Do strategy and content matter? Restaurant firms’ corporate social responsibility communication on Twitter: A social network theory perspective

Abstract

Social media allows restaurants practitioners to distribute corporate social responsibility (CSR)-related information to interested individuals. However, it is unclear which types of CSR activities or communication strategies are more effective in terms of influencing consumers’ behavioral and emotional responses, especially in the restaurant industry. To shorten this research gap, the current study collected 136 CSR-related posts alongside 3408 stakeholders’ replies from the U.S. green restaurants’ Twitter accounts. Content analysis, ANOVA, and sentiment analysis using R studio were conducted for data evaluation. It was found that CSR activities related to the local community and society were as important as the activities related to the environment. Moreover, the engagement CSR communication strategy had a stronger influence on customers’ behavioral responses, generating more positive sentiments than broadcasting or reactive strategies on Twitter. The research findings may help restaurant practitioners communicate CSR-related information more effectively on social media.