Conference Agenda

Effective internal communication (IC) increases employees productivity, organisations that pay attention to IC achieve better results, team members are more loyal and more involved in the organization's activities (Thompson, 2002; Madlock, 2008; Lee, 2022). Hybrid work, when employees can work from home or from office’ workplace or can change these forms of work during the week, is growing in popularity. This new work forms have been boosted by the global COVID-19 pandemic (Ceurstemont, 2021; Eliyahu, 2022) and require changing IC processes. Although there are studies analysing IC success factors in private sector during the new hybrid work era (Bansal, King, 2022; Wang et al, 2021), there is only a few analysis on IC challenges and possible solutions in the public sector (Jacobsen, Salomonsen, 2021; Leijerholt, 2022). Surveys of employees in the ministries before and during the pandemic revealed that there is a low job satisfaction in public sector (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Lithuania, 2021) and one of the reasons is a lack of effective IC. The conducted study is one of the first qualitative case studies of its kind, analyzing the challenges arising during the hybrid work era in public sector organization - the ministry, and revealing how these challenges are being solved at state-owned organisation with the strict rules, bureaucratic procedures; which IC channels work. The study fill the gap of public sector’s IC research in the new reality as well as suggest effective ways of communication for other public sector organisations.

Public sector holds great responsibility to create public policies and services that create value for all citizens. In ‘wellbeing public policy, the aim is to create policies and services that improves citizens wellbeing. To do this effectively, understanding what citizens values is essential. However, bringing citizens’ subjective wellbeing into the equation has been noted as a major challenge in the process. To solve this, strategic organizational listening holds a great potential in discerning this another side of a coin. The results of the single case study demonstrates how public organizations can use organizational listening as a tool to create better wellbeing services and public policies and also to become more citizen-centric. By doing so, this paper demonstrates the importance of strategic communication in organizations. Furthermore, the paper also illustrates how citizens wellbeing and public wellbeing policy creation can be approached by understanding of what constitutes good everyday life from citizen perspective. Thus, this paper provides example of how organizational listening can be approached and conducted effectively within this context. This research is under process and main data will be collected during the April 2023.

Purpose: This study aims to understand which argumentation strategies different organisations use in lobbying, and how they might be predictable. It analyses the communicative-strategic influence game of lobbying in a case study from the UK where Big Tech companies are lobbying against proposed regulations to prevent online harms.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative content analysis of N = 79 submissions in response to the UK Online Safety Bill from an array of public interest, identity, or business groups including Big Tech was conducted. It captured both in- and deductively the argumentation strategies put forward in response to the regulatory proposal.

Findings: Early findings suggest Big Tech use argumentation strategies that emphasise negative social-economic impacts of proposed regulations. The strategic construction of these arguments appears to appeal to policymakers’ conceptions of the public interest.

Contribution/originality: The study contributes to advancing the argumentation perspective on strategic communication, situating lobbying within public relations, and developing a lobbying argumentation playbook eventually applicable beyond the studied context. For practice, it aids less resourceful lobbying organisations to better prepare their own argumentation in the face of more powerful opponents.

Purpose of research: Particularly in the last few years employees suffer a lot so that organizations are looking for suitable forms of appreciation for their continued engagement. This study aims to clarify the role of internal communication in fostering an appreciative work environment by asking what employees expect in terms of appreciation and what are authentic forms to meet their expectations.

Theoretical approach and background: Based on social exchange assumptions and resource theory, this study strengthens the findings of appreciation as a prototypical socioemotional resource.

Research questions: (1) What do employees expect to be appreciated for? (2) How should employee appreciation look like so that employees feel that the effort is authentic? (3) What role does internal communication seize in promoting an appreciative work environment?

Method: Three focus groups with employees without management responsibility working in large Austrian organizations were conducted in January 2023.

Initial findings: The screening of the transcripts shows different reasons for which employees expect appreciation. Organizations have different ways of valuing employees - internal communication has an enabling function, is a strategic actor in this sense and should have a role model function.

Purpose

The present paper aims to test an integrative model of employee activism including several situational and cross-situational promoting factors. The study draws upon individuals’ perceptions and communicative responses regarding a problematic situation in their company, using the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS), and further incorporates the concepts of negative affect, organizational commitment, and symmetrical internal communication.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey among full- and part-time employees (N=500) from large-sized corporations in the U.S. was launched in mid-March via Qualtrics and is still ongoing. A hypothetical scenario related to sexual harassment at respondents’ workplaces was specially designed for the study and is used as a trigger. Data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

As the data collection is not yet completed, no results are available at the time of the submission.

Originality

This study explicitly differentiates between internally and externally directed employee activism and will, thus, enhance knowledge about what drives these specific types of activism and which measures companies can take to reduce possible risks. Results will advance activism research in public relations and extend the utility of the STOPS in an organizational context.

Purpose – This paper explores communicative coworkership on internal social media (ISM) in a Danish hospital with the aim of showing how coworkership may contribute to creating responsible communication in a period of crisis.

Design/methodology/approach – The study conducts a qualitative netnographic analysis of 142 posts and 534 comments shared by employees on the hospital’s ISM. Furthermore, a discourse analytical approach has been applied to reveal how communicative coworkership is enacted.

Findings – The study demonstrates how employees enact communicative coworkership on a micro-level on ISM, and how this enactment plays an important role in creating responsible communication.

Practical implications – Creating responsible communication could be a matter of providing an ISM communication arena where employees enact communicative coworkership and share thoughts, frustrations and knowledge with each other during a crisis, and where management listens and responds to the concerns of the employees.

Originality – This study adds to the emerging research on communicative coworkership by showing, how it is unfolded on a micro level on ISM between employees who find themselves in the middle of a crisis.

Keywords - Communicative coworkership, internal listening, employee voice, internal social media, internal crisis communication, responsible communication

Paper type Case study

The idea of metamorphosis is not new. It was rather common in the ancient and medieval iconography to operate with a plenty of hybrid identities: from Centaurus to mermaids, from Sphynx to Gorgonas. Even more common were total transformations: gods like Jupiter that has versatile identity, appearing as bull, eagle, swan, cocoo, or even as a golden rain - in order cheat the vigilance of his wife, watching his love affairs. In the world of the immortals, metamorphosis were common too: Narcissus[1] transformed in dandelion, Daphne into a laurel, Io into a cow, Atlas into a mountain, Arachne into a spider, Orion into a constellation etc.. Within “ecosystem” of the ancient world, vegetal, mineral or animal identities were conceived either as a punishment or a reward.

The current communication environment shaped by virtual avatars and metaverse seem to reopen the interest in the use of hybrid identities, especially related to green communication issues. Metaverse becomes a playground for symbiotic, non-human identities. XR platforms like “Forager” or “Tree” or “Symbiosis”, aiming to reconnect people with nature create “memories for people where they can embody an element of nature”: ex: a mushroom, a tree or other symbiotic life.

Based on the conceptual frame offered by Felix Guattari’s “Ecosophy”: that urges an extension of environmental ecology to a social and mental one, our research focuses on the disruptions provided by the currently reconfigured rel[AI]tionships with nature, from a nonhuman-centric position.

[1] https://www.thecollector.com/greek-mythology-stories-transformation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamorphoses_in_Greek_mythology

In 2021, two issues that dominated headlines and management discussions were the extension of remote work resulting from the ongoing pandemic and the explosive hype of the metaverse. What if these issues were to collide? As industries and agencies grapple with engaging their remote workforce during the “great resignation/reset,” the go-to platforms for meetings and gatherings represented the “Hollywood Squares” video conference format, such as Zoom. New issues of equity have emerged in this format for numerous reasons. However, in the metaverse, opportunities to build identity, experiences, and environments and to build engaged communities are limited only by our imagination. This study explores the practical challenges of creating safe and productive environments and experiences when considering virtual worlds as workspaces and the digital identities created there.

Building on prior research, a mixed method approach will be utilized to ascertain manager expectations about participant identity, the student or trainee and employee experience in the platform, and the role identity plays in that experience. Study participants will be recruited from Virbela, Meta Horizon Workrooms, Accenture, and Second Life, four of the most highly developed and populated virtual environments used for work.

We expect the findings to reveal different workplace experiences and that customizable avatar identities will influence experience, productivity, and engagement. Anticipated outcomes will be a best practice guide for organizations, educators, and trainers hoping to use the metaverse for future work environments in a way that also breaks down contemporary challenges of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.

In a time of unrest and uncertainty, society turns to traditional and social media and their social media networks for answers and comfort. Instead, what researchers have found is the spread of dis- and misinformation, distortion and fake news (Musi et.al, 2023) often propelled and exacerbated by citizen and traditional media outlets. With the development, implementation, and use of social media the spread of both information and dis-information occurs more rapidly than ever before. However, what happens when there are issues of power related to these new frames and narratives, where sharing and promoting popular narratives of lower quality, focusing on decreased diversity of sources and unconfirmed information. Is this due to the nature of the community and industry, or is it part of a strategic move to promote one side and silence the others that are contradictory to the promoted side? This conceptual piece will explore what is referred to as strategic social media polarisation (SSSP), and how it has impacted the strategic communication profession both at the academic and practical level. Further recommendations and discussions on best practices to combat strategic social media polarisation will also be discussed.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used by businesses in their business operations and at many different levels. However, while AI offers new opportunities to businesses, it also comes with a number of ethical issues that often companies are unprepared to manage. These ethical issues often are perceived as reputational violations by stakeholders, evolving into corporate crises. By using a unique database of the AI failures and related litigations, in this paper, we explored the types of reputational issues emerging from the misuse of AI and the communication strategies adopted by businesses in response to these crises. The paper contributes to the nascent field of study of AI ethics, connecting AI ethics to crisis communication.

Issue communication is a key responsibility for many strategic communication professionals nowadays. Yet, little is known about current issue communication practices and the effectiveness of issue communication strategies. In this study, we therefore first explore issue communication perceptions and practices by communication professionals in two focus groups. After that, we carry out an experimental study which assesses the consequences of different types of issue communication for organizational reputation and legitimacy. Our preliminary findings allow us to propose an enumerative, communication-oriented definition of ‘issues’. Further analysis of the focus groups results will yield insights in current issue monitoring and issue communication strategies used by professionals. The results of the experiment will provide strategic communication professionals with insights into the effectiveness of three different issue communication strategies (defensive, accommodative, and adaptive), which can inform and enhance communication practice.

This paper contributes to studying the nuclear energy media discourses from the standpoint of sustainability. The paper uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to study the discourse strategies (nomination, predication and argumentation). It is expected that the media's attitude towards nuclear energy as sustainable energy is more favourable now. As a result of the analysis, different actors' perceptions will be revealed, which would be helpful in formulating energy policies.

Structured Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates the use of indirect/outside lobbying strategies by three Finnish trade associations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically it aims at finding out what issues were advocated by Finnish trade associations in news media and what media lobbying strategies were used the most.

Design/methodology/approach: A content analysis approach is used to examine how trade associations have lobbied in the public media arena. Data was collected in early 2023 and comprises over two years of news articles published in the Finnish four largest news media and covering the Finnish trade associations in focus in this study.

Findings: The results will show what issues were the most advocated by the Finnish trade associations and what media lobbying strategies were used respectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results will offer insights on the trade associations’ lobbying role during a critical situation.

Research limitations/implications: The study will offer theoretical and managerial reflections for advancing our knowledge of public affairs roles in society during critical situations.

Practical implications: The study contributes to research on lobbying and public affairs in the context of critical situations.

Originality/value: This study is one of the first studies examining the perspective of trade unions in media lobbying strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results update our knowledge and understanding of the methods and challenges of outside lobbying during a prolonged crisis.

Keywords: advocacy, content analysis, COVID-19 pandemic, Finland, lobbying, media strategies, news media, trade associations

Purpose: Given the expanding role of Big Tech in society and their inextricable link to news media, concerns about the role of media in holding corporate power to account have been raised. This study explores the relationship between the media and Big Tech corporations in building the agenda on Big Tech’s accountability from a perceptual lens.

Design: Based on semi-structured interviews with journalists (n=15) and corporate public affairs practitioners from Big Tech (n=15), we identify professional role perceptions and their perceived relationship.

Findings: Both actor groups distance themselves from the responsibility to hold Big Tech accountable and understand a mere facilitative role towards legislative accountability. In midst of a “techlash”, journalists show a strong public service orientation as watchdogs, and reformulate their normative mandate to monitor corporate power in accordance with the ideals of detachment and balance. Public affairs practitioners perceive a strong mandate for Big Tech to participate in public discourse, but avoid public accountability. The interaction of both actor groups is shaped by a defensive corporate positioning towards the media, and is limited to the supranational European space, where the negotiation of Big Tech’s accountability is pushed behind closed doors. While both actor groups emphasize a strong societal position of the media, technological complexities leave public affairs practitioners sovereign of information and leave journalists in a subservient position relative to Big Tech.

Originality: We uniquely approach both actor groups in tandem and discuss implications for the factual and normative role of both actor groups in our digital democracies.

Purpose: Legitimacy and reputation are crucial resources for public sector organizations (PSOs), particularly in times of mediatization and polarization. News and social media serve as platforms for the construction of both concepts and inform the public about organizations and their attributes. Although ample studies focus on public evaluations of for-profit organizations, little is known of the factors that explain reputation and legitimacy of PSOs in the eyes of citizens, and to what extent personal and media-related factors play a role.

Design/methodology: In this study, we therefore assess the antecedents of public sector reputation and legitimacy by means of a cross-sectional survey among a representative sample of Dutch citizens (N = 1,267) and analyze the results in a structural equation model.

Findings: Our preliminary findings indicate that trust in the organization is an important predictor of the organization’s reputation, and, to a lesser extent, media-related factors. Most strikingly, we found a strong positive relationship between trust and reputation, and reputation on legitimacy (rather than the other way around).

Contribution/originality: The study shows what factors influence the legitimacy of a PSO; importantly, it establishes that reputation judgments precede legitimacy perceptions of organizations. This has important implications for public relations practice: The preliminary findings suggest that trying to establish high levels of trust in the organization could partly replace the often-scrutinized practices of public sector reputation management.

Purpose – This paper aims to determine a normative evaluation of companies’ web-based external CSR communication on halal products for ethnic-religious minorities.

Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis of companies’ websites, online shops, Facebook sites and CSR reports was applied to answer five specific research questions.

Findings – Findings reveal a reluctance of companies to communicate about halal offerings. Of the 61 companies analyzed, 18 percent (4 AUT, 7 GER) communicate publicly that they offer halal products. The analysis of the 11 cases that communicate about their halal offerings shows that only few live up to the criteria of transparency and accountability; open discourse with users on Facebook is almost non-existent as social media communication is mainly defensive and rarely proactive.

Research limitations/implications – More research is needed to discuss the role of dialogue, especially on social media. This research indicates that initiating controversial and possibly hateful debates may cause more harm than good.

Practical implications – As practical or social implications we can derive that if companies want to take their role as quasi-political actors seriously, they should be more transparent and accountable with respect to their halal offerings. Yet, whether dialogue should take place on social media, where polarization and harmful speech is prevalent, is debatable. Supporting the Muslim community by actions, that is by offering halal products and engaging with non-business stakeholders like NGOs to foster inclusion is central.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the existing literature on a (political) CSR and moral legitimacy by examining ethical, strategic communication.

This article addresses the role of the corporate purpose in strategic financial communication from the perspective of investor relations professionals (IRPs) with particular reference to their sensemaking process. Strategic financial communication increasingly includes intangible assets that contribute to the value of the company. At the same time, more and more companies are publishing corporate purpose statements that are intended to express their relevance. The article acknowledges those trends and aims to assess how IRPs make sense of the corporate purpose and how they strategically use it in investor relations communication. Eleven qualitative in-depth interviews with IRPs from German DAX40 companies were conducted and analyzed with an abductive method. The results show that IRPs focus on cues when making sense of the corporate purpose, especially links to intangible assets and organizational values can be identified. The corporate purpose is only partially used in communication with the financial public.

Deepened reflection on the corporate purpose, fueled by discussions and cues, supports the sensemaking process of IRPs which can be guided by the organization. The role of the corporate purpose turned out to be complex with – although not always explored – the potential to be used as a descriptive and normative tool in strategic financial communication.

With earlier research revealing the advantages of heterophily and diversity in working teams, American scholars, theories, and universities still dominate the field of public relations (PR). That is surprising since there is growing awareness of the importance of a more diverse, equal, and inclusive research community that enables multiple voices to be heard.

This study explores the level of homophily/heterophily in co-authorships in PR scholarship. By using Social Network Analysis (SNA) as a primary research tool, this research analyzes co-authorship and relations between researchers, draws attention to research communities, and attempts to understand the status of international academic collaboration and how far it has changed in the past decade.

The data used for this study includes 575 articles about social media-related PR in nine leading PR journals over a decade (2010-2020). Using three levels of dynamic network analysis (Macro, Mezzo, and Micro), the findings reveal a very homophilic field, with most co-authored studies from American scholars at American universities and almost no co-authorship with non-American researchers. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

In a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world marked by pandemics, wars, political polarization, teeming social movements, and fractured and contentious online spaces, organizations must deal with a growing litany of tensions, contradictions, dialectics and paradoxes as they build and maintain relationships with their diverse publics and stakeholders. This essay argues that applying dualistic or monochromatic lenses, with their either-or focus (e.g., either open or closed; either satisfied or dissatisfied), to examine a complex construct such as relationships between organizations and publics in tension-filled contexts is reductionist in nature. Instead, a dialectical tension-based approach to relational theorizing can help to unearth a multitude of tensions and offer tension management strategies as organizations and publics engage in relationship building in VUCA contexts of practice. Accordingly, situated within relational theorizing in public relations, Bakhtinian notions of dialogism, relational dialectical theory from interpersonal communication, and literature on tension management strategies from organizational communication, this essay proposes a dialectical tension-based approach to relational theorizing in public relations research. The proposed approach enriches relationship theorizing in public relations with a dialectical tension-based lens steeped in dialogism, thus richly nuancing the study of organization-public relationship building. Further, a dialectical tension-based lens can deepen the insights of public relations practitioners who build organizational relationships, and encourage them to embrace an agile, dynamic, paradoxical mindset when managing organizational relationships in a VUCA world.

Purpose: Over recent years, the acronym VUCA has gained traction in strategic communication (SC) as an umbrella term that summarizes recurrent challenges (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) of digital communication environments. These challenges have given rise to new propositions on positioning, analysis, organization, and process design in SC. Still, an integrated reflection on how the VUCA dimensions facilitate a deeper understanding of specific digitalization challenges and how to handle these challenges in a sustainable way is lacking. This article aims to explore and substantiate the descriptive (how) and prescriptive (how to) potential of VUCA for SC under conditions of digitalization.

Design: We first provide a systematic discussion of the four VUCA dimensions based on general strategy literature. While their descriptive value is undisputed, prescriptive advice on how to respond to these challenges is contradictory. We substantiate this observation in a second, empirical step based on interviews with strategic communicators on the agency and corporate level.

Findings: Our findings reveal that VUCA indeed facilitates a systematical mapping of digitalization challenges consistently identified by professionals. Proposed strategic responses, however, are again contradictory.

Originality: Hence, we propose the VUCA radar as an integrated framework. It provides (a) a systematical overview of digitalization challenges to SC on the industry and practice level; (b) based on paradox literature, prescriptive advice to balance contradictory strategic responses as most sustainable way to engage with digitalization challenges on the level of positioning, analysis, organization, and process design.

This paper explores the role of events as a strategy for political influence. Events have long been considered a viable strategy to obtain both media and political attention. However, there is limited knowledge of the strategic significance of events for interest groups, or how they are used in practice. Drawing from rich ethnographic data of different interest groups in the Norwegian health field, this study finds that events have become increasingly important for realizing organizational objectives, and that events are essentially multimodal, applied to gain what is labelled meso-level agenda setting. Essentially, events span the traditional divide between inside and outside lobbyism, constituting a middle stage lobbyism. By combining sociological theory with the literature on lobbyism, the study contributes to the field of strategic communication by expanding existing theoretical concepts of lobbyism as a practice.

Several studies have pointed out that most public affairs practitioners and lobbyists package their arguments in public interest rhetoric. That is, they try to show how their own proposals or proposals they are working against are somehow conducive or detrimental to reaching widely shared social goals. Still, we have limited knowledge about how these practitioners develop public interest arguments and how politicians evaluate these. This paper untangles this communicative process by using the rhetorical theory of topos in combination with a typology of the public interest adapted to liberal democracies. The data consist of 30 interviews with lobbyists and politicians working within the field of energy and the environment in Norway. The results shows that lobbyists are acutely aware of what kind of arguments politicians are willing to accept and that they adapt to the needs of the latter by combining several public interest arguments at the same time. This strategy is effective because politicians are genuinely uncertain about how they should balance different public interest claims against each other and experience that in a pluralistic society there are no fixed solutions to social problems. Thus, this has major implications for how we should understand the influence of lobbyists and how PR-practitioners can help further the public interest

Purpose – This study links the notion of responsible strategic communication to the field of lobbying at EU level. It provides empirical findings on the relevance of informal communication in EU lobbying. Focusing on functional expectations tied to informality from an actors’ perspective, this study not only includes lobbyists and their attempts to gain influence on political actors (inside lobbying) but also attempts of lobbyists to control journalistic output (outside lobbying) through informal relationships and exchange mechanisms. The results are discussed with a view to further inform the concept of ‘responsible lobbying’.

Design/methodology/approach – Building on a theoretical background from political communication, corporate political activity, informal politics and interest group research, I report findings from a qualitative content analysis of 43 semi-structured interviews with actors from lobbyism (n=27) and journalism (n=16) at EU level focussing on one policy case.

Findings –The study shows motives for establishing and using informal communication for both actor groups. Functional expectations relate to a range of tasks at the core of the respective groups’ day-to-day activities: monitoring political developments, explaining and pre-negotiating policy options in protected, confidential spas for lobbyists and getting relevant sectoral background information and ‘technical coaching’ on complex legislative dossiers for journalists.

Originality/value – Studies on lobbying have been rarely conducted from a strategic communications perspective, especially focusing the EU level. Albeit widely accepted, the understanding of lobbying as a below-the-radar and informal activity has not been scrutinized by academic research.

Keywords – EU lobbying, Responsible lobbying, Informal political communication, Strategic communication, EU interest groups

Purpose: As a subfield of PR, Investor Relations (IR) evolved into a strategic communication function that focuses on the relationship between a company and its financial community and is jointly responsible for its success. Despite this significance, there is a lack of research. However, especially in the age of digitalization and an era characterized by changes and instabilities, a theoretical framework seems indispensable. Thus, the paper tries to fill this gap by proposing a first theoretical approach.

Theoretical approach and background: The paper reveals the central challenges, aims, and needs of IR arising from current challenges. Thus, it highlights the need for a specific theory in IR and ventures the first step in this direction.

Findings: By discussing the change and growth of IR, the paper depicts the need for IR-own theories. It shows the undeniable roots of IR in PR by matching common goals of IR and PR with existing PR theories. Consequently, it develops a communication theory of finance.

Originality and innovation: IR received little attention from communication science and PR so far. PR claims IR to be part of the discipline, and communication is a focal point of IR. However, there are no own theories regarding IR in communication and public relations research. This paper builds on the PR roots of IR and outlines the tenets and components of a first IR-specific theory.

This paper is a case study of an energy company’s strategic communication and efforts to contribute to the transformation into a green(er) energy provider. The attempt is to describe and reflect on the demands placed on contemporary corporations to adapt to sustainability goals and how strategic communication is used for this mission. The study will present empirical findings that illustrates the potential value of stakeholder management and the role of strategic communication for preserving their legitimacy.

To identify which legitimacy strategies the company applies, the annual reports from 2015 to 2022 are analyzed through critical discourse analysis. The shifts in sustainable discourses that take place from one annual report to the next are highlighted. The analysis shows how Equinor is communicating paradoxes, disclaims any liability for the current state of climate changes, frequently uses modality (forward-looking statements) and present an intertwining of a performance-focused and sustainable development discourse. Overall, the analysis shows that to defend its legitimacy, Equinor strategically practices ambiguity to counterbalance the paradoxical tensions between the competing business logics.

Purpose – Dynamic changes in organizations and their environment offer multiple opportunities for communication leaders—if they are able to anticipate where their professional advice and services might be needed. However, gaining such insights early on is by no means easy. Trend studies offered by industry media, associations, and agencies tend to uncover what is already known in the field, while academic research is mainly concerned with deepening knowledge on current and past practices through surveys, interview studies, content analyses, or experiments. This paper shows how this gap can be closed by introducing a novel approach to identifying trends in communication management.

Design – The proposed methodological approach combines a systematic analysis of developments in society, management, and technology with the assessments of researchers from different disciplines and communication leaders.

Findings – The approach has been applied in three consecutive trend research projects to date. A total of 15 trends for communication management have been identified. This paper outlines Scarcity Management, Unimagination, and Augmented Workflows are outlined as exemplary trends for 2023/24.

Originality – This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in communication management and public relations by stimulating a debate about the need, methodologies, and limitations of trend studies in our field. It allows scholars and practitioners to take a fresh look at potential concepts and topics for knowledge transfer and continuous education.

Key words – Communication management, Futures research, Knowledge transfer, Public relations, Trends, Trend Research

Paper type – Full-length research paper

Purpose: In society in general, but also specifically in the Public Relations discipline, sustainability is a topic of ongoing discussion. Some approaches focus on how PR can be a force of transformation to sustainability. Those approaches stress the importance of PR taking a broader focus than it is usually done in the discipline. With this research, we want to evaluate what characterizes sustainable PR and collect innovative and important ideas and actions.
Theoretical approach: We build up on work on the transformative potential of PR and discuss different theoretical and practical approaches on how PR makes an impact on society’s sustainability. We have developed a framework combining the three categories: triple bottom line, target dimensions and stakeholders, which we will use to classify different approaches to reaching sustainability in PR.
Research Question: The research is guided by the question: What characterizes sustainable PR?

Methodology: To answer the research question, we will conduct qualitative interviews with experts in the field of sustainability in PR (e. g. scientists, consultants, communication managers and activists). About a dozen interviews are planned for being conducted in May/June 2023.

Implications: Our framework shall work as a map to gain orientation about possible approaches to reaching sustainability in and by PR and by that function as a starting point for professionals and academics in discussing and targeting sustainability.

Originality: Our framework offers valuable implications for further theoretical and empirical analysis of sustainable PR and provides practitioners specific advice on how to implement sustainable PR.

Abstract: Adhering to our students’ needs to meet complex challenges in the future, many have argued for the power of implementing transdisciplinary educational initiatives and a project-oriented, problem-based learning pedagogy. This is particularly relevant in strategic communication, emerging at the intersection of several pre-existing fields, while surprisingly neglecting the pedagogical implications of this transdisciplinary heritage. But pedagogical research also describes the challenges when heterogenic teaching teams are mixed, and with that blending of cultural academic and pedagogical approaches often experiencing clashes. This paper points to a hitherto underestimated communicative dynamic of transdisciplinary courses, identified through the author’s pedagogical experience from a course taught in strategic communication. While finding none of the previously emphasised challenges, the course instead struggled with communicating the course’s transdisciplinary core. This created a pedagogical challenge for both the teachers in planning the course and upon communication with its students, necessitating students to independently connect the dots between the introduced disciplinary perspectives. Thus, the pedagogy shifted from a transmission view to a co-constructed view as the course’s core crystalised through communicative exchanges between teachers and students. The discussions were anchored in relation to a running course project (aligning with project-oriented, problem-based learning) that facilitated communicative exchanges on an internal (teacher-teacher), external (student-student), and intercommunicative (teacher-student) level. The results point to a broader venture, applying theoretical frameworks from strategic communication to understand and develop the practice of teaching and learning in higher education.

Bearing in mind the amount of complex situations that are currently part of the global agenda setting (Ukraine war, challenges of climate change, revolutions in Iran, etc.), it seems more important than ever that the governments and supranational governance institutions have strong and credible spokespersons to endure and explain to public opinion what is happening. In fact, this is their responsibility. But paradoxically, the universities seem to be not offering large spokesperson training in their official program studies.

For this reason, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the content related to spokesperson training in the official studies offer by the top 100 universities with communication studies, according to Times Higher Education (THE) ranking. The research would aim to understand the current state of spokesperson training in communication studies and to identify areas for improvement. The methodology of this study will be mixed since it will combine quantitative and qualitative methods such as the content analysis of the curricula of official programs and interviews with professional spokespersons.

Tracing the training given by the universities, we have only tracked down 19 universities in the world that, according to their official program studies, offer spokesperson training. There is no university that offers an entire official program dedicated to training spokespeople. However, the subjects offer by the 19 universities were on topics related to this training such as communication skills, among others. Universities have a gap in this type of training that they will have to fulfil in the coming years.

This paper will present findings from a systematic literature review on public relations education in the context of feminisation and professionalisation of Public Relations. All public relations, communications and media journals were searched and a total of 196 articles were identified for the analysis capturing a period from 1949 until 2021. The criteria for inclusion of articles to the analysis was that the article discusses either of the three topics, public relations education, professionalism and feminisation. The articles were analysed using categories such as the location of the study, theory and methods used, highlights and main findings, practical application, etc. Thematic analysis has been conducted to capture trends per decade and an overall thematic analysis was conducted at the end. The analysis is currently ongoing, but initial findings show that the majority of works have been published in the United States and the UK with American scholars focusing on professionalising the field by analysing the curriculum and PR ethics whereas debates in the UK remain within the area of professionalism. The article is analysed from a British perspective where there is a demise of PR education with undergraduate programmes across the country shutting down, thus an aim of the article was to capture trends in the literature but also learn what has been done historically, how the debate on PR education evolved and what can be learnt for the future and potential re-establishing of PR education in the UK.

The paper aims to establish a trust-building model for enhancing the perception of trustworthiness among emerging brands and startups in Brazil, where trust levels are at an unprecedented low. The importance of building consumer trust is emphasized, particularly for new businesses lacking an established reputation. The proposed model incorporates cognitive and affective aspects to overcome this challenge. Communication for perceived trust in public relations is guided by formative measurements rooted in brand identity and externalized through brand image, design, and communication across all customer experience touchpoints. The trust-building model proposed by this study provides startups and emerging brands with insights on establishing trust and cultivating a positive reputation with customers through strategic communication efforts, ultimately leading to a perception of trustworthiness among consumers.

This paper introduces a narrative approach to stakeholder analysis. We argue that its introduction is needed because of the post-truth era we live in, where basic assumptions, sources, and facts differ across stakeholders. Furthermore, we argue that existing frameworks have overlooked the discursive processes of stakeholder systems and the benefits that their observation can provide in analysing them. To support our claims, we provide both conceptual and empirical evidence, drawing on the 5G case. Specifically, we illustrate how narrative analysis can facilitate three fundamental steps of stakeholder analysis: stakeholder identification, understanding, and prioritization. A narrative approach enhances stakeholder identification by allowing them to emerge organically from the narratives surrounding the issue. It also enables a better understanding of stakeholder, by bringing forward their sentiments and goals. Lastly, it also helps prioritization of stakeholders by illustrating existing relationships in the system and characterizing them. Our paper concludes with a discussion of how a narrative approach to stakeholder analysis responds to open questions in the literature, including the need for a systemic approach to stakeholder analysis, the reintroduction of the public sphere concept in stakeholder thinking, and a framework for approaching stakeholders in the post-truth era.

Co-orientation is a communicative process by which people align their actions toward a certain level of agreement in order to coordinate collective activities. Successful co-orienting links groups of people representing different interests, perspectives and worldviews.

In the case of a multi-stakeholder network of heterogeneous actors the challenge arises how one achieves co-orientation instead of working against each other, given the diverse perspectives and interests. The case at hand is a multi-stakeholder partnership of agricultural entrepreneurs with conflicting views on how to proceed in transforming the food system toward sustainability.

A frame analysis is applied to the transcripts of the conversations, as well as an interaction analysis, in order to explore whether co-orientation occurred or not and if so, how this communicative process evolved in the multi-stakeholder meetings.

In this paper the notion of ‘communicative co-orientation’ is introduced, by which this study fills a gap in the literature. It enriches co-orientation theory by emphasizing the dynamic character of co-orientation and by discerning the interactional strategies (on the micro level of interpersonal communication) that change the co-orientation state.

Furthermore, this study places the concept of co-orientation in the 21^st-century context of grand challenges and inter-organizational collaborations. Developing sustainable solutions to complex problems such as climate change involves re-negotiations of existing ways of working and settled institutions.

The research contributes to scientific knowledge on communicative co-orientation and interactional framing dynamics, but as well the study aspires to empower communication practitioners who are called to reinvent their profession in the face of grand challenges.

Objective: This study investigates the impact of brand management culture on employee behaviors. Method: Using a survey of 400 full-time employees in Korea, this study examines how and through what processes brand management culture affects employee behaviors. Results: The results demonstrate that brand management culture significantly impacts brand identification and perceived organizational performance. More importantly, the results reveal the mediating roles of brand identification and perceived organizational performance in the relationships between brand management culture and employee behaviors. Conclusion: This study provides theoretical and practical implications for internal branding management by illustrating that a culture centered on an organization's brand can positively influence employee behaviors, highlighting the importance of an organization’s internal branding activities.

Purpose: Because the European labor market is currently very tight, employees are in a strong power position, because they are difficult to replace. Perceived irreplaceability can potentially threaten employee loyalty and sportsmanship. However, there has been little to no prior research on the meaning of irreplaceability for employees. This study aims to investigate the employees’ awareness of their power position and the relationships between these beliefs and organizational loyalty, sportsmanship, and job crafting efforts. In addition, we explored whether organizational commitment and fear of unemployment can explain these relationships.

Method: We used an online survey with a convenience sample among Dutch employees to study the proposed relationships.

Findings: Employees are generally aware that they are hard to replace. However, contrary to our expectations, irreplaceability was related to more loyalty. This finding can be partly explained by job crafting: because of their increased -presumably successful- job crafting efforts, employees are likely to remain more loyal.

Originality: This study suggests that, rather than a threat to loyalty, perceived irreplaceability can motivate employees to seek opportunities for job crafting, which may increase their loyalty. Perceived irreplaceability may also trigger normative commitment, since leaving an organization in tough times is not considered the right thing to do.

Practical Implications: As such, to preserve employees in times of a tight labor market, it is not wise to deny your reliance on your employees, and their power position. By showing appreciation for employees’ unique qualities, and simultaneously providing autonomy, employers may successfully maintain their workforce.

Leading in a digital way has increasingly been used internationally, especially due to the Covid 19 pandemic. This has led to an increasing relevance of the issue of "digital leadership" and its communication. However, digital work not only creates opportunities for global networking, but also potential situations of conflict, e. g. due to the partial absence of some human communication mechanisms. Based on the VOPA+ model, which summarises the essential aspects of corporate design by a digital leader, and different conflict resolution models according to Harvard, Gordon and Berkel, a online survey among 300 managers and employees was conducted for this work in January 2023.

It showed that the interviewees consider the need for digitality in their work as very important, but also do see many communicative problems. In order to prevent conflict situations and to create an overall positive working climate in digital work, a high degree of transparency and openness is essential where professional communication can help a lot. Furthermore, the survey shows that both the managers and the surveyed employees without a management position prefer a management and communication style that is emotional and objective even in conflict situations. This also applies to the respondents that communicate to a greater extent online in work situations.

In the last part of the study, implications and recommendations for communicative action for managers in the digital work situation are pointed out and short concept of digital leadership communication is outlined.

Rhetoric has long had a bad reputation, as a synonymous of “false and empty speech”. In the last century, rhetoric has undergone an important reappraisal, which has seen it applied also to corporate communication, CSR, and, most recently, sustainability communication. However, the bad reputation that rhetoric has accumulated over the years continues to weigh on the legacy of the discipline, creating theoretical and methodological bias. This research represents a work in progress that aims to map and systematize the academic literature related to rhetorical analysis in the context of CSR and sustainability communication. The expected results aim to create a typology that systematizes current approaches within traditional rhetoric theory, holding firm the assumption that the rhetorical discipline should be considered as a set of reasoned and structured techniques useful for corporate discourse and its persuasive effectiveness.

Purpose: By examining media content of LEED-certified buildings, LEED-owned communication, social media, and trade publications, this study aims to contribute to the body of work on issues of authenticity, transparency, and greenwashing in ESG initiatives in the real estate sector.

Methodology: Using a quantitative content analysis, this study systematically coded data to understand the themes and perceptions present in communication about LEED-certified buildings in New York City. Data was collected from January 2019-January 2022.

Findings: Narrative structure of scientific information often leads to greenwashing initiatives. LEED communication is heavily greenwashed but is rarely criticized in media and other outlets.

Originality: A unique, deep analysis of the transparency, authenticity, and persuasive communication strategies employed by an eco-certifying agency in the real estate sector.

Implications: By unearthing the complexities of authenticity, transparency, greenwashing, and narrative structure in media content of LEED, this study demonstrates the need for improved ESG communication programs and the utility of the narrative framework for examining sustainability communication.

Purpose – This research explores the preferences and expectations of nursing students/trainees with regard to employer branding in the healthcare sector. It was undertaken in order to gain insights into an important sector of the labor market und give recommendations for improving employer branding activities.

Design/methodology – A representative online survey was conducted among current nursing students/trainees in Germany. The first part of the study contains an EBA factor analysis; the second part assesses the media use and EB communication preferences of the target group.

Findings – The research revealed that development opportunities, working conditions as well as compensation and benefits are the most important employer brand attractiveness factors for nursing trainees. When it comes to the usage of media and communication platforms, social media, especially Instagram, YouTube & TikTok, are the preferred channels. The target group looks for authentic and transparent content, preferably from current employees themselves.

Practical implications – The research is particularly valuable for employers in the healthcare industry. The findings, however, can also to a certain extent be transferred to other sectors, as they give representative insights into the preferences of the certain age group and their employer branding and media preferences.

Originality/value – Although there exist a broad range of studies on employer branding from different fields of research, there are hardly any studies that address the healthcare sector. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed how essential this sector is and how important it is to obtain qualified and motivated personnel here.

Purpose: With Employer Branding (EB) businesses aim to align their organizational norms with the norms of their current and prospective employees. This process is context-dependent since communication carries different meanings depending on the context one operates in. Also, the organizational norms themselves may vary depending on the context, i.e., industry, different national cultures, geographical context in which a firm operates. As such, the process of EB may be context-dependent too. This study explores if and how EB is applied differently in different country and industry contexts.

Design/methodology/approach: For this, we carried out a quantitative content analysis of 113 Dutch job vacancies targeting highly-educated graduates and professionals in IT, energy and healthcare and 113 vacancies from comparable regions from Germany and Bulgaria.

Findings: We find that firms present themselves differently in different contexts. Preliminary results show little adaption of employer branding in IT, energy and healthcare. Administrative information and candidate requirements are with the highest frequency among all industries and countries. Of the codes we used, “distinctive characteristics” were coded the least and “culture” the most.

Practical implications: The practical intent of this research is to provide managers with a guide on how to be more successful in recruiting and how to compose the EB message with care including essential and relevant information in their vacancies.

Keywords: employer branding, employer image, job vacancies, context, content analysis

Purpose

This paper aims to provide an overview of and identify research gaps in quantitative research on employee communication (i.e., communication from employees inside and outside the organization and organizations addressing employees) regarding LGBT+.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a scoping review in line with PRISMA guidelines. A systematic literature search in Communication and Mass Media Complete, Communication Abstracts, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Scopus databases yielded 3,055 records. A total of 430 full texts that initially met the inclusion criteria (i.e., examined organizations' employee communications related to LGBT+) were assessed. Information regarding publication details (i.e., authors, year of publication, title, publication type), the content of the record (i.e., country of data collection, addressed non-heterosexual orientation or gender identity, form of employee communication, methodological approach, variables, theoretical framework), and the sample (e.g., sample size, participants’ age, gender, sexual orientation, organizational information) was extracted from eligible records. Our final sample included 164 publications reporting on 178 quantitative studies (207,181 participants and 3,740 organizations).

Findings

Quantitative research on employee communication and LGBT+ has increased in recent years and can therefore be considered a "hot topic." However, we have identified research gaps in terms of countries researched, publication outlets, differentiation of LGBT+ and intersectionality, lacking variety of communication forms, variety of methodological approaches, variety of predictor and outcome variables, and communication theories.

Originality

Our paper highlights research gaps in employee communication regarding LGBT+. Addressing these gaps could advance scholarly knowledge and hence help HR and communication practitioners to adequately meet the needs of LGBT+ employees.

Purpose: This paper examines strategies used by competing actors when attempting to weaken the trustworthiness of others as a form of strategic communication. Concretely it examines such strategies as found in 20 articles from two Norwegian alternative news-pages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: The paper employs a qualitative thematic coding approach to textual analysis. It develops categories for coding based on established strategies for strengthening trustworthiness through communication, examining the reversal of such strategies by actors attempting to weaken it.

Findings: Being a work in progress, it is premature to speculate about what the project may find, but we aim to discover some reoccurring strategies used by actors wanting to negatively impact the trustworthiness of authorities. We expect that some of these strategies will reflect existing strategies for strengthening trustworthiness through communication, while other may be more novel and unique to this form of active attacks on credibility. It will be particularly useful to determine what role the proven track-record and history of an organization serves, as a reference point for strategies for weakening trustworthiness.

Impact: Increasing our knowledge of strategies used by actors wishing to weaken the trustworthiness of authorities can prove essential in developing research-backed strategies for countering such attacks. Deepening our understanding of the interactive co-construction of trustworthiness can also contribute to a better understanding of how trust in itself can be impacted through communication.

During a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, the public health authorities will typically be criticized for their efforts. When such criticism comes from the ranks of medical personnel, the challenge becomes more pronounced for the authorities as it suggests a public negotiation of who has the sufficient expertise to handle the pandemic. Hence, the authorities are faced with the challenge of defending their competence and advice, while at the same time adhering to a bureaucratic/scientific ethos that imposes communicative boundaries. This explorative study analyzes the rhetorical response strategies used by the Norwegian public health authorities in this regard. A finding is that the authorities’ responses were distributed along a defensive–accommodative continuum: the authorities a) stated that the critics were wrong, b) claimed to possess the best available knowledge, c) pointed to the need for situational adaption (proportionality), or d) gave concessions, saying changes were under way.

Purpose: Since the COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on national governments as (ir)responsible actors, it is valuable to investigate how national authorities handled the challenges brought by this new normality. The dark side of online activism was such a challenge for national governments since multiple voices with competing interests were present in the online environment. Therefore, this study assesses how the Romanian government acted as a hijacker of the #Nuvreau/#Idonotwantto hashtag launched by the COVID-19 anti-vaccine advocates.

Design/methodology/approach: Adopting an issue arena approach and employing a network analysis and a framing analysis, this study explores the interconnectivity and the topics in the #Nuvreau/#Idonotwantto network present in 3,214 Facebook posts. Frames and frame alignment instances are also analysed in the communication network.

Preliminary findings: The findings suggest a narrative shift from an online movement against COVID-19 vaccination to a manifest against COVID-19 virus. The Romanian national authority was among the most active stakeholder in the communication network. The preliminary results showed that diaspora along with citizens and political actors were among the most active stakeholders.

Contribution for strategic communication theory and practice: This study contributes (1) to the literature on arenas as communication networks and (2) to the understanding of hashtag hijacking as a governmental social responsibility action when the arena includes various voices presenting counter-discourses on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the existence (or not) of the missing PR link in sponsorship.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach is taken. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with football fans who are members and season ticket holders of their team. Data collected will be processed following a thematic analysis.

Findings: Preliminary findings indicate that cynicism and apathy shadow to a good extent the relationship dimension the sponsor intends to achieve with the fans.

Research limitations: Given the limited development of measurement scales on cynicism, especially in relation to sponsorship research, a quantitative approach may not be yet followed. Being able to follow a quantitative approach would have allowed further analyses of data. In addition, the research is limited to the specific sample and time constraints.

Practical Implications: The value and necessity of PR is observed as sponsorship seems to be exploited mainly for its commercial contribution. The study clearly indicates that PR is a missing link and natural home for sponsorship. PR concepts and theory need to be utilized when investing in sponsorship.

Originality Value: The research of sponsorship from a Public Relations perspective is scarce. The vast majority of the literature explores sponsorship from an advertising or marketing lens. Moreover, the concept of cynicism in the field of sports sponsorship remains yet unexplored. This study aims to shed light on all these elements. Finally, the assertion that there is a relationship being formed between sponsor and fans is challenged.

Scepticism is becoming more prevalent surrounding organisations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation and communication. Consumers are increasingly sceptical of CSR claims. Notwithstanding the proliferation of CSR research across various disciplines, management research over-fixates on the strategic paybacks of CSR, and less attention is devoted to why CSR is under siege. Scepticism from consumers and stakeholders is an apparent barrier to effective CSR communication, yet this managerial issue is often overlooked in both academia and practice. This study provides a scoping review to assess the status quo and frontier of CSR vis-à-vis scepticism research. This study proposes that CSR is intimately connected with the underlying issue of scepticism. The boomerang effect of CSR is, to a certain extent, a result of shortcomings surrounding the issue of consumer scepticism, and communication and public relations managers ought to take into consideration the issue of consumer scepticism against their CSR communication practice and mitigate the so-called issue accordingly.

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of different levels of greenwashing on corporate image and credibility. Greenwashing is defined as the perception of a discrepancy between a company’s claims to protect the environment and its actual actions in this regard.

Design/methodology: In a 4x2 between-subjects experiment, participants were shown a publishing company’s promise to use 90% recycled paper in its production, followed by the revelation that the actual amount of recycled paper used was either 90%, 86%, 54%, or 23%. Additionally, the pre-image of the company was manipulated by depicting it as either a popular or an unpopular employer.

Findings: Results indicate that even a small discrepancy between a company’s environmental claims and concrete actions lead to a decrease in image perception and credibility. These perceptions, however, were not influenced by a positive or negative pre-image of the company. Furthermore, the study shows that motivated reasoning and violation of expectations mediate the discovered effects.

Originality: Overall, this research highlights the importance of aligning environmental claims with actions to maintain a positive corporate image and credibility.

Purpose: The aim of our study is to provide a large-scale empirical analysis of how organizations disclose their social responsibility and CSR efforts in moral terms. Applying moral foundation theory, we investigate to what extent and how CSR communication is founded on morality. We apply a comparative perspective and investigate to what extent differences exist between the moral anchoring in CSR communication in corporate reports and the companies' country of origin.

Design/methodology/approach: We use computational text analysis to investigate English-language CSR reports issued by corporations in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States between 1997 and 2015.

Findings: We do not have findings yet, but we expect that all our hypotheses will be supported by the data.

Social Implications: With our investigation, we find out to what extent morality is anchored in CSR communication and how corporations, in this way, assess their actions concerning their moral quality. Our study reveals how companies (co)construct CSR and how morality becomes an instrument of a company's self-description.

Originality/value: Morality should be a crucial aspect of CSR, and moral foundations theory provides an established, well-developed, and differentiated view of it. Given the ever-growing pertinence of morality in today’s politicized societies and the role of corporations in it, it is significant and innovative to connect the two literature streams to improve our understanding of the role of morality in CSR. The application of automated text analysis allows large-scale analyses of patterns and trends over time, offering generalizable insights for the theoretical development of CSR.

Purpose: The role of business in stabilizing societies, improving democratic conditions, and promoting human rights has increased during the past decade. Business role in conflict mitigation actions has been acknowledged but its effects are less well-studied. This study examines the relations between publics’ satisfaction with corporate conflict engagement actions and publics' perceptions of corporate goodwill, their intentions to financially support the company, and to positively communicate about these actions to others.

Design/methodology/approach: An experimental between-subject research design is used to manipulate publics’ perceptions of different corporate engagement actions. Respondents from consumer panels in Finland and Sweden will be exposed to four experimental conditions representing four different corporate engagement actions undertaken by a focal organization during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Findings: The findings will shed some light into the types of corporate conflict engagement actions that produce positive public acceptance, corporate goodwill perceptions and positive public behavioral intentions. It will also address the main factors influencing these outcomes.

Originality: The results will add important and novel understanding of a new business role during conflicts, thus contributing to literature on CSR, conflict management, and corporate reputation.

Practical implications: The study will offer empirical evidence on what types of corporate conflict engagement actions are expected by publics on business organizations and whether meeting or not meeting such expectations translate in public support or opposition towards business organizations.

This study addresses how multinational corporations (MNCs) engage in corporate diplomacy during the Russia-Ukraine war. Using political corporate social responsibility (PCSR) as a theoretical framework to advance the meaning of corporate diplomacy, this study explores how MNCs communicate with foreign publics and align their actions with their home countries’ national interests. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of new releases of Fortune Global 500 companies. Preliminary findings indicated that multinational corporations explained the actions that are taken to provide a safe space for the victims of the war in their news releases and their responses have changed according to where the company is based. They also mentioned strengthening the power of public authorities through rebalancing the power between governments and intergovernmental initiatives under conditions of war.

On February 24, 2022, Russia attacked its neighboring country of Ukraine. From the early days of what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a special military operation, fears mounted that the conflict may grow into World War III, causing Russia and the United States to engage in nuclear warfare effectively ending the whole world in a nuclear Armageddon. This study compares the current views of American and Russian youths on the issues of global nuclear war testing their attitudes toward nuclear war and nuclear weapons, their likelihood to support the first nuclear strike and nuclear retaliation, and their willingness to sacrifice their lives in a nuclear conflict. The study relies on the co-orientation theory to measure the levels of agreement, congruency, and accuracy for the peoples of both countries on the issues related to the nuclear conflict. The results show that Americans and Russians are currently in a state of failed co-orientation – a newly-discovered state in the co-orientation theory – when it comes to their opinions on nuclear war and nuclear weapons. Additionally, the study provides recommendations for strategic public diplomacy efforts to improve mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States of America and the Russian Federation.

Our research documents the experiences of business leaders’ responsibilities and communications in wartime Ukraine. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the owners and managers of 20 Ukrainian companies, spanning both sectors and geography of the country, we illuminate various dimensions of Ukrainian senior leadership response to the crisis, and contribute this to the current literature on crisis management and communications responsibility. As we know almost nothing about the crisis management of companies located in a warzone, the overall goal of this paper is to contribute to this under-researched area. The paper brings some first insights and answers to the following three research questions: How prepared were the Ukrainian companies for this war, and what have they learned from previous crises? How resilient are the business leaders in their handling of the wartime? What is the role of leadership and internal communications? Among the findings of the study are insights into the crisis experiences and crisis preparedness of Ukrainian managers, and how they have practiced an emergent approach to managing their changed and still-changing situations. Their responsibility has been consistently guided by a “people-first” focus on employee welfare as both a social and business priority. Further we document how leadership communications has featured a prospective vision and a discourse of renewal beyond rebuilding, as a bulwark against organizational and societal upheaval. These insights contribute to academic work within crisis leadership and communications responsibility and are relevant to leadership resilience in other societies and situations exposed to external shocks.

Despite the increasing use of the term pinkwashing, we lack insights into how queer consumers understand the phenomenon and how they distinguish it from legitimate corporate political advocacy (CPA). To explain how companies might avoid pinkwashing, semi-structured interviews were conducted among eight LGBTQ+ consumers. Data were analysed using the grounded theory approach to accurately describe participants’ experiences. Results showed that queer consumers define pinkwashing based on five company characteristics: firm motivations, firm history, firm size, internal policies, and representativeness of the community. Participants generally accepted a combination of economic and social motives of corporate LGBTQ+ advocacy. Their assessment of corporate LGBTQ+ advocacy came from looking at the business as a whole rather than a single campaign. They demanded that the firm provides an accurate and inclusive representation of the community through internal support and external communication instead of only the dominant gay discourse. Also, brands should be committed to abandoning the binary business approach.

The interviews revealed that not all participants strongly disputed pinkwashing, which might be explained by their cultural and social context. The lack of social tolerance and LGBTQ+ visibility in homosexuality-skeptical countries has led to participants’ more benign view of corporate queer representation and tolerance of any advocacy even if it might be pinkwashing. By looking at pinkwashing from a consumer perspective, this study gives way to intersectional studies, incorporating gender, sexuality and culture in explaining the phenomenon. Results also enable communication managers to create LGBTQ+ advocacy campaigns that might benefit both the community and the company.

Background: Organizations increasingly communicate about and with LGBTQIA+ publics, especially during Pride month. However, such corporate social advocacy-communication (CSA-communication) about LGBTQIA+ topics is often received with skepticism, as the public tends to doubt the authenticity of the engagement, which can have a negative effect on the perceived legitimacy of the communicating organizations. This study analyses perceptions of CSA-communication on LGBTQIA+ topics and investigates effects on legitimacy. Methodology: An online experiment is conducted with the general Dutch public that compares the effect of timing (during Pride or Valentine’s Day) and effort of the organization (low, medium, high) in LGBTQIA+ communication on perceptions of legitimacy. Additionally, effects of such CSA-communication are compared to general CSR-communication. Results: Findings indicate that CSA-communication involving low effort caused higher levels of legitimacy than when more effort was invested. Timing of the LGBTQIA+ event was not significantly associated with legitimacy. Additionally, CSR-communication is associated with higher levels of legitimacy compared to CSA-communication on the LGBTQIA+ theme. This effect is explained by a moderation effect of (negative) attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ people.

A new idea called corporate activism considers companies take sides and declare their support or opposition to social and political issues that are frequently contentious. According to Eilert and Nappier Cherup (2020:463) corporate activism is “a company’s willingness to take a stand on social, political, economic, and environmental issues to create societal change by influencing the attitudes and behaviors of actors in its institutional environment.”

When we consider the Turkish companies, sustainability, and social responsibility are the two signifcant subject that are carried out successfully. Koç Holding, one of Turkey's leading and largest companies, embraced the issue of gender equality. Koç Holding has been an important stakeholder in the HeForShe movement run by the UN Women's Unit for almost seven years. In this study, corporate activism, which is a new concept in Turkey, will be examined from the perspective of corporate culture, internal communication and social impact. In this direction, the HeForShe movement of the UN will be analyzed within the framework of Koç Holding by conducting a case study. While conducting this case study analysis, we will make a comprehensive analysis of the company's background, activism strategy, impact, and challenges. By following this process, we will try to get a deeper understanding of how companies can effectively engage in activism to promote positive social change while balancing its core business interests and values. We will analyze the media campaigns, public statements, financial contributions, or other actions of Koç Holding.

This paper draws on postcolonial theory to examine how promotional campaigns, as socio-cultural texts, embed power imbalances through language and various promotional media. It closely examines the mechanism of “Othering” as a process of reproducing cultural Western-centric representations within Oriental discourse, by the purpose of a case study, the promotional campaign of the movie ‘The Mauritanian’. The thematic analysis of promotional campaign texts (e.g. media texts, media interviews, transcripts of TV late night shows etc.) focuses on narratives of Western shame, reinforcement of Western cultural superiority and the syndrome of White saviour. This critical study considers how the Muslim Other’s difference is encoded by reproducing cultural stereotypes and, drawing on Edward Said’s work, specifically on his definition of ‘Orientalism’ and analysis of the Middle East, it also discusses the salience of such mechanisms in promotional campaigns. Concluding, our paper advocates for culturally inclusive PR activities and empathy in PR (Yeomans, 2016), as a key principle of culture-centric approach in strategic communications (Dutta, 2007; 2015).

This paper explores the language used in six Norwegian municipality action plans towards gender and sexual minorities (LGBT+), reflecting on these plans as strategic communication tools and if the municipalities are able to move the non-heterosexual minorities towards inclusion with the language in their own local action plans. I’m bringing in theories of strategic communication on an interdisciplinary scope and on the importance of creating conversations and educational and queer studies theories of «othering» to unpack the concept and consequences of excluding language. I argue that that all six municipalities are sporadically successful in developing inclusive language, meaning words and phrases that are anti-oppressive and moves their minorities out of the margins by embracing words and phrases such as «those of us who are» instead of «those who are LGBT+», «the groups» and «people who break norms».

Considering The Rutgers Institute Corporate Social Innovation Model – RICSI (Wirtenberg, 2021), this paper presents a case study of the communication of the international cement industry Secil. This paper aims to understand how Secil's sustainability and innovation priorities, set in 2022, have been communicated to the community and other stakeholders in Portugal, where the headquarters are located. This article maps the communication of current sustainable practices to highlight how they match the RICSI pillars. A deductive approach to framing theory and thematic analysis is used to verify how the Secil Group emphasizes its sustainability priority in various communication tools. The sustainability frame intended by the Secil Group will be considered a category in the analysis grid. The pillars of the RICSI - giving back to society, profit & purpose, responsible business practices (ESG), and advocacy are the themes to be identified in five communication tools. Preliminary results stress that the SDG drive innovative solutions initiated, shaped, and coordinated by the company and its partners (government, local municipalities, and cultural associations) that require stakeholder involvement in problem identification and solution. Therefore, it is possible to state the commitment of Secil with CSI and the institutionalization of this business practice, which may ultimately leverage competitive advantage.

This article is intended to contribute to the knowledge of possible narratives about sustainability adopted by multinational companies with a traditionally polluting activity, in addition to showing how sustainability, innovation, and communication are combined in theoretical terms and in the communicational practice of such companies.

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of the types of art support provided by companies and to clarify which characteristics bring what communication effects to which stakeholders. Four research questions were raised based on two axes: ownership forms consisting of paid and owned, and interaction types consisting of appreciation and exchange. To explore the answers, eight successful cases of art support by companies in Japan were selected, and a total of 33 individuals, including executives promoting art support in five companies and three art organizations, were subjected to in-depth interviews.

As a result, it was suggested, firstly, that the characteristics of content control and relationship with stakeholders differ depending on the ownership form. That is, owned art place is more controllable and has a longer implementation period, indicating a positive correlation. Moreover, a lower level of interaction leads to wider reach, while a higher level of interaction increases the intensity of communication, indicating a trade-off between reach and communication intensity. Secondly, it was suggested that these characteristics may have different impacts on both the internal and external stakeholders of companies.

Purpose: The study aims to examine the trends and engagement strategies used by companies in their award-winning campaigns related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. The findings are expected to provide guidance and recommendations for corporations seeking to enhance their SDG-themed communication efforts with insightful and creative interactions.

Design/methodology/approach: This study undertakes a thematic content analysis of the SDGs category in the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, focusing on award-winning campaigns. The analysis includes an examination of the campaigns that received recognition in this category since its inception in 2018, comprising a total of 91 campaigns that have been awarded silver, bronze, gold, or grand prix awards. The materials under analysis will comprise campaign elements such as videos, photographs, and related information, including background details, creative concepts, strategies, implementation methods, and outcomes.

Findings: The study’s results will uncover various aspects of the awarded campaigns including their primary target audience, the stakeholders involved, the type of the media used (earned, owned, paid), the message strategy’s appeals (rational or emotional), the social value offered, the campaign’s goals (awareness, attitude, behavior), the traditional and digital media tools employed, as well as social listening tools used before, during and after the campaign.

Originality: The study will address the gap in the literature with extending the application of stakeholder perspective to sustainability communication. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first academic study to explore the Cannes Lions Sustainable Development Goals Awards in this particular context.

Purpose: This study examines the strategy of privacy washing in surveillance capitalism. Privacy washing includes making claims about the processing of personal data that obscure the scope of the actual processing. Despite having received no attention from strategic communication research so far, privacy washing is an important corporate strategy for gaining legitimacy when companies operate on surveillance-driven business models.

Design/methodology/approach: The study offers a case study of an analog-born company rushing into surveillance capitalism, the German technology company Bosch. The centerpiece is a qualitative content analysis of the #LikeABosch campaign with roughly 140 million YouTube views. Additional data is used to contextualize the findings from the content analysis.

Findings: The campaign evolves around five central themes as benefits of using smart Bosch technology (convenience, sustainability, security, efficiency, status), while data is a non-theme. Privacy statements, however, imply that consumers will not profit from these benefits if they disable the sharing of their data.

Research limitations: This study investigates only one case, Bosch.

Originality/value: This study deepens the understanding of how strategic communication attempts to gain legitimacy for data capture. Furthermore, it provides a first of examination of privacy washing from a strategic communication perspective.

The interest for Artificial Intelligence applications and uses for strategic communication purposes has gained a lot of research interest throughout recent years (Osei-Mensah et al., 2023; Zerfass et al., 2022). This research investigates the application and role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Public Relations and Marketing industry in Romania. It focuses on identifying how Chat GPT, the natural language processing (NLP) model developed by OpenAI, is used by communication and marketing professionals, the challenges and opportunities for various communication roles, and the current skills gap that professionals face in this disruptive context. A semi-structured interview was applied on 15 public relations and marketing professionals with different background and years of experience in the field (marketing agency, private sector organizations, and freelancing). Preliminary results show that communication professionals value the user-friendly experience of using the text-based ChatGPT application, which can be used for social media posts captions generations, newsletters and various communicational templates, including for Search Engine Optimization tasks, but they also acknowledge the barriers in conducting higher level tasks that involve a more strategic and creative approach. Assessing current AI integration and potential strategic approaches is crucial for communication department progress.
Zerfass, A., Moreno, A., Tench, R., Verčič, D., & Buhmann, A. (2022). European Communication Monitor 2022. Exploring diversity and empathic leadership, CommTech and consulting in communications. Brussels: EUPRERA/EACD.
Osei-Mensah, B., Asiamah, E. O, & Sackey, R. (2023). Strategic Communication and Artificial Intelligence: Reviewing Emerging Innovations and Future Directions. Archives of Business Research – Vol. 11(1). 85-102.

The controversy surrounding ChatGPT, how far the development of artificial intelligence should go and what is its impact on our activities has reopened the debate about the impact of AI in communication and PR.This study aims to explore the relationship between AI and public relations. We intend to map how Romanian PR practitioners use AI in their current activities and what is their perception about using AI generated content. We examine if the PR industry perceives AI tools as a help or as a threat for its growth and how they conceive their responsibility towards their clients and their public in this specific case. We use quantitative (survey) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews) methods to determine the impact and role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Romanian PR industry. We will identify if PR practitioners are enthusiastic about the way AI is facilitating their tasks and helping to implement their strategies or if they are rather anxious and preoccupied about the future of their profession if some of their activities can be replaced by the artificial intelligence or about the ethical issues implied by the use of the AI. Our study will show to what extent the responsibility concern is part of using AI in PR practitioners daily activities.

Purpose This study outlines what automated communication is and what its implications are for organisations in terms of its role in the communication process, the responsibilities of organisations, and its effects on stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach A systematic review is conducted to provide a comprehensive overview of conceptualisations, methods of analyses, and normative reflections of automated communication in previous social science research.

Findings The systematic literature search in four databases yielded 54 relevant articles. Next, the data will be analysed by means of a quantitative content analysis using a coding scheme that captures the conceptualisation, empirical analysis, and normative reflections of automated communication. Final results will be reported in the full paper.

Contribution/originality This is the first study to take a systematic and comprehensive look at automated communication across disciplines to derive implications for public relations and strategic communication.

Keywords Automation, automated communication, public relations, strategic communication, systematic review

Paper type Research paper

Even at the internet and social media age, companies and organisations continue to publish press releases or maintain contact and exchange with editorial offices of various media in other ways. For particularly important topics, contact is also sought with news agencies, which, however, often seem to be particularly reluctant to publish PR-related content. However, the number of editorial offices e. g. at newspapers continues to decrease due to economic and other social developments, so that currently the importance of news agencies might continue to increase overall in many countries. This paper will also elaborate on these aspects.

The study offered here in the form of a short paper for this conference interviewed employees of various functional areas at agencies and newsrooms of various media in autumn 2022 in the comprehensive and broad form of qualitative interviews. The results provide interesting new insights into the work of agencies and editorial offices, but also directly and indirectly into the role of press releases as a source of information and the future challenges for PR professionals. The study structure for the last aspect will be presented here, but the in-depth analysis is still pending, but to be provided for the conference itself or a full paper a bit before.

Purpose – Today’s chief information officers (CEOs) have become quite outspoken on social, political, or environmental issues. This practice of so-called CEO activism creates entirely new challenges for public relations (PR). The present research attempts to clarify the contribution of communication practitioners to this new phenomenon. Understanding their views will help comprehend the decision-making power of practitioners in CEO activism. Ultimately, this will shed light on the extent to which CEO activism is strategically planned or plannable at all.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on public relations and CEO communication literature, 20 semi-structured-qualitative interviews are conducted among practitioners from corporate organizations and PR consultancies who are working or who have worked with a CEO who actively took part in public discussions.

Findings – As the research is still ongoing, there are no final findings yet. In the end, however, this research seeks to provide a comprehensive typology of the different ways in which practitioners contribute to CEO activism.

Practical implications – The insights gained from this paper may help practitioners reflect on their own impact when working with activist CEOs and to know when, what, and how to communicate.

Originality/value – The research helps to further the understanding of CEO activism from a communication science perspective.

Keywords CEO activism, CEO communication

Purpose: The stronger priority and changing conditions of internal communications bring possibilities and challenges for the roles and practices of communication practitioners. If internal communication is to be further developed and create strategic value for the organization, communication practitioners must find a new balance between producing, supporting, and developing communication. This paper aims to deepen the knowledge of communications practitioners’ internal roles and practices – primarily those linked to the strategic development of the organization’s communication.

Methodology: A qualitative study with a mix of individual and focus group interviews with 81 persons in four different public sector organizations based on social constructionist epistemology.

Findings: Communication practitioners need help articulating the competencies needed for a strategic internal communication role. By being reflexive and discussing in focus group interviews, we discerned taken-for-granted competencies that differ from the more basic production skills, top-of-mind competencies, that they initially presented. Our analysis shows that there is a need to examine and gain a deeper understanding of the internal strategic communication role. The analysis shows that at least three different roles can be identified: the strategic executor, the business partner, and the communication developer.

Originality/value: This research shows obstacles, such as taken-for-granted competencies and barriers to strategic roles, that are important to embrace if practitioners shall increase the occupation’s professionalization.

Keywords: internal communication, reflexivity, communication practitioner roles, professionalization, competencies, social constructionism

Paper type: research

Purpose: This paper explores how communication managers can leverage digital technologies to incorporate communication insights into corporate decision-making processes, and thereby help to adjust strategies in a complex environment.

Design/methodology/approach: An interdisciplinary analysis of literature from the disciplines of business administration, consulting research, business informatics, and communication science was used to develop a conceptual framework outlining the use of business intelligence (BI) in communication management. Subsequently, the framework was validated in a qualitative interview study with experts from the field.

Findings: To utilize information from external and internal sources for internal consulting, communicators need to process data, translate them into relevant information for decision-making, and make them accessible to relevant members of the organization. The framework shows how this can be achieved through a BI process that covers all phases as well as the necessary technologies and applications, from cleansing and merging the data to accessing the aggregated information. This enables communication professionals to act as internal consultants and ensures that corporate decisions can consider communication-related opportunities, risks, and similar insights.

Originality: This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by systematically introducing BI to corporate communications and communication management. It adds to current debates on CommTech, on internal consulting as a valuable role for communication professionals, and on corporate listening as the inbound dimension of corporate communications.

Purpose –The digitalization of greater society has permeated organizations, where managers are reassessing how internal communication is practiced and defined, particularly in the context of public relations and strategic communication. These changes were already underway before the COVID-19 pandemic, which strongly highlighted the importance of effective internal communication. Now, more than ever, digital transformation is profoundly affecting internal communication, yet there are substantial gaps in our understanding of the current situation. This study aims to identify and provide an overview of the research in the area.

Design/methodology/approach – The present paper systematically reviewed 78 research studies published in 53 journals between 1990 and November 2022 in order to identify theoretical and methodological trends in digital internal communication research and to examine key conceptualizations, measures, and analytical approaches.

Findings – The findings reveal the evolution of research on digital internal communication and highlight geographical, theoretical, and methodological gaps that should be addressed in future work.

Originality – This study offers a critical evaluation of existing research on digital internal communication.

Strategic and communication management’s struggles to demonstrate how its practice enhances corporate performance. There remains a scarcity of evidence pertaining to the role and contribution of communication management in corporate operations and processes, such as innovation. This is largely due to the paucity of data and evidence. On the other hand, communication department contribution remains ambiguous, as noted by Zerfass and Volk (2018, p.398), due to the infrequent examination of communication departments as a unit of analysis.

This paper is a work-in-progress that aims to fill a gap in the literature. On the one hand, it presents a brief literature review on corporate social innovation (CSI) and strategic communication, highlighting the novelty of the CSI topic and the need to explore the communication contribution. The paper contributes to current scholarship efforts to further explore communication and practitioners’ role in organizational process: it proposes a conceptual and analytical framework aimed to conduct empirical research by identifying its key elements. Further avenues for research are highlighted in the discussion section.

Purpose: Especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty, employees need to be supported to act and make decisions in the best possible way. Internal communication is an important means of demonstrating responsibility for employees and supporting their empowerment. Empowerment itself is linked to important internal communication goals, such as motivation or engagement. However, research on employee empowerment in internal communication research has been limited, and there is a gap in how empowerment can be influenced by internal communication. This paper explores how empowerment can be measured in a survey and influenced by internal communication.

Design/methodology: The paper presents the results of a representative online survey conducted in the summer of 2022 among non-executive employees in German private and public corporations with at least 50 employees (n = 606).

Findings: Our results show that the quality and quantity of both executive and peer-to-peer communication have an impact on empowerment and its subdimensions. For example, the quality of peer-to-peer communication positively influences feelings of integration and overall empowerment, while the quality of executive communication has a strong positive effect on not only the above-mentioned dimensions, but also on the feeling of influence. In our study, we also develop an empowerment scale that can be used for future internal communication research.

Originality: The paper strengthens our thus far limited understanding of the impact of internal communication on employee empowerment, focusing on the domains of executive and peer-to-peer communication, and offers implications for the theoretical and empirical analysis and practice of internal communication.

Our study aimed to explore if and how the international growing trend of CEO activism is manifesting in the Portuguese context, by exploring the perspective of Portuguese CEOs on the topic, the course of action that they are taking, and how they evaluate risks and opportunities. For these purposes, we implemented a qualitative methodology based on interviews to 24 Portuguese CEOs and used thematic analysis to explore them. Our findings reveal that, although Portuguese CEOs are aware of this trend, they acknowledge both risks and opportunities, and their activism in still incipient. Plus, they strongly believe that CEO activism must be aligned with the values and mission of the organization they represent. Finally, Portuguese CEOs are convict on activism being genuine, and therefore first implemented within the organization, which is where most of them focus their action. Our work provides an original mapping of the CEO activism landscape in Portugal and an insightful discussion of the CEO’s perspective on this growing phenomenon.

Mediatized contemporary political communication is defined by a high degree of personalization of politics and leaderization of communication. In this context hyper-leaders emerge as a new form of political leadership embracing these features. The purpose of the paper is to develop the concept of digital hyper leader as transformational leader (Gabardo 2019) by identifying what digital leadership communication styles they adopt. To do that, a content analysis of 600 posts and 600 tweets published by ten Italian politicians or hyper-leaders has been conducted. The content analysis has been based on a codebook operationalizing four different leadership styles considering 17 variables. The main findings showed that there isn’t a common approach to social media, and each politician has some tendencies that distinguish him or her from the other competitors. However, it is possible to say that a formal lexicon and reposts do not generate a high level of engagement in the public. Images and videos showing a political leader being supported by his followers or interacting with them can generate a high level of engagement instead. The contribution unfolds digital political communication and leadership studies to understand how Italian Hyper leader use social media and with what types of content as a form of digital leadership communication.

Purpose of research and research gap:

Strategic Positioning or Branding of CEOs, CFOs, and other executives (CxO) are communicative practices that have gained momentum in the last years, especially in the context of digital media and social networking sites. With scholars conducting a rapidly growing number of studies on the phenomenon from different fields, such as communication, marketing, management, or sociology, a wide variety of conceptualizations, definitions, and results need to be systematically reviewed, structured, and presented to move the field forward.

Theoretical approach and background:

This study draws upon approaches from personalization, positioning, and image and branding literature.

Research questions:

RQs address, across disciplines, the status and evolution of the academic area, the conceptualizations in scholarship, and the mapping of findings and results of empirical work.

Methods (for empirical studies):

Systematic literature review of initially 3,247 search hits from four academic databases.

Preliminary findings:

Work-in-progress study; so far, a rapid growth in the number of publications is observable with a detectable time lag between different disciplines, with different reasonings, theoretical foundations and stated target outcomes.

Originality and innovation:

This submission moves public relations research and other fields concerned with communication from/by/with business leaders forward in that this is the first large-scale interdisciplinary systematic literature review of the issue.