The article investigates how corporate legitimacy operates as the motivational substructure of impression management (IM) in post-crisis communication. It inspects how organizations try to re-create legitimacy after crises that differ in moral severity, distinguishing between endogenous (preventable) and exogenous (systemic) disorders.
Adopting a longitudinal qualitative content analysis, the article investigates Carnival Corporation and plc's sustainability reporting (SR) after two major crises: the Costa Concordia disaster (2012–2013) and the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). A legitimacy–IM matrix was applied to identify rhetorical, symbolic and semantic patterns of disclosure across time and crisis type.
Results reveal a relevant transformation in corporate discourse. After the Concordia disaster, the company mainly adopted defensive and corrective responses, focusing on procedural control and on restoring cognitive legitimacy. The moral dimension of the crisis was reframed in managerial terms. During the COVID-19 crisis, the tone changed. Communication became more assertive and moral, stressing empathy, solidarity and alignment with public institutions. In both phases, legitimacy did not simply act as the antecedent of IM: crises generated legitimacy pressure that activated rhetorical mechanisms of repair, normalization and reassurance. We identify a sequential legitimacy trajectory, moving from identity protection to institutional repair (2012–2013) and from adaptive learning to managerial normalization (2020–2021).
Rather than examining legitimacy as something that follows IM, this study shows how legitimacy pressures shape communication strategies. The article reframes legitimacy as the cause rather than the consequence of IM, advancing a processual understanding of crisis corporate communication strategies. It adds to debates in legitimacy theory and SR, showing how disclosure can operate as a form of legitimacy work rather than simply as a reporting exercise. It also points to the changing role of SR in organizational legitimacy construction and reconstruction.
