<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Companies are confronted with differing public perceptions, which influence the way in which they present their social and environmental responsibilities. Our qualitative study compares the online responsibility communication of two companies from the energy sector: Shell, representing the controversial but profitable oil industry; and Vestas, representing the sustainable wind industry, the financial competitiveness of which is sometimes called into question. The website analysis reveals that both companies engage in inverted positioning. They invert perceived weaknesses into strengths: Shell highlights its social and environmental responsibilities, whereas Vestas, instead of capitalising on its potential as a CSR brand, highlights its economic responsibility. Theoretically, we integrate inverted positioning into a constitutive process model of responsibility communication. Inverted positioning might lead either to a reputational downward spiral, making a company less credible in the longer term, or the public communication of contested responsibilities functions as a self-imposed ambition that can, over time, induce substantial corporate learning processes.</p>
</abstract>

Companies are confronted with differing public perceptions, which influence the way in which they present their social and environmental responsibilities. Our qualitative study compares the online responsibility communication of two companies from the energy sector: Shell, representing the controversial but profitable oil industry; and Vestas, representing the sustainable wind industry, the financial competitiveness of which is sometimes called into question. The website analysis reveals that both companies engage in inverted positioning. They invert perceived weaknesses into strengths: Shell highlights its social and environmental responsibilities, whereas Vestas, instead of capitalising on its potential as a CSR brand, highlights its economic responsibility. Theoretically, we integrate inverted positioning into a constitutive process model of responsibility communication. Inverted positioning might lead either to a reputational downward spiral, making a company less credible in the longer term, or the public communication of contested responsibilities functions as a self-imposed ambition that can, over time, induce substantial corporate learning processes.

Sustainable Oil and Profitable Wind: The communication of corporate responsibilities as inverted positioning

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Companies are confronted with differing public perceptions, which influence the way in which they present their social and environmental responsibilities. Our...

Sustainable Oil and Profitable Wind: The communication of corporate responsibilities as inverted positioning

Published Online: Dec 08, 2017

Page range: 79 - 96

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0404

Keywords
aspirational talk, brownwashing, CCO – Communication Constitutes Organisations, controversial industries, corporate social responsibility, environmental communication

© 2017 Jochen Hoffmann et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Sustainable Oil and Profitable Wind: The communication of corporate responsibilities as inverted positioning

Published Online: Dec 08, 2017

Page range: 79 - 96

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0404

Keywordsaspirational talk, brownwashing, CCO – Communication Constitutes Organisations, controversial industries, corporate social responsibility, environmental communication

© 2017 Jochen Hoffmann et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
aspirational talk, brownwashing, CCO – Communication Constitutes Organisations, controversial industries, corporate social responsibility, environmental communication