A Theoretical Framework Towards Mutual Sustainability Communication

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a buzzword in the corporate world since the 1970s, the responsibility for CSR was often shared by different departments, for example, community engagement, corporate communication, and marketing. Of late, there is a progressive shift towards a more integrated CSR approach that focuses on sustainability within all business processes in line with the triple context (people, planet, profit). Underlying this shift is a change from a focus on business responsibility towards society to a focus on the sustainability of both business and society (mutual sustainability). Generally, literature on CSR communication is not yet reflecting this integrated approach towards mutual sustainability. The focus is either on communication about CSR, rooted in the subject field of corporate communication, that supports business sustainability or communication in CSR from a development communication perspective that supports societal sustainability. When considering the current shift in industry, it is evident that the conceptual focus of CSR communication should also change from either a corporate or development communication perspective to an integrated approach, focusing on mutual sustainability. This chapter aims to propose a theoretical framework to inform mutual sustainability communication and to evaluate the practical relevance of the framework with practitioners.