| Corporate image is the reflection of an enterprise’s comprehensive strength.With the enhancement of market competition,quite a lot of enterprises begin to pay attention to the shaping of their own images.A good corporate image can not only open up market awareness for enterprises,but also help them attract customers,which is conducive to the improvement of business sales and the realization of long-term development.Corporate social responsibility report is one of the ways for enterprises to project their own images to the public.Based on Eco-linguistics and transitivity system,the author selects the first parts in Apple and Huawei social responsibility reports from the year 2008 to 2020 as the research corpora to interpret their corporate images and ecological values reflected in the reports,through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.It aims to solve the following three questions:(1)What are the similarities and differences between Huawei and Apple’s CIs presented in their CSRs?(2)Through what kinds of transitivity processes can the CIs of Huawei and Apple be realized? How are the discourse patterns distributed?(3)Are there any differences in the ecological values between Huawei and Apple?The major findings are as follows:(1)In terms of participant roles,some CIs can be reflected in the CSRs.Huawei and Apple share some similar CIs: both of them are responsible cooperators and cohesive producers,human-oriented servicers.However,there are some differences between them: Huawei is an innovative developer and a wise investor,while Apple is an environmental guardian,an advocate of its brand,a conserver of energy and an emission reduction pioneer.There,it can be seen that both Huawei and Apple manifest distinct images,but those of Apple are more diverse.(2)For Huawei,among the six processes of transitivity,the material processes account for the largest proportion(46.01%),followed by the mental processes(30.03%)and the relational processes(13.42%).The rest account for only a small part.For Apple,the material processes also rank first(66.45%),higher than Huawei.It can be seen that both Huawei and Apple are willing to take practical action to protect the environment and serve their customers.The second are mental processes(27.16%),which are lower than Huawei’s,indicating that Huawei prefers to directly express its attitude towards the environment.The relational processes rank third,lower than Huawei’s.In fact,the role of the relational processes is to tell the public what Huawei and Apple have done for the environment and arouse public awareness of environmental protection.The statistical results of discourse patterns show that in the Huawei and Apple corpora,beneficial discourses account for 83.71% and 92.23% respectively,and neutral discourses account for 16.29% and 7.77%,respectively.There are no destructive discourses in the two corpora.Therefore,most of the corporate images displayed by Huawei and Apple in their CSRs are ecologically beneficial,with a small number of ecologically neutral images and no destructive images.(3)The ecological values reflected in Huawei’s CSR can be summarized as follows: first,sustainable development is of vital importance.Second,innovation and green development should be placed first.On the contrary,the ecological value reflected in Apple’s CSR can be summarized as: first,customers’ needs should be given the priority;second,environmental protection is of necessity.To sum up,by comparing the differences between the CSRs of Huawei and Apple from the perspective of Ecological Discourse Analysis,this research is of certain theoretical and practical significance.It not only broadens the scope of application of corporate image and Ecological Discourse Analysis,but also helps enterprises improve the self-shaping images in the development process and build a harmonious enterprise ecosystem in which mankind and nature live in a peaceful way. |
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