Purpose-washing? The strategic role of rhetoric

In response to growing institutional complexity, corporations are increasingly adopting dutybased purpose strategies that challenge shareholder primacy in favour of moral obligations to multiple stakeholders. However, distinguishing between authentic purpose integration and purpose-washing represents a complex challenge for management scholars. Our study examines the relationship between purpose talk and purpose walk by investigating the strategic role of rhetoric in shaping how duty-based purpose is communicated and discursively legitimized. Drawing on rhetorical theory of diffusion, we analyse 120 extra-financial reports from U.S. companies that signed the 2019 Business Roundtable Statement. Specifically, we use semantic-linguistic methods to assess purpose talk and compare these results with purpose walk measures based on cognitive-linguistic analysis of the same reports and external multistakeholder performance ratings. Our findings reveal a significant negative correlation: companies that rhetorically use a “copyand- paste” language of the Statement exhibit greater decoupling of purpose talk from purpose walk. Conversely, companies that adopt a distinctive rhetorical style demonstrate greater talkwalk coupling. By unpacking the rhetorical form of corporate purpose communication, we show how corporations may leverage rhetorical mimicry to discursively legitimise the introduction of purposedriven strategies. Our cross-sectional insights suggest that purpose talk–walk decoupling should not be interpreted a priori as opportunistic purpose-washing, thereby contributing to a more nuanced theoretical interpretation of its implications under conditions of institutional complexity.