Performing care, managing loss: substantive and symbolic extinction narratives by Italian listed companies

Purpose This study investigates how large Italian listed companies disclose extinction initiatives (EI) across mandatory non-financial statements (NFS) and voluntary website narratives. It explores whether emancipatory extinction accounting – framed in the literature as transformative and dialogic – remains vulnerable to impression management and symbolic legitimation. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on emancipatory accounting and impression management theories, the study applies textual narrative analysis to 2023 corporate disclosures in the energy, public utilities and telecommunications industries. It assesses both the substance and rhetorical construction of EI reporting, identifying emancipatory and symbolic features across channels. Findings The analysis reveals a marked decoupling between reporting spaces. NFSs predominantly contain symbolic and compliance-oriented disclosures, while websites more frequently report concrete conservation EI and localized biodiversity projects. However, these more substantive website accounts often remain selective and lack evaluative depth, with limited information on ecological outcomes, shared governance or long-term commitments. Thus, emancipatory elements coexist with traditional legitimacy-seeking attitudes, producing narratives of care without fully redistributing accountability or acknowledging non-human agency. Nevertheless, action-focused voluntary disclosures demonstrate emerging, situated forms of ecological engagement, suggesting that extinction reporting is evolving, rather than fixed. Research limitations/implications The study concerns a single reporting period and does not examine changing website content across time. Unlike NFS, providing comparative data, websites lack such temporal analysis, limiting the comparison of trends and movements in EI across time. Practical implications For policymakers, corporate behaviour may not be driven solely by institutional or legislative pressures but also by decision-makers’ awareness of, and preparedness to deal with, major environmental issues. Originality/value We contribute to interdisciplinary and critical perspectives on accounting research by showing that the boundary between substantive and symbolic reporting is not stable; it is rather actively negotiated; and by highlighting the need for dialogic, relational and evaluation-integrated forms of biodiversity and EI accounting.