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Call for papers

Corporate Communications
An International Journal

Special issue on

CSR and corporate communication – strategies, perspectives and insights on communicating the ethical positioning of organizations

Conference and PhD seminar

With the increasing institutionalization of CSR to corporations, corporate CSR communication is increasing in importance. CSR communication can be defined as a process of anticipating stakeholder expectations, articulation of CSR policy and the managing of different communication tools designed to provide true and transparent information about a company or a brand’s integration of its business operations, social and environmental concerns, and interactions with stakeholders. As such for many corporations, CSR communication has become a balancing act between the interests of the organization and its varied stakeholders.

Globally operating organizations are involved in a wide variety of projects to support the communities in which they are operating in various ways. Many of these organizations claim that sustainability and responsibility is included in their identity profile as a business principle. In our connected world however, NGOs, consumers and other stakeholders are becoming more informed and involved. Recent financial, environmental and societal incidents, crises and issues have shown the potentially damaging effects of attempting to lift the corporate reputation in adopting a CSR program, when actually this is perceived as green or white washing.

Reputations in our connected world are one of the main intangible assets of organizations. Hence, a sound, developed and carefully communicated CSR communication program can be supportive of the reputation of the organization. On the other hand, communicating CSR issues which are not based in actual identity and existent behavior might have negative influence on a corporation’s business and can endanger the legitimacy of its existence. In this context, decisions regarding the ethical positions of an organization and communication of its CSR often brings confrontation with numerous challenges.

This is the general theme of a unique event in the historical and vibrating city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in which we in cooperation with Corporate Communications: An International Journal, invite academic researchers and educators in the field of corporate communication and marketing, as well as practitioners seeking information and knowledge on CSR communications, to participate in dialogue and set trends.

This conference and subsequent journal special issue will consider both theoretical and empirical papers and extended abstracts for review, and ideas for session proposals will be welcomed. The objective of special sessions is to acquaint corporate communication and marketing educators and researchers with new perspectives, theories, and provocative ideas. In submitting special session proposals, the organizer and listed participants request that, if accepted, they all register and appear at the conference. A special seminar/section for PhD students will also be organized and take place prior to the conference.

Successful authors will present their papers at the conference and all competitive papers accepted for the conference will be reviewed for the Corporate Communications: An International journal (CCIJ). The conference will consider both full competitive and working papers. Targeted at academics and practitioners, the organizers hope the conference will provide a wonderful opportunity for academics and professionals to network, discuss, debate and exchange ideas and viewpoints.

Please note that all papers must conform to the format instructions and will be subjected to formal blind review. Authors will be notified of acceptance, rejection or suggested modifications as soon as the review processes, both for conference and journal special issue, have been completed. Acceptance of a paper means that the author (or one of the authors) will present the paper at the conference.

We are inviting scholars to submit their empirical and conceptual work on the broad theme of Ethical positioning of the organization, and the use of Communication in its broader essence to participate in this unique event in the historical city of Amsterdam. Relevant subtopics include, but are not restricted to, the following:

• Different aspects of ‘‘CSR washing’’.
• Cause related marketing.
• Internal and external aspects of CSR.
• CSR in social media context.
• Critical views on corporate marketing practices.
• Tools for communicating CSR.
• CSR communication best practices.
• International aspects of CSR communication.

Important Dates

2011

May 1 – Abstract submission deadline.
May 30 – Feedback on abstract, and selection for conference.
September 30 – Deadline for full papers.
October – Conference in Amsterdam.
November 30 – Feedback on full papers and selection for special issue.

2012

January 15 – Revised papers deadline.
February 1 – Final selection of papers for special issue.
May 15 – Publication date of CCIJ special issue on CSR communication.

Conference venue, dates and invited speakers to be announced.

Guest Editors

Anne-Ellerup Nielsen, Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Christa Thomson, Centre for Corporate Communication, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Ura Golob, Marketing Communication and Public Relations Department, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Klement Podnar, Marketing Communication and Public Relations, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Friederike Schultz, Department of Communication, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Wim Elving, ASCoR, Corporate Communication Department, ASCoR, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Research you can use

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