Enhancing sustainability reporting practices in the notebook manufacturing industry: a multifaceted analysis integrating traditional reports and social media data

Abstract

This study adopts a multidimensional approach to examining sustainability reporting practices among notebook manufacturers, integrating traditional corporate sustainability reports with social media data from platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. Using advanced machine learning techniques, including multi-label classification and BERT-based sentiment analysis, the research highlights the key environmental, social, and economic dimensions that consumers prioritize. The findings reveal a significant misalignment between consumer concerns, reflected in social media discourse, and the focus of corporate sustainability reports. While companies emphasize environmental impacts and supply chain management, consumers prioritize product reliability, community obligations, and educational initiatives. This gap indicates a need for companies to realign their sustainability strategies to better meet consumer expectations, emphasizing trust-building, community engagement, and educational efforts. Despite these differences, the study also identifies shared concerns between consumers and producers, such as environmental impacts, supply chain sustainability, and transparency in sustainability claims. Based on these insights, the study recommends fostering transparent communication, engaging in inclusive dialogue, and committing to accountable actions across all sustainability dimensions. By aligning corporate reporting with consumer expectations, this research provides guidance to help companies advance towards a circular economy and enhance Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the electronics industry, ultimately benefiting both companies and consumers in the pursuit of a more sustainable future.