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The purpose of this study is to expand corporate social responsibility research in communication management by understanding the dynamics of university social responsibility (USR). The COVID-19 pandemic and social justice protests of 2020 provide a context to study communication about universities’ dual roles as economic engines and social activists. Messaging from a university about its social responsibility goals can impact student perceptions.

A survey was conducted of 493 students enrolled at a major university in 2020. Students were asked about two real campaigns at their university, one about healthy behavior and one about racial justice on campus.

Altruism positively predicted reputation, trust and donation intent, while distrust was inversely predicted. Message credibility and believability were mediators of these relationships, but only source credibility mediated altruism for the social justice campaign. For universities, this study demonstrates the importance of communicating social responsibility messages with students. As an important and overlooked stakeholder group in USR, students may respond positively to these messages, which have implications for their potential willingness to donate after graduation.

This study contributes to the literature by merging variables from public relations and marketing with theory development in higher education management to provide a new perspective on ethical organizational communication.

This study examines the stakeholder’s experiences of two key groups: donors and donor-volunteers. The goals of this study are to (1) determine how donor experience affects organization–public relationships (OPRs) and its antecedents for these two groups and (2) extend the OPR model by considering new potential supportive behavioral intentions arising from OPR outcomes.

Using data from a survey of self-identified donors and donor-volunteers, multiple regressions were performed to establish the possible effects of experience and advocacy on OPRs.

Findings of this study support the idea that donation experience can be considered a potential antecedent for the OPR. The findings also support the idea that advocacy can be a valuable behavioral outcome resulting from OPR.

Nonprofits are ever seeking to better connect with their donor and volunteer supporters. This study helps to show the value of donation experience and the importance of cultivating advocacy behaviors among these supporters.

The study seeks to merge extant theory in communications and public policy to better understand the OPR model. Specifically, connecting OPR to the antecedent of donor experience and behavioral intentions like advocacy will help paint a stronger picture of donor–volunteer relationships with nonprofits.

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships from the often-overlooked perspective of nonprofit beneficiaries, situated in the rapidly evolving higher education funding environment.

In-depth interviews with corporate relations officers from public research universities across the USA were conducted. Qualitative coding procedures from Lindlof and Taylor (2019) were employed to analyze transcript data.

Three main factors have contributed to a rapidly evolving climate for corporate partnerships: CSR partnerships help universities build their reputations rather than endowments; feature new preferences in communication-based stewardship practices; and raise questions about university autonomy and authority.

New interpretations of interdependent relationships and stewardship may be needed to explain new corporate funding models, while threats to nonprofit organizational authority and autonomy may be growing.

Nonprofit practitioners may better understand how to position their organizations as more attractive to corporations while learning how to advocate for mutual benefits. They may also benefit from a new understanding of corporate stewardship.

While previous research has documented detrimental effects to nonprofits in CSR partnerships, higher education fundraisers in this study detail their struggles with new models of measuring success, new expectations for stewarding corporate partners and perceived threats to autonomy. Their voices add to a fuller understanding of rapidly evolving relationship management practices in higher education.

While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can enhance a company's reputation, less is known about the effects of CSR communication on nonprofits. Hence, the current study seeks to understand how corporate reputation, message credibility and message source may impact consumers' attitudinal and behavioral intentions toward nonprofits.

A 2 (corporate reputation: low vs high) × 2 (CSR communication source: newspaper blog vs nonprofit blog) between-subjects online experiment was conducted. Real-world corporations (Toyota and Volkswagen) and a nonprofit (World Wildlife Fund) were chosen based on a pretest.

Nonprofit reputation increased after reading a CSR message, especially when it involved a partnership with a low-reputation corporation. Nevertheless, CSR partnerships with high-reputation corporations evoked higher volunteer intentions. Message credibility mediated the relationship between corporate reputation and nonprofit reputation. When the communication source was the nonprofit and the partnership involved a high-reputation corporation, positive evaluations of nonprofit likeability and competence resulted.

Nonprofit communication managers should understand the merit of communicating CSR partnerships with their constituents, regardless of medium. Additionally, the choice of a corporate partner is important for certain nonprofit outcomes. Lastly, message credibility is another important factor that should be considered.

The study bridges literature in communications that typically examines CSR by focusing on its effects on corporate outcomes with literature in nonprofit management that looks at nonprofit outcome measures. This study demonstrated that nonprofit–corporate alliances can also influence nonprofit reputation and donation/volunteer intentions based on the reputation of the corporate partner.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications in business by merging previously unconnected lines of thought in communications and law. Using Walmart as an example, the study shows that CSR communication can legitimize a corporation’s autonomous legal system of regulation and governance over its business practices.

A qualitative case study of all online corporate communications webpages from Walmart was examined. Discourse and qualitative analyses were used to show how language and online communications practices created actional legitimacy for Walmart’s CSR practices.

Using the UN’s Guiding Principles for Business as a framework for analysis, the study demonstrated how CSR communications helps Walmart to establish its own system of CSR norms, structures and remediation processes for its business outside of the state. These communications also sought to legitimize these actions among stakeholders.

This case study looks at one corporation (Walmart) to illustrate a new connection between CSR communication and legitimacy. Future research in communications can extend this line of inquiry by examining how communications can reinforce autonomous legal systems and public perceptions.

Backer’s (2007) autonomous legal system and the concept of actional legitimacy in communications have not yet been studied systematically. This case study demonstrates how CSR communications can legitimize a multinational corporation’s business practices, which, in turn, raises ethical considerations for the ways this communication serves the greater society.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between social capital, transaction costs, and organizational outcomes.

The study is based on a survey of 176 employees of a high‐tech manufacturer of electronics located in the Mid‐Atlantic region of the USA. The survey included three self‐report measures: social capital, transaction costs, and organizational outcomes. Self‐report items were used to measure three dimensions of social capital: structure, relationships, and communication. Transaction cost items measured information exchange, problem solving, conflict management, and behavior regulation. Questions measuring organizational outcomes included quality, change, equity, and fairness.

The central finding of this research is the significant association between social capital and both transaction costs and organizational outcomes. As expected, trust served as a predictor of both transaction costs and organizational outcomes. In addition, the social capital components of access, timing, and network ties were significantly associated with transaction costs and organizational outcomes.

The items used to measure the communication dimension of social capital did not demonstrate sufficient reliability to be entered into the analysis.

The results suggest an alternative approach to considering the connection between communication management and organizational achievement. This approach, also, theoretically centralizes communication and communication related concerns as foundational for social capital analysis.

This study offers a valuable alternative theoretic approach to understanding the impact of communication on organizational affairs.

The Bibliography of American Creative Literature was started in August 1938 under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration of the United States. At that time Dr. Luther H. Evans was in charge of the historical projects under the WPA. The University of Pennsylvania agreed to furnish the necessary space and certain of the supplies, and Mr. Edward H. O'Neill, a lecturer in English literature at the university, was placed in charge of the project. He remained in that position until the suspension of the work on 22 April 1942. At that time there had been spent upon this project about $150,000, and a force that varied from forty to sixty workers had been employed.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established during an era of legal segregation in the United States and, by providing access to higher education, added considerably to the progress of millions of Black Americans. Moreover, to the benefit of their students, faculties, staffs, alumni, and local communities, most HBCUs sponsor intercollegiate athletic teams. No doubt on these campuses, student-athletes are under pressure to meet academic and athletic demands. In this chapter, the central narrative is on the academic and athletic experiences of Black male student-athletes matriculating at HBCUs with National Collegiate Athletic Association affiliation. This chapter adds to the extant literature on the athletic status and academic plight of Black male student-athletes at HBCUs.