Formative Perspectives on the Relation Between CSR Communication and CSR Practices: Pathways for Walking, Talking, and T(w)alking

TLDR

CSR research has long debated how CSR practices and CSR communication relate, with recent interest focusing on formative perspectives that view communication as constitutive of CSR practices. This article surveys the diverse formative views within CSR communication scholarship. The authors classify these views into three orientations—walking‑to‑talk, talking‑to‑walk, and t(w)alking—based on differing temporal dynamics and the nature of the object formed through communication. The resulting typology organizes the emerging field and offers a roadmap for future research.

Abstract

Within the burgeoning corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication literature, the question of the relationship between CSR practices and CSR communication (or between “walk” and “talk”) has been a central concern. Recently, we observe a growing interest in formative views on the relation between CSR communication and practices, that is, works which ascribe to communication a constitutive role in creating, maintaining, and transforming CSR practices. This article provides an overview of the heterogeneous landscape of formative views on CSR communication scholarship. More specifically, we distinguish between three variants of such formative views: walking-to-talk, talking-to-walk, and t(w)alking. These three orientations differ primarily regarding the temporal dynamics that they ascribe to the relation between CSR communication and practices and regarding the object that is formed through communication. This new typology helps systematize the emerging field of research on CSR communication, and we use it as a compass to provide directions for future research in this area.