Investigating the effect of CSA on organization-public relationships (2021)

Corporate social advocacy (CSA), which refers to organizations’ public stances on controversial sociopolitical issues (Dodd & Supa, 2014), has become an essential organizational practice. A growing number of corporations have become increasingly vocal about social issues they support, as public expectations of corporations’ social roles have increased substantially (Pew Research Center, 2020). By conducting an online experiment manipulating CSA forms and message sources in a corporation’s CSA social media posts, this study is intended to identify the most effective CSA message to increase the public’s support for CSA, including word-of-mouth and patronage intentions. The results of this study will offer practical insights for corporations regarding developing CSA strategies to best demonstrate their ethical responsibility and maximize organizational benefits from CSA.