The production of stand-alone sustainability reports: visual impression management, legitimacy and “functional stupidity”

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirwais Usmani ◽  
Jane Davison ◽  
Christopher J. Napier
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Visual Impression ◽  
Sustainability Reports

Impression Management in Sustainability Reports: An Empirical Investigation of the Use of Graphs

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Cho ◽  
Giovanna Michelon ◽  
Dennis M. Patten
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Corporate Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Environmental Disclosure ◽  
Social And Environmental Disclosure ◽  
Sustainability Reports ◽  
Social And Environmental Performance

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether firms use graphs in their sustainability reports in order to present a more favorable view of their social and environmental performance. Further, because prior research indicates that companies use social and environmental disclosure as a tool to reduce their exposure to social and political pressures (the legitimacy argument), we also examine whether differences in the extent of impression management are associated with differences in social and environmental performance. Based on an analysis of graphs in sustainability reports for a sample of 77 U.S. companies for 2006, we find considerable evidence of favorable selectivity bias in the choice of items graphed, and moderate evidence that where distortion in graphing occurs, it also has a favorable bias. Our results regarding the relation between impression management and performance are mixed. Whereas we find that graphs of social items in sustainability reports for companies with worse social performance exhibit more impression management, no significant relation between environmental performance and impression management in the use of environmental graphs is found. Overall, our results provide additional evidence that corporate sustainability reporting, as it currently exists, appears to be more about fostering positive public relations than providing a meaningful accounting of the social and environmental impacts of the firm.

Performing the Norm

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Andra Siibak
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Peer Culture ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Constant Flux ◽  
Visual Impression ◽  
Online Environments ◽  
Staged Model ◽  
Rate Profile

Semi-structured interviews (N=21) with young SNS „Rate“ profile owners were carried out in order to analyse the main trends in visual self-presentation strategies that 10-12-year-old Estonians use, and have perceived to be in use by others, on SNS. The aim of the study was to capture the role that the norms and rules of mediated culture, as well as the online peer group, have on the visual self-presentation strategies of the young on online environments. The findings of the study indicate that the youth are well aware of the rules and schemas prevalent in the online environments and form their self-presentation according to these norms of the peer culture. Although the understanding of what is considered „cute” enough to be uploaded on the SNS is in constant flux, the young are very conscious of publishing only the very best images of themselves. Thus, I suggest that the impression management on SNS consists of various strategically calculated acts in order to create a desired persona. A four-staged model of visual impression management used by the pre-teens on SNS is provided.

scholarly journals Selective coupling as institutional response to sustainability development in electric utilities

2021 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 05008
Author(s):  
Johannes Slacik ◽  
Dorothea Greiling
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Electric Utilities ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Management Control ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
Climate Targets ◽  
Sustainability Reports ◽  
Management Approaches

Electric utilities are in an environmental sensitive industry, exploiting natural resources and contributing to climate change issues. The focus of critical stakeholders on sustainability agendas and management approaches and the increasing tight sector-regulations pressure electric utilities to act and distribute sustainability reports declaring their sustainability performances and goals towards achieving climate targets. However, literature criticizes the utility’s reporting practices as form of impression management being decoupled from actual sustainability compliance. This paper analyzes in light of institutional theory the compliance with or decoupling from sustainability agendas in the under-researched electricity sector by identifying the coverage of materiality in sustainability reports and the implemented sustainability management control systems for sustainability development. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used including correlation- and variance analysis of material indicators and expert interviews. This study contributes by having identified a sector-wide continuous form of selective coupling from the sustainability agendas in electric utilities. Furthermore, this paper found that sustainability agendas and the implementation of sustainability control mechanisms are governed by institutional hybrid logics which are still at an early stage.

scholarly journals The quality of sustainability reports and impression management

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 643-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Diouf ◽  
Olivier Boiral
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Sustainability Reporting ◽  
Global Reporting Initiative ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Sustainability Reports

Purpose The purpose of this research is to analyze the perceptions of stakeholders – more specifically, socially responsible investment (SRI) practitioners – of the quality of sustainability reports using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on 33 semi-structured interviews carried out with different stakeholders and experts (e.g. consultants, fund managers, analysts, consultants) in the field of SRI in Canada. Findings The perceptions of SRI practitioners shed more light on the elastic and uncertain application of the GRI principles in determining the quality of sustainability reports. Their perceptions tend to support the argument that sustainability reports reflect the impression management strategies used by companies to highlight the positive aspects of their sustainability performance and to obfuscate negative outcomes. Originality/value First, undertake empirical research on stakeholders’ perceptions – which have been largely overlooked – of the quality of sustainability reports. Second, shed new light on the impression management strategies used in sustainability reporting. Third, show the reflexivity and the degree of skepticism of practitioners with regard to the reliability of information on sustainability performance.

scholarly journals Through the Smokescreen of the Dieselgate Disclosure: Neutralizing the Impacts of a Major Sustainability Scandal

2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662110435
Author(s):  
Olivier Boiral ◽  
Marie-Christine Brotherton ◽  
Alexander Yuriev ◽  
David Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Corporate Misconduct ◽  
New Era ◽  
Unethical Behaviors ◽  
Neutralization Techniques ◽  
External Sources ◽  
Sustainability Reports

This article analyzes the main neutralization techniques used in car manufacturers’ sustainability reports to disclose on the Dieselgate scandal. We conduct a conventional qualitative content analysis of 72 sustainability reports, covering the period 2013-2017, from 15 car manufacturers that were accused of unethical behaviors related to the measurement of diesel vehicle pollutant emissions. We then present a framework based on four configurations of neutralization techniques, namely, “head in the sand,” “self-proclaimed green leadership,” “wait and see,” and “start of a new era.” We describe that the manufacturers used heterogeneous neutralization techniques. Furthermore, the sustainability reports analyzed are relatively opaque and disconnected from the accusations made against the companies, which are widely reported by external sources. This article contributes to the emerging literature on the defensive impression management practices used to rationalize corporate misconduct in this area.

scholarly journals MANAJEMEN KESAN MELALUI FOTO SELFIE DALAM FACEBOOK: STUDI FENOMENOLOGI PADA MAHASISWA ILMU KOMUNIKASI UMS

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Puspa Aqirul Mala
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Basic Theory ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Visual Impression ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Computer Mediated Communications ◽  
Data Result

This research explores about selfies phenomenon, especially how people managing their self-presentation through selfies on the Facebook. Computer Mediated Communications (CMC) and Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgi become basic theory in this research. Six informants were active uploaded their selfies and all of them are students of Communications Science in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta. Phenomenology qualitative data result that informants are active managing their visual impression management on Facebook. They consider that Facebook is a stage and themself is an actor, so they can managing their selfies easily. Formed the charactheristic of CMC consist of: interactive, editable, de massified, and  asynchronity.

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