A Discursive Perspective on Environmental Responsibility Communication : Voluntary Disclosure of Finnish Industrial Companies

Abstract

This thesis analyses and compares the environmental responsibility communication on the corporate websites of six Finnish industrial companies. The case companies are Stora Enso, Neste, Metsä Group, Ahlström-Munksjö, YIT and Konecranes, and they are all listed in the Helsinki Stock Exchange as large-cap companies. Listed companies are required to disclose certain environmental information, for instance, in their annual reports, but the voluntary disclosure on environmental matters on other platforms is much less researched. The aim of this multidisciplinary thesis was to study the frequency of environmental communication, as well as the discursive choices, or frames, that are used to communicate environmental matters. The theory combines research on discourse analysis, language and identity, and communications studies with research on corporate social responsibility, corporate communications and corporate legitimacy. Six separate corpora were created for the examination of data to allow a comparison between the six case companies. The corpora included most of the articles published by each company on their international corporate websites from a period of six months. In addition, the homepage of each company was examined. A variety of methods, both quantitative and qualitative, was used to answer the research questions. First, the accessibility of environment-related information on the websites was briefly studied by answering to predetermined questions. Next, quantitative content analysis was used to find environment-related keywords on the homepages and to examine their frequency. The second part of the analysis focused on the articles. A corpus analytic method was applied to observe the frequency of predetermined environment-related keywords in all six corpora by using the software AntConc 3.4.4. The environment-related parts of text were then observed through a discourse analytic method to determine different frames that the companies use to communicate environmental matters and to legitimize actions. The results showed an extreme contrast in the frequency of environment-related information presented on both the case companies’ homepages and in the published articles, with the frequency on homepages ranging from 1 to 36 instances, and in the articles from 69 to 914 instances. The results indicated that companies in stigmatized industries communicated frequently and repetitively on environmental matters. It was suggested, that scarce environmental communication could be due to a focus on other themes, such as efficiency and work safety. The discourse analysis resulted in five different environmental frames: natural resource frame, technical frame, regulatory frame, social frame, and endorsement frame. The different frames indicated that environmental matters were seen both as a threat and as an opportunity, and that companies acknowledge their active position in society. They also revealed the companies’ need to legitimize their operations when faced with stakeholder pressure, especially when in a stigmatized industry.