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How Activists Shape CSR: Insights from Internet Contagion and Contingency Theories
W. Timothy Coombs Sherry J. Holladay
Article information:
To cite this document: W. Timothy Coombs Sherry J. Holladay . "How Activists
Shape CSR: Insights from Internet Contagion and Contingency Theories" In Corporate
Social Responsibility in the Digital Age. Published online: 30 Mar 2015; 85-97.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S2043-052320150000007007
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HOW ACTIVISTS SHAPE CSR:
INSIGHTS FROM INTERNET
CONTAGION AND CONTINGENCY
THEORIES
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
ing from Sinar Mas. Nestlé’s said they had a plan to source palm oil more
responsibly by 2015. Greenpeace wanted change now and applied pressure
through a YouTube video that parodied a Kit Kat commercial (a Nestlé
product) and attacks on the Nestlé’s Facebook page over the palm oil sour-
cing policy. Greenpeace was defining the current palm oil practices of
Nestlé’s as irresponsible and responsible behavior required a change to sus-
tainable producers. Within a few months, Nestlé changed its position,
ended the contract with Sinar Mas, and developed a program with the
Forest Trust to create a sustainable palm oil purchasing program.
The key elements of stakeholder-initiated engagement are the challenger,
the challenge, and the challenged corporation. The challenger is the stake-
holder, typically a nongovernment organization (NGO). The challenge is
criticism/attack on the corporate behavior that is being redefined as irre-
sponsible. The challenged corporation is the entity acting in an irresponsible
manner. Attributions are a key element of the stakeholder challenges.
Lange and Washburn (2012) have identified three factors that influence sta-
keholder attributions of corporate irresponsibility: (1) perception that the
organization’s actions produce an undesirable effect, (2) the corporate is
held responsible for the undesirable effect, and (3) the victims of the undesir-
able effect have no responsibility for the undesirable effect. Social irrespon-
sibility starts with some action that negatively impacts society. People must
believe something undesirable is occurring. Next, stakeholders must believe
the organization is responsible for the negative impact. Finally, the victims
cannot be complicit in the process. In other words, the victims cannot be
willingly accomplices in the creation of the problem. The challenge must be
viewed as negative and attributable to the challenged organization. We can
return to the Nestlé example to illustrate the three points.
First, orangutan habitat destruction is an undesirable effect. People dis-
like the idea that orangutans are dying needlessly for palm oil production.
Insights from Internet Contagion and Contingency Theories 89
Second, Greenpeace made a clear connection between Nestlé and the habi-
tat destruction. Nestlé was not directly destroying the habitat but their irre-
sponsible purchasing behavior was. Corporations are held accountable for
actions within their supply chains (Bhattacharya, Korschun, & Sen, 2009).
Finally, orangutans were not complicit in the destruction of their habitats.
If no one knows about irresponsible behavior does it matter? In a moral
sense it should but there is a more pragmatic aspect to stakeholder chal-
lenges that creates a need for visibility. The challenger must gain the atten-
tion of (1) the challenged organization and (2) other stakeholders. The
challenger must know about the challenge or no change will occur. If other
stakeholders know about and support the challenge, that provides incen-
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tives and pressure for corporate behavior change. The public association
between a corporation and irresponsible actions will erode the corpora-
tion’s reputation. CSR plays an important part in the creation of corporate
reputations (Fombrun, 2005; Schnietz & Epstein, 2005). According to a
2012 study by the Reputation Institute, 42% of a corporation’s reputation
is based upon perception of their CSR efforts. Moreover, CSR perceptions
are linked to important outcomes such as recommending the company
(CSR, 2012; Smith, 2012). It follows that a threat to CSR is a threat to cor-
porate reputation and to the well-being of the corporation. The importance
of CSR to corporate reputations means that public revelations of irrespon-
sibility will damage a reputation. The need for visibility leads to a discus-
sion of social media’s role in stakeholder challenges.
have for the challenge and the spread of the challenge to other stakeholders
(Coombs & Holladay, 2012).
Salience is related to the public visibility of a challenge. Social media
help to promote stakeholder salience by creating the opportunity to build
power, legitimacy, and urgency through highly visible, public communica-
tion. It is too simplistic to claim online visibility increases salience. Social
media must be used strategically if stakeholders hope to build power, legiti-
macy, and urgency. ICT provides the basic structure for examining how
social media can impact stakeholder-initiated engagement by influencing
stakeholder salience. Contingency Theory examines a multitude of internal
and external factors that shape how organizations respond to conflicts with
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Challengers
Power • Number of • Number of
supporters communication
• Past success channels
• Hired • Structure of
communication communication
consultant channels
Legitimacy • Credibility
• Commitment to
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Urgency
issue
• Willingness to
dilute cause
Challenge
Legitimacy • Quality of messages Type of
• Utilization of challenge
legitimacy resources • Expose
• Organic
Urgency • Crossover to
traditional and in-
person
• Communicative skill
Challenged
organization
Power • Power relative to Constraints
challenger power • Cost
• Strategy
• Feasibility
• CSR use
THE CHALLENGE
the UN could endorse the concern, data about the number of children in
slave labor worldwide can establish logical support, and the emotional
stories of those in child slave labor will reinforce the importance of the
concern give people another reason to care about the concern.
The challenge also must establish the link between the organization and
the negative outcome. There must be credible, factual evidence to docu-
ment that the organization has responsibility for the actions and/or poli-
cies. The challenge must document that the organization is engaged in the
irresponsible actions (Lange & Washburn’s, 2012 notions of organizational
responsibility and victim complicity). The challenge also can affect urgency.
Crossover to traditional media expands the number of stakeholders
exposed to the challenge and increases the potential for reputational
damage. In-person activities demonstrate commitment to the cause
(Coombs & Holladay, 2012).
The challenge crises can actually have three variations: organic, exposé,
and villain (Coombs, 2010). Over time, the values and beliefs of stake-
holders can change, leading them to expect different behaviors from the
corporation. This is a natural process where corporate behavior can lag
behind stakeholder expectations as the stakeholders and corporations drift
apart in terms of expectations. The exposé challenge occurs when stake-
holders demonstrate that a corporation’s words do not match their actions.
Charges of “washing” appear when corporations overstate their commit-
ment to some social or environmental concerns or talk about social and
environmental concerns with no corresponding action. Exposé challenges
create the impression of malice because there appears to be a purposeful
attempt to confuse stakeholders about the corporation’s social performance
and to pretend to meet stakeholder expectations.
The villain challenge is simply one act in a larger drama between parti-
cular stakeholders and a corporation or industry. The villain challenge
Insights from Internet Contagion and Contingency Theories 93
CHALLENGED ORGANIZATION
The challenged organization is the target for the challenge. The two criti-
cal factors are the relative power of the organization and its prior use of
CSR in building its reputation. A corporation that is much more power-
ful than the challenger stands a better chance of convincing stakeholders
to accept its side of the cause (Cameron et al., 2008). If the organization
uses CSR to build its reputation, a CSR-based challenge is more urgent
because it poses a greater threat to the reputation. An organization that
professes to support CSR creates certain expectations. The challenge can
indicate a violation of expectations and that can create a crisis (Sohn &
Lariscy, 2014).
Challenged organizations are bound by at least four constraints: (1) strat-
egy, (2) cost, (3) feasibility, and (4) prior CSR efforts. Management does
not want to change practices or policies that deviate from their core strat-
egy. If the challenge requires an organization to shift strategy, management
is likely to reject the challenge (Coombs, 2010). Cost is a common driver in
risk management. Organizations do not pursue risk reduction that is too
costly or risk reduction efforts that lack feasibility. Risk reduction needs to
be at the right price and have a strong likelihood of being effective
(Coombs, 2012). Similarly, organizations will reject challenges that will be
cost prohibitive or problematic, from their perspective, to enact. Finally,
CSR efforts create expectations for future actions. Managers must make
every effort to be consistent with their CSR claims or risk offending stake-
holders by being hypocritical. Organizations that have little invested in
CSR do not generate the same type of expectations (Sohn & Lariscy, 2014).
Creating expectations for being socially responsible is a constraint for a
challenge that is CSR-based.
94 W. TIMOTHY COOMBS AND SHERRY J. HOLLADAY
for attention and moves to a different company once the targeted one
agrees to detox. We have chosen Zara to illustrate how our Integrated
Framework for Stakeholder Challenges can be used to analyze and to
explain the success or failure of stakeholder-initiated engagement.
Greenpeace specifically targeted Zara in November of 2012.
Greenpeace (the challenger) built power quickly through the number of
followers, past successes, communication channels, and structure of the
communication channels. Within a week, over 7 million people were fol-
lowing the Zara detox efforts on Facebook, Twitter, and Weibo. In one
week there were 43,800 mentions of Zara and Detox on Twitter. Over
300,000 people signed the Zara Detox page on Greenpeace’s web site.
Greenpeace demonstrated a large number of supporters for the Zara
detox effort. Greenpeace reported a list of other apparel manufacturers
who had agreed to detox including Nike, adidas, Puma, H&M, M&S,
C&A, and Li-Ning. The success involved companies from a number of
different countries. Greenpeace had a strong record of success for Detox.
A variety of communication channels were utilized, including web sites,
Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, news conferences, online videos, and in-store
protests. Over 700 people were part of in-store protests in 20 countries.
This included hanging large Detox banners from five Zara flagship stores
in Europe and Asia. Greenpeace utilized a variety of communication
channels. The communication channels and tactics were organized around
the Detox web site. This hub and spoke design is powerful for messaging
(People! Zara commits to go toxic-free, 2012).
Greenpeace build credibility through investigations by universities and
governments that revealed the extent and types of hazardous chemicals in
clothing. Experts were used to build Greenpeace’s credibility on the topic.
Urgency was established by Greenpeace’s commitment to the issue and
Insights from Internet Contagion and Contingency Theories 95
unwillingness to dilute their cause. The Detox campaign is now three years
old and regularly has the ability to create in-store actions, two signs of
commitment. Greenpeace is adamant that the response must be the pledge
to detox the entire supply chain, not just parts of the supply chain or cer-
tain chemicals.
The challenge legitimacy was built through quality messages and legiti-
macy resources while urgency for the challenge was created through cross-
over and communication skill. Detox provides an example of an organic
challenge. Greenpeace created reasoned arguments for Detox, not simple
rants against Zara. Their evidence of Zara’s use of suppliers that utilize
hazardous chemicals helped to build legitimacy. Legitimacy was also
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enhanced through the images and stories of how people were suffering
from the chemicals. The threat was real and harmful to people, animals,
and the environment. Greenpeace did generate crossover with traditional
media coverage of their Zara efforts and in-store actions against Zara
(People! Zara commits to go toxic-free, 2012). These were combined with
the communicative skill Greenpeace brings to its efforts in order to build a
strong sense of urgency. The challenge is organic because Greenpeace is
raising a new concern. Society now cares about hazardous chemicals in the
supply chain. This means corporations need to keep pace with stakeholder
expectations. There were no efforts to frame the challenge as an exposé of
corporations pretending to detox but not eliminating the hazardous chemi-
cals from their supply chains.
It is difficult to assess the relative power of Zara (the challenged organi-
zation) and Greenpeace. However, the power resources amassed by
Greenpeace suggest Zara could not be confident it had a distinct power
advantage over Greenpeace. Detox was framed in such a way that it avoids
the constraints. Costs are minimal because the safe chemical prices are the
same or less than their hazardous counterparts. Changing chemical does
not impact corporate strategy. The detox effort itself is feasible because the
alternative chemicals are known and available. Finally, detoxing is consis-
tent with CSR activities and creates an opportunity to improve stakeholder
views of responsibility. Once the shift in chemical is accomplished, it is
fairly easy to maintain this CSR effort.
Greenpeace made itself a salient stakeholder by using communication to
build power, legitimacy, and urgency. The challenge, the need to detox,
was shown to be legitimate and urgent. The organic nature of the threat
was less threatening than an exposé. Corporations needed to keep pace
with changes in stakeholder expectations instead of defending a purposeful
96 W. TIMOTHY COOMBS AND SHERRY J. HOLLADAY
misbehavior. Finally, the detox avoided the four constraints that frequently
preclude corporations from acting on a challenge. The detox effort was low
cost, consistent with corporate strategy, feasible, and would not create
future CSR issues. The Integrated Framework for Stakeholder Challenges
helps to uncover the various factors that contributed to Greenpeace rede-
fining responsible behavior for Zara.
CONCLUSION
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