Is it legit? A look at corporate social responsibility and perceived legitimacy in company vaccine policies.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began and quickly spread across the world. As governments and businesses navigated the disease, politics began to seep into the discourse over handling the disease. Through the theories of strategic issues management, corporate social responsibility, and reputation management, this study explores how social media networks change a consumer’s view of corporate legitimacy towards a company. Network and content analyses were conducted on two Twitter networks to gain insight on the consumer attitudes and perceptions of two companies. Tweets in each network were coded to determine legitimacy, attitude, and purchasing intent. The findings of this study offer insight on how corporate social responsibility initiatives affect the company’s non-financial assets.