The Communal Voice: How Gender Diversity Influences ESG Narratives in a Modern Confucian Context
Abstract
Grounded in the Confucian aphorism that “food is the first necessity for the people,” this study investigates how modern firms reconcile this cultural imperative with standardised global ESG agendas. We theorise that the Confucian ideal of “Inner Sage and Outer King” serves as a blueprint for profound corporate legitimacy, yet its attainment is contingent upon the principle of Yin-Yang harmony which is often missing in gender-imbalanced leadership. To test this framework, we employed Structural Topic Modelling (STM) on 88 managerial narratives from Taiwanese food companies to analyse the association between the Proportion of Female Directors (PFD) and specific rhetorical strategies. The empirical results reveal a significant rhetorical shift associated with increased gender diversity. Specifically, a higher female presence is linked to a decrease in “hard” technical narratives focused on internal compliance, effectively mitigating an unbalanced rhetorical state. Concurrently, it predicts the rise of a dual-track narrative that reflects the complete “Inner Sage and Outer King” path, since firms increasingly adopt an “Inner Sage” rhetoric of cultural connection while simultaneously embracing an “Outer King” rhetoric aligned with global innovation. Ultimately, this research provides novel evidence suggesting that gender diversity acts as a modern embodiment of Yin-Yang harmony, facilitating a sophisticated legitimacy strategy that skilfully blends local wisdom with global standards.
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