Speech Acts and the Discursive Construction of Corporate Responsibility: A Comparative Study of Tencent and Meta

Corporate responsibility reporting has increasingly become an important means through which corporations communicate their values, articulate commitments, and negotiate their relationships with stakeholders. Beyond the disclosure of organizational practices, such reports constitute a form of institutional discourse in which responsibility is constructed and communicated through language. Drawing on Speech Act Theory, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the responsibility discourse presented in Tencent’s 2024 ESG Report and Meta’s 2024 Responsible Business Practices Report. By combining quantitative classification with qualitative pragmatic interpretation, the study examines the distribution and communicative functions of four major speech act categories, with particular attention to the different degrees of commitment expressed through commissive acts. The findings reveal that while assertive and commissive acts predominate in both companies’ reports, notable differences emerge in their use of expressive and directive acts and in the relative strength of their commitments. Tencent exhibits a greater proportion of strong commissives and expressive acts, whereas Meta demonstrates a more qualified pattern of commitment and a greater reliance on directive expressions. These differences suggest distinct discursive approaches to the construction of corporate responsibility, particularly in how organizations present their achievements, communicate future obligations, and negotiate the scope of their commitments. By examining the relationship between linguistic action and institutional responsibility, this study offers a pragmatic perspective on corporate responsibility reporting and contributes to the understanding of how organizational accountability is discursively constructed.