Stakeholders and Shareholders: A Content Analysis of Executive and Industry Communication
Open Access
- Author:
- Hall, Amy
- Area of Honors:
- Advertising/Public Relations
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Holly Overton, Thesis Supervisor
Denise Sevick Bortree, Thesis Honors Advisor
Tara Danz Wyckoff, Faculty Reader - Keywords:
- Shareholder
Stakeholder
Content Analysis
Leadership - Abstract:
- This thesis aims to explore an audience expansion of executive communications to include stakeholders in addition to shareholders. After surveying the shift’s inciting events and cultural change-agents in a literature review, the scope of the research was narrowed to the years 2016-2021 in two leading trade publications–PRWeek and Advertising Age [Ad Age]. To determine if action continues to follow academic and executive sentiment, a content analysis of all articles referring to either stakeholders or shareholders published in the predetermined five years was conducted. Regression analysis of the resulting data revealed considerable similarities in respective shareholder and stakeholder coverage across industry media, indicative of a consensus in the value of each spanning the communications sector. Notably, stakeholder sentiment and associated action remained consistent, even through turbulent news cycles. However, during periods of polarization the prioritization of shareholders was reestablished. The results, representing an economic and political snapshot, affirm that business continues to invest significantly in stakeholders–as social and economic actors, corporate value is now determined using Wall Street stocks and cultural position. But the uncertainty of divisive current events provides a need for certainty and trust, which executives still find in the measurable and defined system of shareholder management.