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

Authors: Bayram Bilge Saglam; Cemile Solak-Fiskin; Ersin Firat Akgul

Addresses: Department of Maritime Business Administration, Dokuz Eylul University, Adatepe Mah. Doğuş Cad. No. 207/O Tinaztepe Campus, Buca, Izmir 35390, Turkey ' Department of Maritime Business Administration, Ordu University, Evkaf Mah. Sahil Cad. No. 239/C, Fatsa, Ordu 52400, Turkey ' Department of Maritime Business Administration, Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University, Central Campus Bandirma, Balikesir 10200, Turkey

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: leadership communication; LC; CEO letters; CEOL; sustainability reporting; SR; transportation; COVID-19; stakeholder communication; SC; corporate social responsibility; CSR.

DOI: 10.1504/WRITR.2023.137464

World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research, 2023 Vol.11 No.4, pp.436 - 454

Received: 05 Jan 2023
Accepted: 10 Dec 2023
Published online: 19 Mar 2024 *