Early draft, please do not cite or quote without the authors' permission.Abstract -Organisations can symbolically manage their activities through organisational communication, thus this study assumes that organisations are not passive agents and have a choice when pressured by the institutional environment in which they operate. This paper adopts Oliver's (1991) and Elsbach's (1994) theoretical frameworks to examine organisational strategic responses to the pressures and institutional expectations provided in the CEO communications in the media. This analysis was developed through an interpretative case study of EDP -Energias de Portugal, S.A., the largest Portuguese group in the electricity sector during the period from 2010 to 2014, which includes the Economic and Financial Assistance Programme (EFAP) to Portugal. The results show that through the CEO communications in the media, EDP attempted to influence stakeholders' perceptions and to legitimate organisational behaviour. The case study demonstrates that the CEO used subtle ways to introduce positive bias, thus demonstrating that organisations do not blindly conform to the expectations of the institutional environment but adopt complex responses involving active agency and organisational interests. Finally, the study demonstrates that like self-interest and power, the constituents' expectations play an important role in determining the specific strategic responses to the institutional environment.

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Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of storytelling and impression management (IM) through the president’s letter in legitimizing the practices of an electricity company with regard to controversial issues during a period of change. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a qualitative case study, this paper examines annual report letters from 1995 to 2013 using a methodological interpretative approach. Findings By promoting a success story using IM, the presidents give sense to particular actions related with controversial issues and attempt to influence expectations on strategic changes. The findings demonstrate that organizational actors use the flexibility of the president’s letter to tell the story and emphasize its self-laudatory nature. The study highlights that storytelling in these documents can be used to alleviate the tensions created by the inherent contradictions of social structures. Practical implications This research is useful for regulatory authorities, users of annual reports and academic researchers, making them attentive of the narratives companies may adopt to protect their legitimacy. The findings shed light on the need to evaluate the credibility of accountability mechanisms and can help stakeholders to develop a more critical view of the president’s letter. Originality/value This paper makes a contribution to research on communication issues by expanding literature on accounting and organizational storytelling. By demonstrating how presidents use sensegiving as a means of legitimacy-claiming, this study adds to the literature on legitimating accounts. In doing so, this paper bridges the gap between theories about organizational legitimacy, storytelling and IM. To sum up, the findings serve as an incremental step toward understanding the nature of accountability reporting.

Institutional environment demands from organizations to be accountable for their social and environmental actions and to provide information allowing the assessment of their long-term prospects for profitability may lead organizations to adopt Impression Management (IM) tactics to manage perceptions. Consequently, organizations may provide accounts demonstrating that they are good corporate citizens and possess the intangible assets required for future good financial performance. Although organizations have increased their corporate social reporting, the quality and reliability of those reports have been questioned. The literature suggests that these disclosures tend to be selective and biased, and do not enhance corporate accountability. This study proposes a formal conceptual framework linking IM, social and environmental accountability, financial performance, and organizational legitimacy. The arguments in this study are of economic, societal, and ethical concern, as IM behaviors may undermine the transparency of social and environmental reporting, and the decoupling between the economic and social image offered by companies through reporting and the reality. These insights also point at the complexities for organizations in dealing with accountability to all stakeholders. The conceptual framework proposed is useful for future studies aiming at understanding how organizations use IM in their corporate social reporting in the accountability process.

This is a pre-publication version.

Main aim: This paper examines the main topics of research in the literature studying the topic of sustainability in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and aims at presenting a future research agenda. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review based on articles published between 2000 and 2020. From an initial set of 88 papers taken from WoS in the period under analysis, 42 papers were effectively analyzed. Main results: The results of an in-depth reading reveal four clusters representing the main topics of research in the field: sustainability and SMEs’ performance; green and environmental management issues; social and cultural issues and their impact on sustainability policies; values, skills, and capabilities. Key findings suggest that the following angles of research appear to be underexplored: theoretically grounded research; research using large samples; articles examining sustainability reporting; research looking into non-manufacturing sectors; work examining settings in developing countries; research undertaking international comparisons; articles exploring the complementarity between the literature on sustainability in SMEs and on family-owned businesses; and the influence of the social and cultural context on SMEs’ engagement with sustainability. Main contribution: This paper offers insights to academia, practitioners, and policy makers to help SMEs engaging with sustainability and may assist also the latter to develop strategies to improve SMEs’ social and environmental reporting. Given the current pandemic crisis, and the urgency for sustainable business practices, we expect to contribute to expanding knowledge in this field of research.

English-language editing of that article was financed under Agreement 672/ P-DUN /2019 with funds from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education allocated to the popularization of science.

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