Social Media in Sustainability Reporting: A Systematic Literature Review of Stakeholder Engagement, Sentiment, and Impact
Keywords:
Social Media, Sustainability Reporting, Stakeholder Engagement, Sentiment, ESG CommunicationAbstract
Purpose:
The paper is a systematic review of the expanding literature on the use of social media in sustainability reporting and in particular stakeholder engagement, sentiment formation and the impact on the organization.
Methodology:
The sources were systematically searched according to SLR instructions and PRISMA. Scopus was selected as the source of peer-reviewed journal articles that were identified based on preset inclusion and exclusion criteria and retrieved. Thematic synthesis and gap analysis techniques were used on one final sample of 30 empirical studies.
Findings:
The review has found four predominant themes which are social media practices in sustainability reporting, dynamics of stakeholder engagement, sentiment formation and perception by the society and organizational and societal impact. The results show that there is a change in status quo disclosure to the narrative-based digital communication. The relationships between sustainability communication and impact have a Stakeholder engagement as an intermediary, and Sentiment as an indicator of reputational risk. Nevertheless, data are still partial, platform specific and are restricted in their methodological capacity.
Implications:
The research adds to the cohesive conceptual framework that connects the social media practices, engagement, sentiment, and impact. It signifies the necessity of longitudinal studies, multimodal analytics, new market studies, and governance-based investigation in order to enhance theoretical progress and practice applicability.
Originality / Value:
The review provides one of the earliest comprehensive syntheses of engagement, sentiment, and impact as part of sustainability reporting based on social media as a roadmap of future research and policy-making.
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