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As you begin to explore this site you will see that project details, data, outcomes, and reflections are dispersed throughout a gallery. There is no right way for you to engage with this project. I encourage you to follow your curiosity and click away! The gallery is organized in a way that follows a traditional research or design process – meaning it begins with introductory and background information, followed by the research process, and finally research outcomes and project takeaways. As you hover over each item in the gallery a brief summary will appear of what that tile is about, click the ‘learn more’ button for an in-depth explanation of the gallery item you are looking at. In the footer of each popup, you will see recommendations for tiles with similar information to help you follow your interests. If you want to explore the site following a specific path, see the guides listed at the top of the gallery.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy (CSR/P) is a highly complex and debated topic across academic disciplines. This research project takes a digital sociological approach investigating the intersection between our digital and social worlds with corporations’ ‘do good’ activities. Existing literature on CSR/P “remains deeply scattered between academic disciplines” (Gautier and Pache, 2015) and rarely includes interdisciplinary conclusions. The number of ongoing scholarly debates reflects the “complexity of the practice and the difficulties for both practitioners and observers to get a solid grasp of” CSR/P (Gautier and Pache, 2015). To minimize the complexities of CSR/P from a researcher and research participants perspective this project uses a big picture understanding of CSR/P in our Digital Society.

CSR/P existed before mass digitalization, dating back to business practices of the late-nineteenth century. The history of CSR/P prior to the rise of the internet is important because it demonstrates the role and potential for individuals to drive corporations’ CSR/P activities. Following the social and cultural change brought on by the industrial revolution, early forms of CSR/P began to take hold. CSR/P eventually became what some regard as a “building block of American civilization” (Gautier and Pache, 2015, p.344). Rooted in the social, cultural, and religious practices of benevolence dominating elite circles in the late 19th century (Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir and Davídsdóttir, 2019) it is unsurprising that businesses integrated charitable initiatives into their business models. These early forms of CSR/P included welfare schemes in the form of creating community and employee programs, donation of monetary gifts, and the development of policies (Agudelo, Jóhannsdóttir and Davídsdóttir, 2019). However, the standardization of CSR/P practices occurred between the 1950s and 2000s partially overlapping with the changes brought on by the development of the internet, the launching of the World Wide Web (WWW), and the rise of the digital economy. CSR/P practices of our Digital Society are influenced by pre and post digitalization. Therefore, requiring the acknowledgment of historic CSR/P giving traditions and business practices as they have the capacity to shape individuals and research participants interpretations of modern CSR/P activities.

To conceptualize individuals’ modern folk theories of CSR/P, CSR/P must first be framed within the context of our Digital Society. Within the field of digital sociology, our Digital Society can be understood as “our present society… society affected by digitally networked communication tools and platforms, such as the internet and social media” (Lindgren 2022, pg. 2). Born out of the “rather unlikely intersection of big science, military research, and libertarian culture” (Castells, 2002, p.17; Lindgren, 2020, p.15) the development of the internet and the launch of the WWW rang in a new digitally driven era. The “digitally networked social reality” created by the internet and the WWW brought with it a “new economic system where everyone could take part” (Lindgren 2022, p.15) – one known as the digital economy. Collectively the internet, WWW, and rise of the digital economy paved a way for new forms of digital gift giving to arise including donations of user data, digital resources, and digital expertise (Elder-Vass, 2016; 2022) transforming corporations CSR/P models. The drastic changes brought on by the transition to a Digital Society positioned CSR/P at the intersection of businesses and our social world. However, within academia little is known about what today’s digital CSR/P models are giving and the public’s perception of these ‘gifts.’

The significance of this project is twofold – the first lies in what was researched (i.e. the research questions), and the second is in how the research was conducted (i.e. the methodology and methods).

• The Research Question: Understanding how public perceives corporations’ CSR/P efforts is often absent in academic research. Therefore, this practical project is driven by two guiding questions: How do existing folk theories influence public perception and trust of organizations CSR/P initiatives in the digital society and how does the public conceptualize their role within corporations giving strategies? The first questions seek to uncover internalized thoughts, emotions, and beliefs people have about company’s social responsibilities to ‘benefit society’ and their actual capacity to ‘do good.’ While the second question works to reveal and investigate the changing power structures within the digital gift economy between users and corporations, specifically users’ dual roles as recipients and givers. In attempting to answer these questions the hope is that this project will fill a whole within existing literature while also providing a way to educate a broader public on the implication of CSR/P on their everyday experiences.
• Methodology and Methods: Most research conducted on perceived CSR/P is done through quantitative research and traditional methods (see methodology). However, this research project investigates perceived CSR/P using a qualitative research approach and creative methods. The qualitative approach to this project lets me, as the researcher, view each participant as experts on the topic of study and use their words as evidence of their lived experiences. In choosing a creative research method as my investigation tool, I am “not bound by” (Kara, 2020, p.8) my knowledge of existing methods, instead I am given leeway to ethically use creativity to “manipulate and develop theories and methods” (Kara, 2020, p.8). Therefore, this research project utilizes a new form of an innovative method call Visual Focus Groups to collect project data. The use of a qualitative methodology and a new creative research method adds to the significance of this project as not only is the topic being studied, but so is the data collection method.

The research participants for this project were recruited and selected as a representative sample group of a portion of the public. I selected students from the University of Glasgow as my representative sample because of accessibility to them, their diverse demographic, and their position as future, current, or past professionals. As a University of Glasgow master student, myself, I could use my existing relationships and network with peers to recruit and select participants using purposive and snowball sampling. I used various recruitment techniques including reaching out to existing contacts via email, WhatsApp messaging, and social media to identify and recruit potential participants. I provided interested individuals with a brief synopsis of research project, a plain language statement, and a description of how their data would be used included the publication of drawings and quotes to the project website, prior to them agreeing to participate.

I successfully recruited 13 graduate students from the University of Glasgow. Participants were divided into three groups based on their preferred availability and assigned to a workshop session located on the University of Glasgow campus.

This project utilizes a qualitative methodological approach to guide the research process from design to data collection and analysis. Qualitative research relies on “qualitative data [which is] expressed as text” (Grønmo, 2019, p.11) and according to some scholars “only words are capable of describing complexity” (Loseke, 2017, p.30). Qualitative research is grounded in an ontological approach called constructivism where “reality – both physical and social – exits independently of humans” (Loseke, 2017, p.28). Meaning multiple realities exist because “the social world is constantly being constructed through group interactions in meaning making activities” (Hesse-Biber, 2017, p.6). As this project seeks to find meaning through research participants individual experiences and their group interactions, discussions, questionnaire responses, and creative drawings a qualitative approach grounded in a constructivist ontology is a suitable and appropriate philosophical approach for this research.

The philosophical approach of constructivism and qualitative research supports this projects use of creative research methods. Creative research methods are essentially “creative solutions to research problems” meaning researchers are “not bound by” (Kara, 2020, p.8) their existing knowledge of research methods. Instead, researchers are encouraged to use creativity to “manipulate and develop theories and methods,” (Kara, 2020, p.8). The flexibility allowed by creative research methods enabled the adaption and use of Visual Focus Groups (VFG) as this project’s data collection method. Additionally, creative research methods support the data analysis process enabling the creative use of multimodal and embodied analysis to study the various types of collected data.

The questionnaire asked participants how they believed CSR/P is performed in our Digital Society. Participants selected from a list of different CSR/P strategies that I provided them. Looking at the graph you can see that most participants recognized community programs, ethical business practices, sustainability initiatives, and diversity, equity, and inclusion CSR/P initiatives. While a less than 3 participants marked commercials, data gifts, gifts of resources, and gifts of expertise. This is important because the CSR/P performance methods that only a few participants identified are those most prevalent in our Digital Society. Large technology corporations like Google, Meta, and Microsoft often give user data, digital resources (i.e., devices, software, code), and technological expertise (i.e. training or consultants) as gifts.

I was not surprised that only a few participants identified the predominate CSR/P strategies in our Digital Society. As until I completed extensive review of existing literature, I did not know that user data, digital resources, and technological expertise are key areas of modern CSR/P performance. However, participants who did not check these digital CSR/P initiatives in the questionnaire later acknowledged CSR/P’s use of digital technologies in drawings and discussions. Participants increased understanding of how CSR/P is performed in our digital society over the course of their workshop illustrates the effectiveness of using a creative research method to educate participants.

At the beginning of each workshop participants answered demographic questions as part of the questionnaire. I collected demographic data to inform where participants folk theories came from and provide insights to group dynamics. Three demographic areas stood out to me and helped inform research findings.

Age: When looking for research participants my aim was to recruit ‘digital natives.’ However, as I recruited within my personal network, not all participants ended up meeting the established criteria. As I did not ask interested participants demographic information prior to assigning them to workshops. Consequently, I ended up recruiting participants with birth years ranging from 1979–2000 meaning that not all participants are technically ‘digital natives,’ though all do fit the participant criteria as masters’ students. This was a happy consequence as the diverse age range added great value to my workshop findings.

Political Affiliation: I asked participants to rank their political affiliation on a scale from 1 (extreme right) to 7 (extreme left) to gain a better understanding of the range of beliefs in the workshop groups. I felt that political affiliation was a good way to understand where participants are coming from when discussing CSR/P as the research topic is inherently political. I do think that asking participants political affiliation served its purpose as participants feedback included a desire to complete the workshop with people of differing beliefs. Which is supported by participants political affiliation responses all being between 4 and 6. This means that there was little diversity in political beliefs in my sample population.

Nationality: I did not specifically recruit participants with certain nationalities nor seek a sample population that had a diverse range of nationalities. However, due to the international makeup of the University of Glasgow’s graduate students my sample population included people from around the world. This was a happy coincidence, one I would encourage for future research, as participants with diverse nationalities provided a globalized perspective on CSR/P folk Theories. I did not ask participants their nationalities on the questionnaire (though you could), however many self-disclosed this information in workshop discussions and presentations. Many participants cited the diversity in participants experiences as a positive and insightful component of the workshops.

I designed the Linkert-style questions in the questionnaire to establish a baseline of participants CSR/P beliefs at the beginning of the workshop. Individually and collectively the responses to these five questions successfully created a baseline of participants CSR/P folk theories prior to discussing their beliefs and hearing others during the workshop.

One of the key takeaways from these responses is the similarity in participants beliefs. At the end of the workshops several participants indicated an interest in participating in the workshop with people of differing beliefs. In theory a participant group with a diverse range of beliefs would have a broader range of answers to this question.

The creator of drawing NN03 explained their individual drawing as Shell’s (a large multinational corporation) failure to uphold their social responsibility to protect the environment they operated in. The participant spoke emotionally about how the corporation’s destruction of their community has impacted them. Stating that the corporation’s failure to protect their community and environment has impacted the air quality, water quality, and local food sources particularly fish destroying their livelihoods.

Through my review of existing literature, I learned a lot about the different types of digital and in-person campaigns corporations use to perform CSR/P today. Therefore, I was surprised by participants capacity to include different kinds of CSR/P campaigns in their individual drawing. Across the workshops participants conception of CSR/P campaigns included printed advertisements, commercials, in-person donation schemes, diversity, equity, and inclusion marketing strategies, and digital incentive programs. I was surprised not only by the quantity of CSR/P campaigns participants recognized but their ability to discuss them in a reflexive and critical manner. Participants recognized how CSR/P campaigns can manipulate users and consumers to serve corporations’ goals.

Corporations Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives was a recurring theme across data collection workshops. It is not surprising that DEI was a predominate component of participants CSR/P folk theories as it has been an increasingly publicized component of the business world. CSR/P’s DEI initiatives can include anything from greenwashing, rainbow-washing, to equal pay initiatives, and inclusive hiring activities. Participants referenced many of the different DEI initiatives relevant to corporations internal and external activities. Participants spoke of these DEI initiatives with a desire to see improvement. In drawing YJ03 the participant specifically spoke about DEI from a marketing perspective. While the collective drawings in from workshops 1 and 2 talked about DEI in terms of employees.

Workshop 1 depicted their collective folk theories using a mind map. Through participants discussion they identified categories to represent areas of CSR/P they believed could be improved to ‘benefit society.’ At the center of workshop 1’s diagram participants wrote the word ‘Responsibility’ which they defined as “giving back, giving back after you [the corporation] take[s] from the environment or from your community.” This workshop participants believed CSR/P initiatives are inherently apart of corporations’ business practices and as such they need to protect and give back to the communities and environments, they operate in. Workshop 1 identified five categories they believed the social responsibilities of corporations extended to, including: education, cultural change, state regulation and governance, limitation of profits, and taxation.

Workshop 1’s identification and discussion of their five categories shows participants capacity to grasp complex components of CSR/P. This group had an extensive conversation about their education and cultural change categories. They discussed how education and cultural change could be a solution to their grievances over corporation’s misuse of digital technologies and the for-profit mission driving CSR/P activities. They believed consumer and user education and digital and financial literacy might enable members of the public to be more conscious about how CSR/P activities attempt to manipulate them. Additionally, workshop 1 explored the idea that increase in education and a cultural change could act as a check on corporations’ unregulated power. They hoped this would also give users and consumers more autonomy over how corporations work to ‘benefit society.’

I found workshop 1’s conclusions very interesting as they illustrated a complex understanding of CSR/P. Workshop 1’s findings incorporated themes of power, digital capitalism, and the absence of governance providing insights to many of my research questions including whether participants folk theories would account for the role of digital technologies. Participants in workshop 1 demonstrated their ability to think reflexively and critically about digital technology’s role in CSR/P through their discussions and drawings. Workshop 1 was extremely successful as participants engagement with the research topic produced high level insights. In workshop 1’s feedback session they shared how they liked how the creative tasks helped them think through their beliefs, and gain a deeper understanding of CSR/P.

Consisting of a collective drawing task and a group discussion, the third and final stage of data collection seeks to establish the groups collective folk theories and critiques of CSR/P in our digital society. Participants are specifically asked to consider how they believe digital technologies play a role in CSR/P today and how they perceive their autonomy in shaping or engaging in CSR/P initiatives. During the collective drawing task, the researcher takes on a moderator role monitoring group members participation and contribution levels. Following the completion of their collective drawing participants presented their poster and are asked follow-up questions.

Workshop 3’s collective drawing is an abstract depiction of the group’s perceptions of CSR/P today. Participants in workshop 3 drew a Pac Man donning corporations logos eating the world to illustrate the unchecked power they believe corporations have today. They believed that corporation’s power is why they have social responsibilities, however, the group remained pessimistic about CSR/P actives potential to do actual ‘good.’ To depict their grievances with corporations’ CSR/P activities today they drew tree with a QR code and shampoo bottles and a gift box with various data forms. Both depictions represent the way corporations use digital technologies to advertise their ‘do good’ initiatives while simultaneously aiming to manipulate or buy consumer loyalty.

This research project investigated the use VFGs for a topic other than activism. Therefore, additional reflection is needed on the expanded use of VFGs as a creative research method. Following the end of each section participants are asked to provide feedback on the workshop and the method. As all participants are masters’ students, they each have received some level of instruction in doing academic research, methodology, and using various data collection methods making them uniquely qualified to provide feedback on the use of this form of VFGs as a data collection method. Participants stated they enjoyed how the workshop gave them the opportunity to share information through multiple methods. Participants said they thought it was “really useful to draw things out” and that “putting your thoughts on paper” aided them in thinking through the complexities of CSR/P. The progression of the workshop from questionnaire to individual drawings to collective drawings worked very well as participants individual folk theories were established prior to the group conversations.

Based on the research findings and participant feedback there are some recommendations for future research.

1. I recommend participants are given similar questionnaire at the end of the data collection workshops that they receive at the beginning. This would improve the capacity for the questionnaire to be a baseline for individuals’ folk theories of CSR/P as it would provide researchers with a before and after metric.
2. Participants indicated an interest in a more diverse group of people with differing beliefs and professional experiences. This could be addressed in improving both the recruitment strategy used and implementing a more intensive screening for interested participants prior to putting them into workshop groups. This would entail increasing the diversity in political leanings, education level, and work experience.
3. The collection of a brief summary of professional experience could increase researchers’ understanding of how individuals’ folk theories are shaped and informed. Additionally, the collection of professional experience could address the possibility of groups facing similar challenges to workshop 3.
4. I recommend a more intentional integration of research questions into the drawing phases of data collection. I believe this would help focus participants creative outputs and thus the research findings. As this research project has broader aims, objectives, and research question a more focused approach to the creative drawing task is important for future research.
5. Lastly, the method enabled participants to ask their own question about the research topic inspiring ideas for future research. Some ideas include how public understands their role within the CSR/P use of data gifting, public perception of digital CSR/P ethics, and research unpacking the difference between public folk theories of CSR/P rooted in the should be vs are perspective.

These recommendations for future research build upon this project’s establishment of existing folk theories of CSR/P in our digital society enabling countless paths of inquiry to be taken. Overall, the methods success in establishing insights to research questions, while working to educate participants achieved its intended purpose when I selected VFGs for this research project.

When I choose to work with creative research methods and the Visual Focus Group Method I did so because I was challenged to do something different. When I began designing my data collection method, I realized VFGs would help me further develop my facilitation, presentation, and diplomacy skills. To uphold project ethics, I had to ask participant for consent multiple times, and make sure the participants, despite many of them being my friends, were comfortable sharing their data with me and allowing me to put it up on a website. Though I did not find this particularly challenging I did find it uncomfortable because of my closer relationship with some of the participants. Additionally, I noticed throughout the workshops that my facilitation time management skills and waiting for participants to speak before chiming in has improved.

Outside of the conducting of the workshops, I found the method very intriguing. Not only were participants engaged in what they were doing the whole time, but so was I as the researcher. The conversations participants had illustrated their own learning processes while also enabling me to learn from new perspectives. Additionally, I am curious to see if this type of method could be fruitful for less formal research studies like in organizations looking for feedback or new product brainstorming.

Overall, the skills I developed and learned while using this method are ones that will be invaluable to future projects. And I hope I will be given opportunity to use this type of method in the future.

‘Folk Theories of CSR/P in our Digital Society’ is the culmination of two years of academic inquiry investigating how United States cultural institutions could improve visitor engagement through the implementation of immersive technology. Like most research projects, questions often lead to more questions prompting the research to take on new approaches, take steps back, change directions, and so on. This project is the outcome of just that – a question that turned into a project, leading to a master’s program, where learning informed a change of direction, uncovering an unknown interest, and thus resulting in a Independent Student Portfolio (ISP) project on corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy (CSR/P). I began researching CSR/P this past fall. I was driven by the desire to find a solution to US cultural institutions need for digital resources, specialized expertise, and funding to bring technology to their visitor experiences. However, I discovered CSR/P was a complex academic topic, that simultaneously offered vast amounts of information, but was limited in the specific answers I was looking for. Additionally, it quickly became clear I knew very little about CSR/P and how it operated in our Digital Society. So, following personal challenge and curiosity I followed a new line of inquiry in hopes of understanding the complexities of CSR/P and what the public believed CSR/P to be in our Digital Society.

Developed by Dr. Elisabetta Ferrari (project supervisor) VFGs build upon graphic elicitation techniques methodology and the traditional focus group method to uncover unspoken assumptions about research topics. To do this VFGs situate a “creative task within a group setting” to foster a space for “collective conversation” and participants reflexive thinking through discussion and drawing (Ferrari, 2022, p.2). Including a creative task within the data collection method helps participants in expressing their underlying folk theories through the mediums (i. e. drawing, writing, words, etc.) most natural to them. Ferrari designed two distinct VFG methods: the diagnostic VFG and the speculative VFG. Diagnostic VFGs’ “help researchers understand how activist [participants] conceptualize their relationship” (Ferrari, 2022) to the research topic. Whereas speculative VFGs are “intended to stimulate participants… critique” (Ferrari, 2022) of the research topic. As public folk theories include participants conceptualization of their “relationship” to and “critique” of CSR/P I chose to combine Ferrari’s diagnostic and speculative VFGs for the purpose of this project. Following the philosophical approach and guidance from creative and qualitative research methods I develop an experimental three-part VFGs workshop for data collection.

This research project is guided by two primary questions with related sub-questions. With the hope that the project outcomes would provide insights to each research question.

1. How do existing folk theories influence members of the public (university student’s) perception and trust of corporations CSR and CP (CSR/P) initiatives in our digital society?
   1. Do participant folk theories account for the inherent power structures at play?
   2. Do participant folk theories recognize the role of technology (digitalization, datafication, mediatization) in influencing CSR/P?
2. How do members of the public (university students) conceptualize their role within corporations giving strategies? Do they see themselves as a stakeholder?
   1. Do participants perceive any personal autonomy in shaping CSR/P initiatives?
   2. Do participants believe CSR/P initiatives are impactful?

Before you learn more about the word cloud above take a second to explore your perceptions of corporations’ social responsibilities. Close your eyes and ask yourself ‘what are three ways corporations perform or fulfill their social responsibilities to society?’ Write down your thoughts or make a mental note of the social responsibilities that crossed your mind. Now look at the word cloud above – are there any similarities or differences to what you came up with? All answers are the right answers here!

The words you may have thought of or those represented in the word cloud represent the ways everyday people perceive the social responsibilities of corporations. The responsibilities of environmental protection, ethical business practices, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and data protection all became reoccurring themes throughout the VFG workshops.

The questionnaire is designed to establish a preliminary baseline of participants knowledge of CSR/P in our Digital Society. The questionnaire does so by asking participants a series of short-answer and multiple-choice questions. Upon participants completion of the questionnaire, they were asked to share anything that stood out to them or any questions they had. The intent behind the first phase was to encourage participants to begin thinking about how they have experienced CSR/P in their daily lives.

As participants discussed the questionnaire and presented their individual drawings it became clear to me that their CSR/P Folk Theories came from a range of influences.

Many participants were influenced by their own personal experiences of corporations’ failure to fulfill their social responsibilities. Look for the following drawings in the gallery to learn more!

Drawing NN03

Drawing UZ02

Other participants recognized digital and in person CSR/P campaigns including advertisements and incentive programs. Their perceptions of these campaigns influenced their views of CSR/P. Look for the following drawings in the gallery.

Drawing SL03

Drawing BC01

Drawing WK3C: Workshop 3

Drawing LO03 referenced multiple CSR/P campaign examples in their individual drawing. Starting with a google advertisement seen by the participant while traveling through a US airport. The participant explained their viewpoint of the printed add as “absolutely ridiculous.” Due to the participants belief that Google’s collection and use of user data contradicts with their social responsibilities and CSR/P activities. The participant went on to reference the Dawn Soap commercials that aired after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as a metaphor for corporations’ CSR/P campaigns miss representation of their actual actions to ‘do good.’

One of the primary questions this project asked was if participants folk theories accounted for the role digital technologies play in modern CSR/P activities. Across the individual and collective drawings many participants identified various ways that CSR/P initiatives. In drawing XG01 the participant explained their use of a warship to represent corporations continuous use of digital tools to be in constant communication with them. The participant went as far as saying that corporations’ CSR/P efforts “just use the weakness of me as a human being so maybe I offer them my tears or all my time… I’m just so tired.” The words this participant used to explain their drawing convey the extensive involvement of digital technologies in distributing CSR/P messages to the public.

Participants also illustrated the role that data plays in CSR/P activities. For example, drawing TH01 connected user data to gift giving by explaining their illustration of person holding a mobile phone and data going into the air in exchange for money. The capacity for participants to connect the exchange of user and consumer data with corporations’ for-profit aims is impressive as this is something corporations attempt to mask with their CSR/P campaigns.

Participants depiction of digital technologies in their individual drawings is further supported by the questionnaire responses. In the questionnaire 9 participants said ‘yes’ technology is used and 12 participants said ‘yes’ data is used in CSR/P strategies. Participants who referenced data gifting and technologies involvement in CSR/P activities are spot on. Their folk theories align with the findings of Elder-Vass (2016; 2019) and Fourcade and Kluttz (2020) on digital capitalism and gift giving in our Digital Society. This can be seen in the participants description data as a currency corporations wield to attain their for-profit objectives stating:

I personally don't think it does benefit society myself because they are corporations and I think even they would say that the ultimate goal for them is profit, whether even if they divide up a certain level that profit to social good, ultimately, it's still profit driven like that's the first desirable outcome, then everything else is secondary. And for me personally, any sort of efforts to advertise themselves is for social good is to collect more profit first and foremost.

Throughout the three phases of the data collection workshops, corporations’ environmental responsibilities were front of mind for many participants. Most of the individual drawings included some indicator corporations are socially responsible for environmental and sustainable initiatives. Drawing SL03 is a very clear and graphic representation of the way many participants viewed corporations’ ability to be responsible for the environments they operate in. This participant drew before and after illustrations of the environment that corporations ended up utilizing. Another participant gave a personal example of a corporation’s failure to protect and give back to the environment they worked in (see drawing NN03).

The emergence of environmental responsibilities as a key theme in participants CSR/P folk theories is not surprising. As the current environmental issues are largely broadcasted around the world, including corporations’ role in doing harm. Additionally, few participants acknowledged ESG (Environment, Sustainable, Governance) as a key acronym associated with CSR/P’s environmental activities. ESG can be understood in simple terms as an evolved form of CSR/P. Participants capacity to bring it up unprompted could indicate that the mediatization around ESG practices as being an improvement to CSR/P – though this cannot be known for sure.

Some participants looked closely at specific CSR/P activities including their for-profit mission, digital technologies, environmental responsibilities, or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Drawings that focused on specific components of CSR/P highlighted the key themes that emerged throughout the research process. Additionally, many of the themes also appeared in participants’ questionnaire responses, collective drawings, and workshop discussions.

To learn more about key themes (CSR/P components) look for the following drawings. I encourage you look at multiple themes, regardless of your interests, as many of them are interconnected. The themes follow the images from left to right, respectively (for-profit mission, digital technologies, environmental responsibilities, or diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives).

Drawing XG01: Digital Technologies

Drawing AK02: For-Profit Mission

Drawing SL03: Environment

Drawing YJ03: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Workshop 2’s collective findings are similar to workshop 1. This group of participants identified several areas where CSR/P can improve. Workshop 2 identified the categories of internal business practices, customers and users, communities, employees, and politics and government. Their discussion centered around how education could span the categories driving “mindful consumerism” and their ability to engage with corporations, digital technologies, government policies and more. Additionally, workshop 2 had a lengthy discussion about corporations’ responsibility to be transparent about their CSR/P practices and policies. They believed that consumers and users have the right to know how their CSR/P activities drive their brand image and for-profit mission.

Participants perceptions of CSR/P activities revealed differences between what they believe corporations say they do and their actual impact. Workshop discussions each came to similar conclusions about corporations’ performance verses actual practice of CSR/P. Participants used a variety of words to discuss CSR/P performance including “window dressing,” “optics,” “visibility,” “for the photo,” and “marketing assets.” They discussed CSR/P as strategy for developing corporations “good image.” But believed that despite CSR/P being “on paper, it’s not practically happening.” This revelation about CSR/P optics in the workshops is profound as it indicates participants ability to distinguish between their familiarity with CSR/P initiatives and the actual impact of CSR/P. I was surprised by this finding as I had assumed participants familiarity with CSR/P would go hand and hand with their perception of impact – though this proved untrue and could be a point for future research. Participants discussion surrounding CSR/P performance can be seen through a participant’s chosen metaphor for their individual drawing. In drawing MP02 the creator depicts CSR/P as an iceberg explaining that the ice above the water is what the public sees, and everything below is corporations’ hidden activities and agendas.

Below are the key findings for each research question:

1. How do existing folk theories influence members of the public (university student’s) perception and trust of corporations CSR and CP (CSR/P) initiatives in our digital society?

   Participants CSR/P folk theories are shaped and reshaped by their perceptions and trust of corporations. Meaning participants views of corporations are as much shaped by preconceived beliefs as by the organization’s actions. Participants indicated that they believed corporations CSR/P initiatives are more about building brand image than doing good. They shared how these CSR/P initiatives may shape their views of corporations,’ but not necessarily shape their consumer habits.

   1. Do participant folk theories account for the inherent power structures at play?

      Participants discussions and drawings addressed the power structures between corporations, the government, and the public. The best representation of the way participants conceptualized corporations unregulated power is in Workshop 3’s depiction of a Pac Man donning corporate logos eating the world. This sentiment was further developed by workshops 1 and 2 in their conversations around the lack of CSR/P governance and regulation. They spoke about the need for there to be more government oversight over corporations’ performance and fulfillment of their CSR/P initiatives. Lastly, and this leads into the second primary questions, throughout the workshops’ participants remained unsure about their ability to attain any power in shaping the CSR/P space.

   2. Do participant folk theories recognize the role of technology (digitalization, datafication, mediatization) in influencing CSR/P?

      In short – yes! Participants were able to identify many ways technology plays a role in CSR/P activities. Participants discussed the role of technology in shaping participants views, manipulating their consumer and user habits, and collecting and using of personal data. Participants questionnaire responses, drawings, and discussion covered the role of digital technologies in CSR/P in an in-depth and extensive manner.

2. How do members of the public (university students) conceptualize their role within corporations giving strategies? Do they see themselves as a stakeholder?

   Participants discussion of their role in CSR/P activities was relatively minimum. When it did come up most participants spoke about how CSR/P attempted to manipulate them or that they had no choice in when they engaged with initiatives. In all, participants did not perceive their role in CSR/P activities to be one with control, power, or consent. In discussing how to shape CSR/P many participants mentioned how their only choice was to abstain from purchasing or using corporations’ products.

   1. Do participants perceive any personal autonomy in shaping CSR/P initiatives?

      When participants were asked point blank about their perceived autonomy in CSR/P initiatives they did not view any opportunities to shape or influence how corporations choose to ‘benefit society.’ Even after explaining a brief history on CSR/P they perceived very little any opportunity to shape corporations’ societal contributions. Many participants cited corporations’ for-profit mission as the reason behind their lack of power.

   2. Do participants believe CSR/P initiatives are impactful?

      The short answer is NO – participants did not discuss CSR/P initiatives from the lens of positive impact. In discussing CSR/Ps impact most participants referenced the CSR/P as a marketing or optics strategies to improve brand image. Indicating they believed CSR/P to be mostly talk and very little action. In addition, workshops had several discussions about CSR/P initiatives failures and their capacity to manipulate users and consumers.

When I decided to study folk theories of CSR/P I hoped to gain a better understanding of how people viewed corporations’ capacity to ‘do good.’ I wanted to see if participants perceptions of corporations’ CSR/P initiatives would potentially interfere with their perceptions of organizations that received charitable donations from corporations. Though this research didn’t seek to answer this question directly, I gained invaluable insights that I can use for future research projects aimed at answering this question. Learning about CSR/P in our Digital Society has taught me the importance of spreading awareness about technologies role in corporations giving strategies. Thus, I created this website as part of my ISP to share my findings from literature, participants understandings, and my reflections on CSR/P activities in our Digital Society. I hope that visitors to this site have an opportunity to learn about CSR/P folk theories and to uncover some of their own. Additionally, for researchers I hope this website provides insights to my approach and outcomes so they too can learn about Folk Theories of CSR/P and using the VFG workshop method for research.

This Independent Student Portfolio (ISP) project fulfills the master’s dissertation requirement for University of Glasgow’s (UoG) MSc. Digital Society program. The research project has been approved by the UoG’s College of Social Sciences ethics review board. The project conducted in accordance with the attained ethical approval and under the supervision of Dr. Elisabetta Ferrari (project advisor). In accordance with the approved ethics application all data published to the project site has been anonymized for the protection of participants identities. The primary and lead researcher for this project is Lena Weisman.

The following definitions are broken up into two categories - terms important to this project and those used in academic research.

1. Important terms for this project:
   1. This project understands Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Philanthropy as follows:
      • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): CSR is the “context-specific organizational actions and policies that take into account stakeholders’ expectations and the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance” (Aguinis, 2011, as cited in Aguinis and Glavas, 2012).
      • Corporate Philanthropy (CP): CP is the “voluntary and unconditional transfers of cash or other assets by private firms for public purposes” (Gautier and Pache, 2015, p.343).
      • Note: CSR and CP can and should be understood as separate entities (von Schnurbein, Seele, and Lock, 2016). However, distinctions between CSR and CP vary among corporations and within academic literature challenging experts and everyday individuals’ ability to recognize them as exclusive entities. As such, this project will refer to Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Philanthropy (CSR/P) as a collective concept.

   2. Digital Society is defined as “our present society… society affected by digitally networked communication tools and platforms, such as the internet and social media” (Lindgren 2022, pg. 2).
   3. Folk Theories: This project uses the folk theories definition created by Benjamin Toff and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (2018) from their research entitled “I just Googled it”: Folk Theories of Distributed Discovery:

      "…we define folk theories as the culturally available symbolic resources that people use to make sense of their own media and information practices and use this theoretical approach to examine how ordinary people navigate digital media and information about public affairs in an environment increasingly shaped by digital intermediaries and platform services (Cohen, 2012; van Dijck, 2013)."

2. Technical Research Terminology:
   1. Ontology: "An ontology is a philosophical belief system about the nature of social reality - what can be known and how" (Hesse-Biber, 2017).
   2. Constructivism Philosophy: Where constructivism is a philosophical perspective in which “reality – both physical and social – exits independently of humans,” (Loseke, 2017, p.28) meaning multiple realities exist because “the social world is constantly being constructed through group interactions in meaning making activities” (Hesse-Biber, 2017, p.6).
   3. Methodology: Methodology "is, most simply, a strategy or plan for how a study will be executed. Mrthodology descirbes the rationale for choosing a specific method in your study" (Hesse-Biber, 2017).
   4. Methods: "Methods are the tools researchers use in order to collect data. These techniques for learning about social reality allow us to gather data from individuals, groups, and texts in any mediums" (Hesse-Biber, 2017).
   5. Quantitative Research: Quantitative research is an approach to finding meaning in the world and designing research projects based on a specific philosophical approach (naturalism) and rooted in primarily numerical data (Loseke, 2017).
   6. Qualitative Research: Qualitative research is an approach to finding meaning in the world and designing research projects based on a specific philosophical approach (constructivism) and rooted in primarily words or textual data (Loseke, 2017).
   7. Creative Research Methods: Creative research methods are considered “creative solutions to research problems” meaning researchers are “not bound by” (Kara, 2020, p.8) their existing knowledge of methods. Instead, researchers are encouraged to use creativity to “manipulate and develop theories and methods, within the constraints of good practice, to help… answer… research questions” (Kara, 2020, p.8).
   8. Purposive Sampling: Purposive sampling is the "deliberate selection of specific individuals, events, or settings because of the crucial information they can provide that cannot be obtained so well through other channels (Padgett, 2017)" (Liamputtong, 2020).
   9. Snowball Sampling: Snowball sampling is an "opportunistic sampling [technique] and requires researchers to initially select a few research participants and ask them if they know others who meet the criteria of the research and who might be interested to take part (Patton 2015; Babbie 2017)" (Liamputtong, 2020).

Research projects are often directed by aims and objectives. Aims provide an overall direction for the research. While objectives provide specific goals to be achieved so the project can accomplish its aims. Collectively, the aims and objectives of a research project support the researcher throughout the process.

The aims of this ISP are to:

1. Understand how a certain population of the public (university students) imagines the social responsibilities of corporations to ‘benefit society.’
2. Determine if participants consider digital transformations (digitalization, datafication, and mediatization) as influential factors in modern CSR/P initiatives.
3. Develop awareness of the role user data is plays in corporations’ CSR/P strategies.

1. Gain insights into how members of the public (university students) think about the social responsibilities and philanthropy efforts of corporations in our Digital Society.
2. Apply the use of creative methods, in the form of VFG workshops, to digital sociology research on CSR/P.
3. Understand how participants see their position in corporations’ efforts to ‘benefit society.’

The data collection workshops have three phases. Following the completion of informed consent procedures, the first phase distributes a questionnaire to participants asking for demographic information and preliminary thoughts on CSR/P. The second phase is an individual drawing task followed by a presentation and discussion. Participants are each given a piece of paper, scratch paper, and markers to use. The third phase requires participants to work together to collectively draw their agreed upon CSR/P folk theories. During this phase participants are given one poster paper, markers, and ample time to discuss and draw. Throughout the three phases of the workshop, the primary researcher acts as the facilitator, moderator, and collects field notes. The three-phase design for the VFG workshop seeks to encourage participants reflexive and critical thinking starting from an individual level and expanding to collective and collaborative work. The hope is through the three-phase progression the complexities underlying the research topic will be unpacked and explored in drawings and discussions.

For this project the data collected during the VFG workshops was analyzed following qualitative and creative research methodologies. The evaluation and interpretation of the data used coding and embodied data analysis strategies. Coding is an analysis process of “assigning meaning to chucks of text” (Hesse-Biber, 2017) using descriptive, categorical, and analytical codes to reveal patterns and themes within the data. NVivo software was used as the coding platform for evaluation and interpretation. Coding was used as a primary analysis technique for the audio recording transcripts and field notes, while I used a secondary method for the drawings. I used embodied data analysis techniques, an exploratory approach to the analytical work in data analysis (Kara, 2020, p.142), to analyze the drawings. For this project embodied analysis entailed reviewing, evaluating, and interpreting the individual and collective drawings in a physical manner. This included spreading them out and adding color coordinated sticky notes and memos to the drawings. This projects’ use of qualitative coding and embodied data analysis techniques enabled the development of reliable and viable research findings. The outcomes of this research project are twofold: first are empirically based conclusions to the research questions and the second are observational findings regarding the suitability of VFG workshops for this type of research.

These pie charts represent participants answers (“yes,” “no,” or “I don’t know”) to four short answer questions. When looking at the diagram it is important to note that not all participants gave the same answer for each question. Meaning that participants who said “no” they are not familiar with the concepts of CSR/P are not necessarily the same participants who said “no” they have not been impacted by CSR/P. I find the differences in participants responses very interesting. As I assumed participants familiarity with CSR/P would go hand and hand with their perception of impact, however, I was wrong. There are many reasons that could exist behind participants differentiation between familiarity and impact of CSR/P. A topic that could be investigated further in future research projects.

The questionnaire successfully served its purpose in establishing a baseline of participants CSR/P folk theories. However, based on my observations and findings there are a few things I would recommend for future research. Starting with the demographic information collected from participants I would encourage researchers to ask for nationality and professional experience in the questionnaire. Both nationality and professional experience are demographic information that many of the participants self-disclosed during the workshops. However, no all participants did leaving discrepancies in the collected demographic information and the potential for findings to be skewed. As such adding fields for nationality and professional experience on the questionnaire would provide more inclusive insights.

Secondly, as the questionnaire was only given out at the beginning of the workshop there is no quantitative evidence illustrating if participants folk theories changed. As VFG workshops were used as a tool to spread awareness and educate participants gaining a more empirical understanding of folk theories at the end of the workshops would be helpful. I was able to infer participants education through their responses in the feedback session and how participants beliefs changed throughout the workshop. However, I recommend providing the same or similar questionnaire at the end of the workshop to support researcher inferences with concrete evidence.

For the individual drawing phase participants were asked to reflect on what they believed CSR/P is in our Digital Society. The second phase drawings and discussions are designed to further establish participants preexisting folk theories of CSR/P for themselves, the group, and researcher prior to beginning collective discussions.

The creator of drawing UZ02 discussed how “there has been no social responsibility” considerations on behalf of the large corporations (Nike, Adidas, etc.) who sponsored the kits and footballs for the FIFA world cup. The participant spoke extensively about the corporations’ inability to acknowledge the use of child labor within their home country to create the equipment needed for the World Cup.

The personal experiences behind CSR/P failures that participants shared impacted me. I was really shocked to hear how participants own communities suffered at the hands of corporations’ failures to fulfill their social responsibilities to the communities and environments they operate in. As a US citizen I am often sheltered from hearing how large corporations impact communities around the world. And hearing how Shell, Nike, and Adidas had impacted participants communities in Nigeria and Pakistan was very striking. For me this showed me the significance of this research as it revealed the global impact CSR/P has.

Drawing: AK02

Drawing: BC01

A key theme across existing literature, participants drawings, and discussions is how corporations for-profit mission drives their CSR/P strategies. Participants discussed at length the notion that CSR/P is essentially a vehicle for corporations to increase their profits. The creator of drawing BC01 explained how the large dollar sign in the center of their drawing represented the capacity of CSR/P to be a “distraction from the aim of for-profit companies.” Participants also accounted for corporations’ for-profit mission in their discussion of digital technologies by expressing data and digital resources as a form of currency. In drawing AK02 the creator expresses data and information as a currency by illustrating money, information, and data entering the corporation as forms of profits. Furthermore, participants discussed how CSR/P activities masked the for-profit mission of corporations (a discussion that can be seen in the ‘optics’ tile, see associated image).

Drawing: MN01

Drawing: AA02

Optics (Drawing: MP02)

A couple participants individual drawings depicted their complex CSR/P folk theories. Coincidentally, each of these participants self-disclosed at least 1 year of experience working in a corporate setting. This indicated that having professional experience directly impacts participants ability to grasp the complexities of CSR/P.

These participants folk theories included many of the key themes that emerged separately in other individual drawings. These participants depicted digital technology, for-profit drive, and environmental responsibilities among other components as CSR/P systems all in their individual drawings. For example, in the drawings above each participant drew diagrams representing various components they believed were apart of CSR/P in our Digital Society.

The capacity for these participants to grasp the complex nature of CSR/P is profound as it illustrates the public understanding varies based on individuals work experiences. Particularly those exposed to the internal operations of large multinational corporations.

The workshops were each successful, however, there are clear differences in the outcomes from workshops 1 and 2 verses workshop 3. In looking at the collective drawings created by workshops 1 and 2 you can they mimic a system or diagram like representation of CSR/P. Whereas the collective drawing from workshop 3 is an abstract and simple representation of the groups CSR/P folk theories. Additionally, the discussion each workshop had mirror the distinctions made between their collective drawings. Both workshops 1 and 2 had speculative discussions exploring how CSR/P practices could be improved in out Digital Society based on their established folk theories. Whereas workshop 3 did not discuss improvements for CSR/P but continued to talk about their views of the modern practices. Furthermore, in workshop 3’s feedback session participants agreed the workshop would have been easier if they were given a definition or more information on CSR/P before they began, but believed they got there in the end. I intentionally designed the workshops for participants to explore their CSR/P folk theories without a definition to uncover their ability to grasp the complexities of the practice. So, despite the challenges workshop 3 faced they brought insights to project findings and learned more about CSR/P. This shows the capacity for the VFG workshops to be successful regardless of participant preexisting knowledge of the research topic. but it does encourage me to pause and ask why this group was challenged more by the creative tasks then the other workshops.

However, I did examine why workshop 3 was more challenged by the creative tasks than the other workshops. The demographic makeup of the workshops provides some context to the differences between workshop 1 and 2’s and workshop 3’s collective drawings. Age and professional experience are two key differences between workshop 3 and the first two workshops. Coincidentally, workshop three was made up of participants with birth years ranging from 1996 to 2000, making all ‘digital natives.’ Additionally, no participants in this group self-disclosed over one year of work experience in a corporate environment. Where workshops 1 and 2 both included participants born prior to 1995 and at least 1 participant expressed over one year working for a large multinational corporation. Each workshops demographic makeup are reasons behind the differences in the outcomes but does not negate each workshop success.

When I began my master’s dissertation process back in January of 2023, I did not anticipate that ‘Folk Theories of CSR/P’ would be the outcome. I knew that I wanted to explore public perceptions of CSR/P in a creative way, but not exactly sure what I was going to do. Through discussions with faculty members, I decided a traditional dissertation was not the best route for what I wanted to accomplish. So, I switched paths and began developing this Independent Student Portfolio (ISP) project. I made the decision to switch to an ISP because I wanted to use an exploratory method to collect data and my desire to an interactive website to educate others and spread awareness on CSR/P. This was a fantastic choice as the ISP has enabled me to conduct masters level research, while also further developing my website design, conducting research, and project management skills.

There were several challenges and success to the completion. The development of the VFG workshop method for data collection was both a challenge and a success. Prior to beginning this project, I was unaware of all the information and details needed to develop a data collection procedure for a research project. Putting together the questionnaire, VFG workshop guide, and the materials for informed consent required me to have intimate knowledge of my topic, research questions, and aims and objectives. Creating the content for these documents gave me experiences in developing research studies and building them from the ground up. The capacity for the VFG workshop to deliver research findings and educate participants was very rewarding. One, challenge I faced was analyzing the data collected from the VFG workshops. Data analysis was challenging as it required me to learn a new software and that I was interpreting findings from multiple mediums. I overcame this challenge by also using embodied data analysis techniques which helped me to better engage with the collected data. Additionally, I worked on research findings, writing my reflective paper, and building my website at the same time to better understand the outcomes of the research. I choose to build a website from scratch using HTML and CSS languages so I could further develop the skills I gained during my undergraduate studies. And I challenged myself to learn more about coding and website design. Overall, the completion of this ISP project has helped me to further develop existing skills while learning new ones.

Like many design and research projects the work is never done! I know there is more that I could uncover from the data I collected and new research questions to ask. Additionally, there are improvements I could make to the VFG workshop method and the website design. My hope is that I will be able to apply what I have learned from this project to future academic research and professional experiences.