Institutional differences in CEO sustainability messages: Text mining of Korean and global firms’ reports

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractSustainable management and corporate sustainability communication (CSC) have become central themes in both research and practice. Within sustainability reports, CEO messages serve as strategic communication channels that reveal how firms construct legitimacy and align with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) imperatives. Despite their importance, limited research has compared these messages across institutional contexts. This study aims to uncover institutional differences in CEO messages within sustainability reports of Korean and global firms. For this purpose, this study analyzes CEO messages from 343 Korean and 323 global sustainability reports (from Fortune Global 500 firms following GRI standards) using text mining techniques (e.g., semantic network analysis, word embedding, and topic modeling). Results of semantic network analysis show that Korean firms emphasize management (centrality = 0.345922), growth (0.32013), and market (0.152733), while global firms highlight community (0.362553), customer (0.331332), and commitment (0.182617). Word embedding indicates that the terms “sustainability” and “stakeholder” are linked to symbolic gratitude and external recognition in Korean messages, but to citizenship and responsibility in global ones. Topic modeling reveals four performance- and evaluation-oriented themes in Korean firms versus three execution- and long-term value-oriented themes in global firms. These findings show how different levels of institutionalization shape CEO discourse and suggest that Korean firms rely more on symbolic legitimation, while global firms stress substantive sustainability commitments.AcknowledgmentThis research was supported by Hallym University Research Fund, 2025 (HRF-202503-001).