Narrative fidelity: making the UN Sustainable Development Goals fit

Abstract

PurposeThis paper empirically examines how firms have discursively adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More precisely, it studies firms' ability to constitute their organizational identity by way of associating their past, present, and future practices with the newly established Goals. By focussing on the temporal dynamics of change, this paper provides analytical clarity on the role “narrative fidelity”.Design/methodology/approachThe author collected all online available SDG-related communications, including financial and non-financial reports, of 29 large French multinationals throughout 2016 and 2017. These data were analysed using a systematic narrative approach incorporating open-ended coding cycles.FindingsFour narratives were distilled: the descriptive narrative, which promotes general knowledge; the past narrative, which reinterprets the organizational past by retelling and reviewing actions; the present narrative, which associates prevailing organizational strategies with new categories; and the future narrative, which articulates and prioritizes new ambitions.Originality/valueCurrent performativity theories in Corporate Social Responsibility scholarship focus solely on future narratives, such as “aspirational talk”, and fail to incorporate how revising and redefining past and present stories creates an imperative “fit” between an organization's identity and a new framework. This study goes beyond future narratives and contributes to our understanding of the dynamic nature of temporal narratives (past – present – future). By building on narrative fidelity, it shows how all four narratives are crucial, sequential steps that help build a new corporate identity.

The long-term transformation of the concept of CSR: towards a more comprehensive emphasis on sustainability

“…While accepted as a vital part of the complex modern society, business is depicted both as the reason for the crisis and the solution to it (van den Broek, 2020). In this climate of diverging opinions some argue that CSR should shift its focus to a stronger emphasis on sustainability (e.g., Carroll, 2021;Rank & Contreras, 2021;Trollman & Colwill, 2021;Windsor, 2021) and that today's corporations are conceived as vehicles for change (Matten & Moon, 2020).…”

Businesses’ Role in the Fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The following paper with a higher academic impact was that by El-Haddadeh et al (2021) [189]. Conversely, the paper with the lower number of citations was that by van den Broek (2020) [190].…”

Trustworthy story telling: using ambiguity and narrative fidelity to boost communication strategies

“…According to van den Broek (2020), the 2015 UN SDGs presented a global consensus around development norms by bringing a common framework for around seven hundred multi-lateral sustainability agreements. These aim to be universal and integrative, as well as aspirational, inclusive, action-orientated and transparent.…”

“…The concept seems to be that any engagement with SGDs is better than no engagement. The work of van den Broek (2020) has identified four main narrative types that form an organization's communication strategy with regards to SDGs. These are:Descriptive narrative – aims to make sense of the SDG framework whilst ignoring the relationship between the SDGs and the specific organization.…”

“…This comes from organizations who claim to be engaged in SDG-supporting initiatives, without demonstrating any substantive actions. Yet these accusations, van den Broek (2020) argues, overlooks the temporal dynamics of change and its relation to narrative fidelity and identity fit. Organizational change occurs within communication.…”