Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to involve Stakeholders: the Case of Employer Branding for University Students

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) is an effective marketing lever, and its effectiveness is mediated by the strategies companies use to communicate their CRS activities to stakeholders. The present research aims at assessing the effect of five CSR communicative strategies, ranked according to an increasing involvement level of stakeholders, on a fictional company’s Employer Branding (EB). The company was presented to two samples of university students (n=167; n=112) via the administration of five different versions of a brochure, corresponding to five different communicative scenarios of CSR. A self-report questionnaire was administrated, with scales measuring the company’s attractiveness, perceived prestige, intention to contact the company, and prospective engagement, as well as the company’s perceived brand personality and CSR communication. Analyses report high levels of the EB dimensions in all five communicative scenarios, which however produce different perceptions of the company’s brand personality.