Impression Management in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: An Analysis of Chief Executive Officer Letters in the Oil and Gas Sector

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the external and internal determinants that lead Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of oil and gas companies to obfuscate and manipulate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting. The analysis focuses on CEO letters from CSR and integrated reports of 24 companies, between 2008 and 2021. A total of 336 company‐year observations were analyzed. Quantitative methods based on readability indexes, descriptive, inferential, and regression analysis are adopted. Macroeconomic conditions, CSR reporting frameworks, and cultural backgrounds determine the readability of CEO letters. The length of the letters, company's size, CEOs' age, and female representation on boards also influenced CEOs to engage in impression management (IM). The findings allow stakeholders to have a more truthful view of the impact of IM on CSR reporting. This study highlights an unstudied perspective on the impact of external and internal determinants on the readability of CSR reporting in an environmentally sensitive sector.