The Routledge Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication

Winner of the National Communication Association’s Public Relations Division 2023 Outstanding Book Award

This handbook is a resource for students, faculty, and researchers who are focused on understanding the role communication plays in the formation and execution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Bringing together authors who are thought-leaders and emerging scholars from diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, it examines the issues central to CSR communication including: theoretical underpinnings, form and content of CSR messaging, the boundaries of engagement, and the tensions associated with CSR communication. It offers a unique combination of functional and formative approaches to CSR communication designed to expose readers to a blend of approaches. With attention to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this handbook also explicitly addresses recent societal changes and how those changes will impact CSR communication research and practices in the future.

Offering both a strong introduction to topics for novices as well as a more advanced interrogation of CSR communication for more knowledgeable readers, the handbook is appropriate for advanced students and researchers in public relations, strategic communication, organizational communication, and allied fields.

Amy O’Connor is an associate professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Her research explores what CSR means to corporations and stakeholders, how institutional level pressure determines CSR, and how CSR influences stakeholder-organization relationships. Her research is published in diverse disciplinary journals: Business & Society, Management Communication Quarterly, and Public Relations Review.