Corporate cultural responsibility

Corporate cultural responsibility describes - as a supplementary form of cultural promotion within the framework of CSR - the value and norm-based management of economic processes of the voluntary cultural commitment of a company / corporate citizen. With corporate cultural responsibility as part of CSR, strategic concepts and measures are implemented that reveal a responsibility for art and culture that goes beyond the core business.

The partnership-based investment in artists, scientists, cultural groups, cultural institutions, cultural projects, cultural companies or those in the creative industries (in short: cultural carriers) by providing funds or material resources, service, network or know-how capacities in With regard to both a self-serving Financial Return on Invest (FROI), a self-serving (internal or external) Communicative Return on Invest (CROI) from the broadest possible public, a self-serving Business Return on Invest (BROI) or a Social Return on Invest (SROI) On the basis of contractual fixings, strategically sustainable goals for the common good of all stakeholders and society are linked.

Corporate cultural responsibility fulfills the following functions:

• As a social act, CCR in public communication is a message, a communication of a corporate citizen.
• As part of reputation management, CCR in its operationalized form is a range of communication channels and communication measures.
• Applied independently, CCR enables a CC to act publicly as an independent media organization (media citizen) in symmetrical communication.

Definition of terms

The terms corporate cultural responsibility and cultural sponsoring are often used synonymously. The new concept of "Corporate Cultural Responsibility", which emerged in 2002 from a joint workshop of the SIEMENS Arts program and the economic faculty of the University of Witten / Herdecke , has not yet reached the communication departments of the companies themselves. Most of the time, art or culture sponsoring is mentioned here .

Wolfgang Lamprecht defines cultural sponsoring only as a communication measure within the framework of corporate cultural responsibility. This in turn is part of the social responsibility of a company in the course of corporate social responsibility programs. Further communication measures are e.g. B. Cultural Investment, Corporate Giving or Corporate Volunteering . Corporate Cultural Responsibility asks about the background, meaning and benefits of maintaining the cultural environment by companies, thus about the responsibility of companies for a lively and efficient cultural environment.

CCR is thus the focus of a “good citizen” (in a determining derivation of corporate citizenship) of CSR on the cultural commitment of a company. CCR encompasses a company's internal and external cultural commitment beyond pure communication. This includes the promotion and qualification of employees, the offering of cultural events or sponsoring and patronage . Against the background and omnipresence of the terms responsibility and sustainability in connection with the CSR discourse, Lamprecht recommends replacing the term cultural sponsorship with the understanding of CCR.

Corporate Cultural Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship

At the interface between culture and business or the public, against the background of the tendency to understand companies as corporate citizens with social responsibility, three issues with regard to corporate cultural responsibility seem to be in focus:

1. Governance , d. H. the question of where in a company responsibility for responsibility for culture should be located and how it is dealt with.
2. Profiling, d. H. to escape arbitrariness in funding decisions and to arrive at a strategy based on criteria.
3. Performance measurement , d. H. the efforts of both the sponsors and the sponsors to differentiate their range of services in such a way that a win-win relationship for the partners can be controlled and compared on the basis of defined parameters.

From sponsoring to corporate cultural responsibility

The promotion of art and culture by companies has a tradition that can be traced back to antiquity. On the initiative of the advertising industry in the 1960s, companies increasingly pushed into areas of consumer life that were still free from classic advertising and public relations : leisure, sport and culture.

The beginnings of classic sponsorship can be traced back to sport. Sport became a relevant field of activity and experience in which companies found new ways of conveying their advertising messages (keyword: surreptitious advertising, perimeter advertising, jersey advertising, testimonials from prominent athletes, etc.) a second phase finally from the mid-1980s, when sports sponsorship had already taken a firm place in the company's communication strategies.

With the help of sports marketing and sports sponsoring agencies that have taken on the management of the design, implementation and exploitation of sponsorship rights, sports sponsoring had already become professional at a high level by this point. Companies were therefore able to achieve not only communicative but also economic success through sports sponsorship. The engagement in art and culture is considered to promote image and thus as a "nice", but in an emergency dispensable minor matter.

From the mid-1990s, however, cultural sponsorship took off rapidly. The reasons were the increase in the media, in particular through private radio and television stations, the sharp increase in advertised products and brands and the resulting flood of information with increasingly sensitive selection mechanisms of the target groups, which in turn led to zapping and reactance, as well as the megatrend of Customization.

In this third phase of sponsoring development, cultural, but also social and environmental sponsoring began to establish itself as an integral part of the company's communications mix alongside sports sponsoring. The reasons why cultural sponsoring, especially compared to traditional communication measures, was steadily gaining in importance were the increasing income, the increasing level of education and the growing mobility of western society, in which leisure time became more and more important. This change to leisure time is characterized by a more active use of sporting and, above all, cultural offers. Participation in these offers, which is emotionally charged through sponsoring, can have a positive influence on the image and therefore generate competitive advantages.

The 2008 crisis did not really let classic sponsorship volumes decline in comparison to other corporate communication measures. Shifts away from cultural and sports sponsoring to public sponsoring (environment, education, social affairs), but especially to media sponsoring (content sponsorship for television, radio, TV, cinema, internet) can nevertheless be observed since 2011, analogous to the importance of CSR . The focus is on the understanding of social commitment in various forms on the basis of the business rational principle with regard to efficiency and benefit.

A fourth phase is now emerging in the development of sponsorship: the implementation in the concept of corporate cultural responsibility as a communication principle. The change from an anonymous, patron-oriented sponsor to a marketing-oriented strategist and culture promoter with commercial self-interest who is concerned about publicity and struggling for social trust can therefore be observed. While sponsoring was previously understood as a communication tool as a collective term for corporate culture promotion, CCR sees sponsoring as one communication measure among several. The aim is the operationalization of CCR controlling through planning, management, evaluation and success control based on key figures. The aim is to create a set of new communication control instruments for classic control instruments from practical impact research against the background of theory, which corresponds to the rules and patterns of practical information requirements of company management with regard to benefit recording.

The CCR concept sees itself as value management, therefore, as a necessary paradigm shift. It causes both a redefinition of sponsoring and a communication-scientific view of CCR as management of the process of success-oriented strategic communication of trust and responsibility. This takes place in the interests of all stakeholders and the economic responsibility of a company.

CCR classification

Regardless of the specific characteristics, companies have all options in their respective CCR catalogs of measures to incorporate the classic forms of cultural sponsorship into a CCR concept:

• In addition to raising financial resources, material resources, services or non-material support can also be part of CCR measures.
• The sponsored can actively provide consideration themselves or leave the active communicative use and / or the use of activatable participations in the CCR project to the company.
• Funded persons can u. a. Be artists, cultural institutions, cultural projects or companies in the cultural industry.
• Funding can be provided within the framework of so-called brand partnerships, i.e. mutual participation in brands that have already been introduced (mostly from the high culture industry or from established companies in the cultural industry). Likewise, popular and mass culture, commercial culture, creative industries or - with regard to research and development - avant-garde projects can also be the subject of CCR measures.
• A company can develop and implement ideas itself (self-initiated CCR) or participate in external offers (externally initiated CCR).
• Over a defined period of time, CCR is based on the principle of representable performance and consideration in a partnership structure.

CCR includes the desire to stand out from the competition and to secure competitive advantages, especially in the area of ​​corporate communication. Cultural responsibility does not exclude the previously diversified forms of sponsorship, but rather includes it as an overarching term. In all cases, the crucial common factor is the company's motive, to eliminate a communicative deficit and to enable a positive and growth-promoting environment for companies. This should generate economic advantages that a company is de facto obliged to.

Lamprecht has shown how this obligation can be met in practice through a monetary return on investment by adding an economic aspect to the traditional Bruhn cultural sponsorship classification. This turns the classic cultural sponsorship classification into a CCR classification.

Cultural area	Expressions	Possible forms of representation	Possible ROI
Visual arts	Painting, sculpture, sculpture, concept art, photography, architecture, graphics / design / fashion etc.	Promotion of artists, artist groups, exhibitions, catalogs, advertising material, restorations, loans, brokerage, trade fairs, grants, competitions ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
performing Arts	Opera, operetta, musical, cabaret, ballet, variety, drama etc.	Funding of performances, tours, actors, groups, audio and video carriers, advertising material, grants, competitions ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
music	Classical music, pop / rock / alternative, house / techno, jazz / blues, hip-hop / R & B, folk music, world music, country etc.	Promotion of concerts and tours (orchestras, soloists, bands, choirs), individual engagements, grants, prizes, audio and video carriers, advertising material, trade fairs, competitions ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
Literature and Publishing	Books, print media, online media, etc.	Funding of authors, grants, prizes, sponsorships, readings, trade fairs, advertising material ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
Audiovisual area	Cinema films, television productions, video productions, scripts, radio plays, radio programs, etc.	Financing of productions, scripts, competitions, advertising material ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
Cultural maintenance	Preservation of monuments, heritage preservation, customs, folk festivals, theme parks etc.	Promotion of restorations, competitions, innovations, sponsorships, mediation ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product place-ments, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...
Creative Industries	Publishing houses, museums / galleries, concert halls, stages, festivals, libraries, music industry, literature houses etc.	Promotion of organizers, infrastructure, operations, sales, marketing measures, innovations ...	Advertising equivalence values ​​from (media) mentions, logo / product placements, contact numbers, employee and customer incentives, works of art, income from licenses, rights, investments ...

CCR tools

As part of a CCR program, the following measures, which can be combined or implemented individually, are available to achieve the goals. These measures aim to achieve an (internal or external) Communicative Return on Invest (CROI), a Business Return on Invest (BROI), a Financial Return on Invest (FROI) or a Social Return on Invest (SROI).

• Culture and art sponsorship (CROI, BROI, SROI) : voluntary investment in cultural institutions by providing money or material, services, network or know-how
• Corporate Giving (donations, patronage) (CROI, BROI, SROI) : supplementary CCR measure through the voluntary support of cultural institutions through the provision of mainly financial or material resources
• Corporate secondments / corporate volunteering (CROI, BROI, SROI) : supplementary CCR measure by mainly providing manpower
• Events (CROI, BROI, SROI, FROI) : supplementary CCR measures within the framework of corporate communication
• Cultural Commissioning (CROI, BROI, SROI, FROI) : supplementary CCR measures in the context of corporate communication
• Product / image placements (CROI, BROI, SROI, FROI) : supplementary CCR measures by means of the provision of funds or material, service, network or know-how capacities
• Cause Related Marketing (CROI, BROI, SROI ): Supplementary CCR measure through the provision of mainly money or material resources
• Public-Private Partnership (CROI, BROI, SROI, FROI) : CCR measure in cooperation with the public sector, in which a significant percentage of the total capacity is achieved through the provision of funds or material resources, service, network or know-how capacities Project costs are covered by the company
• Cultural Investment / Venture Philanthropy (CROI, BROI, SROI, FROI) : supplementary form of cultural funding within the framework of CSR in the form of material or immaterial investments in cultural institutions

CCR evaluation

CCR evaluation is the purposeful and goal-oriented, systematic analysis, control and evaluation of the planning, implementation and evaluation of CCR measures for their optimization and from the point of view of the CCR investor and his company goals with the help of scientific techniques and research methods. (see p. 328) Because when companies use CCR measures, they usually want to achieve several goals. The idea behind it, the way there and the result ultimately need to be controlled. Not just because such a process is based on human action. Rather, because CCR is also about economic action, which in business administration has to be carried out according to economic principles.

CCR demands an integrated application of the control methods in the performance measurement: a flexibly applicable success control, an accompanying process control and a periodically perpetuated result control.

The use of key figures, i.e. the decision what a CCR investor wants to know for what purpose, is ultimately derived from the strategic planning of the CCR management and its goals, which are therefore a prerequisite for the sensible use of key figures. It is and remains the challenge of corporate management to take initiative and to define key figures. The literature recommends the use of corresponding balanced scorecards, which can ultimately be used to identify key figures, but which also take into account soft factors and therefore become a management tool and less a control tool. After all, an essential aspect of the use of key figures is that the results are disclosed and are therefore part of a discussion related to concrete decisions in which management and stakeholders take part.

The meaning results from the application in public communication. Because the CCR indicators not only reveal the company's activities to stakeholders or impact investors. They can be used both internally and as a source material for CSR reports, cross-border guidelines and initiatives. They can also serve the increasingly important intellectual capital statements, corporate trust, creative and happiness indices, own CCR reports and thus CCR communication.

The CCR reporting metrics summarized below reflect possible simple applications. Not all of them will be necessary for every CCR strategy, CCR planning or every CCR controlling, and not all of them will be generally usable for a CCR investor.

Bibliography and sources

• Jean-Christophe Amann: Approach. The Necessity of Art, Statement Series , 1st edition, Lindinger + Schmid Verlag, Regensburg 1996
• André Habisch / René Schmidpeter / Martin Neu-Reiter (eds.): Handbuch Corporate Citizenship. Corporate Social Responsibility for Managers , Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2008
• Manfred Bruhn: Sponsoring: Systematic Planning and Integrative Use , Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden, 4th edition, 2013, first published in 1998
• Michael Hutter: Value alternating current. Texts on art and business , Fundus-Bücher 183, edited by Jean-Frederik Bandel, Philo Fine Arts, Hamburg 2010
• Kurt Imhof: The public crisis. Communication and media as factors of social change , Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2011
• Wolfgang Lamprecht: Create trust, talk about it and earn money from it. Communication practice and performance measurement from Corporate Cultural Responsibility , Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013
• Wolfgang Lamprecht: Moratorium on cultural sponsoring , Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2014
• Jörg Pfannenberg / Ansgar Zerfass (ed.): Value creation through communication. Communication controlling in corporate practice , Frankfurter Allgemeine Buch, Frankfurt / Main 2010
• Juliana Raupp / Stefan Jarolimek / Friederike Schultz (eds.): Handbook CSR - Basics of communication science, disciplinary approaches and methodological challenges , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 1st edition 2011, Wiesbaden 2011
• Christine Rothe: cultural sponsoring and image construction, analysis of reception-specific factors of cultural sponsoring and development of a communication-scientific image approach , VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008
• Matthias Schmidt / Thomas Beschorner (eds.): Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Citizenship , sfwu Volume 17, 2nd edition, Rainer Hampp Verlag, Munich / Mering 2008
• Vera Steinkellner: CSR and culture: corporate cultural responsibility as a success factor in your company , Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden 2015
• Josef Wieland / Walter Conradi: Corporate Citizenship: Social engagement - entrepreneurial benefit , Metropolis-Verlag, Marburg 2002

Web links

• Wolfgang Lamprecht at researchgate

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, talk about it and earn money from it. Communication practice and performance measurement of corporate cultural responsibility. 1st edition, Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2013 ( ISBN 978-3-658-03593-8 ) see page 231
2. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, compare page 231 and page 235
3. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 182f to page 184
4. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 241
5. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 241 to page 245
6. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 365
7. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 255 and page 256
8. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 256f
9. ^ Bruhn Manfred, Sponsoring: Systematic Planning and Integrative Use, Verlag Gabler, 6th edition (first edition 1998)
10. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 265f
11. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 275ff
12. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 278 to page 282
13. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 282f
14. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 283ff
15. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 285
16. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 285 to page 288
17. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 288
18. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 2289f
19. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 290ff
20. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 295
21. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 274
22. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 328
23. ^ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see page 366
24. ↑ Lamprecht, Wolfgang: Create trust, see pages 354 to 363 or chapter 2.12.7