Veridictory square: a semiotic tool to assessing banks’ commitment toward corporate social responsibility

Abstract

‘COVID-19 to Plunge Global Economy into Worst Recession since World War II’ is the prediction that proves to be accurate. This crisis is highlighting the weaknesses in the current production system, underlining the dangers of climate change, and pushing decision-makers to adopt sustainable development criteria adopted by the United Nations on 25 September 2015. In the context of these global crises, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasingly asserting itself among economic actors. A growing number of companies and banks are promoting their CSR commitments. However, studies reveal that such rhetoric often amounts to greenwashing rather than genuine commitment. This research introduces a methodology to assess the authenticity of corporate communications, employing the veridictory square—a semiotic analysis tool developed by Greimas and Courtés to examine the dynamics of truth and falsehood in a text. While originally applied to literary discourse analysis, this tool has not been previously utilised in institutional communication of banks. Nevertheless, it proves highly relevant in evaluating the CSR discourse of three Tunisian banks, revealing either its veracity or its falseness.