Seminario di Beatriz Garcia Osma

ORE 12.30 SALA SEMINARI – I° PIANO, PALAZZO LEVI CASES, VIA DEL SANTO 33

21.09.2016

Seminario di Beatriz Garcia Osma, Department of  Business Administration, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

"Stakeholder (Dis) Engagement in Social Media: The Case of Twitter and the Banking Industry”

We study stakeholder dialogue and engagement in social media. In particular, we analyze the content of over a million microblogs on Twitter relating to Corporate Social Responsibility

(CSR) communication. We focus on key issues considered by banking institutions in their CSR reports, which we classify into Core or Supplementary depending on their connection with core business activities. We show that CSR information has a relevant presence in social media. Both internal and external users amply discuss CSR topics. However, the evidence suggests limited dialogue between the parties. Significant differences exist between the information interests of internal and external users. Outsiders focus on Core CSR issues, whilst insiders are relatively more likely to discuss Supplementary CSR. Internal users’ information dissemination appears biased towards favorable information, and consistent with a legitimacy-based use of social media. Event studies conducted on dates with significant exogenous CSR news confirm the findings of ‘parallel’ talking, limited dialogue and overall disengagement between firms and their stakeholders in social media.