Johnson-Young Publishes Article

Professor Elizabeth Johnson-Young and a research partner recently published the article “The CSR paradox: when a social responsibility campaign can tarnish a brand” in the peer-reviewed journal, Corporate Communications: An International Journal. The article looks at instances when a social campaign can hurt a brand even though it may successfully raise concerns for the campaign issues. The paper presents results of an experiment looking at prevention v. promotion-framed messages in a real-world CSR campaign to understand differences in concerns for the campaign issues and attitudes towards the sponsoring corporate brand. Results indicated that, even when message framing produced strong concerns for the issues, negative effects of the message framing were directed at the brand itself. The publication is now available online and will be in the next printed journal as well.