Communicating Sustainability: An Operational Model for Evaluating Corporate Websites

Alfonso Siano, Francesca Conte, Sara Amabile, Agostino Vollero and Paolo Piciocchi
Additional contact information
Alfonso Siano: Department of Social, Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano 84084, Italy
Sara Amabile: Department of Social, Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano 84084, Italy
Agostino Vollero: Department of Social, Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano 84084, Italy
Paolo Piciocchi: Department of Social, Political and Communication Sciences, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, Fisciano 84084, Italy

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The interest in corporate sustainability has increased rapidly in recent years and has encouraged organizations to adopt appropriate digital communication strategies, in which the corporate website plays a key role. Despite this growing attention in both the academic and business communities, models for the analysis and evaluation of online sustainability communication have not been developed to date. This paper aims to develop an operational model to identify and assess the requirements of sustainability communication in corporate websites. It has been developed from a literature review on corporate sustainability and digital communication and the analysis of the websites of the organizations included in the “Global CSR RepTrak 2015” by the Reputation Institute. The model identifies the core dimensions of online sustainability communication (orientation, structure, ergonomics, content—OSEC), sub-dimensions, such as stakeholder engagement and governance tools, communication principles, and measurable items (e.g., presence of the materiality matrix, interactive graphs). A pilot study on the websites of the energy and utilities companies included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 2015 confirms the applicability of the OSEC framework. Thus, the model can provide managers and digital communication consultants with an operational tool that is useful for developing an industry ranking and assessing the best practices. The model can also help practitioners to identify corrective actions in the critical areas of digital sustainability communication and avoid greenwashing.

Keywords: corporate sustainability; sustainability communication; digital communication; operational model; corporate website; greenwashing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/950/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/9/950/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:9:p:950-:d:78521

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().