Browsing by Subject "corporate social responsibility"

This study examines how discussion of environmental sustainability is framed in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication of European Green Digital Coalition (EGDC) tech companies. The strategy and vision sections of year 2020 corporate annual reports of 14 EGDC companies were chosen for analysis, and 116 quotes discussing environmental sustainability were collected. Inductive frame analysis was performed on this dataset, following Robert Entman’s four frame functions. Seven frames were identified. Frames (1) and (2) defined problems: environmental sustainability was mostly prominently defined through (1) climate change and (2) reduction of carbon emissions, and other goals. Most frames were prescriptive as in suggesting solutions. (3) Techno-optimism and (4) ICT necessitarianism frames highlighted technological solutions as key answers and as being necessary for solving sustainability issues. The companies also discussed (5) reducing their or their customers’ carbon emissions, and acting in (6) compliance with sustainability standards. The final frame contained wordings implicating (7) sustainability for all people, such as “a better future for all”, filling both prescriptive and evaluating-moral judgment frame functions. Lack of previous research on framing of environmental sustainability in CSR communications and the following inductive frame analysis performed here limited the size of the sample, and this can reduce replicability due differing interpretation. This study was limited to discussion of environmental sustainability, and only within the strategy sections of the reports; omissions were not deeply investigated due to this limitation.