Discursive Construction of CNPC’s Eco-friendly Image in Its Corporate Social Responsibility Report: A Legitimation Strategy Analysis

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports are important non-financial disclosures that provide insights into an enterprise’s commitment to social and environmental responsibilities. With the escalation of global environmental challenges, the focus on the disclosure of environmental responsibility information within CSR reports has intensified. As CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) is an environmentally sensitive corporation, this study investigates the legitimation strategies utilized in the environmental discourse of the CNPC’s English CSR Report of 2022, aiming to understand how CNPC constructs its legitimacy in sustainable development for international audience. The findings reveal that: (1) five principal legitimation strategies are employed—authorization, moralization, rationalization, mythopoesis, and altruism—with rationalization as the dominant strategy, representing 65.45% of all cases; (2) these strategies are grounded in diverse sources of legitimacy, such as collective authority and moral values, and are manifested through distinct lexical and syntactic choices; (3) these legitimation strategies constructs an authoritative and credible corporate eco-friendly image for CNPC. These findings contribute to the understanding of legitimation strategies in institutional environmental discourse and offer practical implications for enterprises aiming to enhance their international reputations in sustainable development and facilitate global expansion.