Comparative analysis of the DEST framework with other established frameworks
| Framework | Key focus | Strengths | Comparison with the DEST framework |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Engagement for Stakeholder Trust Framework | Guides organizations in building stakeholder trust through social media engagement, with a strong emphasis on aligning digital practices with societal, ethical and institutional expectations. Six dimensions of social media adoption aligned with institutional logics | Provides clear objectives for social media engagement strategies and selection of relevant KPIs (such as engagement rates, sentiment analysis, and reach), i.e, performance metrics for organizations to align social media engagement with institutional values | Integrates institutional logics directly to design strategic social media engagement, focusing on building trust and legitimacy |
| Stakeholder Theory (Freeman, 1984) | An organization’s success depends on addressing the interests and needs of all stakeholders not just shareholders | Emphasis is on identifying, managing and sometimes prioritizing stakeholder relationships to achieve business goals | DEST framework is specifically designed to build stakeholder trust through social media and digital communication, explicitly integrating institutional logics (regulatory, civic, market, professional, normative) into stakeholder engagement practices |
| Institutional Theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) | Institutional theory is a broad, conceptual framework that explains how organizations are influenced and shaped by the norms, values, beliefs and rules of the wider institutional environment | Explain organizational behaviour/conformity | DEST is prescriptive and provides direct guidance for contemporary digital engagement, while institutional theory is descriptive, offering a lens to understand why organizations adopt certain behaviours in response to institutional pressures |
| Honeycomb Framework (Kietzmann et al., 2011) | Breaks down social media into seven functional building blocks: Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence, Relationships, Reputation, Groups | Provides a detailed understanding of social media platform functionalities and user interaction patterns | DEST focuses on trust and legitimacy outcomes via institutional alignment rather than platform functions |
| Framework | Key focus | Strengths | Comparison with the DEST framework |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Engagement for Stakeholder Trust Framework | Guides organizations in building stakeholder trust through social media engagement, with a strong emphasis on aligning digital practices with societal, ethical and institutional expectations. Six dimensions of social media adoption aligned with institutional logics | Provides clear objectives for social media engagement strategies and selection of relevant KPIs (such as engagement rates, sentiment analysis, and reach), i.e, performance metrics for organizations to align social media engagement with institutional values | Integrates institutional logics directly to design strategic social media engagement, focusing on building trust and legitimacy |
| Stakeholder Theory ( | An organization’s success depends on addressing the interests and needs of all stakeholders not just shareholders | Emphasis is on identifying, managing and sometimes prioritizing stakeholder relationships to achieve business goals | DEST framework is specifically designed to build stakeholder trust through social media and digital communication, explicitly integrating institutional logics (regulatory, civic, market, professional, normative) into stakeholder engagement practices |
| Institutional Theory ( | Institutional theory is a broad, conceptual framework that explains how organizations are influenced and shaped by the norms, values, beliefs and rules of the wider institutional environment | Explain organizational behaviour/conformity | DEST is prescriptive and provides direct guidance for contemporary digital engagement, while institutional theory is descriptive, offering a lens to understand why organizations adopt certain behaviours in response to institutional pressures |
| Honeycomb Framework ( | Breaks down social media into seven functional building blocks: Identity, Conversations, Sharing, Presence, Relationships, Reputation, Groups | Provides a detailed understanding of social media platform functionalities and user interaction patterns | DEST focuses on trust and legitimacy outcomes via institutional alignment rather than platform functions |
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