Business Infomediary Representations of Corporate Responsibility

Meri Frig (), Martin Fougère, Veronica Liljander and Pia Polsa
Additional contact information
Meri Frig: Hanken School of Economics
Martin Fougère: Hanken School of Economics
Veronica Liljander: Hanken School of Economics
Pia Polsa: Hanken School of Economics

Journal of Business Ethics, 2018, vol. 151, issue 2, No 4, 337-351

Abstract: Abstract Drawing on the recent discussion about the role information intermediaries (infomediaries) play in affecting corporate responsibility (CR) adoption, we analyze the representation of CR issues in a business infomediary distributed by a leading business organization. The explicit task of the business infomediary is to promote a competitive national business environment. This paper contributes to (1) research on CR, by providing new knowledge on the current CR discourse within the business community, and (2) research on infomediaries, by introducing a distinction between watchdog-oriented and business-oriented infomediaries. The findings show that the business infomediary promotes green practices and constructs a national business identity in terms of environmental business when responsible practices are voluntary. We argue that as business-oriented infomediaries shape the meaning of CR according to their own interests, signifiers that refer to the positive contributions of business become preferred in the articles.

Keywords: Business-oriented infomediary; Business press; Corporate responsibility (CR); Media representations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-016-3200-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:151:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3200-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3200-0

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().