Conclusion

In this study, a conceptual content analysis of the social media data communicated by twenty-eight organisations based in Western Australia was undertaken to understand to what extent the phenomenon of sustainability reporting is currently being applied to social media communications.

In the data collection phase of the study, the researcher manually read and interpreted the social media posts of the participating organisations to identify the existence of sustainability reporting. This data was then analysed using Excel Data Analysis tools. Results of the study indicate that while these resource companies are posting on social media about sustainability issues, the majority of them avoided topics that could promote active discussion and criticism such as ethical business practices, responsible production and biodiversity conservation. Social issues like community philanthropy, gender equality and diversity are prevalent across the two social media platforms. The author hypothesizes that a legitimacy strategy rather than stakeholder theory is currently being applied to sustainability communications giving the organisations the ability to manage stakeholders’ impressions and mitigate the risk of negative backlash leading to operations being delayed, obstructed, or even shut down.

Limitations of the study

Due to time constraints, the scope of the study was limited to mid-tier organisations and two social media platforms. As such, results of the research are not necessarily indicative of national, global, or emerging resource organisations and could change with future studies that include global, national or emerging organisations.

Limitations of using a content analysis for the research are that the method is purely descriptive. A content analysis cannot establish causal relationships between the variables used to code the data. Another limitation of content analysis results is that they are temporal in nature and can be invalidated over time if the definition of stakeholders changes, or the ICMM sustainable development principles performance expectations are updated to include or exclude variable.

Further research on the subject required

In order to provide empirical evidence on the overall status quo of sustainability reporting on social media, further research is needed on global, national and emerging organisations and the inclusion of additional social media platforms like Twitter, which is used more prevalently by global companies than by mid-tier or emerging companies.

Further research is also needed to examine ways of integrating stakeholder theory into social media communications to mitigate the risk of negative backlash leading to Outrage Culture and the hinderance of resource projects and operations. This can be achieved by exploring how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can best be applied to environmental and crisis management communications to understand of the implications of motivation, involvement and needs in environmental communication when interpreting a community’s needs and goals.   Understanding a community’s needs and goals allows for the effective design, development and placement of communications with better accuracy, giving organisations the ability to influence specific behaviours within communities and activism groups.

Link to future research

In preparation for further research, this scoping study has assisted the author in understanding the approach mid-tier organisations are currently taking in their sustainability reporting on social media with a view to contributing to the literature on positive stakeholder perceptions through transparent communications on social media utilising marketing theory.

The main focus of the author’s future study is whether disclosing sustainability information openly and transparently in social media communications to stakeholders will assist organisations in the resource and civil infrastructure sectors in mitigating the risk of ‘Outrage Culture’?. With a secondary emphasis on examining the extent to which Stakeholder and Marketing Theory can influence their sustainability reporting on social media.

In future research, the author also aims to discuss the feasibility of utilising social media to communicate a project’s footprint, social impact, or during crisis management. The author’s future research aims to give rise to positive environmental and social impact perceptions through compelling communications to stakeholders affected by projects or environmental crises while normalising social media as a communication platform for organisations to open meaningful dialogues with stakeholders.