CSR-viestinnän tehokkuuteen vaikuttavat mekanismit ESG-säädellyssä ympäristössä

This master’s thesis investigates the mediating mechanisms that account for the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in an ESG-regulated environment, with a specific focus on how corporate reporting practices influence the activation of these mechanisms under EU sustainability legislation. The study responds to the growing regulatory prescriptiveness introduced by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and examines how these requirements shape the credibility, usability, and stakeholder orientation of CSR communication. The research applies a qualitative, comparative multiple embedded case study design based on documentary analysis. The empirical material comprises 20 publicly available ESG-related disclosures from the reporting year 2024 across six large, listed companies operating under the EU reporting regime: Neste, KONE, ABB, Metso, Wärtsilä, and Konecranes. The analysis combines qualitative content analysis and comparative thematic analysis. Content analysis evaluates CSR communication quality across six dimensions: informativeness, transparency, tone, fit or centrality, consistency, and framing. Thematic analysis interprets how these qualities relate to mediating mechanisms, particularly trust, legitimacy, organisational identification, compliance belief, and reputational signalling. The findings indicate that CSR communication effectiveness in an ESG-regulated context is not primarily explained by disclosure volume, but by coherent, verifiable, and consistently structured reporting. Informativeness, transparency, and consistency emerge as the most differentiating quality dimensions for stakeholder decision usefulness and resilience to scepticism. Regulation raises the baseline comparability and traceability of disclosures, while multi-channel coherence, governance accountability, and assurance-related cues strengthen trust and legitimacy pathways. The thesis contributes by refining CSR communication theory in a regulated context and by offering practical implications for designing decision-useful and credible sustainability communication under CSRD and ESRS.