Abstract
The term sustainability is understood in many different ways. Its interpretation determines the behaviors of those who want to include the idea into their actions. The question, therefore, arises about how individual entities understand the term sustainability and how they express their vision in this regard. This issue is largely qualitative and requires the use of qualitative data analysis tools. In this context, information-based companies are a special case because they are free of burdens that affect enterprises with roots in the traditional economy. Attitudes towards the idea of sustainability in this group of enterprises are of the most voluntary nature. In the present discussion, the thesis was adopted that the context in which the entity refers to the idea of sustainability reveals the dimensions within the framework of which the entity determines its attitude to this idea. In the present discussion, the subjects of interest were exclusively the semantic categories of the context and not the typology of organizations using such semantic categories. A qualitative analysis (carried out on the basis of linguistic analysis) of the annual reports—a purposive sample of 20 selected enterprises and sector leaders whose activities are based on data processing—submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission has allowed us to identify four dimensions of self-determination in the context of sustainability (the detection of these dimensions was the main purpose of the conducted analysis). Due to the method used, which involved examining the linguistic significance of individual words and in accordance with scientific rules, the requirement of representativeness did not apply to the collected data. However, the data had to show the various concepts currently used (even if only once) by sector leaders in their public discourse. The detected dimensions are divided into two groups: internal, where two types specified as BASE and ROLE are listed, and external, with two successive types hidden under the names IDEA and CARE.
Highlights
The idea of sustainability has gained a lot of recognition in management practice over the past few decades
In addition to the emergence of the digital economy, it is one of the most important phenomena shaping the area of scientific considerations devoted to the organization of human activities in the modern world [1]
The term sustainability is understood in many different ways
Summary
The idea of sustainability has gained a lot of recognition in management practice over the past few decades. The key problem here is to identify general dimensions (semantic categories) [3] within which individual entities refer to the issue of sustainability The answer to this question can be given by analyzing the most important documents, such as enterprises’ annual financial reports. A purposive sample was used (the data were selected on purpose to show the examples of their diversity), consisting of 20 selected enterprises—leaders of sectors which base their operations on information processing Such enterprises are the object of observation conducted by numerous stakeholders and they significantly influence the framework of public discourse. Defining these types of dimensions (semantic categories) has a very important practical significance, limiting the controversy that may arise while trying to classify the universal attitudes of the organization towards sustainability. The question, arises as to the kind of context within which the organizations in practice refer to the idea of sustainability
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