Abstract
Communication, as a discipline that generates a rich body of literature on CSR, has become a critical contributor to CSR knowledge in social science. However, limited research exists to understand how CSR knowledge is constructed and diffused in the discipline. This study thus intends to unpack the knowledge construction process of CSR research in the communication discipline from a network perspective. Invisible college was adopted as the conceptual framework. Article and theory/concept networks were constructed with 290 peer-reviewed articles from 61 communication journals between 1980 and 2018. Results showed that in the past four decades, CSR literature in communication has been growing and maturing, as evidenced by the increasing volume and diversity of theories and concepts applied. Furthermore, this body of literature tends to gravitate toward certain selected groups of theories and concepts, resulting in denser article networks over time. Our findings reflected a substantial influence of management (e.g., stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory) and psychological perspectives (e.g., attribution theory) on CSR research in communication. Additionally, the results showed that public relations concepts and theories (e.g., relationship management theory) have influenced CSR research across different communication subfields such as advertising and organization communication. The study expects the continuation of the plurality of voices as to how communication researchers will approach CSR and what specific topics may gain popularity in future research.
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Notes
These keywords primarily included corporate social responsibility, CSR, cause-related marketing, CRM, corporate social marketing, corporate philanthropy, community volunteering, socially responsible business practices, advocacy advertising, green advertising, and corporate sustainability.
A close examination of these 19 articles revealed that some dated back to the 1980s when CSR started to gain attention from communication practitioners and scholars. Those articles primarily focused on discussing the professional practice rather than the theoretical development of CSR (e.g., Spitzer 1981; Tilson and Vance 1985). Because of the practical orientation of these early articles, no theory or concept was substantively cited. In addition, some other studies, despite being published during the 2000s or 2010s, were presented in the form of “Research in Brief” or “Short Communication.” They did not include a comprehensive review of literature or elaboration on theoretical frameworks, and thus did not substantively cite any concept or theory as part of their conceptual foundations (e.g., Greer & Moreland 2007; Kovacs 2006; Takano 2013).
Although the construct of CSR was used as one of the keywords when retrieving journal articles, the authors included the construct in the in-text citation level network analysis for several reasons. First, the inclusion of CSR allowed us to examine structural information about how theories and concepts were connected surrounding the CSR, which was a primary construct of the study. Second, the study’s purpose was not to demonstrate the frequency of theories or concepts used in CSR-related articles. Unlike the meta-literature review or qualitative review approaches, this bibliometric network study focused on unveiling the invisible college based on the interconnectedness of theories and concepts that were relevant to the area of inquiry. Therefore, the inclusion of CSR as a central concept in the analysis was inherent to demonstrate the network structure. It is noteworthy that to some extent, the study findings were a direct result of including CSR as a search keyword and as a node/edge in the two co-citation networks.
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Appendix
Appendix
ID | Journal names | Number of articles |
---|---|---|
1 | Public Relations Review | 83 |
2 | Journal of Advertising | 19 |
3 | Management Communication Quarterly | 16 |
4 | Environmental Communication–A Journal of Nature and Culture | 12 |
5 | Journal of Advertising Research | 12 |
6 | Journal of Public Relations Research | 12 |
7 | International Journal of Advertising | 11 |
8 | Journal of Communication Management | 9 |
9 | Asian Journal of Communication | 8 |
10 | Journal of Applied Communication Research | 8 |
11 | Journal of Mass Media Ethics | 6 |
12 | Communicatio–South African Journal for Communication Theory and Research | 5 |
13 | Discourse & Communication | 5 |
14 | International Journal of Business Communication | 4 |
15 | International Journal of Communication | 4 |
16 | Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly | 4 |
17 | Tripodos | 4 |
18 | Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal | 3 |
19 | Communication & Society–Spain | 3 |
20 | Communication Research | 3 |
21 | IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication | 3 |
22 | Journal of Business and Technical Communication | 3 |
23 | Jurnal Komunikasi–Malaysian Journal of Communication | 3 |
24 | Public Relations Inquiry | 3 |
25 | Business and Professional Communication Quarterly | 2 |
26 | Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies | 2 |
27 | Communication Research Reports | 2 |
28 | Communitas | 2 |
29 | Discourse & Society | 2 |
30 | Journal of Communication | 2 |
31 | Journal of Health Communication | 2 |
32 | Mass Communication and Society | 2 |
33 | Media Culture & Society | 2 |
34 | Profesional De La Informacion | 2 |
35 | Communication & Sport | 1 |
36 | Communication Monographs | 1 |
37 | Communication Research and Practice | 1 |
38 | Communication Today | 1 |
39 | Communications–European Journal of Communication Research | 1 |
40 | Comunicar | 1 |
41 | Convergence–The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies | 1 |
42 | Critical Discourse Studies | 1 |
43 | Health Communication | 1 |
44 | International Journal of Marketing Communication and New Media | 1 |
45 | International Journal of Sport Communication | 1 |
46 | Javnost–The Public | 1 |
47 | Journal of Argumentation in Context | 1 |
48 | Journal of Children and Media | 1 |
49 | Journalism Quarterly | 1 |
50 | Kome–An International Journal of Pure Communication Inquiry | 1 |
51 | New Media & Society | 1 |
52 | Nordicom Review | 1 |
53 | Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies | 1 |
54 | Political Communication | 1 |
55 | Popular Communication | 1 |
56 | Revista De Comunicacion De La Seeci | 1 |
57 | Social Media + Society | 1 |
58 | Technical Communication | 1 |
59 | Telecommunications Policy | 1 |
60 | Television & New Media | 1 |
61 | Vivat Academia | 1 |
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Ji, Y.G., Tao, W. & Rim, H. Theoretical Insights of CSR Research in Communication from 1980 to 2018: A Bibliometric Network Analysis. J Bus Ethics 177, 327–349 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04748-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04748-w