Fake, Faulty, and Authentic Stand-Taking: What Determines the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Advocacy?

TLDR

Prior research has rarely examined the legitimacy gaps between public expectations and corporate social advocacy, particularly the factual gap of value inconsistency and the conformity gap of expectation–performance incongruity. The study experimentally investigates the preconditions for legitimizing corporate social advocacy within strategic communication. The authors classify CSA initiatives into authentic, faulty, and fake based on the factual and conformity gaps. The survey shows that bridging the factual and conformity gaps is essential, and authentic CSA initiatives—those aligning moral values with public expectations—yield higher legitimacy perceptions and greater behavioral willingness, fulfilling strategic communication goals and fostering mutual understanding.

Abstract

This study experimentally interrogates the critical preconditions of how an organization legitimizes its corporate social advocacy (CSA) initiatives as an integral part of strategic communication. A 2 × 2 factorial design survey (N = 398) indicates that companies must find a way to bridge two perceptual gaps −a factual gap and a conformity gap. The factual gap refers to perceived inconsistency of values – that is, that the company may not walk its talk on moral values. In contrast, the conformity gap refers to values incongruity between public expectations and corporate performance. Using these two conceptual constructs, we classify CSA initiatives into authentic, faulty, and fake. Authentic CSA initiatives project clear corporate moral values and meet public value expectations; unsurprisingly, they are found to generate more substantial perceptions of legitimacy and more positive behavioral willingness than other types of CSA initiative. Previously, few attempts to measure experimentally the legitimacy gaps that frequently arise between public expectations and companies’ actual CSA performance. The authentic CSA could not only fulfill corporate strategic communication missions but also generate the legitimate end of mutual understanding between the organization and the publics.