Digital as a Rhetorical Resource Under Institutional Complexity: A Longitudinal Comparative Discourse Analysis of Carbon Reporting in Vietnamese Listed Firms

This study examines how digitalization discourse is mobilized in public carbon reporting under institutional complexity and how it varies across different carbon-accountability structures in an emerging-market context within the Global South. A longitudinal comparative discourse analysis was conducted on 70 annual and sustainability reports (2015–2024) from seven Vietnamese listed firms, contrasting firms with internal carbon accountability against those with supply-chain-mediated accountability. The 2015–2024 timeframe was deliberately selected to capture a critical decade of regulatory evolution, marked by the aftermath of the Paris Agreement and the escalating enforcement of net-zero and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure mandates. Findings reveal that digitalization functions as an ambivalent rhetorical resource rather than a uniformly substantive sustainability enabler. Firms with operationally visible emissions utilize digitalization for “temporal buffering,” deferring immediate physical abatement by framing technology as a future transition pathway. Conversely, firms with supply-chain-mediated emissions employ “boundary displacement,” framing accountability as contingent on fragmented supplier data. These patterned responses constitute “digital institutional camouflage”. We conclude that digital reporting sophistication should not be conflated with substantive decarbonization; effective oversight requires cross-validating digital infrastructures with concrete emission-reduction measures. Ultimately, this study empirically specifies institutional decoupling theory by demonstrating how emissions visibility and organizational control shape distinct pathways of discursive decoupling.