CEO의 사회적 책임 메시지와 지속가능성 성과의 관계 : Text Mining 접근법의 활용

In this study the relationship between CEO rhetoric on the sustainability and various sustainability performance is examined. Using textmining technique, we analyze the relation between characteristics of language choice (readability, sentiments, pronoun, future-related words) in CEO messages and measures of sustainability performance (DJSI, ESG ratings). The results show that CEO of companies listed on DJSI is likely to use higher readability, lower sentiment score, and fewer future-related words. And indicate that CEO of a poorer ESG rating firm is likely to use higher sentiment score, higher pronoun use, and stronger future-related words. However, size of message contents are not significantly correlated with DJSI score and ESG ratings. Also, the analysis indicate that linguistic characteristic (sentiment score) of CEO statements in corporate sustainability reports has significant positive relation with purchasing assurance. Furthermore, this paper identify that companies with poorer environmental performance (higher eco-efficiency) are more likely to use environment-related words in a CEO message compared to companies with better environmental performance. And the results suggest that Tobin-q is not associated with the language choices made in CEO letters except sentiment score. The overall findings support impression management strategy and legitimacy theory. The contribution of the study are as follows; First, the study reported is the first to explore empirically the relation between characteristics of language choice in CEO messages and sustainability performance. Second, the study select a mutually complementary methodology combining quantitative information with qualitative texture information. Third, the analysis shows that the rhetoric in the CEO messages is indicative of impression management and legitimacy theory.