Persuasive language in corporate environmental reporting in Saudi Arabia: a critical discourse analysis

Purpose This paper explores discourse strategies in environmental reporting (ER) adopted by Saudi listed companies as a response to changes in stakeholder demands, and how these strategies are used to persuade stakeholders of the firm’s legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach Guided by the legitimacy theory and persuasion strategies framework, the contents of annual reports and stand-alone sustainability reports published between 2015 and 2023 (N = 42) by three selected cases of listed companies in three different sectors are analysed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) to understand firm strategic communication response to various stakeholder demands. Findings Analysis revealed the use of (1) relative clauses as linking devices, (2) transitional words and phrases to present results and (3) quantifying noun determiner phrases. The results of the CDA highlighted that (1) corporations that make more transparent environmental disclosures in their ER adopt mental, relational and material processes; (2) the discourse featured in such reporting operates at both the macro and meso levels by highlighting the relevant organisational, national and global aspects of their environmental efforts; (3) firms that have adopted GRI standards tend to seek to change their readers’ minds regarding the value of their environmental efforts aiming to secure stakeholder engagement and diminish risks While their ISO-adopter counterparts manage their reputation by seeking to shape their readers’ responses; (4) hard disclosure seeks to shape and alter readers’ perceptions of firms’ environmental efforts by including evidence. Originality/value The paper contributes to the environmental accounting (EA) literature by using CDA to explore how discourse is used by sensitive industries to persuade stakeholders and maintain legitimacy. Second, it contributes to the CDA research methods literature in the context of environmental reporting, where the English language is not the main language of local stakeholders. It is hoped that the study’s tentative integration of Nwagbara and Belal’s (2019) analytical approach with Jowett and O’Donnell’s (2012) persuasion strategies framework will enhance the CDA-based literature on ER produced by corporations in emerging economies such as Saudi Arabia (SA).