What is the role of social media in several overtones of CSR communication? The case of the wine industry in the Southern Italian regions

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand whether the companies most involved in communicating their responsible behaviour externally are those most active on the social media (SM) platform, with a philanthropic purpose rather than strictly aimed at economic aspects. Design/methodology/approach The authors, first, assess firms’ efforts on the SM platform using the model proposed by Chung et al. (2014), and, second, the authors analyze the content of messages in order to verify what dimensions of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) they contain. A multivariate modelling has been performed in order to verify whether the wineries that take most care to communicate their responsible behaviour are those that are more involved in the management of Social Network. The wineries’ effort in SM platform was analyzed using the model proposed by Chung et al. (2014), which consider three dimensions named intensity, richness and responsiveness. In order to verify the relationship between the SM effort and their engagement in CSR initiatives, the Probit model has been utilized taking into consideration four CSR dimension (Green CSR, Ethical CSR, Community CSR and Cultural CSR). Findings The findings show that wineries most involved in corporate social responsibility initiatives and in the active communication of these initiatives on SM platforms are those that are most active on SM and in particular those that interact most with their web users, triggering in them some reactions that lead to the sharing of content and, therefore, having a significant impact on the dissemination of information through SM. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this study are related to the limited sample size, the time period considered. Practical implications This study provides insight and hints into wine entrepreneurs interested in improving the effectiveness of their CSR communication via SM showing the importance of the interactive dimension of SM, in order to reduce scepticism and gain greater credibility on the market. Originality/value This study uses four dimensions of the companies’ SM efforts’ built on the basis of a number of variables that are more explicative of the SM engagement.