Prospecting social responsibility : identifying gain and loss frames in CSR reports of petroleum companies

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the environmental sections in American and Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports produced by petroleum companies to uncover how source domains are used to advance companies' messaging and legitimize their performance on environmental issues. I focus on how WAR, JOURNEY, and BUILDING source domains in particular as previous studies have suggested they could be potentially useful for justifying the environmental practice of corporations (e.g., Ahrens et al., 2021; Jaworska, 2018; Milne et al., 2006). My corpus is based on CSR reports published by American and Chinese petroleum companies listed in the Fortune 500 because these companies are key players in the petroleum industry in their respective countries as determined by revenue. The thesis consists of four main studies. The first three studies examine the keywords used in each of the three source domains, the different preferences for gain and loss frames between the two countries, and the motivation for using these frames. The fourth study then compares and contrasts similarities and differences in the findings between the American and Chinese CSR reports. The results show that both Chinese and American petroleum companies used the source domain of JOURNEY most frequently in their CSR reports. This source domain was used more often as gain frames to show how petroleum companies generate benefits for stakeholders. Chinese petroleum companies preferred the BUILDING source domain the most as infrastructure projects are high on the agenda in China. The source domain of WAR was used the least often in both corpora and involved gain frames as often as loss frames. This source domain focused on methods used to address climate change rather than emphasizing the sense of urgency or an antagonistic relationship. In conclusion, this thesis integrated analyses used within Conceptual Metaphor Theory and applied them to Prospect Theory in order to provide insight into the similarities and differences of WAR, JOURNEY, and BUILDING source domains legitimizing frames. Most importantly, the findings demonstrated how petroleum companies strategically reconcile various interests of different stakeholders via these legitimation strategies.