Co-Creating Dialogue in Corporate Social Responsibility Communications

Co-creation theory has reconfigured conventional boundaries between production and consumption and promoted dialogue as a key mechanism for facilitating corporate-consumer engagement. However the interactive process of dialogue remains largely overlooked and this paper contends that service research can be enriched by drawing upon a theoretical lens from a more mature dialogical scholarship, most notably, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature, which provides substantial insight into processes of stakeholder engagement. In addressing the core question of how do corporations and consumers co-create CSR in online dialogue, this empirical research paper reviews conceptions of dialogue operating within service research and CSR scholarship. It offers alternative approaches to understanding dialogue drawn from CSR literature, suggesting that a postmodern reading of Bakhtinian dialogism (1986) may enhance understanding of dialogue within co-creation. Preliminary findings from a discursive analysis of CSR dialogues operating in four retail Facebook pages are provided, illuminating the roles and strategies of consumers and corporations in co-creating CSR in online dialogue.