Silke Niehoff

Purpose: Social media platforms, such as Twitter, offer companies the opportunity to interact with their stakeholders, thereby explaining and legitimising their business activities and further developing their CSR practices. In reality, however, Twitter is often not used dialogically. While research on corporate stakeholder engagement online has provided several explanations for the absence of dialogue, the question arises as to what role commercial social media can play in engaging stakeholders in the context of CSR and how this role can be conceptualised. By adopting the perspective that “communication constitutes organisation”, this study seeks to answer this question and broaden the understanding of corporate stakeholder engagement on social media and legitimisation beyond the conceptual boundaries of “real” stakeholder dialogue. Design/methodology/approach: We apply qualitative analysis to tweets from companies listed on the German stock index (DAX) and analyse conversations containing key hashtags used by climate activists. The underlying assumption is that companies using hashtags that are “charged” with certain meanings on Twitter respond to social expectations by creating stakeholder engagement images. We develop an analytical framework that is based on, firstly, the openness of companies to interact with their stakeholders, as demonstrated by the use of elements that favour dialogue, and secondly, the characterisation of post contents as distancing from the societal expectations or confirming the societal expectations. Findings: We reconstruct four basic types of stakeholder engagement images: the “Aspiration”, “Appearance”, “Argumentation” and “Attack” images. The “Aspiration” image is mainly about what could be, which can have a performative and transformative effect even if aspirational talk is not fully translated into action. The “Appearance” image seems to be geared towards fixation and leaves little room for interaction, negotiation and change. The “Argumentation” image has the potential to challenge, influence and affect the boundaries of an organisation. The tweets under the “Attack” image contain one-sided conflicts that usually remain without interaction. Research limitations/implications: Due to the qualitative nature of the present study and its limitation to a specific sample, the developed framework cannot be generalised to other contexts without further research. Another limitation is the rapidly changing context of social media research. In our case, this is exacerbated by the change of ownership of Twitter and its transformation into X. This further limits the collection of data for scientific purposes, making it unlikely that a similar, information-rich sample of tweets could be created at a later point in time. Practical implications: The novel framework could be used by companies to assess their communication from a novel perspective. It might be interesting to review whether specific CSR topics influence the occurrence and frequency of certain images, if some images in general occur more often than others, and how images are distributed and developed over a longer period or related to certain occasions. Social implications: In a rapidly changing environment, effective stakeholder communication is crucial, yet companies face greater challenges and risks. This study aims to identify ways to analyse and facilitate productive stakeholder communication in a digital society. Originality/value: In this study, we empirically address the topics of stakeholder engagement and legitimisation in a digital society by offering an approach that recognises communication's constitutive role in engagement. Applying the novel framework we have developed and examining the performativity and impact of the reconstructed images – for instance, on the roles of dissent, struggle and aspiration – can provide a rich basis for further theoretical and practical insights into stakeholder engagement and legitimisation on social media.

In times of multiple environmental and social crises, corporate communication and engagement practices related to sustainability, summarized here under the umbrella concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), are becoming increasingly important. Social media has the potential to support interaction between companies and their stakeholders in the context of CSR. However, the current form of social media is not designed to support dialogic interaction, making the realization of this potential difficult. Nevertheless, this study argues that social media can still fulfill functions that support stakeholder engagement for CSR. Although research often focuses on the effectiveness of corporate communication in eliciting responses on social media, stakeholders' perspectives on online communication have received less attention. This case study is based on nine interviews with German climate activists and analyzes stakeholder communication from their perspective. Drawing on the interviews and the critical tasks of stakeholder engagement outlined in the literature, this study identifies barriers to interaction between companies and stakeholders and proposes five alternative functions of social media in this context. These are (1.1) responsible agency and (1.2) being part of the climate (filter) bubble—finding allies; (2.1) pre‐testing ideas and (2.2) allowing (constructive) confrontation, to soften the dialogic fronts; and (3) monitoring key concerns.

Urban areas face intensifying socio-ecological and socio-technical challenges – from climate change impacts and resource depletion to increasing polarization – demanding innovative approaches to build societal resilience. Digital twins (DTs) are touted as transformative tools for urban management, promising enhanced monitoring and modelling to ultimately make cities more sustainable and adaptable (Patel et al., 2024; Silva et al., 2018). However, Helbing and Sánchez-Vaquerizo (2023) highlight potential controversies relating to the limitations of DTs in complex dynamical systems and the ethical implications of treating society as something to be managed and optimised (Helbing and Sánchez-Vaquerizo, 2023). Although the concept of DTs is frequently employed to integrate and analyse various data streams, simulate complex urban processes, and facilitate informed decision-making regarding climate change strategies, their actual deployment appears to fall short of this potential (Ferré-Bigorra et al., 2022; Patel et al., 2024; Stufano Melone et al., 2025). Our contribution provides a critical assessment of the application of urban DTs, comparing their theoretical potential for sustainable development with the limitations and tensions affecting sustainability outcomes that have been observed in their practical implementation.Drawing on a review of recent literature and case studies highlighting successful and problematic implementations, we analyse digital transformation initiatives, with a focus on the co-creation of digital technologies. We identify discrepancies between aspirational goals, such as holistic systems thinking and citizen engagement, and realised functionalities, which are often focused on infrastructure management and operational efficiency. The aim is to raise awareness of unintended social and ecological effects in urban DT initiatives and foster discussions for a more reflective modelling process.Abdeen, F. N., Shirowzhan, S. and Sepasgozar, S. M. (2023). ‘Citizen-centric digital twin development with machine learning and interfaces for maintaining urban infrastructure’. Telematics and Informatics, 84, 102032.Ferré-Bigorra, J., Casals, M. and Gangolells, M. (2022). ‘The adoption of urban digital twins’. Cities, 131, 103905.Helbing, D. and Sánchez-Vaquerizo, J. A. (2023). ‘Digital twins: potentials, ethical issues and limitations’, In Handbook on the Politics and Governance of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Edward Elgar Publishing, 64–104.Ibrahim, M., El-Zaart, A. and Adams, C. (2018). ‘Smart sustainable cities roadmap: Readiness for transformation towards urban sustainability’. Sustainable Cities and Society, 37, 530–40.Patel, U. R., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Ghaffarianhoseini, A. and Burgess, A. (2024). ‘Digital Twin Technology for sustainable urban development: A review of its potential impact on SDG 11 in New Zealand’. Cities, 155, 105484.Shahat, E., Hyun, C. T. and Yeom, C. (2021). ‘City Digital Twin Potentials: A Review and Research Agenda’. Sustainability, 13, 3386.Silva, B. N., Khan, M. and Han, K. (2018). ‘Towards sustainable smart cities: A review of trends, architectures, components, and open challenges in smart cities’. Sustainable Cities and Society, 38, 697–713.Stufano Melone, M. R., Borgo, S. and Camarda, D. (2025). ‘Digital Twins Facing the Complexity of the City: Some Critical Remarks’. Sustainability, 17, 3189.Weil, C., Bibri, S. E., Longchamp, R., Golay, F. and Alahi, A. (2023). ‘Urban Digital Twin Challenges: A Systematic Review and Perspectives for Sustainable Smart Cities’. Sustainable Cities and Society, 99, 104862.

Purpose: This paper provides a systematization of the existing body of literature on both employee participation goals and the intervention formats in the context of organizational change. Furthermore, degrees of employee involvement that the intervention formats address are identified and related to the goals of employee participation. On this basis, determinants of employee involvement and participation in the context of digital transformation are unveiled.Design/methodology/approach: Based on a systematic literature review the authors structure and relate employee participation goals and formats. Through a workshop with expert practitioners, the authors transfer and enhance these theoretical findings in the context of digital transformation. Experts rated the three most important goals and identified accompanying success factors, barriers and effects.Findings: The results show that it is not necessarily the degree of involvement but a context-specific selection of measures, the quality of their implementation as well as the actual uptake of suggestions and activities developed by employees that contribute to employees accepting and participating in goal-directed transformations. Moreover, employees must have sufficient information and time for their participation in transformation processes.Originality/value: This paper is based on a transformative approach, combining literature analysis to identify formats and goals of employee participation with experiential knowledge of digital transformation practitioners. In addition to relating intervention formats to goals pursued in organizational change processes, empirical and experiential perspectives are used to identify three very relevant goals and respective determinants in digital transformation processes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems carry risks and opportunities for environmental sustainability. The use of AI systems, for instance, can result in both software-related (direct) as well as application-context-related (indirect) resource use. Stakeholders are expected to play a role in understanding and steering the environmental effects of AI systems. However, the processes and anticipated outcomes of stakeholder involvement in AI system lifecycles are not clear. We provide a non-exhaustive scoping review of six software and AI sustainability frameworks with respect to their recognition of environmental sustainability and the role of stakeholders in dealing with environmental sustainability. This serves to develop recommendations for future research on how stakeholder involvement can help firms and institutions design and use more sustainable AI systems.

The digitalisation of industrial production and the actual positive and negative consequences for sustainable development are not yet sufficiently understood. This study describes and evaluates the linkages between corporate digitalisation and sustainability management based on qualitative data analysis of sustainability reports of DAX 30 companies and applying the concept of sustainability worldviews. The results show a predominate worldview of weak or business‐centred sustainability on digitalisation, which could potentially pose a threat to sustainable development. In particular, the focus on customer demands without stakeholder involvement and the worldview of digitalisation as a way of doing ‘business as‐usual’ but in a more effective way reproduces unsustainable economic patterns. A holistic sustainable approach on digitalisation should also include possible negative impacts like increased resource consumption which is not the case yet in the studied companies. Different types of ‘sustainability worldviews on digitalisation’ can be distinguished. While ‘Pioneer’ companies can inform policy‐making, the other types of ‘Intermediates’, ‘Indecisive’ and ‘Laggards’ could be addressed by information exchange, support and regulation to promote a more sustainable worldview on corporate digitalisation. The ‘Unsustainable’ digitalisation type would be the most difficult to address with soft policy instruments and requires a more regulated approach.

The paper aims to explore the gaps and overlaps between statements of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) working at the intersection of climate change, sustainable energy, and industrial development regarding the role of Industry 4.0 for climate change mitigation and the scientific literature addressing the energy and resource efficiency of Industry 4.0. To fulfill this objective, we conduct a two-tier review of relevant literature from both IGOs as well as academia. The analysis of documents from IGOs shows that Industry 4.0 is strongly associated with energy efficiency potentials that could contribute to climate change mitigation and more sustainable energy use in the industrial sector. Based on a review of the scientific literature, however, the paper concludes that it is currently not possible to validate this assumption and provide concrete figures since analyses providing a more comprehensive picture of potential energy savings, including possible negative effects and rebounds, are lacking. We suggest that these issues be addressed in further research, e.g., through concrete case studies that go beyond the assessment of single Industry 4.0 technologies. Furthermore, efforts should be strengthened to communicate findings from technology-centered research into political strategy-building and decision-making processes and, at the same time, raise awareness in the technological domain for the information needs of policymakers.

Industrial production plays an important role for achieving a green economy and the sustainable development goals. Therefore, the nascent transformation of industrial production due to digitalization into a so-called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is of great interest from a sustainable development point of view. This paper discusses how the environmental dimension of a sustainable development can potentially benefit from the IIoT—focusing especially on three topics: resource efficiency, sustainable energy and transparency. It presents a state of the art literature analysis of IIoT-enabled approaches addressing the three environmental topics. This analysis is compared with the findings of a survey among Chinese industrial companies, investigating the sustainability-related expectations of participants coming along with the implementation of IIoT solutions. China has been chosen as a case study because it brings together a strong industrial sector, ambitious plans regarding industrial digitalization and a high relevance and need for more sustainability. The survey was conducted with the means of a questionnaire which was distributed via email and used for direct on-site interviews. It focused on large and medium sized companies mainly from Liaoning Province and had a sample size of 109 participants.