NPOs' Voice in CSR Partnership: An Exploratory Study Using Topic Modeling

The present study aims to identify and interpret the emerging strategies employed by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in communicating with their business partners on Twitter. A computer-assisted content analysis was applied to analyze 5,661 tweets posted by 65 NPOs. The study identified three corporate social responsibility communication strategies, which were characterized by a distinctive emphasis on stakeholder engagement. We analyzed NPOs that targeted different issues-initiated corporate social responsibility partnership conversations at varying levels by adopting self-promotional, partner-oriented, and balanced-interest strategies to justify and promote their relationships with multiple stakeholders on Twitter. This exploratory study contributes to the scant research on cross-sector social partnerships communication from a nonprofit perspective and adds nonprofit-specific evidence to the existing theories and practices.