SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION OF THE AIRLINES IN SOUTH KOREA -Current CSR Practices and Strategic Implications (original) (raw)

The purpose of the study was to disclose and evaluate practices related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the airline industry of the Republic of Korea. Contents on corporate websites, online news articles and sustainability reports were assessed in order to evaluate the CSR practices. The study was based on the perspective of legislation theory suggesting firms within the society voluntarily disclose CSR information to avoid social and government sanctions. Content analysis was employed to identify specific CSR practices and then sort them into proposed categories and themes for research and discussion. Of seven airlines, only the full service carriers (FSCs), Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, voluntarily issued annual sustainability reports for the year of 2014, which were publicly available in January 2016. At the same time, all seven Korean carriers disclosed their CSR practices through online news articles or their corporate websites in the same year. Although low cost carriers (LCCs) reported fewer CSR practices than FSCs, two LCCs partially-funded by local governments reported more complete, well-organized CSR practices than other LCCs whose CSR practices were mainly centered on community sponsorship and charity involvement. Two subsidiaries of Korea’s two largest airlines implement CSR practices similar to their parent companies’; however, the number of specific practices was fewer than their parent companies'. A case which might be interpreted as 'greenwashing' was found in one LCC, which may raise suspicions among stakeholders regarding the sincerity and integrity of its CSR practices. Corporate CSR strategies that intentionally targeted specific audiences using carefully chosen media were also observed among FSCs. In particular, CSR practices related to environmental impact were described extensively in sustainability reports, but had limited coverage in the other two channels targeting the general public. Moreover, in some cases, stakeholders or management are perceived as the beneficiary of a CSR activity. Such cases may harm corporate legitimacy instead of achieving the expected outcomes. In the part of conclusion, strategic implications were offered to each airline, grounded on their disclosed CSR practices and the necessity of employing CSR practices fit to the corporate missions of the airlines was underlined, beyond simple activities concerned with corporate philantrophy. With increasing consumer awareness of CSR, South Korean airlines might have a stronger obligation to disclose their CSR efforts as a part of their overall corporate strategies to enhance legitimacy. Accordingly, as one of the first studies analyzing CSR communication in the South Korean airline industry, this research offers practical information that can be used to improve the South Korean airline industry's CSR reporting and management strategies. Keywords: corporate social responsibility, sustainability, airlines, content analysis, Korea