Robin Wolter

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Wolter
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Robin
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robin.wolter@unisg.ch

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    Item type:Publication,
    The Use of Visuals in Sustainability Reporting
    (2026)
    Amel-Zadeh, Amir
    ;
    Dinh, Tami  
    ;
    Seebeck, Andreas
    ;
    Wolter, Robin  
    This paper documents a functional separation between graphics and photographs in sustainability reporting. Using deep-learning-based visual and textual analyses of 3,923 European reports from 2013 to 2021, we show that firms' use, placement, and congruence of visuals vary systematically with sustainability performance and the surrounding narrative. At the report level, firms with stronger sustainability performance are more likely to use graphics, but not photographs. At the micro level, sections with a stronger sustainability focus contain more graphical elements but fewer photographs, and photographs in these sections are less congruent with their surrounding narratives and use more green colors and salient designs. These patterns are amplified among poor ESG performers, suggesting that photographs play a more aesthetic, impression-related role, whereas graphics serve a primarily content-oriented communicative function. Consequences tests show that graphics, particularly when congruent, are associated with fewer future ESG incidents and higher subsequent ESG ratings, whereas photographs exhibit weaker or opposite associations. Across outcomes, particularly photographs are more likely to be strategically positioned in sustainability-dense disclosure passages that contain decision-relevant information, highlighting the informative relevance of multimodal sustainability reporting.
    Type:conference contribution
    DOI:10.2139/ssrn.6581518
    URI:https://alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/131178
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    Some of the metrics are blocked by your 
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    Item type:Publication,
    The Use of Visuals in Sustainability Reporting
    (2026)
    Amel-Zadeh, Amir
    ;
    Dinh, Tami  
    ;
    Seebeck, Andreas
    ;
    Wolter, Robin  
    This paper documents a functional separation between graphics and photographs in sustainability reporting. Using deep-learning-based visual and textual analyses of 3,923 European reports from 2013 to 2021, we show that firms' use, placement, and congruence of visuals vary systematically with sustainability performance and the surrounding narrative. At the report level, firms with stronger sustainability performance are more likely to use graphics, but not photographs. At the micro level, sections with a stronger sustainability focus contain more graphical elements but fewer photographs, and photographs in these sections are less congruent with their surrounding narratives and use more green colors and salient designs. These patterns are amplified among poor ESG performers, suggesting that photographs play a more aesthetic, impression-related role, whereas graphics serve a primarily content-oriented communicative function. Consequences tests show that graphics, particularly when congruent, are associated with fewer future ESG incidents and higher subsequent ESG ratings, whereas photographs exhibit weaker or opposite associations. Across outcomes, particularly photographs are more likely to be strategically positioned in sustainability-dense disclosure passages that contain decision-relevant information, highlighting the informative relevance of multimodal sustainability reporting.
    Type:conference contribution
    DOI:10.2139/ssrn.6581518
    URI:https://alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/131211