A Corpus-based Ecological Discourse Analysis Of Chinese And American Corporate Social Responsibility Reports

Against the background of increasingly internationalized development of global economy and severe impact of ecological issues,enterprises are facing realistic problems in terms of ecologically sustainable development,which will restrict their long-term development.Thus,delivering corporate responsibility is vital to promote global sustainable development and establish a positive corporate image.Therefore,improving the corporate responsibility planning system and building a good corporate ecological image is one of the urgent issues to be dealt with for the long-term development of enterprises around the world.In recent years,ecological discourse analysis(EDA)has attracted much attention from linguistic scholars,but most base their studies on systemic functional linguistics and appraisal theory.Besides,critical discourse analysis(CDA),corpus,transitivity,and other methods are utilized to explore the characteristics of ecological discourses in various fields,including media,politics,and education.Generally speaking,specific research on corporate ecological discourse is insufficient,especially the ecological discourse of the Corporate Social Responsibility report(CSRR).Based on the discourse-historical approach(DHA),this thesis takes Huawei and Apple,two telecommunications in China and the United States respectively,as examples.It uses Huawei’s and Apple’s ecological discourses of their CSRRs released on official websites,to establish two corpora.This study makes use of two corpus analysis tools,Wmatrix 5 and AntConc 3.5.9,to explore main topics at the macro-level,discursive strategies at the meso-level and linguistic features at the macro-level of ecological discourse in CSRRs,and analyze Huawei’s and Apple’s similarities and differences in terms of delivering corporate ecological duties,constructing corporate ecological images,as well as the underlying factors causing the similarities and differences.The research findings show that,firstly,from the macro-level analysis of main topics,both Huawei and Apple focus on energy consumption,carbon emission,packaging,resource utilization,electricity-saving,and technology innovation,which is intimately connected to the increasingly sever energy shortage and climate warming worldwide.Besides,Huawei’s CSRR ecological topics also include waste management and customer trust,which is mainly affected by Huawei’s corporate culture characterized by collectivism,customer-first attitude and long-term thinking.Apple’s CSRR ecological topics include the use of clean materials,protection against harmful substances,health and safety of customers and employees,and the uncovering of environmental data,which is in line with Apple’s corporate culture characterized by individualism,and strong awareness of environmental protection.Secondly,from the meso-level analysis of discursive strategies,both Huawei’s and Apple’s CSRR ecological discourses emphasize the use of predicate strategy and intensification and mitigation strategy,and their difference lies in the use of nomination strategy.Apple tends to name itself with the first-person nomination to build an amicable ecological image,while Huawei names itself with the third-person nomination to establish a rational ecological image,which might have relations with power distance index of Huawei’s and Apple’s corporate culture.Thirdly,from the micro-level analysis of linguistic features,the keyword analysis shows that Huawei focuses more on implementing ecological plans while Apple tends to manifest its environmental contributions in various ways;the analysis of verbs,nouns and adjectives of Huawei’s and Apple’s CSRR ecological discourses shows that Huawei have established a modest and practical ecological image while Apple have built a diverse and cooperative ecological image,which might be linked to Huawei’s dedicated and humble corporate culture and Apple’s inclusive and diversified corporate culture.The thesis,a corpus-based analysis of Chinese and American CSRR ecological discourse,provides new insights for the analysis corporate EDA and corporate ecological image.At the same time,it also provides some enlightenment for the writing of CSRRs against the background of globalization,promoting the sustainable development of global corporations,delivering corporate ecological duties,and constructing discourses on the human community with a shared future.