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An analysis of corporate environmental responsibility on the global corporate Web sites and their dialogic principles
Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Public Relations Review
Research in brief
An analysis of corporate environmental responsibility on the global corporate Web sites and their dialogic principles Daejoong Kim a,1 , Yoonjae Nam a,∗ , Sinuk Kang b,2 a b
Department of Communication, 359 Baldy Hall, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA Communication Department, Westfield State College, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01085, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 28 August 2009 Received in revised form 15 April 2010 Accepted 27 April 2010 Keywords: Corporate environmental responsibility Dialogic principles Environmental concerns 2008 Fortune 500 Global corporations
a b s t r a c t This study investigated how corporations use their Web sites as a way of helping to build corporate environmental responsibility. A content analysis of 2008 Fortune Global corporate Web sites compared environmental concerns and the use of dialogic principles across three regions (i.e., Asia, Europe, and North America). Results show that about 71% of Web sites have a stand-alone environmental menu as a central location for environmental information, and that Europe is the highest, followed by North America and Asia. The environmental concerns of ‘resources/waste management’ and ‘climate changes’ are more commonly highlighted than are ‘ecosystem’ and ‘environmental governance.’ Furthermore, most Web sites do not fully employ dialogic features, regardless of region. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP, 2007) alerted the world that over the past 20 years, the global environment has been severely degraded due to keenly competitive economic activities. UNEP thus urged that the world’s nations cooperate on environmental protection. This increasing environmental concern has also changed the business environment surrounding corporations. Examples include tight regulations and sanctions governing environmental protection, consumer evaluation of a corporation’s image based on corporate environmental responsibility, and stakeholder awareness that environmental protection is not in conflict with maximization of corporate profits. The new business environment requires corporations to not only do business in an environmentally responsible manner, but also take responsibility to share their perspectives on environmental concerns with the public. This study aims to examine how corporations attempt to utilize their Web sites to fulfill corporate environmental responsibility and consequently build positive public relations. This study first compares at the regional level (i.e., Asia, Europe, and North America), the differences in the degree of corporations’ awareness of environmental concerns and responsibility as reflected on their corporate Web sites. Corporations within individual regions share similar social, economic, and environmental factors. Thus, it is expected that corporations’ identification of environmental concerns and responsibility will differ between regions. Next, this study examines the extent of the employment of dialogic principles (Kent & Taylor, 1998) on corporate Web sites in attempts to inform the public of the environmental concerns, and therefore encourage civic engagement to jointly solve these concerns. Dialogic principles as practical guidelines for Web site design and structure to improve two-way public
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 716 645 2141; fax: +1 716 645 2086. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Kim), [email protected] (Y. Nam), [email protected] (S. Kang). 1 Tel.: +1 716 645 2141; fax: +1 716 645 2086. 2 Tel.: +1 413 572 5746. 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.04.006
286
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
relations include “dialogic loops,” “ease of interface,” “conservation of visitors,” “generation return visits,” and “usefulness of information.” The findings of this study will provide meaningful knowledge of how to better use a Web site as a way of helping to build corporate environmental responsibility. 2. Research questions RQ1: Among the Web sites of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporations, how many have a stand-alone menu clearly labeled “environmental responsibility” or the like, and are there any differences by region? RQ2: What kinds of environmental concerns are presented in the stand-alone “environmental responsibility” menu, and how are they presented differently by region? RQ3: How do corporations employ dialogic principles in the stand-alone “environmental responsibility” menu, and are there any differences by region? 3. Methodology All corporate Web sites linked from the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list (www.Fortune.com) were first examined to determine whether or not they included a stand-alone menu clearly labeled with an environmental title. Among the corporate Web sites having a stand-alone environmental menu, 25 Web sites were randomly selected from each of three regions: Asia, Europe, and North America. A content analysis was then conducted to examine environmental concerns and the employment of dialogic principles included in the pages of the environmental menu. The current environmental concerns classified by UNEP (2007) include “climate change,” “ecosystem management,” “environmental governance,” and “resource/waste management.” The environmental concerns were measured by inclusion of specific issues relating to the environment concerns. For example, global warming, greenhouse gases, and ozone-depleting substances are involved in “climate change”; biodiversity and land/water conservation for “ecosystem”; environmental education and regulations for “environmental governance”; and hazardous material minimization and recycling maximization for “resource/waste management.” Dialogic variables were measured in thirty-five specific features associated with the five principles – “ease of user interface,” “ease of information retrieval,” “opportunity for timely information,” “dialogic loop,” and “generation of return visits,” – which were modified based on Kent and Taylor (1998) and Taylor, Kent, and White’s (2001) classification. For intercoder reliability, five Web sites were assigned to three coders, for which there was a .65 pairwise average of Cohen’s Kappa. 4. Results RQ1: Of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporate Web sites, 333 (71%) have a stand-alone Web page labeled with an environmental menu, such as “environmental responsibilities,” “environment,” and “environmental measures.” Breaking them down by region shows that among the 333 Web sites, European corporate Web sites constitute the largest percentage (N = 158, 86% of 184 Web sites). These are followed by sites from North America (N = 116, 70% of 167 Web sites), Asia (N = 65, 52% of 124 Web sites), and other regions (N = 14, 56% of 25 Web sites) (Table 1). RQ2: To measure the environmental concerns, each item associated with each category of the environmental concerns was first coded dichotomously as yes for the inclusion of the item. Then, the scores were calculated by dividing the number of yes-coded occurrences by the number of total items in each category and converting them to a percentage. The values in Table 2 present the mean and standard deviation scores for all 75 sites and 25 sites per region in each category. Therefore, a higher percentage score indicates that a corporate Web site tends to deal with a broader range of environmental issues associated with each category of environmental concern. Results show that the environmental concerns displayed most frequently on the corporate Web sites are “resource/waste management” (M = 38.3%, SD = 31.9) and “climate changes” (M = 34.3%, SD = 22.7). However, relatively low scores are found on the concerns of “environmental governance” (M = 23.2%, SD = 21.6) and “ecosystem maintenance” (M = 21.7%, SD = 25.5). When compared by region, North America scores higher in “climate change,” “ecosystems,” and “environmental governance” than the other two regions. Europe shows relatively higher scores in “climate change” and “environmental governance” than Asia, but displays the lowest scores in “resource/waste management.” In overall scores, North America (M = 34.7%, SD = 14.4) scores the highest, followed by Europe (M = 27.1%, SD = 14.8) and Asia (M = 26.4%, SD = 20.4). However, statistical significance is found only in the comparison of “climate change” Table 1 Number of corporations’ Web sites with a stand-alone environmental menu by region. Region
Total no. of corporations
No. of corporations’ Web sites with environmental menu
Percent
Asia Europe North America Other regions
124 184 167 25
65 158 116 14
52 86 70 56
Total
500
333
71
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
287
Table 2 Occurrence of environmental concerns by region. Concerns
M/SD Total (N = 75)
Asia (N = 25)
Europe (N = 25)
North America (N = 25)
Climate change Ecosystem Environmental governance Resource and waste management
34.3/22.7 21.7/25.5 23.2/21.6 38.3/31.9
25.5/25.1 21.0/26.7 16.0/18.3 43.0/35.7
33.5/19.3 20.0/27.0 24.8/25.4 30.0/31.5
44.0/20.1 24.0/23.4 28.8/23.4 42.0/27.7
Total
29.4/17.0
26.4/20.4
27.1/14.8
34.7/14.4
by region, F(2, 72) = 4.6, p < .05. A Scheffe post hoc test indicates that there is significance only between Asia and North America (Table 2). RQ3: The calculation for the scores of the dialogic principles is the same as that for the environmental concerns. Thus, a higher percentage score indicates that a corporate Web site use a greater number of features associated with each principle. There is a wide variance of the employment of the five dialogic principles, ranging from 6.9% to 70.9%. The principle for “ease of interface” (M = 70.9%, SD = 17.8) scores the highest, followed by “ease of information retrieval” (M = 69.8%, SD = 18.4), “dialogic loop” (M = 19.3%, SD = 16.8), and “generation of return visits” (M = 11.4%, SD = 10.4). “Opportunity for timely information” (M = 6.9%, SD = 13.8) scores the lowest. When compared by region, significant differences is found for “ease of information retrieval” (F[2,72] = 3.5, p < .05) and “opportunity for timely information” (F[2,72] = 5.3, p < .01). A Scheffe post hoc test reveals that while Europe (M = 12.8%, SD = 17.2) scores significantly higher than North America (M = .8%, SD = 4.0) in the comparison
Table 3 Occurrence of dialogic features by region. Scale or item value
Total (N = 75)
Asia (N = 25)
Europe (N = 25)
North America (N = 25)
Ease of interface (M/SD) Site map Internal link Search engine box Low reliance on graphics Real streaming audio/video Ease of information retrieval (M/SD) Direct links to environmental documents Important info on 1st page Short loading time (<4 s) External links Categorized sub-menus Self-explanatory image maps Multilingual options Print option Opportunity for timely info (M/SD) Info. posted within last 30 days Opportunity for regular info via e-mail Provide today’s news RSS (really simple syndication) Explicit posting last updated time Dialogic loop (M/SD) Opportunity for user response Send a page to friends Message board On-line chat room Physical address Office telephone numbers Cell phone numbers Facsimile numbers E-mail address Return visits (M/SD) Explicit invitation to return Bookmark now News forums Q&A’s Calendar of events Downloadable information Requestable information Make this page your homepage
70.9/17.8 77 95 79 93 11 69.8/18.4 80 49 95 79 93 56 61 45 6.9/13.8 13 3 1 17 – 19.3 (16.8) 75 12 – 1 33 33 1 4 15 11.4 (10.4) – 4 1 8 5 68 5 –
68.8/21.7 72 88 84 92 8 66.0/18.9 76 8 92 80 92 52 72 56 7.2/14.0 16 4 – 16 – 24.0 (21.0) 64 20 – 4 52 48 – 4 24 13.5 (11.9) – 4 – 12 12 68 12 –
74.4/14.7 84 100 80 88 20 66.0/14.5 88 48 100 80 92 20 56 44 12.8/17.2 24 4 4 32 – 20.4 (15.6) 76 12 – – 36 40 4 8 8 10.9 (9.1) – 4 – 12 – 67 4 –
69.6/16.5 76 96 72 100 4 77.5/19.4 76 92 92 76 96 96 56 36 .8/4.0 – – – 4 – 13.8 (11.2) 84 4 – – 12 12 – – 12 10.0 (10.2) – 4 4 – 4 68 – –
Note: These items were observed within the stand-alone menu marked “environmental responsibility” or the like.
288
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
of “opportunity for timely information,” no significance is found in the comparison of “ease of information retrieval” among the three regions (Table 3). 5. Discussions This study reveals that of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporations, 333 corporate Web sites (71%) have a clearly labeled stand-alone menu related to the environment. The proportion seems to be greater when compared to the findings of a previous study (Esrock & Leichty, 1998) which 52% of the Fortune Global 500 corporations displayed environmental concerns across their entire Web site. The differences imply that over the past decade, corporations have increased their awareness of the importance of environmental responsibility. Another finding is that overall, corporations recognize “resources/waste management” as a key environmental concern. After comparing the three regions, “climate change” is found to be a key concern in Europe and North America, while “resources/waste management” is the main concern in Asia. These findings indicate that there are differences in regional environmental concerns. It is assumed that while Europe and North America focus on climate change, possibly because of international agreements on climate change such as the Kyoto Protocol, recent economic growth in Asia necessitates an increased demand on resources and waste management in that region. In contrast, relatively little emphasis is given to the concerns of “environmental governance” and “ecosystem” across all three regions. This finding suggests that corporate Web sites, regardless of region, lack guidelines for “how-to” actions to build a social system, in cooperation with the public, to solve environmental concerns, including ecosystem management. The improvement of environmental conditions cannot be attained by individual corporate efforts alone; rather, it can best be accomplished by close cooperation between a corporation, its stakeholders, and publics in a well-organized system. More important, corporate Web sites regardless of region, do not successfully adopt all dialogic principles in communicating environmental concerns to the public at the environmental menu level. While most Web sites make good use of the dialogic principles in “ease of interface” and “ease of information retrieval,” they lack such two-way dialogic features as “dialogic loop” and “return visits.” Corporate Web sites miss the opportunity to encourage return visits to their environmental sections and fail to offer the public a chance to dialogue with corporations regarding environmental concerns. Consistent with the findings from previous research (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007; McAllister & Taylor, 2007; Taylor et al., 2001), these results imply that although corporations are aware of the potential of the interaction through their Web sites for public relations building, there might be fundamental obstacles to creating two-way dialogic features. One possible obstacle is that employment of two-way dialogic features requires additional staff to assist with the associated services, which leads to increased cost. Another possible obstacle is that corporations only view their Web sites as a tool for building positive images or fulfilling obligations set by external environmental regulations and laws. It must also be remarked that many corporate Web sites do not provide the public with timely environmental information. Only a few Web sites update their environmental section in a timely manner, even those with abundant environmental information. This suggests that once corporations put plentiful environmental information on their Web sites, they fail to update it regularly.In conclusion, this study suggests that corporate Web sites need to go beyond the traditional role of just reporting environmental performance. They should also respond to environmental concerns and provide the public with “how-to” actions to solve those concerns. By including dialogic features for two-way communication at the environmental menu level, furthermore, these Web sites play a role to catalyze corporation and public relations to work together to solve environmental concerns. In doing so, corporate Web sites may contribute to the achievement of corporate environmental responsibility and provide corporations with the opportunity to establish an environmentally responsible image. References Capriotti, P., & Moreno, A. (2007). Corporate citizenship and public relations: The importance and interactivity of social responsibility issues on corporate websites. Public Relation Review, 33, 84–91. Esrock, S. L., & Leichty, G. B. (1998). Social responsibility and corporate web pages: Self-presentation or agenda-setting? Public Relation Review, 24, 305–319. Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relation Review, 24, 321–334. McAllister, S. M., & Taylor, M. (2007). Community college websites as tools for fostering dialogue. Public Relation Review, 33, 230–232. Taylor, M., Kent, M. L., & White, W. J. (2001). How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 27, 263–284. United Nations Environmental Program. (2007). UNEP 2007 annual report. Retrieved August 2, 2008 from http://www.unep.org/PDF/AnnualReport/2007/AnnualReport2007 en web.pdf.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Public Relations Review
Research in brief
An analysis of corporate environmental responsibility on the global corporate Web sites and their dialogic principles Daejoong Kim a,1 , Yoonjae Nam a,∗ , Sinuk Kang b,2 a b
Department of Communication, 359 Baldy Hall, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA Communication Department, Westfield State College, 577 Western Avenue, Westfield, MA 01085, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 28 August 2009 Received in revised form 15 April 2010 Accepted 27 April 2010 Keywords: Corporate environmental responsibility Dialogic principles Environmental concerns 2008 Fortune 500 Global corporations
a b s t r a c t This study investigated how corporations use their Web sites as a way of helping to build corporate environmental responsibility. A content analysis of 2008 Fortune Global corporate Web sites compared environmental concerns and the use of dialogic principles across three regions (i.e., Asia, Europe, and North America). Results show that about 71% of Web sites have a stand-alone environmental menu as a central location for environmental information, and that Europe is the highest, followed by North America and Asia. The environmental concerns of ‘resources/waste management’ and ‘climate changes’ are more commonly highlighted than are ‘ecosystem’ and ‘environmental governance.’ Furthermore, most Web sites do not fully employ dialogic features, regardless of region. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP, 2007) alerted the world that over the past 20 years, the global environment has been severely degraded due to keenly competitive economic activities. UNEP thus urged that the world’s nations cooperate on environmental protection. This increasing environmental concern has also changed the business environment surrounding corporations. Examples include tight regulations and sanctions governing environmental protection, consumer evaluation of a corporation’s image based on corporate environmental responsibility, and stakeholder awareness that environmental protection is not in conflict with maximization of corporate profits. The new business environment requires corporations to not only do business in an environmentally responsible manner, but also take responsibility to share their perspectives on environmental concerns with the public. This study aims to examine how corporations attempt to utilize their Web sites to fulfill corporate environmental responsibility and consequently build positive public relations. This study first compares at the regional level (i.e., Asia, Europe, and North America), the differences in the degree of corporations’ awareness of environmental concerns and responsibility as reflected on their corporate Web sites. Corporations within individual regions share similar social, economic, and environmental factors. Thus, it is expected that corporations’ identification of environmental concerns and responsibility will differ between regions. Next, this study examines the extent of the employment of dialogic principles (Kent & Taylor, 1998) on corporate Web sites in attempts to inform the public of the environmental concerns, and therefore encourage civic engagement to jointly solve these concerns. Dialogic principles as practical guidelines for Web site design and structure to improve two-way public
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 716 645 2141; fax: +1 716 645 2086. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Kim), [email protected] (Y. Nam), [email protected] (S. Kang). 1 Tel.: +1 716 645 2141; fax: +1 716 645 2086. 2 Tel.: +1 413 572 5746. 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2010.04.006
286
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
relations include “dialogic loops,” “ease of interface,” “conservation of visitors,” “generation return visits,” and “usefulness of information.” The findings of this study will provide meaningful knowledge of how to better use a Web site as a way of helping to build corporate environmental responsibility. 2. Research questions RQ1: Among the Web sites of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporations, how many have a stand-alone menu clearly labeled “environmental responsibility” or the like, and are there any differences by region? RQ2: What kinds of environmental concerns are presented in the stand-alone “environmental responsibility” menu, and how are they presented differently by region? RQ3: How do corporations employ dialogic principles in the stand-alone “environmental responsibility” menu, and are there any differences by region? 3. Methodology All corporate Web sites linked from the 2008 Fortune Global 500 list (www.Fortune.com) were first examined to determine whether or not they included a stand-alone menu clearly labeled with an environmental title. Among the corporate Web sites having a stand-alone environmental menu, 25 Web sites were randomly selected from each of three regions: Asia, Europe, and North America. A content analysis was then conducted to examine environmental concerns and the employment of dialogic principles included in the pages of the environmental menu. The current environmental concerns classified by UNEP (2007) include “climate change,” “ecosystem management,” “environmental governance,” and “resource/waste management.” The environmental concerns were measured by inclusion of specific issues relating to the environment concerns. For example, global warming, greenhouse gases, and ozone-depleting substances are involved in “climate change”; biodiversity and land/water conservation for “ecosystem”; environmental education and regulations for “environmental governance”; and hazardous material minimization and recycling maximization for “resource/waste management.” Dialogic variables were measured in thirty-five specific features associated with the five principles – “ease of user interface,” “ease of information retrieval,” “opportunity for timely information,” “dialogic loop,” and “generation of return visits,” – which were modified based on Kent and Taylor (1998) and Taylor, Kent, and White’s (2001) classification. For intercoder reliability, five Web sites were assigned to three coders, for which there was a .65 pairwise average of Cohen’s Kappa. 4. Results RQ1: Of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporate Web sites, 333 (71%) have a stand-alone Web page labeled with an environmental menu, such as “environmental responsibilities,” “environment,” and “environmental measures.” Breaking them down by region shows that among the 333 Web sites, European corporate Web sites constitute the largest percentage (N = 158, 86% of 184 Web sites). These are followed by sites from North America (N = 116, 70% of 167 Web sites), Asia (N = 65, 52% of 124 Web sites), and other regions (N = 14, 56% of 25 Web sites) (Table 1). RQ2: To measure the environmental concerns, each item associated with each category of the environmental concerns was first coded dichotomously as yes for the inclusion of the item. Then, the scores were calculated by dividing the number of yes-coded occurrences by the number of total items in each category and converting them to a percentage. The values in Table 2 present the mean and standard deviation scores for all 75 sites and 25 sites per region in each category. Therefore, a higher percentage score indicates that a corporate Web site tends to deal with a broader range of environmental issues associated with each category of environmental concern. Results show that the environmental concerns displayed most frequently on the corporate Web sites are “resource/waste management” (M = 38.3%, SD = 31.9) and “climate changes” (M = 34.3%, SD = 22.7). However, relatively low scores are found on the concerns of “environmental governance” (M = 23.2%, SD = 21.6) and “ecosystem maintenance” (M = 21.7%, SD = 25.5). When compared by region, North America scores higher in “climate change,” “ecosystems,” and “environmental governance” than the other two regions. Europe shows relatively higher scores in “climate change” and “environmental governance” than Asia, but displays the lowest scores in “resource/waste management.” In overall scores, North America (M = 34.7%, SD = 14.4) scores the highest, followed by Europe (M = 27.1%, SD = 14.8) and Asia (M = 26.4%, SD = 20.4). However, statistical significance is found only in the comparison of “climate change” Table 1 Number of corporations’ Web sites with a stand-alone environmental menu by region. Region
Total no. of corporations
No. of corporations’ Web sites with environmental menu
Percent
Asia Europe North America Other regions
124 184 167 25
65 158 116 14
52 86 70 56
Total
500
333
71
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
287
Table 2 Occurrence of environmental concerns by region. Concerns
M/SD Total (N = 75)
Asia (N = 25)
Europe (N = 25)
North America (N = 25)
Climate change Ecosystem Environmental governance Resource and waste management
34.3/22.7 21.7/25.5 23.2/21.6 38.3/31.9
25.5/25.1 21.0/26.7 16.0/18.3 43.0/35.7
33.5/19.3 20.0/27.0 24.8/25.4 30.0/31.5
44.0/20.1 24.0/23.4 28.8/23.4 42.0/27.7
Total
29.4/17.0
26.4/20.4
27.1/14.8
34.7/14.4
by region, F(2, 72) = 4.6, p < .05. A Scheffe post hoc test indicates that there is significance only between Asia and North America (Table 2). RQ3: The calculation for the scores of the dialogic principles is the same as that for the environmental concerns. Thus, a higher percentage score indicates that a corporate Web site use a greater number of features associated with each principle. There is a wide variance of the employment of the five dialogic principles, ranging from 6.9% to 70.9%. The principle for “ease of interface” (M = 70.9%, SD = 17.8) scores the highest, followed by “ease of information retrieval” (M = 69.8%, SD = 18.4), “dialogic loop” (M = 19.3%, SD = 16.8), and “generation of return visits” (M = 11.4%, SD = 10.4). “Opportunity for timely information” (M = 6.9%, SD = 13.8) scores the lowest. When compared by region, significant differences is found for “ease of information retrieval” (F[2,72] = 3.5, p < .05) and “opportunity for timely information” (F[2,72] = 5.3, p < .01). A Scheffe post hoc test reveals that while Europe (M = 12.8%, SD = 17.2) scores significantly higher than North America (M = .8%, SD = 4.0) in the comparison
Table 3 Occurrence of dialogic features by region. Scale or item value
Total (N = 75)
Asia (N = 25)
Europe (N = 25)
North America (N = 25)
Ease of interface (M/SD) Site map Internal link Search engine box Low reliance on graphics Real streaming audio/video Ease of information retrieval (M/SD) Direct links to environmental documents Important info on 1st page Short loading time (<4 s) External links Categorized sub-menus Self-explanatory image maps Multilingual options Print option Opportunity for timely info (M/SD) Info. posted within last 30 days Opportunity for regular info via e-mail Provide today’s news RSS (really simple syndication) Explicit posting last updated time Dialogic loop (M/SD) Opportunity for user response Send a page to friends Message board On-line chat room Physical address Office telephone numbers Cell phone numbers Facsimile numbers E-mail address Return visits (M/SD) Explicit invitation to return Bookmark now News forums Q&A’s Calendar of events Downloadable information Requestable information Make this page your homepage
70.9/17.8 77 95 79 93 11 69.8/18.4 80 49 95 79 93 56 61 45 6.9/13.8 13 3 1 17 – 19.3 (16.8) 75 12 – 1 33 33 1 4 15 11.4 (10.4) – 4 1 8 5 68 5 –
68.8/21.7 72 88 84 92 8 66.0/18.9 76 8 92 80 92 52 72 56 7.2/14.0 16 4 – 16 – 24.0 (21.0) 64 20 – 4 52 48 – 4 24 13.5 (11.9) – 4 – 12 12 68 12 –
74.4/14.7 84 100 80 88 20 66.0/14.5 88 48 100 80 92 20 56 44 12.8/17.2 24 4 4 32 – 20.4 (15.6) 76 12 – – 36 40 4 8 8 10.9 (9.1) – 4 – 12 – 67 4 –
69.6/16.5 76 96 72 100 4 77.5/19.4 76 92 92 76 96 96 56 36 .8/4.0 – – – 4 – 13.8 (11.2) 84 4 – – 12 12 – – 12 10.0 (10.2) – 4 4 – 4 68 – –
Note: These items were observed within the stand-alone menu marked “environmental responsibility” or the like.
288
D. Kim et al. / Public Relations Review 36 (2010) 285–288
of “opportunity for timely information,” no significance is found in the comparison of “ease of information retrieval” among the three regions (Table 3). 5. Discussions This study reveals that of the 2008 Fortune Global 500 corporations, 333 corporate Web sites (71%) have a clearly labeled stand-alone menu related to the environment. The proportion seems to be greater when compared to the findings of a previous study (Esrock & Leichty, 1998) which 52% of the Fortune Global 500 corporations displayed environmental concerns across their entire Web site. The differences imply that over the past decade, corporations have increased their awareness of the importance of environmental responsibility. Another finding is that overall, corporations recognize “resources/waste management” as a key environmental concern. After comparing the three regions, “climate change” is found to be a key concern in Europe and North America, while “resources/waste management” is the main concern in Asia. These findings indicate that there are differences in regional environmental concerns. It is assumed that while Europe and North America focus on climate change, possibly because of international agreements on climate change such as the Kyoto Protocol, recent economic growth in Asia necessitates an increased demand on resources and waste management in that region. In contrast, relatively little emphasis is given to the concerns of “environmental governance” and “ecosystem” across all three regions. This finding suggests that corporate Web sites, regardless of region, lack guidelines for “how-to” actions to build a social system, in cooperation with the public, to solve environmental concerns, including ecosystem management. The improvement of environmental conditions cannot be attained by individual corporate efforts alone; rather, it can best be accomplished by close cooperation between a corporation, its stakeholders, and publics in a well-organized system. More important, corporate Web sites regardless of region, do not successfully adopt all dialogic principles in communicating environmental concerns to the public at the environmental menu level. While most Web sites make good use of the dialogic principles in “ease of interface” and “ease of information retrieval,” they lack such two-way dialogic features as “dialogic loop” and “return visits.” Corporate Web sites miss the opportunity to encourage return visits to their environmental sections and fail to offer the public a chance to dialogue with corporations regarding environmental concerns. Consistent with the findings from previous research (Capriotti & Moreno, 2007; McAllister & Taylor, 2007; Taylor et al., 2001), these results imply that although corporations are aware of the potential of the interaction through their Web sites for public relations building, there might be fundamental obstacles to creating two-way dialogic features. One possible obstacle is that employment of two-way dialogic features requires additional staff to assist with the associated services, which leads to increased cost. Another possible obstacle is that corporations only view their Web sites as a tool for building positive images or fulfilling obligations set by external environmental regulations and laws. It must also be remarked that many corporate Web sites do not provide the public with timely environmental information. Only a few Web sites update their environmental section in a timely manner, even those with abundant environmental information. This suggests that once corporations put plentiful environmental information on their Web sites, they fail to update it regularly.In conclusion, this study suggests that corporate Web sites need to go beyond the traditional role of just reporting environmental performance. They should also respond to environmental concerns and provide the public with “how-to” actions to solve those concerns. By including dialogic features for two-way communication at the environmental menu level, furthermore, these Web sites play a role to catalyze corporation and public relations to work together to solve environmental concerns. In doing so, corporate Web sites may contribute to the achievement of corporate environmental responsibility and provide corporations with the opportunity to establish an environmentally responsible image. References Capriotti, P., & Moreno, A. (2007). Corporate citizenship and public relations: The importance and interactivity of social responsibility issues on corporate websites. Public Relation Review, 33, 84–91. Esrock, S. L., & Leichty, G. B. (1998). Social responsibility and corporate web pages: Self-presentation or agenda-setting? Public Relation Review, 24, 305–319. Kent, M. L., & Taylor, M. (1998). Building dialogic relationships through the World Wide Web. Public Relation Review, 24, 321–334. McAllister, S. M., & Taylor, M. (2007). Community college websites as tools for fostering dialogue. Public Relation Review, 33, 230–232. Taylor, M., Kent, M. L., & White, W. J. (2001). How activist organizations are using the Internet to build relationships. Public Relations Review, 27, 263–284. United Nations Environmental Program. (2007). UNEP 2007 annual report. Retrieved August 2, 2008 from http://www.unep.org/PDF/AnnualReport/2007/AnnualReport2007 en web.pdf.