Toward an Audience-Centric Framework of Corporate Social Advocacy Strategy: An Exploratory Study of Young Consumers from Generation Z

Ioana A. Coman, Shupei Yuan and Jiun-Yi Tsai
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Ioana A. Coman: Department of Public Relations and Strategic Communication Management, College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Shupei Yuan: Department of Communication, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Jiun-Yi Tsai: School of Communication, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Increasingly, business-to-consumer companies engage in corporate social advocacy (CSA) to respond to growing pressures from stakeholders. CSA studies are quickly accumulating, yet in-depth explanations of when and why the public expect companies to take a stance (sometimes even action) on controversial issues remain scarce. To fill these gaps, we unpack how Generation Z audiences expect companies to act on public agendas and their reasoning process through a mixed-method analysis of an exploratory survey ( N = 388) conducted at a public university. The results show major changes in CSA expectations and illuminate the reasoning behind them. The results highlight a critical need to further understand CSA from audience perceptions and inform message design and testing guided by audience-centric models.

Keywords: corporate social advocacy; audience-centric; hot button issues; Generation Z (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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