Impression management i fastighetsbranschen: En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av impression management-strategier i svenska företags miljörapportering Kandidatuppsats i

Sammanfattning

During the last couple of years environmental sustainability reporting has become increasingly important for both stakeholders and regulators, leading to stricter regulatory requirements aimed at achieving increased transparency from firms. Nevertheless, impression management (IM) strategies still seem to be present in publicized documents from companies.This study investigates, analyzes and discusses if and how IM strategies are utilized in the annual and sustainability reports of listed Swedish real estate companies with the intention to potentially influence external stakeholders. Hence, the study focuses its analysis on the communication and presentation of reported sustainability information, environmental goals and activated visual elements in relation to IM strategies.Furthermore, the study’s results are derived from a content analysis originating from five carefully selected Swedish real estate firms and is centered around a coding model containing the IM strategies visualization, positive attribution, reinforcement, and justification. Through the utilization of this coding model the study's empirical findings indicate a frequent and identifiable use of the presented IM strategies, although varying in scope and expression.The study concludes that positive attribution and reinforcement are the most prominent IM strategies amongst the selected firms’ annual and sustainability reports, while justification as well as visual elements are applied to a more limited extent. The findings thereby suggest that, despite increasing regulatory efforts to strengthen transparency, Swedish real estate firms continue to utilize IM strategies to present information favorably.