This paper aims to examine how CEO talk of sustainability in CEO letters evolves in a period of increased expectations from society for companies to increase their transition…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how CEO talk of sustainability in CEO letters evolves in a period of increased expectations from society for companies to increase their transition towards becoming more sustainable and to better account for progress and performance within the sustainability areas.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting an interpretive textual approach, the paper provides a careful analysis of how CEO talk of sustainability in CEO letters of large listed Swedish companies developed during 2008–2017.
Findings
The talk of sustainability is successively becoming more elaborated, proactive and multidimensional. CEOs frame their talk by adopting different perspectives: the distinct environmental, the performance and meso, the product-market-oriented and the sustainability embeddedness and value creation. The shift towards an embeddedness and value-creation perspective in the later letters implies that the alleged capitalistic and short-sighted focus on shareholder value maximisation might be changing towards a greater focus on sustainability embeddedness as an important goal for succeeding with the transition towards a sustainable business.
Practical implications
The findings are relevant for policymakers and government bodies when developing policies and regulations aimed at improving the positive impact of companies on global sustainable development. Findings are also useful for management teams when structuring their sustainability talk as a response to external pressure.
Social implications
The findings provide relevant input on how social norms, values and expectations are shaping the corporate discourse on sustainability.
Originality/value
The findings of this study contribute to an increased understanding of the rhetorical response in influential CEO letters to the surrounding sustainability context, including new national and international policies as well as sociopolitical events and discourses related to sustainability. This offers a unique frame of reference for further interpretational work on how CEOs frame, engage in and shape the sustainability discourse.
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Susanne Arvidsson and Svetlana Sabelfeld
This study provides insights into the external powers that can influence business leaders' communication on sustainability. It shows how the socio-political context manifested in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides insights into the external powers that can influence business leaders' communication on sustainability. It shows how the socio-political context manifested in national and transnational policies, regulations and other socio-political events can influence the CEO talk about sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts an interpretative and qualitative method of analysis using the lenses of the theoretical concepts of framing and legitimacy, analysing CEOs’ letters from 10 multinational industrial companies based in Sweden, over the period of 2008–2019.
Findings
The results show that various discourses of sustainability, emerging from policies and regulatory initiatives, socio-political events and civil society activism, are reflected in the ways CEOs frame sustainability over time. This article reveals that CEOs not only lead the discourse of profitable sustainability, but they also slowly adapt their sustainability talk to other discourses led by the policymakers, regulators and civil society. This pattern of a slow adaptation is especially visible in a period characterised by increased discourses of climate urgency and regulations related to social and environmental sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
The theoretical frame is built by integrating the concepts of legitimacy and framing. Appreciating dynamic notions of legitimacy and framing, the study suggests a novel view of reporting as a film series, presenting many frames of sustainability over time. It helps the study to conceptualise CEO framing of sustainability as adaptive framing. This study suggests using a dynamic notion of adaptive framing in future longitudinal studies of corporate- and accounting communication.
Practical implications
The results show that policymakers, regulators and civil society, through their initiatives, influence the CEOs' framing of sustainability. It is thus important for regulators to substantiate sustainability-related discourses and develop conceptual tools and language of social and environmental sustainability that can lead CEO framing more effectively.
Originality/value
The study engages with Goffman's notion of dynamic framing. Dynamic framing suggests a novel view of reporting as a film series, presenting many frames of sustainability over time and conceptualises CEO framing of sustainability as adaptive framing.
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Fredrik N. G. Andersson and Susanne Arvidsson
The game plan firms must navigate in the quest of competitive advantage which is changing quickly. More and more firms acknowledge that future prosperity depends on achieving the…
Abstract
The game plan firms must navigate in the quest of competitive advantage which is changing quickly. More and more firms acknowledge that future prosperity depends on achieving the joint goals of economic, environmental and social sustainability. This understanding has resulted in both firms and actors on the financial markets enhancing their focus on environmental, social and governance dimensions in their respective decision-making processes. In this chapter, the focus is on one key component of the changing game plan, the European Union’s (EU) Sustainable Finance Platform that envisions investors as a key driver of firms’ sustainability transformation. Based on survey data from Swedish listed firms, we discuss implications and outcomes of the Platform. Our results show that investors play an important role in setting the rules of the gameplan for firms. However, not to the extent that it meets the ambitions of the policymakers. This suggests either that the Platform will fail to meet its aims or that firms should expect further significant changes to the gameplan in the future.
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The purpose of this study is to analyse the views stock market actors have on corporate communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information grounded on legitimacy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyse the views stock market actors have on corporate communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) information grounded on legitimacy and stakeholder theory. Recent findings suggest that management teams experience an increased interest and demand for CSR information from the actors on the stock market and that this underlie a focus shift. This is quite astonishing considering that the interest from just stock market actors in CSR information always has been meagre. However, due to lack of recent studies, it has not been confirmed that de facto there has been a trend shift among stock market actors towards an increased interest in CSR information.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews with financial analysts at international investment banks.
Findings
The study confirms that the focus shift is not at all driven by the actors in the stock market. Quite the opposite. They express mistrust towards this information and a continued meagre interest in it.
Research limitations/implications
Findings from the study suggest the need for more research on how different stakeholders view CSR information. It also opens up for discussions on regulations concerning CSR information.
Practical implications
The findings imply that management teams might have deluded themselves and become victim to what Christensen and Cheney (2000) refer to as self-seduces, i.e. seeing things that are not really there. The findings might also indicate an enlargement of the stakeholder perspective. Thus, a subtle shift from a bilateral relationship (company – shareholders) towards a multilateral set of relationships (company – stakeholders) camouflaged under the justification from management teams that the increased interest comes from the stock market.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the scarce research on how actors in the stock market view CSR. The findings are of interest and relevance to the business and academic communities in their ongoing quest of unravelling the core of CSR and business ethics.
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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the management teams' views regarding different aspects related to the disclosure of non‐financial information in the annual report. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the management teams' views regarding different aspects related to the disclosure of non‐financial information in the annual report. The focus is on the following aspects: incentive, quantity, focus, use of non‐financial key performance indicators (KPIs) and trends.
Design/methodology/approach
The data are based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey addressed to investor‐relation managers (IRMs) at the largest companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Findings
The study confirms an increasing focus of non‐financial information related to intangible assets in corporate disclosure. This increase appears to be both regulatory and demand driven. Encouraging indeed is that management teams seem to have acknowledged the importance not only to describe the less tangible values per se, but also to explain the roles they play in the value‐creation process and in corporate strategy. Furthermore, the study reveals a trend shift from research and development (R&D) and relational information towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee‐related information, an increasing number of non‐financial KPIs and a positive attitude to mandatory requirements. Overall, the findings indicate that voluntary disclosure compensates for the deficiencies of financial statements to properly disclose intangible assets. This may lessen the risk of the argued impairment of the efficient allocation of resources on the stock market.
Practical implications
The findings reveal that quite a few challenges lie ahead in shaping efficient corporate disclosures where also intangible assets are in focus. The most critically relate to dealing with the concerns of reliability and comparability associated with disclosures of intangible assets and their related non‐financial KPIs. This needs to be taken on promptly by management teams, policy makers and financial market regulators if the corporate‐disclosure process shall function efficiently and facilitate decreased information asymmetry and uphold an efficient allocation of resources on the stock market.
Originality/value
Herein not only one aspect related to disclosure of non‐financial information is being analysed, but also several and from a management‐team perspective, which is a perspective often neglected for the sophisticated‐user perspective.
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The purpose of the paper is to analyse the views of management teams regarding different aspects related to the corporate communication process with financial analysts. The focus…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to analyse the views of management teams regarding different aspects related to the corporate communication process with financial analysts. The focus is the following aspects: incentive for communication; sources of information; and frequency and initiator of communication.
Design/methodology/approach
The data is based on a comprehensive questionnaire survey addressed to investor‐relation managers (IRMs) at the largest companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.
Findings
The study confirms an increasing frequency of corporate communication, a short‐term orientation, more demand for direct contacts, and embracing of new communication tools. The findings reveal that quite a few challenges lie ahead in shaping the efficient corporate communication process of tomorrow. The most critical relate to the risk of opportunity costs due to lost management opportunities caused by increased demand from stock‐market actors for communication time with management teams and to perceived risks with, for example, increased accessibility, information leakage and misinterpretations due to the introduction of new electronic communication tools.
Practical implications
Given the delicate nature of the above challenges, they need to be taken on promptly by management teams, policy makers and financial market regulators if the corporate communication process is to function efficiently and facilitate decreased information asymmetry and uphold an efficient allocation of resources on the stock market.
Originality/value
The study is motivated by the changed conditions for corporate communication (e.g. increased globalisation, new electronic ways to communicate, importance of non‐financial drivers), paired with a lack of recent studies. Furthermore, herein not only one aspect is being analysed but several, and from a management‐team perspective, which is a perspective often neglected for the sophisticated‐user perspective.
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Trine Susanne Johansen and Anne Ellerup Nielsen
Societal developments and stakeholder awareness place responsibility and legitimacy high on corporate agendas. Increased awareness heightens focus on stakeholder relations and…
Abstract
Purpose
Societal developments and stakeholder awareness place responsibility and legitimacy high on corporate agendas. Increased awareness heightens focus on stakeholder relations and dialogue as key aspects in corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate identity and corporate communication scholarship, but the question remains how can dialogue be initiated and maintained? The purpose of this paper is to establish a framework for conceptualizing dialogue.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a review of CSR, corporate identity, corporate communication and stakeholder literature, a framework is developed taking into account the different stakes held by key stakeholder groups, i.e. consumers, investors, employees, non‐governmental organization and suppliers. Based on the discursive terms of form and script, we argue that different stakes condition different dialogical types.
Findings
The paper argues that the stakeholder orientations of the CSR, corporate identity and corporate communication disciplines can aid in strengthening dialogue. It is thus suggested that dialogue may be strengthened by constructing a framework which links the stakes held by key stakeholder groups to specific dialogue forms and scripts.
Practical implications
The practical implication of articulating stakeholder dialogue as scripted interaction is that organizations seeking to engage stakeholders strategically must understand and respect conventions and expectations.
Originality/value
The paper's contribution is to expand the notion of dialogue within communication research and to provide organizations with a framework for understanding stakeholder involvement in identity relevant issues of responsibility and legitimacy.
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The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize Pierre Martineau’s Motivation in Advertising and to assess its status as a valid forgotten classic of the marketing literature.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review and summarize Pierre Martineau’s Motivation in Advertising and to assess its status as a valid forgotten classic of the marketing literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Motivation in Advertising is reviewed and summarized, and its contributions to marketing and advertising history, thought and practice are assessed.
Findings
Martineau was among a handful of figures behind the “motivation research” movement among marketers and advertisers during the late 1940s to the 1960s. His “new philosophy” regarding communication theory, persuasion and advertising message strategy and tactics remains highly influential and relevant. Written during a period of tremendous growth in consumption in the USA and a revolution in the use of qualitative research in marketing and advertising, Martineau’s book represents much more than a work about his experiences with motivation research, but a significant contribution to advertising communication theory as well.
Originality/value
Pierre Martineau was the subject of a historical biography (Martin, 1985), which also focused substantially on the principal themes and contributions of Motivation in Advertising. The book was also widely reviewed shortly after its publication. This more recent review and assessment, however, reveals the work’s valuable historical insights into how postmodern consumption evolved and many present-day perspectives of consumer behavior and advertising effects coalesced during the Consumer Revolution and at the outset of modern advertising’s “Golden Age”.