A Comparative Study On Corporate Risk Information Disclosure Of Chinese And US Listed Coal Corporations: A Metaphorical Perspective

With the internationalization of corporation competition,international flow of capital,acceleration of corporation management etc.,corporations are facing more and more intensifying risks,which would lead to great turmoil to corporate running.Many investors will suffer great loss for the lack of understanding of the extent of corporate risk disclosure,risk types and risk disclosure channels.Thus the voice of requiring corporations to disclose risk information gets louder and louder.On one hand,corporate risk information disclosure can help investors know the corporate running situation timely,completely and accurately.On the other,corporate risk information disclosure can reduce market information asymmetry,help corporations to conduct external communication,optimize allocation of resources and improve marke operation efficiency.Corporate annual report is an important medium for corporate external users to know and judge corporate value and risk.However,previous studies on corporate risk information disclosure in the annual report was mainly focused on the norms and quality while less was focused on the risk language per se of corporate risk disclosure.In addition,to study corporate risk disclosure from the perspective of discourse analysis has not been given due attention yet.Thus,the present study has continued that focus by investing the language of corporate risk information disclosure in the annual reports of US and Chinese listed coal corporations from a metaphorical perspective of discourse analysis.The approach that underpinned this study is Lakoff and Johnson`s conceptual metaphor theory and Content Analysis,which are employed respectively as the qualitative and quantitative analysis method.The aim of this study is to find out what are the differences and similarities in the use of metaphor of US and Chinese listed coal corporations to disclose risk information and the reasons behind this.Meanwhile,by investigating the language and cognitive factors in the corporate risk information disclosure,this study also aims to provide some suggestions on the risk communication between corporations and stakeholders,and on corporate governance.The findings of this study indicated that metaphors are pervasive in the US and Chinese corporate risk information disclosure.Thus this study has indicated that metaphor is an indispensable communication approach for corporate risk information disclosure and a way corporations understand and explicate corporate risk for external communication.Meanwhile,due to social and cultural factors,this study has found that there are similarities and evident differences in the use of metaphor of US and Chinese listed coal corporations to disclose risk information.Theoretically,by applying the theory of discourse analysis to the study of corporate risk information disclosure,this study has enriched the application of linguistic theory.In the mean time,this study methodologically helps people to combine the previous pure empirical approach with linguistic theory in the study of corporate risk information disclosure.Practically,this study will help corporations to have a better risk communication with stakeholders in terms of the language per se of corporate risk disclosure and the way of corporate risk disclosure.