Abstract

Leader messages play a crucial role in establishing and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between globalized corporations and their diverse stakeholders. By constructing two corpora, each containing 45 texts of leader messages from CSR (corporate social responsibility) reports of corporations operating in China and the United States that appeared on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list, this study explored the move structure and interdiscursive strategies employed in the messages. The study identified a rhetorical structure consisting of seven moves and eleven steps shared by both corpora. Analysis reveals that interdiscursivity is a prevalent feature of leader messages in both corpora. Specifically, discourses of promotion, strategic management, and financial accounting are favored by Chinese corporations, while evaluative and interpersonal discourses are preferred by the U.S. corporations. The findings enhance our understanding of how professionals from different cultural contexts adopt appropriate move structures and interdiscursive strategies to craft leader messages for effective CSR communication.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2025-10-01
DOI
10.1177/07410883251349194
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (57) · 6 in this index

  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  2. Bhatia A. (2013). International genre local flavour: Analysis of PetroChina’s Corporate and Social Responsibi…
  3. 10.4324/9780203892299
  4. Bhatia V. K. (2010). Interdiscursivity in professional communication. Discourse & Communication 21(1) 32–50. …
  5. Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view
Show all 57 →
  1. Critical genre analysis: Investigating interdiscursive performance in professional practice
  2. Discourse, communication and the enterprise: Where business meets discourse
  3. Conaway R. N. Wardrope W. J. (2010). Do their words really matter? Thematic analysis of U.S. and Latin Americ…
  4. Corona I. (2011). Confidentiality at risk: The interdiscursive construction of International Commercial Arbit…
  5. Cotos E. (2019). Articulating societal benefits in grant proposals: Move analysis of Broader Impacts. English…
  6. Dawkins C. Ngunjiri F. W. (2008). Corporate social responsibility reporting in South Africa: A descriptive an…
  7. Deng L. Cheng Y. Gao X. (2024). Promotional strategies in English and Chinese research article introduction a…
  8. Deng L. Laghari T. Gao X. (2021). A genre-based exploration of intertextuality and interdiscursivity in adver…
  9. An intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of pragmatic identity construction in Chines…
    Jinan Journal (Philosophy and Social Sciences)
  10. Ervits I. (2021). CSR reporting by Chinese and Western MNEs: Patterns combining formal homogenization and sub…
  11. Discourse and social change
  12. 10.4324/9780203697078
  13. Language and globalization
  14. The archeology of knowledge
  15. The theory of communicative action (vol. 1): Reason and the rationalization of society
  16. Hu G. Cao F. (2011). Hedging and boosting in abstracts of applied linguistics articles: A comparative study o…
  17. Huang Y. Rose K. (2018). You our shareholders: metadiscourse in CEO letters from Chinese and Western banks. T…
  18. The framework of language
  19. Khan M. Sulaiman R. B. (2021). On the linkage between CEOs’ statements and CSR reporting: An analysis of visu…
  20. Koskela M. (2013). Same same but different: Intertextual and interdiscursive features of communication strate…
  21. Desire in language: A semiotic approach to literature and art
  22. Lee W. W. L. (2020). Impression management through hedging and boosting: A cross-cultural investigation of th…
  23. Lee W. W. L. (2021). Emotion in business communication: A comparative study of attitude markers in the discou…
  24. Expository discourse: A genre-based approach to social research text
  25. Liu H. Liu J. Cheng P. (2019). Communication through discourse: A contrastive genre analysis of the CEO state…
  26. Written Communication
  27. Maignan I. Ralston D. A. (2002). Corporate social responsibility in Europe and the U.S.: Insights from busine…
  28. Marquis C. Qian C. (2014). Corporate social responsibility reporting in China: Symbol or substance? Organizat…
  29. Martín P. Pérez I. K. L. (2014). Convincing peers of the value of one’s research: A genre analysis of rhetori…
  30. McWilliams A. Siegel D. (2001). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective? Academy of…
  31. Miller C. R. (1984). Genre as social actions. Quarterly Journal of Speech 70(2) 151–167. https://doi.org/10.1…
  32. Moreno A. I. Swales J. M. (2018). Strengthening move analysis methodology towards bridging the function-form …
  33. Conducting genre-based research in applied linguistics: A methodological guide
  34. Ngai C. S. B. Singh R. G. (2017). Move structure and communication style of leaders’ messages in corporate di…
  35. Ngai C. S. B. Singh R. G. Kwan B. S. C. (2020). A comparative study of the linguistic manifestations of inter…
  36. Rajandran K. (2018). Coercive mimetic and normative: Interdiscursivity in Malaysian CSR reports. Discourse & …
  37. Rajandran K. Taib F. (2014). The representation of CSR in Malaysian CEO statements: A critical discourse anal…
  38. Ren C. Lu X. (2021). A multi-dimensional analysis of the Management’s Discussion and Analysis narratives in C…
  39. 10.1515/9783110214406-015
  40. Sun Y. Jiang J. (2014). Metaphor use in Chinese and US corporate mission statements: A cognitive sociolinguis…
  41. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings
  42. Written Communication
  43. Van Herck R. Decock S. Fastrich B. (2022). A unique blend of interpersonal and transactional strategies in En…
  44. Vogel D. (1992). The globalization of business ethics: Why America remains distinctive. California Management…
  45. Wang W. Yang C. (2015). Claiming centrality as promotion in applied linguistics research article introduction…
  46. Wood D. J. (1991). Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review 16(4) 691–718. https:…
  47. Cross-cultural genre analysis: Investigating Chinese, Italian and English CSR reports
  48. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  49. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  50. Written Communication
  51. Zhang Y. Wang P. Kwon J. (2021). CSR in China: Does being close to the central or local government matter? Su…
  52. 10.1057/9780230554580_2