CSR in the Network Economy
CSR in the Network Economy

Profitability of CSR Communication on Facebook

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to describe the influence that network economy has upon CSR communication through social media, especially Facebook. My study employs a quantitative research on top 100 corporate Facebook pages in Romania, managed by the most important companies by turnover, from September 1, 2015 to October 1, 2015.By operationalizing the concept of power in CSR communication through social media, I have featured the crossover between the network economy principles and the main CSR communication strategies, on Facebook,in Romania.The main findings reveal that there is a strong connection between economic interactions in network economy,such as autarkic self-provision, bilateral interaction and multilateral collaboration (Gilles, Lazarova & Ruys, 2015: 375-379) and the main CSR communication strategies through social media: the self-centered strategy,the mediated strategy and the dialogical strategy. We can see there is a strong pressure from the stakeholders’point of view concerning CSR communication on Facebook, in Romania. If companies try to sell their products or services through Facebook, stakeholders try to establish a relationship and want to trust the companies they choose to buy from.In this context, we can see that companies are prone to respond to stakeholders’ questions or inquiries, rather than be proactive and anticipate some of their needs. Not in the least, we can see that, the stronger the communication power of the company is, the more it is faced with the resistance of stakeholders to that. It means that the shift to a dialogical strategy of communication could bring balance to the CSR communication process on Facebook. Also, there is a correlation between economic interaction and the place these firms hold in the Top 100 companies of Romania. The more they practice the autarkic interaction, the more they belong to the higher places in the top. These findings provide new insights that are useful to corporations when designing new digital campaigns and when establishing their CSR strategy. Also, these are also useful to scholars through the conceptualization of communication power on Facebook and the crossover between types of economic interaction and the place of the organization in top 100 companies.

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