Corporate social responsibility in the automotive industry : stakeholder perceptions of artificial intelligence-generated communication
Pfuhl, Jana Elena Jewel · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · 2024
The rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming corporate communications. This includes corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is currently one of the key challenges in corporate communications. In the automotive industry, both GenAI and CSR are subject to unfavourable stakeholder perceptions. To examine this case, this study uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to develop an experiment testing stakeholder perceptions of GenAI CSR communication in the automotive industry. In addition, a distinction is made between GenAI as a public and non-public source. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire among six hundred and twenty-six respondents (n = 628). The results show that using GenAI worsens stakeholder perceptions, which is particularly evident when declaring GenAI as the source and not in the information of AI-generated communication. However, the use of GenAI has no significant influence on the processing routes, according to the ELM. Thus, this study provides both academic and practical implications by identifying the potential of GenAI usage for CSR communication in the automotive industry and indicating the negative perception of GenAI as a public source.