Corporate digital responsibility: what drives public expectations towards companies’ role in the digital society?

The digital transformation has introduced unique ethical challenges for corporations. In response, the concept of Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) has emerged as an extension of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that foregrounds the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities that organizations face in the digital society. This study investigates public expectations towards CDR across the ESG dimensions compared to other societal actors, and examines how individuals’ environmental and social consciousness, digital competence, and corporate trust shape these expectations. Drawing on a pre-registered survey of a representative sample of Dutch citizens (n = 2196) we develop and validate a measurement scale capturing ESG-related CDR expectations. Results show that citizens consistently attribute digital responsibility to companies across all ESG domains. Environmental and social consciousness, and digital competence significantly predict CDR expectations, positioning CDR as a socially constructed expectations system shaped by moral orientations and technological literacy. Corporate trust moderates these relationships: it amplifies value-based expectations while reducing competence-driven demands. Our findings advance CDR scholarship beyond technical, managerial, and conceptual accounts by empirically grounding CDR in citizens’ responsibility attributions and situating it within broader debates of digital governance and accountability. Our study highlights key implications of CDR communication: aligning corporate practices with public expectations is central to negotiating accountability and shaping responsible digital governance.