Enhancing Sustainability Image: Content Analysis of Letters to Shareholders of IT Companies

Sustainable development and corporate environmental responsibility are becoming closely tied with business competitiveness in modern economy. Given the impetus organizations have to enhance their sustainability image, there is a lack of research that examines the relationship between corporations’ messages to shareholders and their environmental and social responsibility. The current paper presents a methodology and preliminary findings of the pilot study of 104 IT and non-IT companies in the USA. Content analysis of letters to shareholders was done to check for significant differences in correlations between sustainability-related content and environmental performance in the sample. The paper also outlines methodology and expected results of the proposed research-in-progress. A similar methodology will be used to study a larger panel dataset of North American, European and Asian IT corporations to assess the dynamics of sustainability-related content over time and across companies and geographic