Working Behind the Scenes with the Enemy: The Tensions in Collaboration Between Contested Firms and NGOs to Produce Ethically Substantive CSR Communication

Abstract Organizations contributing to global warming are commonly seen as unethical and can struggle to maintain social acceptance. To improve stakeholders' perceptions, firms may engage in CSR campaigns that detail firms' efforts to reduce their environmental footprint. However, in doing so, such organizations might be accused of not being ethically genuine. Against this backdrop, collaborating with NGOs can be a way to draw directly from critical voices to generate CSR communication that is perceived as more substantive from an ethical standpoint. In this paper, we unpack the tensions and complexities of such collaboration, considering the opposing motivations of the two parties. We build upon a case study of a firm in the European airline industry collaborating with a climate-focused NGO to design and deliver a CSR campaign. Empirically, we draw from a comprehensive qualitative dataset, including seven months of fully immersed participant observation and interviews with all actors involved in the collaboration. In addition to characterizing the tensions stemming from the partnership between an NGO and a firm facing stakeholder questions about the (un)ethical nature of its activity and the resulting societal implications (a “contested firm”), we develop a theoretical model demonstrating how transparency fosters trust and assertive communication in such partnerships, creating a positive feedback loop that reduces the above tensions. Our model also highlights the ethical role of brokers in NGO–firm collaborations, emphasizing their function in bridging trust gaps and managing tensions, as well as how NGO-firm collaborations can enhance a firm's legitimacy through dynamic ethical learning, independent of direct legitimacy transfer. We contribute to the literature on NGO–firm collaborations in the context of CSR communication and contested firms.