Communication of Sociopolitical Purpose by Companies: An Interdisciplinary View from the Perspective of Stakeholder Groups, Customers, and Employees. Theory and Results of an Empirical Study Among Young Target Groups

In recent years, “purpose marketing” has emerged as a new communication approach. The idea is for companies to take an explicit stance on sociopolitical issues. This has become even more relevant in the context of social change and the crises of recent years, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This is the starting point for this article: We present (after a brief theory-based statement of the problem) the results of our own empirical study that looks at the perceptions of such purpose communication not only from the customer's perspective but also simultaneously from the employee's perspective, thus pursuing an interdisciplinary perspective appropriate to the topic. The results provide several scientific and practical implications for communication in marketing and human resource management as well as other scientific disciplines, such as communication and linguistics.