Businesses' Strategic Work with Social Responsibility and Their Engagement in Social Media (SocR-SocM)

Abstract:

The project investigates how businesses - broadly understood as both private, public, and NGOs - strategically handle their engagement in social media in order to present themselves as socially responsible. The social media provide businesses with new opportunities to take part in dialogue concerning the sorrounding world and are increasingly important for businesses' reputations, but are at the same time difficult to control which brings about uncertainty. With that as starting point, this project investigates which opportunities social media create for businesses to create and control their reputation and which courses of action they can take. The research thereby contributes by creating new knowledge about the challenges businesses face when they wish to engage in social media with a reputation as socially responsible, as well as how they strategically can handle the initially more open communication and interaction possibilities that the social media provide.