| Abstract | This study examines the credibility of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure within PetroVietnam (PVN), a large state-owned enterprise operating in a high impact industry. The objective is to identify structural credibility gaps and areas for improvement in the context of increasing international reporting expectations. A qualitative document-based approach was adopted. Publicly available disclosures issued between 2020 and 2025, including sustainability reports, annual reports, governance disclosures, and corporate website materials, were systematically reviewed. The analysis followed four stages: examining disclosure construction across organizational levels, comparing alignment with global frameworks (GRI, TCFD, and ISSB), assessing credibility through observable structural determinants, and identifying improvement areas. The study evaluates credibility signals rather than directly measuring stakeholder perceptions. The findings indicate that sustainability information within PVN is present but distributed across organizational layers. While PVN demonstrates moderate alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) by disclosing historical environmental and social indicators at the operational level, it exhibits low alignment with the forward-looking requirements of the TCFD and ISSB. Specifically, the reporting system fails to link climate transition risks with financial materiality or provide scenario-based risk assessments. Credibility challenges arise from structural fragmentation, as group-level strategic commitments are not explicitly linked to subsidiary-level operational indicators. Furthermore, the lack of visible independent external assurance for environmental and social data dilutes the reliability of reported figures. Practical implications include strengthening centralized reporting architecture, improving linkage between strategic commitments and operational indicators, and enhancing verification and forward-looking disclosure practices. These insights provide a basis for improving interpretability of ESG information in complex organizational contexts. This study contributes to ESG disclosure research by conceptualizing credibility as a structural integration issue in multi-subsidiary state-owned enterprises. |
