Between Collaboration and Confrontation: Corporate Communication with Environmental NGOs

Sustainability is a pressing global concern, prompting corporations to engage with environmental NGOs (eNGOs) that scrutinize their practices and hold them publicly accountable. To explore how corporations shape their communication in these interactions, we conducted interviews with 13 Dutch communication professionals from targeted corporations. We identified three roles that corporations can take on – cooperative, confrontational, and silent – which are not mutually exclusive. Corporations may shift between these roles depending on the context, each associated with specific communication strategies. The cooperative role fosters dialogue, shared understanding, and collaboration. The confrontational role is primarily used in contexts of disruptive protest actions and climate litigation by eNGOs, where corporations clearly communicate their boundaries. The silent role reflects strategic non-communication in contexts such as climate litigation or high-visibility social media debates. By identifying these roles and their associated strategies, this study advances understanding of how corporations manage and maintain relationships with eNGOs while balancing openness, defense, and restraint.