Silence has no place: a framing analysis of corporate statements about racial inequity, immigration policy and LGBTQ rights

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvette M. Sterbenk ◽  
Jamie Ward ◽  
Regina Luttrell ◽  
Summer Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Lgbtq Rights

PurposeThis study explores the framing of messages delivered by 105 Fortune 500 companies across 21 sectors in June 2020 in response to three social justice issues that took prominence that month in the United States: racial inequity, immigration laws and LGBTQ rights.Design/methodology/approachResearchers compiled a list of the top five companies in each sector on the 2020 Fortune 500 list, with a resulting list of N = 21 sectors and N = 105 companies. A database of corporate statements was compiled along with a comprehensive list of recurring themes. Quantitative framing analysis was used to examine each corporate statement.FindingsSeventy percent of the companies examined made statements about the issue of racial injustice, 58% about LGBTQ issues and only 6% about immigration policy. Coders identified the most frequent message type coded on each social justice issue: racial inequity –“Working Together”; immigration policy – “Celebration”; LGBTQ rights – “Celebration.”Research limitations/implicationsThis study relied on a quantitative analysis of themes, but it did not analyze the specific language or media used. Further examination of rhetorical choices could uncover additional meanings in the messages.Practical implicationsCompanies are increasingly called upon to speak out on controversial issues. This can be challenging for communicators who are deciding how to respond. This study sheds light on the common frames used in corporate statements.Originality/valueNo studies to date have adopted a content analysis approach to assess the content of corporate activist statements. Examining the messages is important because, as more companies become increasingly vocal about social issues, stakeholders utilize this information to judge the sincerity of both the company and the message.

Relational cultivation strategies and community building on Fortune 500 company corporate blogs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tugce Ertem-Eray ◽  
Eyun-Jung Ki
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Sense Of Community ◽  
Communication Channel ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Corporate Blogs

PurposeAs the number of corporate blogs has continued to increase over the years, this study examines the use of relationship cultivation strategies of Fortune 500 companies on their corporate blogs. Moreover, it focuses on how companies use corporate blogs as interactive online communication channels to create a sense of community among their publics.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis of Fortune 500 company corporate blogs was conducted to examine the use of relational cultivation strategies and their methods of promoting a sense of community.FindingsFindings indicate that networking and sharing tasks are used most frequently among all relational cultivation strategies on corporate blogs, and that there are statistically significant differences among industries for using relationship cultivation strategies on corporate blogs. The most frequently used dimension of sense of community on corporate blogs is shared emotional connection.Originality/valueStudies analyzing social media as public relations tools have not yet focused on community building. In fact, few studies have examined the community building aspect of corporate blogs in the public relations field. To fill this gap, this study focuses on community building and analyzes how companies use corporate blogs as an interactive online communication channel to create a sense of community among their publics.

Does institutional theory explain integrated reporting adoption of Fortune 500 companies?

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Merve Kılıç ◽  
Ali Uyar ◽  
Cemil Kuzey ◽  
Abdullah S. Karaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies

PurposeThe objective of this study is to investigate whether the institutional environment is associated with the adoption of integrated reporting.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of the study is based on the firms included in the list of Fortune Global 500. The logistic regression analysis was run to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings indicated that the code-law orientation and strength of the institutional quality are significantly associated (i.e. positively and negatively, respectively) with the integrated reporting of Fortune 500 companies. Firms are motivated for more transparency in stakeholder-oriented and weakly regulated contexts. Thus, stakeholder pressure is more influential than shareholder interest in motivating or forcing firms to issue integrated reports. Besides, there appears to be a trade-off between the public sector and the private sector in terms of ensuring an accountable and transparent business environment. If the public sector does not undertake its role in ensuring a transparent business environment, the private sector fills the gap. The results are robust to alternative sampling and methodologies.Research limitations/implicationsThis study implied that the stakeholder orientation of countries fosters the transparency and accountability of firms. Corporate behavior is impacted by the institutional strength or weakness of nations. The institutional theory provides an appropriate ground to understand drivers of corporate reporting practices of firms beyond firm-level characteristics.Practical implicationsThe adoption of integrated reporting framework by Fortune 500 companies can be leveraged to alleviate concerns about their social and environmental impacts. Policy-makers in the countries which have a weak institutional environment force or encourage their firms to increasingly meet the transparency and accountability demands of society.Social implicationsThe research findings might play an encouraging role in that various stakeholders (i.e. customers, public, civil organizations and press) should undertake active roles and responsibilities to encourage firms to behave in socially and environmentally responsible ways.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature by examining the influence of the institutional environment on the adoption of integrated reporting, using recent international data, and focusing on the largest companies according to the Fortune's annual Global 500 list. This study is one of the first to examine the association between a set of governance characteristics (i.e. board size, board independence and board diversity) and integrated reporting adoption.

scholarly journals Information leaks before CEO change: financial gain and ethical cost

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Gregor Halff ◽  
Anne Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Stock Market ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Financial Gain ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Search Patterns ◽  
A Company

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there are information leaks immediately before CEOs change and – if so – whether some investors take financial advantage of such prior knowledge. It thirdly investigates the ethical, practical and professional options for communication managers to deal with such situations.Design/methodology/approachWorking from sentiment theory of financial markets, the authors studied Internet search patterns for incoming CEO names and stock market movements immediately prior to the public mention or speculation of CEO change.FindingsThe authors find that in nearly a quarter of CEO changes at Fortune 500 companies, the name of the future CEO seems to have been leaked. Additionally, nearly half of those companies also experience extreme, otherwise unexplainable movements in the stock market.Originality/valueThis paper discovers the prevalence of extreme stock market movements for a company when the name of that company's next CEO has likely been leaked. Such leaks are an opportunity for unscrupulous investors, but they create ethical dilemmas for organizations. Communication managers typically respond by organizing tighter governance. However, to keep up with the speed of information and investments traveling through algorithms, organizing radical transparency could become an alternative instead.

Shareholder spring and social activism: a study of 2013-2015 proxy filings

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 560-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ram Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Dominant Strategy ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
High Level ◽  
A Company

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine social issue proxy filings by shareholders of US corporations in a period commonly referred to as the “shareholder spring” to understand who the filers are, what issues are typically the focus of the filings, what the dominant strategy is of various filers and the success rate of proxy-based shareholder social activism. Design/methodology/approach Using the shareholder-filed proxy as the unit of analysis, the study parsed the data from 410 proxies to gain insight into the process of shareholder social activism. Findings Religious groups, in contrast to large pension and mutual funds, use a small shareholding approach to form coalitions with other stakeholders to gain voting support. Proxies that call for disclosure elicit greater support than those that demand a change in a company’s business practices. If the goal of shareholder social activism is to keep the proxy issue alive from one shareholder meeting to the next, then non-individual proxy filers can be considered successful. Research limitations/implications While the study only considered proxies for 250 of the Fortune 500 companies, there is evidence that social activism can succeed if a coalition strategy is used and the shareholder’s motives appear to be legitimately altruistic. Practical implications It is important for corporate managers to consider the prevailing shareholder sentiment on social issues because such sentiments largely echo general societal concerns. Social implications While the debate is still unsettled on the shareholder versus the stakeholder argument, there is a high level of scrutiny on how a company operates in the larger societal context. Originality/value Propelled by the Dodd–Frank law and the shareholder spring movement, certain types of shareholders (primarily religious groups) are quite adept at eliciting support for social issues because of both their legitimacy and by the strategy that they follow.

US immigration politics will hinder reform

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Aggressive Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Immigration Laws ◽  
Democratic Candidate ◽  
The Us ◽  
Immigration Politics ◽  
Opposite View ◽  
Research Centres

Significance Immigration policy has become a key issue in the US presidential primaries, upending the Republican nomination contest and fuelling the rise of 'outsider' candidate Donald Trump in the polls. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has taken the opposite view, claiming that she would take a "less harsh and aggressive" approach to enforcing immigration laws than President Barack Obama. Impacts The nativist rhetoric of the Republican primary will likely boost Democratic candidates in the 2016 federal elections. Countries may increasingly seek to streamline the visa/residency process in order to compete for high-skilled foreign workers. Gridlock in Washington on immigration policy may benefit foreign tech firms and research centres at the expense of US institutions.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Corporate Behaviors after the Corporate Tax Cuts with Respect to Job Creation: A Preliminary Study of Select Corporations in the United States of America

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Narendra Sharma ◽  
Ebere A Oriaku ◽  
Ngozi Oriaku
Keyword(s):  
United States Of America ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Tax Cuts

A preliminary study of the impact of tax cuts on job creation was done by studying a random sample of 12 largest corporations selected from the Fortune 500 companies. The Annual Reports of the 12 sample companies pre-tax cut and post-tax cut periods were downloaded, and figures tabulated for revenues, property, plant, and equipment (PPE) as well as employees reported by those companies for both the periods.  We found that the revenue increased by an average of 7.78 percent which showed signs of growth in those companies, but the investment in PPE by the companies during the same period increased at an average of only 0.32 percent, which indicated that the companies did not divert the resources they saved in taxes to add capacity. Therefore, the potential for jobs growth was nonexistent or minimal.  Another indicator showed the same outcome as the companies reported their workforce reduced since 2017 by an average of 0.54 percent.

Introduction

John Rawls ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 233-236
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Business Leadership ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
The World

In the United States, full-time working women on average earn 82 percent of what full-time working men earn.1 Globally, women often fare much worse, earning an average of 68 percent of men’s earnings.2 In addition to getting paid less than men to do the same jobs, women often do not have the opportunity to do the jobs men do. Men still occupy most business leadership positions both in the United States and in the world more broadly. In 2019, less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies had a female CEO....

A framework for understanding artificial intelligence research: insights from practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 645-678
Author(s):  
Ransome Epie Bawack ◽  
Samuel Fosso Wamba ◽  
Kevin Daniel André Carillo
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Information System ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Is Research ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Classification Framework ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Published Research

PurposeThe current evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) practices and applications is creating a disconnection between modern-day information system (IS) research and practices. The purpose of this study is to propose a classification framework that connects the IS discipline to contemporary AI practices.Design/methodology/approachWe conducted a review of practitioner literature to derive our framework's key dimensions. We reviewed 103 documents on AI published by 25 leading technology companies ranked in the 2019 list of Fortune 500 companies. After that, we reviewed and classified 110 information system (IS) publications on AI using our proposed framework to demonstrate its ability to classify IS research on AI and reveal relevant research gaps.FindingsPractitioners have adopted different definitional perspectives of AI (field of study, concept, ability, system), explaining the differences in the development, implementation and expectations from AI experienced today. All these perspectives suggest that perception, comprehension, action and learning are the four capabilities AI artifacts must possess. However, leading IS journals have mostly published research adopting the “AI as an ability” perspective of AI with limited theoretical and empirical studies on AI adoption, use and impact.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the framework is based on the perceptions of AI by a limited number of companies, although it includes all the companies leading current AI practices. Secondly, the IS literature reviewed is limited to a handful of journals. Thus, the conclusions may not be generalizable. However, they remain true for the articles reviewed, and they all come from well-respected IS journals.Originality/valueThis is the first study to consider the practitioner's AI perspective in designing a conceptual framework for AI research classification. The proposed framework and research agenda are used to show how IS could become a reference discipline in contemporary AI research.

Police brutality and four other ways racism kills Black people

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 803-809
Author(s):  
Oscar Holmes IV
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Black People ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Police Brutality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The World ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Published Research

PurposeThis article was written in response to the #BlackLivesMatter social justice protests that erupted around the world in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.Design/methodology/approachThis article weaves personal experiences, published research and current events and social issues to build the case that there are many ways that racism kills Black people.FindingsAlthough antiblack police brutality looms largely in people's minds of how racism kills Black people, less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people are often overlooked.Originality/valueIn this article, the author highlights: (1) the perennial expectation that Black people cater to other people's needs and desires; (2) performative activism and allyship; (3) assigning Black people the responsibility for fixing racism and (4) thinking education, mentoring or wealth is the panacea for racism as these less conspicuous ways that racism kills Black people.

Longitudinal Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility on Company Websites

2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Taken Smith
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Fortune 500 ◽  
Dominant Focus ◽  
Fortune 500 Companies ◽  
Business Practitioners ◽  
Corporate Social ◽  
Website Content

As social issues increase, so does the scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Companies are expanding their CSR activities and making the terminology used to describe them more specific. This study compares website content of Fortune 500 companies in 2015 with content collected in 2011. Traditionally, two CSR issues have been the dominant focus on company websites: community and environment. Findings reveal that these terms have decreased in usage and new terms have emerged, such as supply chain and volunteer involvement. A shift has occurred that business practitioners will find helpful in communicating CSR initiatives.

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