Corporate identity and its variation over time

Abstract

This study explores the discursive construction of corporate identity in disclosure statements about non-financial performance. The corpus for analysis consists of the Sustainability Reports published by Vodafone, the British telecommunications company, over twelve fiscal years, from 2000/2001 to 2011/2012. After retrieving instances of self-references in subject position and quantifying them, the collocational profile of the two most frequent forms, i.e. Vodafone and we, will be described paying attention to the textual meanings most often associated with them through the analysis of concordance lines and their classification in functional groups (Mahlberg 2007). Due to its relatively long and consistent tradition of social and environmental reporting, Vodafone is eligible for a case study of whether and how its corporate identity has changed over time. Therefore, self-presentation patterns will be examined not only in the corpus as a whole, but also in individual subcorpora to gather evidence of possible rhetorical shifts in the way Vodafone has shaped and reshaped its corporate identity.of a credible public identity that is capable of generating social consensus on the corporation's activities.According to Breeze (2013: 8-15), identity is the projection of the company's self-understanding (see Balmer & Greyser 2002 for the view that corporations have not one, but multiple identities that need to be aligned to work effectively). Identity is the result of top-down decisions taken at managerial level and is normally kept under strict control because it is a powerful tool for the company to differentiate itself from competitors. As indicated in The 1st Strathclyde Statement on Corporate Identity (International Corporate Identity Group, ICIG, 1995), identity can reinforce organisational culture and ultimately guarantee growth and success.There is broad consensus among communications scholars and discourse analysts that corporate identity is constructed through discourse. As Breeze puts it (2013: 178), all the company's relationships, with clients or customers, government or state, competitors, investors, stakeholders in general and, of course, the media, can and should be managed through discourse. Discourse is one of the corporation's most powerful tools in the current configuration of society.