Data PhD Norris - A Matter of Framing: Analyzing Value Communication in Sustainable Business Models

This dataset is the product of a qualitative, explanatory case study aiming to understand how companies use frames to communicate different translations of value in a real-life context. To foster theoretical saturation and increase the findings' validity across industries, a multiple case study design was employed. The selection of companies from different industries supports variation, while also enabling the comparison and level of abstraction required for more transferable frames. Cases were selected based on theoretical sampling using four criteria: First, following the definition of sustainable business models (SBMs), the companies need to commit to increased value creation for stakeholders and the natural environment. Second, the cases need to communicate extensively about this value creation toward consumers. Third, the companies have to aim at market segments beyond a sustainability niche, indicated by marketing positioning against mainstream offers. Fourth, only single-brand companies that had a sustainability emphasis since their foundation were considered to maintain intra-case consistency and avoid conflicts between company, brand, and product communications. New cases were analyzed until the discovery of new findings declined. Three cases were added in a second wave of cases to gain more saturation on emerging themes. Seven more cases were added in August 2022 to further triangulate the results across a wider set of cases. All cases except one are based in Germany. To understand the frames used in the analyzed cases, their websites were scraped, including company-level and product-level pages in January 2021 (second wave of cases in autumn 2021, third wave in summer 2022). As communication artifacts, these data directly reflect how stakeholder value is framed toward consumers. Product- and company-level communication was considered as company-level sustainability associations can affect product-level evaluations of consumer value. Communication was determined as directed toward consumers when it presented information relevant for consumer attitudes in appropriate language and format. When a company offered multiple product types, one exemplary product page was examined for each type. For validity-enhancing data triangulation purposes, other communication channels (company blogs and third party interviews) were also collected for the time frame of January 2021 until August 2022. The analyzed documents contain approximately 409,000 words.