Banca de DEFESA: Lavoisiene Rodrigues de Lima

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL FALLACIES: A CASE STUDY OF THE COMPANY VALE S.A. FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Accountability. Fallacies. Sustainability Reports. Integrated Reports. Stakeholders.

The legitimization of socio-environmental disclosure gains prominence with the advent of the international standard for this purpose. By 2026, report preparers will face significant transformations, requiring companies to increase their responsibility towards society, through the dissemination of coherent and truthful information. In this context, the theme of fallacies emerges, characterized as poorly formulated arguments. The Pragmatic Theory of Fallacies, in turn, maintains that such arguments can persuade the audience according to the sender's intention. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the socioenvironmental reports of the mining company Vale S.A. present fallacies, from the perspective of accountability. To meet this objective, a case study was conducted at Vale S.A., the largest mining company in Brazil and third largest in the world. The analysis covered the content of sustainability reports and integrated reports since their publication began in 2006. A qualitative and deductive approach was adopted, using content analysis. The pre-analysis involved reading the documents to identify fallacies, supported by relevant literature. Data exploration included the categorization of fallacies, the creation of cases and research attributes. Data processing took place with the help of NVivo® and IRaMuTeQ® software, in which the fallacious narrative identified over 17 years of socioenvironmental disclosure by Vale S.A. was analyzed. The results indicated the presence of fallacies in the mining company's sustainable disclosure, totaling 805 identifications. The most predominant category was "Appeals to Motives", with emphasis on the "Appeal to the People" type, characterizing the company's speech as appealing and focused on image. After the Brumadinho tragedy, an increase in fallacies was observed, mainly of the types "Appeal to Emotions", "Piety" and "People", corroborating the hypothesis of persuasion strategies to mitigate the post-accident image. Additionally, when comparing the fallacies in the periods in which the company complied with the guidelines of entities such as ISE and the UN Global Compact, there was a reduction during the adherence period. Groups of fallacies were created based on Vale S.A.'s fallacious narrative, including operational, lamentation, relationship, socio-environmental sectors, and fallacies related to the tragedy. A vocabulary of fallacious words was developed by fallacy category. This thesis contributes to improving the accuracy of users of socio-environmental information, helping to identify sustainable fallacies. It is expected that future research will confront the levels of fallacies after the adoption of the General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability related Financial Information (IFRS S1), seeking to standardize reports and potentially reduce selfpromotional bias, increasing companies' responsiveness in disclosing (in)sustainability and faithful representation.