PROVING IT WITH ACTION: Embracing a Responsibility to Advocate for Social Change

This chapter examines the role of companies in creating social change and how public expectations of their role have shifted in recent years. Public expectations of companies’ intentional actions to invoke change are at an all-time high as issues such as racial injustice, immigration, health, climate change, and even voting are at the forefront. It is no longer acceptable for companies to simply talk about what they will do—they need to prove it with action. As individuals increasingly look to businesses to solve society’s problems, this chapter examines research and practice related to companies’ social responsibility efforts as well as their advocacy efforts. The chapter includes a discussion about the two tangentially related but distinctive concepts (corporate social responsibility and corporate social advocacy) and how they uniquely contribute to social change. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the profession and a discussion about emerging research trends in strategic communications.