The structural relationships between corporate culture, ICT diffusion innovation, corporate leadership, corporate communication management (CCM) activities and organisational performance

Abstract

Corporate Communication Management (CCM) is an important concept within the communication and marketing discipline. The term corporate communication came to the attention of the general public more than 40 years ago, due to changes in global business environments. Although corporate communication received great attention from scholars and the business community, its complex concepts are still unclear. Furthermore, many scholars believe there are influences of corporate culture, ICT diffusion innovations and corporate leadership on corporate communication and its impact to organisational performance, yet there is a paucity of studies on the validation of this theoretical assumption. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address this gap by providing an elevated understanding of the concept of CCM and its antecedents, and in consequence, focus on organisational performance from the managerial perspectives. This study employs a two tier mixed-method research process involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first tier commences with a semi-structured interview (with 12 respondents) to refine a conceptual framework developed based on existing literature. Then, content validity (with 10 expert opinions) and pilot test (with 35 respondents) follow, to develop a measurement scale with good validity and reliability. The second tier involves online survey data (with 223 respondents) and secondary data (from Thomson DataStream) to test the research hypotheses and proposed conceptual model. In this stage, structural equation modelling (SEM) is employed. Results indicate a very good fit to the data, with good convergent, discriminant and nomological validity and reliability stability. The findings of this research show that corporate culture, ICT diffusion innovation and corporate leadership are factors that influence CCM directly. While CCM correlates positively with financial performance, it has no effect on mission achievement. Corporate culture was found to have a positive relationship with mission achievement but negative relations with financial performance. Furthermore, ICT diffusion innovation demonstrates a positive association with mission achievement. Despite corporate leadership having a positive relationship with mission achievement, there was no effect on financial performance. Therefore, this study answered the antecedents and consequences of CCM, and they were found to be influential factors. In addition, the study demonstrates that managers rely on internal factors such as corporate culture, ICT diffusion innovation and corporate leadership to predict and assess CCM. The findings have implications for knowledge of theories and practices, and also contribute in the development of a model that explains the CCM functions and shows that functions have a definite positive impact on financial performance. Furthermore, the research adds an insight to a growing body of communication literature (primarily corporate communication) and makes recommendation for future research directions.