An exploratory study on the use of intertextuality in communicating CSR on corporate social networking sites

Abstract

This study sets out to investigate how corporations from 2016 Global CSR RepTrak employ intertextuality in their corporate weibo discourses to promote their CSR strategies and the public’s response towards these weibo discourses. An integrated approach is adopted to examine the use of intertextuality and identify its patterns in CSR communication from well received and poorly received weibo posts. It is found that public acceptance towards the CSR weibo posts is relatively poor though both explicit and implicit intertextuality are employed in the CSR communication. Quantitative analysis has further indicated that the frequent use of explicit intertextuality may lead to a decrease in the number of likes found in the public responses. 本文从话语分析的角度，通过三角互证的研究方法深入分析企业社会责任位列世界100 强的外企如何在微博发布中运用互文性传播企业社会责任，以及公众对运用互文性手法发布的企业信息的反应与接受程度。研究发现，外企经常在微博贴文中使用显性和隐性的互文性话语类型传播企业社会责任，然而企业使用互文性的数量与其微博贴文的公众接受度不成正比。定量分析结果表明，显性互文性的运用越多，获赞次数越少。