Executive communication with stakeholders on sustainability: the case of Poland

Abstract

Abstract Sustainability reporting is rapidly developing in the European Union – from voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure over to mandatory non-financial reporting (NFR), then over to Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) – with the ambition of becoming as important as financial reporting. This paper investigates whether executives act as change agents in this process by setting a tone at the top, and how their communication changes as time progresses. We use methods from computational corpus linguistics to analyze commentaries by companies listed at the Warsaw Stock Exchange between 2017 and 2021. Results show how top managers are not aligned with the sustainability transition. Their commentaries are bluntly positive and lack performance information. Over time, change and environmental challenges gain attention. In sum, executives appear to respond primarily to investor needs. While showing respect to stakeholders, they avoid setting goals and reporting effects. Effective regulation may bring about the necessary change.