Managers often employ ESG communications on social media platforms to shape stakeholder perceptions (Araujo & Kollat, 2018) and signal the firm’s commitment to sustainability (Balasubramanian et al., 2020). While the use of ESG posts as a strategic tool in the investment process has been substantially discussed in the literature, no prior research has examined its effectiveness for firms operating in controversial industries. Thus, our goal is to explore how less reputable firms, commonly referred to as sin firms, use ESG communications on digital platforms.

We focus on the tobacco, gambling, alcohol, and firearms industries, which paradoxically employ the rhetoric of sustainability and responsibility in their corporate communications. This occurs even though their core products are widely perceived as ethically questionable (Zerbib, 2022). Managers of sin firms may be motivated to engage in impression management to alleviate pressure and mislead investors about the firm’s actual ESG performance (Berkin et al., 2025), particularly as ESG assurance of ESG information stands at a crossroads (Gipper et al., 2024). Social media, as a direct means of communication, can be a powerful tool for engagement with stakeholders, enabling firms to promote ESG information.

Against this background, we examine whether ESG posts on social media serve as a channel for impression management. We focus on a global sample of 190 publicly traded sin firms managing at least one active X account between 2008 and 2024 to analyze the readability of their tweets. We compare 137,000 ESG and non-ESG posts to identify potential differences in comprehensibility between the two groups. We further assess the influence of ESG tweets readability on stakeholder engagement and investigate the relationship between tweet readability and financial performance. Our results, supported by regression and machine learning models, suggest that sin firms’ managers post symbolic ESG tweets to alleviate stigma. Compared with ESG tweets, posts unrelated to ESG topics are, on average, more readable as measured by Dale-Chall readability formula. Among ESG tweets, higher readability, a greater number of “at” mentions, and the inclusion of images are positively associated with user engagement. However, more readable ESG content on social media does not seem to produce financial benefits for sin firms.

Those results are consistent with organizational stigma literature that emphasizes the impact of stigmatization on controversial firms. Given the negative perception for those firms, managers strive to leverage the rising demand for ESG communications, and the expansive reach of social media to numerous stakeholders as a defensive mechanism against stigmatization penalties. Rather than risk making false claims that can be quickly discovered and punished (Yannopoulou et al., 2024), they may leverage the lack of regulatory readability standards to engage in “cheap talk” that is difficult to scrutinize. We note, however, that this practice fails to materialize into financial gains.

Our study makes several contributions to the impression management, social media, and readability literature. We extend existing impression management research by demonstrating the use of ESG communication on social media as a strategic tool to alleviate sin firms’ organizational stigma, and enhance their public image. We also enrich social media and readability literature by examining the impact of ESG posts’ clarity on stakeholder engagement. Finally, we shed light on the impact of ESG communication on financial outcomes.

REFEreNCES

Araujo, T., & Kollat, J. (2018), “Communicating effectively about CSR on Twitter”, Internet Research, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 419-431.

Balasubramanian, S. K., Fang, Y., & Yang, Z. (2020), “Twitter presence and experience improve corporate social responsibility outcomes”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 173, No. 4, pp. 737-757.

Berkin, A., Aerts, W., Roszkowska-Menkes, M., & Van Caneghem, T. (2025), “CEO talk under scrutiny: Visibility and rhetorical impression management in sustainability narratives”, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 38, No. 8.

Gipper, B., Ross, S., & Shi, S. X. (2024), “ESG Assurance in the United States. Review of Accounting Studies”, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 1753-1803.

Yannopoulou, N., Chandrasapth, K., Bian, X., Jin, B., Gupta, S., & Liu, M. J. (2024), “How disinformation affects sales: Examining the advertising campaign of a socially responsible brand”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 182.

Zerbib, O. D. (2022), “A Sustainable Capital Asset Pricing Model (S-CAPM): Evidence from environmental integration and sin stock exclusion”, Review of Finance, Vol. 26, No.6, pp. 1345-1388.