Empirical study on qualitative characteristics of text analysis in sustainability reporting

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K21293
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Accounting; Environmental policy and social systems
• Research Institution: Tottori University of Environmental Studies
• Principal Investigator: Nakao Yuriko 公立鳥取環境大学, 経営学部, 准教授 (50738177)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: サステナビリティ報告 / テキストマイニング / 環境経営 / CSR

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the trends of corporate social responsibility (CSR) rhetoric used in sustainability reports for legitimacy. We employ text mining to analyse the CSR rhetoric of CEOs’ statements in the sustainability reports of Japanese companies during 2001－2015. We select CSR rhetoric as strategic, institutional, and dialectic, according to the desired organizational legitimacy. The study explores legitimacy change in order to clarify the intention of top management toward sustainability through CSR rhetoric analysis. We find that the CEOs’ language has changed from ‘institutional CSR rhetoric’to ‘dialectic CSR rhetoric’ over time. Our results suggest that the CEOs consider the needs and expectations of the society and respond accordingly. The methodology of this study newly contributes to systematic analysis of the institutional influence of language.

Free Research Field

社会科学