Abstract
This chapter explores how the luxury firms communicate their commitments promoting sustainable development and evaluating how these firms create a dialogue in social media with stakeholders. Moreover, the authors analyze how luxury firms get involved with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals explaining the activities they communicate to contribute to society. The methodology used in this research is based on case studies identifying the specific actions of luxury fashion and accessories brands, such as LVMH, Kering, Richemont, CHANEL, Essilor Luxottica, Chow Tai Fook, PVH, and Swatch Group. The results show that all luxury fashion and accessories firms include information on the SDGs on LinkedIn communicating how they contribute to achieving the SDGs with a set of activities, although there is room for improvement to increase the communication that is made in favour of the SDGs, as shown in their sustainability reports.
TopIntroduction
Corporate Social Responsibility is essential for companies in the current global context and even more since the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is influencing companies to be sustainable (Barnett et al., 2020) and responsible to benefit society. Moreover, firms need to understand the new expectations of stakeholders having the opportunity to improve the stakeholders´ engagement through social media content. Firms can invite stakeholders to participate in CSR activities publishing their opinions about company activities (Buallay et al., 2020).
Recent reports show that sustainability gives several opportunities to luxury brands to engage consumers in social media (McKinsey & Company, 2022). Also, the literature shows that consumers are interested in sustainable practices and CSR in the luxury industry (Thomas, 2018; Khan & Sung, 2021). As a consequence, CSR communication can increase the stakeholders´ engagement creating a dialogue in social media and exploring the interests and capturing their attention and interaction in CSR issues (Okazaki et al., 2020; Barbeito-Caamaño & Chalmeta, 2020; Hartmann et al., 2020). Because some scholars discover a positive impact of sustainability in luxury firms on perceptions, consumers also respond in a positive manner when they receive CSR information (Jin et al., 2017). Therefore, social media gives the opportunity to promote CSR actions inviting people in a real dialogue to participate in sustainability (Dunn, Harness, 2018).
As a consequence, there are multiple possibilities for luxury brands to participate in social networks, which can be reflected through the specific contributions to the 17 SDGs of the 2030 Agenda, where aspects related to sustainability and social commitment are increasingly demanded by the different stakeholders (Bain & Co, 2020). Thus, companies can communicate their actions and invite them to give their opinion on issues with a global impact that affects their business. Although the literature analyzes the communication in different social networks, however, there is scarce literature focused on their communication on LinkedIn (Huang et al., 2019).
To contribute to the study of the communication of the SDGs to society beyond sustainability reporting, this chapter explores how the luxury firms communicate their commitments promoting sustainable development and evaluating how these firms create a dialogue in social media with stakeholders. Because of that, the objective of this chapter is to know how luxury fashion and accessories brands create a stakeholder engagement through social media inviting people to participate in the SDGs when these firms promote their CSR activities. To do this evaluation, the authors study what some luxury brands communicate on LinkedIn from a sustainable perspective.
The evaluation shows that the communication strategy of luxury firms is sometimes consistent with the information that these firms include in their sustainability reports. In general, these activities are influenced by the impact of COVID-19 and sustainability represents a challenge for these companies in this decade, as reflected in the chapter analysis.
Key Terms in this Chapter
LinkedIN: Professional social network where people and companies connect with different objectives, such as sharing business information. The communication carried out by companies is especially focused on corporate communication aimed at their different stakeholders.
Corporate Social Responsibility: A term that refers to the responsibility of companies and their voluntary contribution and positive impact on the environment and society and considering the expectation of stakeholders.
Sustainability Report: A report that describes the efforts of companies in terms of different related criteria such as environmental, social, and governance (ESG).
CSR Communication: It is the strategy of an organization to provide true information of its business operations, social and environmental concerns, and interactions with stakeholders in online/offline channels.
SDG: Each of the 17 goals of the Agenda 2030 grouped by themes affecting the planet.
Agenda 2030: This agenda is a global plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity for all the countries and acting in collaborative partnership through 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets that involve the society as a whole.
Stakeholder Engagement: It is the interaction of firms with their stakeholders using a variety of channels in social media to build and strengthen a connection with them in the long term.