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Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BP’s and IKEA’s social reports

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Author

  • Matteo Fuoli

Summary, in English

A growing public awareness of the potential negative impacts of corporate activities on the natural environment and society compels large companies to invest increasing resources in the communication of their responsible conduct. This article employs Appraisal theory in a comparative analysis of BP’s and IKEA’s 2009 social reports, each company’s record of their non-financial performance. The main objective is to explore how, through Appraisal resources, BP and IKEA construct their corporate identity and relationship with their stakeholders. The analysis reveals two markedly different approaches to the construction of a responsible corporate identity. While BP deploys interpersonal resources to portray itself as a trustworthy and authoritative expert, IKEA discloses itself as a sensitive and caring corporation, engaged in a continual effort to improve. These differences are interpreted in light of the legitimization challenges the two companies face.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

55-81

Publication/Series

Discourse & Communication

Volume

6

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Languages and Literature

Keywords

  • stance
  • legitimacy theory
  • evaluation
  • discourse analysis
  • corpus-based approaches to evaluation
  • corporate social responsibility
  • corporate social reports
  • corporate identity
  • Appraisal

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1750-4813