Purpose: The objective of this paper is to propose a taxonomy of sustainability communication (SC) topics that provide digital content managers with a guide for setting a sustainability content agenda and for fostering stakeholder engagement mechanisms on environmental, social and economic issues that increasingly characterize conversations on social media of all stakeholder groups.Design/methodology/approach: Taxonomy is a conceptual and qualitative way used to classify and represent the corporate sustainability (CS) domain of knowledge. The taxonomy categories of SC topics are both theoretically and empirically derived, combining an in-depth literature review with a thematic content analysis of 300 web pages of the corporate websites of the top ten sustainable brands selected in “The 2019 GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey.”Findings: The analysis of the results led to the construction of a hierarchical dictionary of tags that categorizes all sustainability topics based on a new, four-dimensional conceptual structure: planet, people, profit and governance. Each dimension is organized in four groups of sustainability themes, which, in turn, group multiple topics, considered the smallest communication unit to develop the SC content.Practical implications: The taxonomy provides a concise and immediate conceptual framework on all those topics of broader interest, which, suitably modulated, can act as touch points with several groups of stakeholders. Drawn upon the best practices of thematic organization of SCs via the web, the taxonomy represents a guide for programming an editorial plan based on environmental, social, economic and governance issues from a sustainability content marketing perspective. The taxonomy of sustainability topics also finds application as a framework for a content intelligent system, providing a dictionary of tags that can be used for the indexing and retrieval of SC web content.Originality/value: The study represents the first attempt at reaching a taxonomic organization of the sustainability aspects from a communicational perspective, supporting a new way of thinking and managing SC in the digital realm. Moreover, the results highlight, for the first time, that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory, applied to corporate communications, lacks the governance aspect, which is essential to pursue sustainability consistently and effectively.

Business model innovation (BMI) is a topic that has attracted significant interest from both researchers and academics. While research has suggested that there are associations between BMI and corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as between BMI and firm performance (FP), we lack theoretical substantiation and empirical verification of these relationships. This study proposes that BMI mediates the link between CSR and FP. This research aims to investigate the mediating role of BMI between various aspects of CSR, introduced by Carroll, and the performance of medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Iran. To achieve the research aim, 483 questionnaires were gathered from SMEs in Iran. To evaluate the conceptual model’s validity, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. The results of this study show that BMI mediates the relationship between all the aspects of CSR introduced by Carroll and FP and only does not mediate the relationship between the environmental dimension and FP. As far as we know, this investigation is among the earliest to explore the relationship between BMI and CSR dimensions through mediation. In response to the increasing significance of environmental issues, this research incorporates a fresh element, namely environmental responsibility, into Carroll’s model. Managers can gain a better understanding of CSR and its impact on FP from the results of this research. This study reveals that managers emphasize certain aspects of CSR which can influence BMI and FP.

Purpose: For companies that intend to respond to the modern conscious consumers' needs, a great competitive advantage is played on the ability to incorporate sustainability messages in marketing communications. The aim of this paper is to address this important priority in the web context, building a semantic algorithm that allows content managers to evaluate the quality of sustainability web contents for search engines, considering the current semantic web development.Design/methodology/approach: Following the Design Science (DS) methodological approach, the study develops the algorithm as an artefact capable of solving a practical problem and improving the operation of content managerial process.Findings: The algorithm considers multiple factors of evaluation, grouped in three parameters: completeness, clarity and consistency. An applicability test of the algorithm was conducted on a sample of web pages of the Google blog on sustainability to highlight the correspondence between the established evaluation factors and those actually used by Google.Practical implications: Studying content marketing for sustainability communication constitutes a new field of research that offers exciting opportunities. Writing sustainability contents in an effective way is a fundamental step to trigger stakeholder engagement mechanisms online. It could be a positive social engineering technique in the hands of marketers to make web users able to pursue sustainable development in their choices.Originality/value: This is the first study that creates a theoretical connection between digital content marketing and sustainability communication focussing, especially, on the aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). The algorithm of “Sustainability-contents SEO” is the first operational software tool, with a regulatory nature, that is able to analyse the web contents, detecting the terms of the sustainability language and measuring the compliance to SEO requirements.

National policymakers are now faced with the challenge of implementing the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and achieving the scopes envisioned through its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) worldwide. Diversity discrimination and social inequalities often responsible for sociopolitical uncertainty are at the heart of the agenda. Increasingly, corporations are pushed to take a public stance on controversial issues, promoting social improvements through their power to lead social change. This phenomenon is known in the academic literature as brand activism (BA). Many companies, for example, are exposing themselves to the need to cope with the equality gap that still exists on aspects such as gender, race and age, especially those operating in the beauty and personal care industry. The purpose of this paper is to explore how BA is being used as a driver for equality and inclusion, supporting the achievement of the related SDGs 5 and 10. Through a comparative analysis of the two inclusive brands Dove and L’Oréal, this study aims to capture BA under different corporate strategies in terms of stated values, initiatives and digital communication. Both theoretical and managerial perspectives are offered in the study, which emphasizes that different activist approaches can be successful, provided strong and consistent values are adhered to. The findings of this research show that although the two brands use different activist approaches, one more communicative and the other less so, both are successful because they reflect authentic and consistent values that are considered positively by consumers. Therefore, the study questions the dominant view that BA authenticity is linked to marketing, placing greater emphasis on prosocial corporate practices over communication.