Investigating Construction Of Corporate Image From The Perspective Of Critical Genre Analysis

To be a successful competitor in economic globalization,Chinese enterprises should not only attach importance to investment interests but also construct a good image,which is,to a large extent,determined by the information released by the company.As an official document,corporate annual report(CAR)plays a decisive role for ensuring a successful enterprise promotion.Regarded as being constructed through various resources,corporate image has been studied by scholars mainly from the perspective of other-construction,with the perspective of self-construction being rarely touched upon.This study employs the theoretical constructions of Critical Genre Analysis(CGA)and the key concepts in Genre Analysis(GA)to explore the discourse in CAR and its underlying social-cultural factors.CGA,the extension of GA,intends to carry out a multidimensional analysis of discursive practice in professional contexts.Based on Bhatia’s levels of discourse realization model,this research takes the corporate image as the object of study,collecting Huawei’s corporate annual reports released from 2010 to 2019 as data,and conducts a critical analysis from the dimensions of text,genre,professional practice and professional culture.In the generic dimension,it is found that there are four moves in the generic structure of CAR,including announcement of organizational attitudes,presentation of business achievements,description of business strategies and demonstration of social responsibilities.Secondly,in the dimension of professional practice,it is found that discourse practitioners adopt interdiscursivity as discourse strategies,which are manifested as expository discourse,narrative discourse,commissive discourse and evaluative discourse,to construct an open and transparent image,an innovative and responsible image,a consumer-centered image and a reliable image respectively.Finally,the social-cultural factors underlying the construction of a corporate image are investigated from the perspective of corporate philosophy and corporate responsibility.Through a critical genre analysis of CAR,on the one hand,this study is expected to guide corporates or organizations to strategically formulate a CAR so as to construct a favorable image.On the other hand,the study is instrumental to strengthen the ability of the public to perceive and understand CAR so as to evaluate the companies correctly and effectively.And finally,it is hoped that the study may ultimately promote the practice and future development of CAR,having certain academic value and practical significance.