Assessing corporate social responsibility pressures in lithium mining examines how a major Chilean lithium producer’s CSR disclosures respond over time to different kinds of societal pressure in a highly contested mining region. The authors use topic modeling on more than a decade of sustainability reports to trace when and how activism, regulation, legal action, media scrutiny, and investor demands show up in the company’s CSR language and priorities.
Key takeaways:
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The study finds that corporate CSR reporting in Chilean lithium mining is largely reactive, with themes such as water management, Indigenous engagement, safety, and human rights becoming more prominent only after regulatory fines, court rulings, strikes, or visible community and media campaigns.
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By integrating stakeholder and institutional theory, the article shows that CSR commitments become most substantive when multiple pressures converge—for example, when Indigenous activism, scientific evidence on environmental harm, and court decisions align—whereas isolated pressures more often produce symbolic or delayed responses.
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Topic modeling of CSR reports offers a practical way to detect shifts in corporate priorities and to infer how specific social, legal, and investor events shape sustainability narratives, especially in data-poor, opaque sectors like critical-minerals mining.
“CSR framing and commitments appear most influenced when stakeholder pressures—activism, labor actions, investor demands, and buyer requirements—converge with institutional reinforcements, such as regulations, scientific evidence, and global standards,” says Darnall.
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