United States Airline Industry Partnerships for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Efforts in Human Trafficking
Alex Rister, PhD & Anne Russ | September 22 | 1:45-2:45 pm
Topic: Research | Knowledge Level: Intermediate
Thirty-eight percent of survivors flew at least once during the time they were trafficked, and 71% of labor trafficking survivors arrived in the United States on an airplane prior to being trafficked (Polaris, 2018). Based on reports about human trafficking and the transportation industry, airlines are “in a pivotal position to possibly observe indicators related to abuse or control on flights and during check-in or security check procedures” (Polaris, 2018). To contribute to the gap in the literature on the United States airline industry’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts on human trafficking, this study examined two research questions: How do airlines partner with anti-trafficking organizations? How are those partnerships communicated in airline CSR materials? This study builds upon a prior project analyzing more foundationally how airlines communicated CSR efforts related to human trafficking which noted partnerships as central to those efforts. To address the research questions of the present study, the research team analyzed the CSR materials of the 10 major U.S. passenger airlines classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Airline Information as Group III or with operating revenue of $1 billion or more (DOT, 2021). Publicly available airline CSR website data on anti-trafficking efforts were collected, and the research team employed Braun & Clarke’s (2006) six phases of thematic analysis to analyze the qualitative data. Study findings contribute to the literature on CSR and corporate partnerships and also offer CSR practitioners advice on communicating anti-trafficking partnerships.
Presentation Objectives:
· Outline the present study, grounding its relevance in existing academic literature on CSR communication
· Discuss the study’s research questions, methods, and findings with a focus on clarity for project replication by other researchers
· Describe theoretical and practical implications and recommendations based on the research