying model (i.e., the collaborative community development model) was systematized for this study. The main innovative aspects of the model are its focus on the long-term, its concentration on territory- oriented projects, and its multi-stakeholder governance structure. The latter characteristic implies a collaboration between several companies and even between competitors. Drawing on a collaborative governance framework, the aim of this paper is to extensively describe the companies’ perspective on the following: the innovative aspects of the model, the drivers required for companies to participate, how companies can specifically contribute to these programs, and its critical management issues. New drivers and critical management issues are identified and discussed in this research, which represent a contribution to the collaborative governance framework.Since the Calama Plus and Creo Antofagasta programs’ focus is long-term, ending in 2025 and 2035 respectively, their impact has not been evaluated. For this reason, we include a discussion on the cumulative impact assessment perspective needed for these collaborative community development programs, placing particular attention on the controversial relationship between mining and local development. This approach is based on the assessment of cross-sector partnership results, its impact on the balance of social, environmental and economic capitals, and on the creation of broadly shared value in terms of long-term socio-economic capability building. Finally, policy implications and the potential for applying this model to other contexts are also discussed.