28.10.2011Corporate Communication Conference, Amsterdam

The use of communication media for sustainability communication in small- and medium sized enterprises

Nicole GieseResearch AssociateCentre for Sustainability Management (CSM)Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Germanywww.leuphana.de/csm

Introduction

Corporate Sustainability Communication (CSC) is characterized by social, ecological and economic information as well as their interdependences between them.

(Elkington, 1998)

The objective of this paper is to obtain insights about the CSC Management in SMEs by analyzing the communication process of a sustainability-oriented SME in a single case study.

Two theoretical approaches motivated this research a) Media Richness Theoryb) Media Synchronicity Theory

Research question

What are the relevant criteria which are

driving the deployment of CSC media

in SMEs and why?

Use of few formal instruments, i.e. formalized tools, such as codes, reports, and social, environmental, and ethical

standards (Russo & Tencati 2009: 340), and corporate magazines and

newsletters (Murillo and Lozano, 2006; Perrini et al., 2007).

Embedded in the local society, SMEs prefer a

direct and informal stakeholder dialogue

(Spence et al., 2000; Graafland et al., 2003).

Especially informal tools, i.e. tools

without standardization, play a major role for SMEs (Russo and Tencati, 2009). Ad-hoc activities, day-to-

day decisions without measurement because of a lack of resources (Russo

& Tencati 2009).

CSC is very often neither integrated in

the existing management, nor part

of the corporate strategy (Nielsen and

Thomson, 2009).

CSC in SMEs is primarily informal, unsystematic and does not face its

relevance (Nielsen and Thomsen, 2009; cf. Preuss

and Perschke, 2010).

Research approach: sample, methodology, data collection and design

- Bohlsener Mühle V. Krause e. K., owner-managed watermill located in Lower-Saxony, Germany (1979)

- producing and trading with corn products like bread, cakes, cereals, cracker, convenience food, etc. (157 products without fresh bakery products) completely organic and mostly regional

- own brand and private labels in Germany and abroad

- annual turnover of round about 22 million of euros

- 160 people, professional education for such as eight careers. Methodology, data collection and data processing

- qualitative case study (Yin, 2003; Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007), following an in-depth study of a single-case in order to contribute to theory

- the data has been conducted out of multiple sources for the reason of triangulation (Yin, 2003) including semi-structured interviews, observation for three days nonparticipating (Bernard, 2006) and documentation available in the public domain

Sample

Main findings

External communication

- public-relation (PR) reports, advertisements, its homepage, brochures, flyer, public events, trade fairs and guided tours through the location e. g. for school classes

- mainly used media: trade fairs and public relations activities. This media transmit information about the core business and the philosophy of the company

- the safest and most applicable media to communicate sustainability information are trade fairs, PR-activities and lectures

- the internet is used for the homepage and for PR-publications - Regarding social media, the head of marketing stated that not all tools are

seen serious enough to communicate sustainability information- a webcam shows the latest steps of the company´s projects, e. g. the

actual plant extension- in general, the selected company uses informal instruments, like open

door-days, open discussions, mouth-to-mouth-communication and voluntary participation in the local region

- few formal CSC instruments come to more practice with suppliers and major customers (EU-ecolabel or Bioland)

In general

- no formal CSC strategy- but the results seem to suggest that there is an implied CSC strategy

Main findings

Internal communication

- all the mentioned media for external communication- in addition, informal media like the black board or meetings are used as

well as short breaks- lunchroom, , terrace and coffee-corner with handmade bread and

marmalade is offered the whole day. Although there is a meeting room, the most talks between the employees take place in the coffee corner

- it is more common to have little chat then to write an email or even to call each other

Conclusion

- the main medium for CSC in SME is face-to-face communication

- the choice of formal or informal instruments also seems to depend on the geographical distance. In local context, informal tools seem to be more effective; with more distance, information needs to be more formalized. An explanation could be the link to credibility and trust: the local region is much connected with the company, knows the owner and the watermill itself has a long-time history. This is decreasing with distance and less popularity

- the findings of the case study revealed that a formal CSC strategy like it is used in large companies does not fit with SMEs and even that it is not useful to SMEs for CSC

BACK UP

Introduction: Definiton and character of CSC

Corporate Sustainability Communication (CSC) is characterized by social, ecological and economic information as well as their interdependences between them (Elkington, 1998).

CSC stresses special challenges on the communication management because the CSC topics vary from biodiversity and working conditions to carbon accounting in the supply chain and the recipients of that information could be an expert or a layman – both just with an interest for the company in common.

Moreover information about corporate sustainability has several tasks, e. g. to inform, to appreciate something, to change understanding, etc. Against this background, this information can be characterized as “rich” information (Daft and Lengel, 1984). For a successful coping of its tasks, rich information needs a rich medium which is able to transmit the information to the addressee.

The objective of this paper is to obtain insights about the CSC Management in SMEs by analyzing the communication process of a sustainability-oriented SME in a single case study.

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Two theoretical approaches motivated this research:media richness and media synchronicity.

Both emphasize how communication media differ in the extent to which they(a) can overcome various communication constraints of time, location, permanence, distribution, and distance; b) transmit the social, symbolic, and nonverbal cues of human communication; and (c) convey equivocal information (Rice, 1993).

A successful communication process depends on the applicable medium(Daft and Lengel, 1984).

In comparison to Media Richness Theory which is oriented around task-level activities, “Media Synchronicity conceptualizes tasks as made up of both conveyance and convergence processes and consider more advanced electroniccommunications media” (Dennis et al., 1998).

Media Synchronicity is defined as „ the extent to which individuals work together on the same activity at the same time; i.e., have a shared focus” (Dennis and Valacich, 1999: 5

Research approach: Research question and theoretical framework

Conclusion

- the main medium for CSC in SME is face-to-face communication, because…

within CSC is much rich information which needs to be transmitted with a rich medium. This medium has to allow synchronicity as well.

a lack of resources could be a motivation to use a less expensive or time-intensive medium (it could be noted that a personal and direct communication is not as expensive as it is in larger companies

- the choice of formal or informal instruments also seems to depend on the geographical distance. In local context, informal tools seem to be more effective; with more distance, information needs to be more formalized. An explanation could be the link to credibility and trust: the local region is much connected with the company, knows the owner and the watermill itself has a long-time history. This is decreasing with distance and less popularity.

- the findings of the case study revealed that a formal CSC strategy like it is used in large companies does not fit with SMEs and even that it is not useful to SMEs for CSC