CEO letters: Social license to operate and community involvement in the mining industry

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate.

CSR politics of non‐recognition: Justification fallacies marginalising criticism, society, and environment

“…Such texts are annual reports, sustainability reports, and webpage material, both in the form of CEO comments and unsigned preambles to texts about CSR efforts, since I view these as places where companies are likely to formulate justifications. Our choice of empirical study finds support in Richter and Dow (2017:438–439) suggesting a potential test of the above‐mentioned axiom via empirical research: to “Analyze and compare language used in financial and social corporate reports, websites, and stakeholder communications.” Qualitative analysis of annual and sustainability reports has recently been used for investigating CSR discourse (de‐Miguel‐Molina, Chirivella‐González, & García‐Ortega, 2018). My choice was to target companies listed under “Large capitalization” on 2015‐01‐01 on Nasdaq Stockholm (Nasdaq OMX Nordic, 2015).…”

Examining CEOs’ Moral Reasoning in the Automotive Industry

“…The CEO's letter has a relevant role in sustainable communication, which is one of the main success factors in CSR. The related body of literature recognizes the CEO's letter as a rich source to investigate CSR and the relevance of its rhetoric in communicating their values [6,[97][98][99][100][101][102]. CEO discourse is also used to gain legitimacy, credibility, and trust from stakeholders [56,97].…”

“…The CEO's letter is the most read section of annual reports [91,92,94] and is a means to gain legitimacy, credibility, and trust [97]. A proper tone at the top allows gaining, maintaining, and rebuilding reputation and trust [28].…”

“…Immediately after the Volkswagen scandal, the new CEO eliminated from its discourse any mention of business performance (Stage 2) and showed an increased emphasis and focus on stakeholders, particularly in terms of highlighting the integrity of the firm, trying to keep or regain reputation, intentional greenwashing [95], and seeking customer trust and loyalty (Stage 3). Letters are used intentionally for such purposes, as proposed by de-Miguel-Molina [97] or Connor [28], since after a scandal, the reputation of a company is put at risk [55]. In the case of Suzuki, the subsequent change in chairman also involved some increase in moral reasoning, whereas in the case of Nissan, the moral tone remained at a similar stage, as it did with Renault.…”

Responsabilidad social corporativa en la minería de Latinoamérica: un modelo multiactor

“…La actividad minera, por su propia naturaleza, genera controversia, conflictos y rechazo. Las empresas mineras necesitan obtener la llamada licencia social para operar (LSO) como medio para reducir la resistencia y oposición de las comunidades locales a su establecimiento y actividad (Campero y Barton 2015;De-Miguel-Molina et al, 2019). La Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) de las empresas mineras constituye un importante medio para obtener dicha LSO (Holley y Mitcham, 2016;Campero y Barton, 2015).…”