CSR Communication Research: A Theoretical-cum-Methodological Perspective From Semiotics
从符号学视角提出评估企业社会责任沟通质量的理论兼方法论框架，并应用于英国富时100公司，构建了报告质量模型，对政策制定者和企业设计报告标准有指导意义。
Despite the proliferation of studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is a lack of consensus and a cardinal methodological base for research on the quality of CSR communication. Over the decades, studies in this space have remained conflicting, unintegrated, and sometimes overlapping. Drawing on semiotics—a linguistic-based theoretical and analytical tool, our article explores an alternative perspective to evaluating the quality and reliability of sustainability reports. Our article advances CSR communication research by introducing a theoretical-cum-methodological perspective which provides unique insights into how to evaluate the quality of CSR communication. Particularly, we illustrate the application of our proposed methodology on selected U.K. FTSE 100 companies. Our two-phased analysis employed the Greimas Canonical Narrative Schema and the Semiotic Square of Veridiction in drawing meanings from selected sustainability/CSR reports. In addition, we present a distinctive CSR report quality model capable of guiding policy makers and firms in designing sustainability/CSR reporting standards.