Discussion on Text Narrative Features of Corporate ESG Disclosure in the Context of Sustainability Report Development

Abstract

The development of the world's sustainable disclosure system is promoting changes in corporate ESG reporting. In June 2023, the International Sustainability Standards Board issued the two core standards IFRS S1 and IFRS S2; in April 2024, the three main stock exchanges in the Chinese mainland released guidelines for sustainable development reporting of listed companies that are in good alignment with the ISSB Standards. ESG disclosure has moved from voluntary choice to institutionalised regulation. Based on the key nodes of the sustainable reporting system, this paper studies the text practice of ESG disclosure from three aspects: narrative framework, narrative strategy and narrative function. Based on the above results, institutional regulations lead to the convergence of narrative frameworks, but enterprises still achieve differentiation through tone adjustment, readability modification and rhetorical selection within the same framework. At the same time, the function of ESG reports is changing from single-information disclosure to a multi-faceted response of compliance, value communication and impression management. This paper will also investigate the mechanism of influence for regulatory pressure, corporate ESG performance and third-party verification, and believes that the tension between narrative convergence and strategy differentiation is the key to understanding the current features of ESG disclosure texts.