Abstract
Due to the increasing sustainability concerns among society and investors, companies share information demonstrating their social and environmental impacts to make an impression in corporate reports. Thus, impression management is used to influence company stakeholders’ perception of their performance through graphs. Graphs presented in corporate reports are powerful impression management tools which communicate performance-related messages to the stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to examine the use of graphs to apply various impression management tactics in economic, social, and environmental disclosures of corporate reports. In this research, the use of graphs as an impression management tool has been determined through the corporate reports of 49 companies selected in the BIST (Borsa Istanbul) Sustainability Index of 2018 and 2019, Turkey. In total, 502 graphs in the reports of the selected companies were examined by descriptive analysis and the findings were statistically tested. According to the results, it was found that companies use both presentational enhancement and obfuscation as impression management tactics in corporate reports. This study helps to fill the research gap in the absence of an empirical study conducted in an emerging economy, Turkey. Additionally, it is the first study that focuses on graphs with impression management tactics that has ever been conducted in Turkey.
Highlights
Tracing economic, social, and environmental effects of corporations enables input for sustainability-related decisions for companies and satisfies the needs of stakeholders
This study investigates the use of graphs as a tool to apply several impression management tactics for economic, social, and environmental disclosures in corporate reports
The findings show that companies may use both enhancement and obfuscation impression management tactics through graphs
Summary
Social, and environmental effects of corporations enables input for sustainability-related decisions for companies and satisfies the needs of stakeholders. Social, and environmental issues leads companies to use appropriate ways to interact with their stakeholders and develop trusted relations [2]. The fact that businesses in developing economies need to follow such trends, strategize their business plans and policies, and ensure the communication of this information to stakeholders is inevitable. This applies to firms operating in Turkey, which is an emerging country. Sustainability-related considerations are increasing in the Turkish market
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