A Performative Analysis of Legislative Frameworks for Discursive Governance in ESG Disclosure Mandates

• Sunday Sunday

  Ladoke Akintola University of Technology

  Author

This study investigates whether legislative frameworks for ESG disclosure function performatively—that is, whether mandatory disclosure mandates produce discursive governance effects that modify corporate communication prior to, or instead of, substantive operational change. Drawing on performative purpose alignment theory (PPAT) and speech act theory, the research examines the discursive mechanisms through which disclosure mandates exert disciplinary pressure on corporate sustainability narratives. The study employs a mixed-methods design combining longitudinal critical discourse analysis of 176 corporate reports spanning 2016–2026, regression discontinuity analysis around the NFRD 500-employee threshold, and thematic content analysis of regulatory documents. Findings reveal that mandatory disclosure regimes reduce visible greenwashing primarily through communication restraint rather than immediate operational improvement, with firms just above regulatory thresholds displaying 23.6% lower excess-talk residuals than those below. The study identifies a sequencing effect: disclosure pressure disciplines what firms say first (89.4% of observable adjustment), while emissions-related performance shows no short-run movement of comparable magnitude. The central conclusion is that legislative ESG mandates operate as performative governance instruments that reconfigure the credibility economy of sustainability discourse without automatically delivering substantive environmental progress. The study introduces the SDG Purpose Alignment Index (SPAI) as a replicable framework for measuring discursive costliness and contributes a bounded theory of regulatory performativity applicable to disclosure governance scholarship and policy design.

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