Conveying the sustainability message through CEO letters: an investigation on selected transportation companies

Sağlam B. B., Solak Fışkın C., Akgül E. F.

WORLD REVIEW OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH, cilt.11, sa.4, ss.436-454, 2024 (Scopus)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 11 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2024
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1504/writr.2023.137464
  • Dergi Adı: WORLD REVIEW OF INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Communication Abstracts, Metadex, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.436-454
  • Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This study aims to evaluate message strength of sustainability communication within transportation companies using the message content criteria of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication framework developed by Du et al. (2010). The authors collected CEO letters (published in between 2020 and the first quarter of 2022) of transportation companies listed in NASDAQ and/or NYSE. Majority of the CEO letters reviewed are superficial in accordance with the information included in the report and contain abstract statements on the sustainability approach of the company. Also, examined CEO letters were deemed successful in terms of message strength, openness and how they narrow the room for skepticism. However, findings show that reviewed CEO letters rarely adopted all the aforementioned content elements. This study is one of the limited available studies in management communication literature of transportation industry and it suggests message content criteria of CSR communication framework for evaluating message strength of CEO letters.