ABSTRACT Financial distress can adversely affect a firm's long‐term sustainability and have devastating consequences for stakeholders. Given the increased use of social media platforms as corporate disclosure channels, this research examines whether financially distressed firms tend to alter the tone/sentiment of their social media disclosures and whether governance mechanisms can help mitigate such potential opportunistic behaviour. Using a sample of tweets and posts by 106 Pakistani firms from 2017 to 2022, this research finds that distressed firms are more likely to utilise a less positive tone in their social media disclosures. Further, we find that under good governance, this effect is strengthened, while under weak governance structures, financially distressed firms are more inclined to utilise impression management. We contribute to the corporate social responsibility literature by providing evidence that, under the right governance conditions, social media platforms can be conducive to more truthful disclosures and help firms engage with, communicate to, and build trust among different stakeholders.

Can fully agentic AI nowcast stock returns? We deploy a state-of-the-art Large Language Model to evaluate the attractiveness of each Russell 1000 stock daily, starting from April 2025 when AI web interfaces enabled real-time search. Our data contribution is unique along three dimensions. First, the nowcasting framework is completely out-of-sample and free of look-ahead bias by construction: predictions are collected at the current edge of time, ensuring the AI has no knowledge of future outcomes. Second, this temporal design is irreproducible-once the information environment passes, it can never be recreated. Third, our framework is 100% agentic: we do not feed the model news, disclosures, or curated text; it autonomously searches the web, filters sources, and synthesises information into quantitative predictions. We find that AI possesses genuine stock selection ability, but only for identifying top winners. Longing the 20 highest-ranked stocks generates a daily Fama-French five-factor plus momentum alpha of 18.5 basis points and an annualised Sharpe ratio of 2.43. Critically, these returns derive from an implementable strategy trading highly liquid Russell 1000 constituents, with transaction costs representing less than 10% of gross alpha. However, this predictability is highly concentrated: expanding beyond the top tier rapidly dilutes alpha, and bottom-ranked stocks exhibit returns statistically indistinguishable from the market. We hypothesise that this asymmetry reflects online information structure: genuinely positive news generates coherent signals, while negative news is contaminated by strategic corporate obfuscation and social media noise.

Corporations face increasing pressure to take a stand on sociopolitical issues, with gender equality being a prominent example. This study examines the impact of calls to action in corporate social media posts on reputation. The findings show these messages can backfire, triggering negative reactions even among supporters of the cause. In today’s polarized climate, a company’s reputation depends not just on the issues it advocates for, but also on how it communicates them. Thoughtful and careful message strategies are key to protecting and enhancing corporate reputation while addressing relevant sociopolitical issues.

Social media is increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for knowledge mobilization, activism, and advocacy—particularly for young adults who are often excluded from institutional research and decision-making. However, these platforms are not neutral; algorithmic biases, corporate interests, and structural barriers shape whose knowledge is amplified and whose is suppressed. This study examines the nuances of using social media for participatory, youth-led knowledge mobilization through the Valuing Opinions and Inspiring Change through Engagement (VOICE) Study, a youth-designed and youth-led initiative exploring social media engagement strategies to reach equity-deserving and hardly reached young adults in mental health advocacy. Using an iterative, co-created approach, the study employed both qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine engagement with different types of social media content. The findings reveal tensions between visibility and meaningful interaction: while reels expanded audience reach, they did not consistently foster engagement. Medium-relevance posts addressing relatable mental health topics sustained engagement, highlighting the need to balance reach with substantive impact. The study also considers digital inequities, as youth without stable internet access or those avoiding social media for privacy and well-being concerns remained excluded. Through a participatory and reflexive framework, this study challenges assumptions that social media inherently democratizes knowledge. It underscores the need for multi-modal strategies integrating online and offline engagement and calls for critical examination of corporate social media’s structural limitations in activist research.

This paper examines the growing dependency on corporate social media (CSM) platforms within extension and advisory services, highlighting concerns about digital autonomy. While platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube offer accessible communication tools, their rapid adoption has occurred without sufficient consideration of long-term implications.Drawing on Collingridge's control dilemma, the research explores how technologies become entrenched in practice—creating a tension between understanding a technology's implications and the ability to reshape it. This framework helps explain how extension services have adopted CSM without fully considering potential constraints on future digital autonomy.The research employs a critical analysis of platform business models and governance structures, incorporating case studies of Fediverse alternatives such as Mastodon and Diaspora.Key findings reveal that extension services face significant lock-in effects when relying on corporate platforms, making them vulnerable to data extraction practices, inconsistent content moderation, and centralized infrastructure risks. The research identifies promising alternatives in decentralized platforms that provide greater control over governance and data management, although barriers include technical requirements and resource limitations.The paper proposes a four-stage ICT diversification strategy: awareness building, demonstration through small-scale implementations, capacity development, and systematic evaluation. It recommends collaborative approaches in which organizations establish shared infrastructure to distribute costs and technical responsibilities.While CSM will continue to play important roles in extension work, supplementing these tools with community-governed alternatives offers a pathway toward digital self-determination. Extension and advisory services can lead this diversification effort by applying responsible innovation principles to preserve future flexibility and autonomy.

The growing popularity of social media has transformed corporate Facebook pages into key platforms for public customer–brand communication, organically blending promotional content with open service discourse. This study analyzes customer communicative interactions on the official Facebook pages of major U.S. retailers (Macy’s, Amazon, Walmart, and Costco) to develop a functional-pragmatic typology of English-language digital service discourse. Drawing on a pragmatic-discursive approach, a purposive sample of comment threads was examined with regard to customers’ communicative goals, emotional tone, and thematic relation to company posts. Two primary interaction types were identified: post-related interactions, which respond directly to promotional content (affective endorsement, purchase intent, product inquiries, and community sharing); and experience-related interactions, where customers focus on personal service experiences (complaints, disengagement, suggestions, service requests, and warnings). The findings demonstrate that users creatively repurpose corporate social media spaces into multifunctional arenas for endorsement, inquiry, feedback, and calls for accountability. The study concludes that English-language digital service discourse on Facebook is both strategic and performative, with users acting as recipients and co-authors of brand narratives. The proposed typology of customer–brand interactions may serve as a foundation for further research into linguistic and pragmatic variation in customer discourse and corporate responses, contributing to a deeper understanding of the evolution of digital customer relationships, the affordances of online platforms, and the complex dynamics of digital service communication.

Exploring corporate social advocacy and social media engagement: Insights from Ben & Jerry’s

Service Crisis Communication: Mediating Role of Strategies on Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media Engagement

This study aims to analyze the extent to which corporate image and social media marketing influence purchasing decisions at PT. Yusuf Mamlaka Mubarokah, an agribusiness company based in Bojonegoro Regency. Employing a quantitative approach with Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis, the research involved 108 active consumer respondents. The findings indicate that both corporate image and social media marketing have a positive and significant effect on purchasing decisions. Corporate image is shaped by elements such as impression, trust, and attitude, while social media marketing is supported by dimensions of content, audience engagement, and digital interaction. These results highlight the importance of optimizing corporate communication strategies and strengthening digital promotion efforts to enhance consumer loyalty and purchase intention.

Content moderation is a key form of labour on social media. While much of the scholarly attention has been given to paid or voluntary content moderation on corporate social media, this paper draws attention to content moderation on noncapitalist, alternative social media. Specifically, it focuses on the use of shared instance blocklists on the fediverse, a noncentralised network of community-run social media sites. The paper draws on critical analysis of the act of listing, which finds that listing is an administrative and moral act that introduces three problems: lists don’t carry their own selection criteria, they are binary, and they can grow. However, listing also produces knowledge. Drawing on this literature as well as participant observation and interviews, the paper explores how fediverse blocklist developers attempt to mitigate the problems of lists while also generating knowledge about content moderation in noncapitalist social media.

Corporate social responsibility as a commercial determinant of health: A case study of the alcohol industry in the Philippines.

Against the backdrop of an increasing threat of misinformation on social media, several countries have enacted regulations to curb the spread of misinformation. This study examines how corporate social media strategy responds to misinformation regulations. Using a large cross-country dataset of corporate tweets and a stacked regression analysis, we show that misinformation regulations lead to less corporate social media disclosure. This result suggests that, by deterring misinformation, these regulations reduce firms’ need to use social media to counteract its adverse effects. Additional analyses show that the effect strengthens among countries with higher social media usage and those with stronger investor protection but weakens for firms with stronger information environments. Finally, we provide direct evidence that firms post fewer tweets refuting misinformation about themselves following the enactment of these regulations.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved beyond traditional philanthropy into a strategic imperative for organisations, and social media now serves as a vital channel for promoting, implementing, and evaluating CSR initiatives. This intersection has transformed how businesses engage with stakeholders, respond to social expectations, and build reputational capital. There are three research questions in our study: (1) What is the demographic information of the social media and CSR?; (2) What are the dominant themes?; and (3) which countries are leading the conversation, and how are they collaborating? Our study presents a bibliometric analysis of academic research at the intersection of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social media, covering the period from 2009 to 2025, based on the Scopus database. Prominent themes include communication and consumer behaviour, empirical studies and methodology, CSR communication strategies, stakeholder and legitimacy, and reputation and activism. Key contributors, such as Cheng, Y., Chen, Y.R.R., and Hung-Baeseke, C.J.F., while journals like Sustainability and The Journal of Business Ethics, were among the five most prolific journals in the field of social media and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Geographically, the United States was the dominant country in the publication, followed by other countries like China, Spain, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and Canada. The co-authorship and co-citation networks highlight the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of CSR-social media research. Our study identified five (5) key themes occurrences in published CSR and social media research. This paper includes a discussion of the limitations encountered as well as further suggestions for future research. Keywords: CSR, social media, Scopus, bibliometrics analysis, corporate social responsibility.

Purpose This study investigates whether Kaizen operational practices contribute to environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. While Kaizen is widely applied in operational improvement, its impact on ESG dimensions remains empirically underexplored. The aim is to examine this relationship through a global survey of manufacturing organizations. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey was conducted with professionals experienced in Kaizen from manufacturing companies across different countries. Respondents were identified via corporate social media based on their demonstrated expertise in Kaizen practices. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings Results reveal that Kaizen practices positively influence environmental and governance performance. However, no direct impact on social performance was found. The use of digital systems was identified as a full mediator in the relationship between Kaizen and social performance. Practical implications Findings suggest that organizations can enhance ESG outcomes by implementing Kaizen practices and integrating digital systems. This combined approach can improve environmental and governance results and indirectly support social sustainability. Originality/value This is among the first empirical studies to explore the Kaizen–ESG link through a global sample, highlighting the role of digital systems as enablers of ESG performance.

The advancement of social media platforms in promoting consumer participation in brand development and sustainable consumption has been substantial. Social media's popularity has increased significantly in the twenty-first century. To enhance sales performance, enterprises consistently seek novel strategies to integrate these platforms into their promotional initiatives. Social media functions as a platform for networking and communication; consequently, organizations must imbue their brands with personality to connect with consumers. Despite extensive academic research on corporate social media marketing techniques, the influence of these activities on consumer purchase choices remains largely unexplored. Organizations have recently embraced influencer marketing as a tactic to promote and publicize their content by leveraging the support of influential individuals. The growing frequency of product endorsements on social media highlights the importance of understanding the impact that these influencers have on customers. This research aims to analyze the influence of social media content and its characteristics on consumer engagement in the digital domain. Additionally, this study will serve as a foundation for future investigations in this area. The insights regarding the content elements of social media marketing that foster consumer engagement were contributed by seventy-five unique social media users.

Several corporate social media accounts have recently practiced uncouth and eclectic approaches to social media practice to promote engagement and demonstrate the authenticity of their brands. This paper introduces paradiastolic personae as a rhetorical device used by fast food social media accounts to reframe crude, unprofessional behavior into virtues of authenticity. I analyze a recent trend in corporate social media engagement that marks a turn away from a dispassionate advertising model to personalized practices of memeing and shitposting. Using a critical rhetorical analysis of corporate Twitter accounts, I argue that these accounts constitute their consumer base by appealing to countercultural signifiers of rebellion, unprofessionalism, and anti-work sentimentality, and organize narratives of post-ironic disidentification from elite perceptions of taste while elevating fast food consumption to a normative ideal.

Abstract Previous research has extensively examined corporate apologies as webcare in public settings. However, it has paid less attention to apologies made directly to the public despite their potential to evoke responses that reflect social expectations. This study examines corporate public apology strategies and social media users’ follow-up comments, specifically focusing on impolite comments and their underlying rationale. The findings reveal that, despite employing various apology strategies in response to food safety incidents, corporations continue to receive criticism and impolite comments online. These comments frequently reference the moral value of 良心 liángxīn ‘conscience’, which serves as a moral ground for public criticism. Specifically, these comments highlight a set of moral expectations constituting liángxīn: being responsible, being honest, avoiding being profit-centric, and caring for customers. Such impolite comments function as a rite of moral aggression aimed at reaffirming and restoring moral orders. This study enriches our understanding of public responses to corporate apologies and underscores the role of online criticism in shaping societal norms.

This research aims to gain a deeper understanding of the use of social media and business innovation in company growth strategies. Researchers applied qualitative research methodology, using semi-structured interview techniques to examine follow-up questions that could answer the study's objectives. Interviews were conducted with several MSMEs in Thailand, who served as the research subjects, totaling 20 respondents. The research results indicate that social media usage can help build better consumer-customer relationships, leading to increased loyalty. Effective business innovation can also create a favorable impression and provide significant information and recommendations to influence purchase decisions. Businesses that effectively utilize social media will have stronger connections compared to those that do not engage with corporate social media platforms.

Corporate digital assets become valuable for an organization's sustainable growth. In facing the rapid evolution of the digital landscape, the extensive volume of digital assets should be optimized. Aiming to design a corporate digital assets repository, using web content analysis and benchmarking on several corporate social media, a set of business rules, and a conceptual model of the corporate digital asset has been implemented. The study contributes to data modeling of corporate digital assets, assuring utilization of preservation of digital content. Related descriptive metadata has been added for future enhancement targeting data retrieval capabilities and friendly visualization.

This study analyzes customer perception and competitive challenges in the water sports industry with a qualitative study of Hot Dog Water Sport And Dive Center LLC. The type of research used is descriptive with a qualitative approach. The data collection method uses internal documents and corporate social media monitoring. The analysis used was SWOT and PESTLE analysis. The results of the study with SWOT and PESTLE analysis show that the company's strength lies in safety, service friendliness, and environmental sustainability. However, significant challenges such as inefficient coordination, staff professionalism that needs to be improved, and dependence on the weather require strategic innovation to maintain competitiveness.