Cover not available

Article published In: Corpus Approaches to Business Communication
Edited by Mathew Gillings and Susanne Kopf
[International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 29:3] 2024
► pp. 331–360

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

Management by keywords

A corpus-based investigation into the discourse of six capitals in best practice integrated reporting

ORCiD logo with link | University of Reading
 | University of Reading
 | University of Reading
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Reading.

Published online: 4 October 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.24069.jaw
Abstract
We examine a corpus of integrated reports endorsed as best practice to explore how the concept of ‘capital’ and its novel extension into six types of capitals — including ‘human’, ‘social and relationship’, and ‘natural’ — are discursively constructed and legitimised in the corporate field. Our findings show that the new capitals are mentioned frequently, but in a bullet point-like way without elaboration on their significance — a response strategy that we call ‘management by keywords’. Our analysis suggests that the collective business mindset remains centred on financial value creation, with the new capitals acting as servants to financial objectives. This questions the transformative power of the six capitals, hailed as a business innovation, to move corporate practices towards more social and environmental sustainability via enhanced corporate accountability. At the conceptual and methodological level, the study showcases the potential of corpus linguistics for fostering interdisciplinary research involving linguists and scholars in business and accounting.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Integrated reporting and the notion of six capitals: A brief overview
  • 3.Data and analytical procedures: Issues and challenges
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Results from the keyword analysis
    • 4.2The discourse of capitals
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Note
  • References
References (59)
References
Adams, C. A. (2015). The international integrated reporting council: A call to action. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 271, 23–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. Continuum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., & McEnery, T. (2013). Discourse analysis and media attitudes. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beattie, V. (2014). Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework. The British Accounting Review, 46(2), 111–134. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beck, C., Dumay, J., & Frost, G. (2017). In pursuit of a ‘single source of truth’: From threatened legitimacy to integrated reporting. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(1), 191–205. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breeze, R. (2012). Legitimation in corporate discourse: Oil corporations after Deepwater Horizon. Discourse & Society, 23(1), 3–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, J., & Dillard, J. (2014). Integrated reporting: On the need for broadening out and opening up. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1120–1156. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, J., & Tregidga, H. (2017). Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 611, 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buhr, N., & Reiter, S. (2006). Ideology, the environment and one world view: A discourse analysis of Noranda’s environmental and sustainable development reports. In M. Freedman & B. Jaggi (Eds.), Environmental accounting (pp. 1–48). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cannan, E. (1921). Early history of the term capital. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 35(3), 469–481. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chelli, M., & Gendron, Y. (2013). Sustainability ratings and the disciplinary power of the ideology of numbers. Journal of Business Ethics, 112(2), 187–203. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cho, C. H., & Patten, D. M. (2007). The role of environmental disclosures as tools of legitimacy: A research note. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 32(7–8), 639–647. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cho, C. H., Roberts, R. W., & Patten, D. M. (2010). The language of US corporate environmental disclosure. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 35(4), 431–443. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Adderio, L. (2008). The performativity of routines: Theorising the influence of artefacts and distributed agencies on routines dynamics. Research Policy, 37(5), 769–789. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Villiers, C., & Dimes, R. (2023). Will the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board result in the death of integrated reporting? Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change, 19(2), 279–295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Villiers, C., Rinaldi, L., & Unerman, J. (2014). Integrated Reporting: Insights, gaps and an agenda for future research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1042–1067. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Douglas, M. (1986). How institutions think. Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Egbert, J., Larsson, T., & Biber, D. (2020). Doing linguistics with a corpus: Methodological considerations for the everyday user. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Firth, J. R. (1957). Papers in linguistics 1934–1951. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flower, J. (2015). The international integrated reporting council: A story of failure. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 271, 1–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Freeman, R. E., Martin, K., & Parmar, B. (2007). Stakeholder capitalism. Journal of Business Ethics, 741, 303–314. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). A Friedman doctrine — The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. New York Times Magazine. [URL]
Fuoli, M. (2012). Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BP’s and IKEA’s social reports. Discourse & Communication, 6(1), 55–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gablasova, D., Brezina, V., & McEnery, T. (2017). Collocations in corpus-based language learning research: Identifying, comparing, and interpreting the evidence. Language Learning, 67(S1), 155–179. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gendron, Y., & Rodrigue, M. (2021). On the centrality of peripheral research and the dangers of tight boundary gatekeeping. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 761, Article 102076. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibassier, D., Rodrigue, M., & Arjaliès, D. L. (2018). Integrated reporting is like God: No one has met Him, but everybody talks about Him: The power of myths in the adoption of management innovations. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31(5), 1349–1380. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gillings, M., & Dayrell, C. (2024). Climate change in the UK press: Examining discourse fluctuation over time. Applied Linguistics, 45(1), 111–133. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gillings, M., & Mautner, G. (2024). Concordancing for CADS: Practical challenges and theoretical implications. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 29(1), 34–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gleeson-White, J. (2015). Six capitals, or can accountants save the planet? Rethinking capitalism for the twenty-first century. W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higgins, C., Stubbs, W., & Love, T. (2014). Walking the talk(s): Organisational narratives of integrated reporting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(7), 1090–1119. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2014). What is capital? Economists and sociologists have changed its meaning: Should it be changed back? Cambridge Journal of Economics, 38(5), 1063–1086. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
IIRC. (2013). The International <IR> Framework. [URL]
. (2019). Integrated Reporting examples database. [URL]
Jaworska, S. (2018). Change but no climate change: Discourses of climate change in corporate social responsibility reporting in the oil industry. International Journal of Business Communication, 55(2), 194–219. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworska, S., & Nanda, A. (2018). Doing well by talking good: A topic modelling-assisted discourse study of corporate social responsibility. Applied Linguistics, 39(3), 373–399.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jonsen, K., Point, S., Kelan, E., & Grieble, A. (2021). Diversity and inclusion branding: A five-country comparison of corporate websites. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(3), 616–649. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kilgarriff, A., Baisa, V., Bušta, J., Jakubíček, M., Kovář, V., Michelfeit, J., Rychlý, P., & Suchomel, V. (2014). The Sketch Engine: Ten years on. Lexicography, 1(1), 7–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lischinsky, A. (2015). What is the environment doing in my report? Analyzing the environment-as-stakeholder thesis through corpus linguistics. Environmental Communication, 9(4), 539–559.
Malsch, B. (2013). Politicizing the expertise of the accounting industry in the realm of corporate social responsibility. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(2), 149–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNally, M. A., & Maroun, W. (2018). It is not always bad news: Illustrating the potential of integrated reporting using a case study in the eco-tourism industry. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31(5), 1319–1348. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milne, M. J., & Gray, R. (2013). W(h)ither ecology? The triple bottom line, the global reporting initiative, and corporate sustainability reporting. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(1), 13–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Dwyer, B., Humphrey, C., & Rowbottom, N. (2024). From institutional integration to institutional demise: The disintegration of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 991, Article 102699. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oswick, C., & Noon, M. (2014). Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: Trenchant formulations or transient fashions? British Journal of Management, 25(1), 23–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
OED. (n.d.). Growth. In OED | Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved August 6, 2024, from [URL]
. (n.d.). Organic. In OED | Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved August 6, 2024, from [URL]
Pollach, I. (2012). Taming textual data: The contribution of corpus linguistics to computer-aided text analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 15(2), 263–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Power, M. (2021). The financial reporting system — what is it? Accounting and Business Research, 51(5), 459–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinecke, J., & Ansari, S. (2016). Taming wicked problems: The role of framing in the construction of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3), 299–329. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robson, K., & Ezzamel, M. (2023). The cultural fields of accounting practices: Institutionalization and accounting changes beyond the organization. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 1041, Article 101379. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowbottom, N., & Locke, J. (2016). The emergence of <IR>. Accounting and Business Research, 46(1), 83–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Solomon, J. (2013). Corporate governance and accountability (4th ed.). Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stenka, R. (2022). Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 881, Article 102294. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stenka, R., & Jaworska, S. (2019). The use of made-up users. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 781, Article 101055. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tregidga, H., Milne, M., & Kearins, K. (2014). (Re)presenting ‘sustainable organizations’. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 39(6), 477–494. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Ramping up resistance: Corporate sustainable development and academic research. Business & Society, 57(2), 292–334. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tregidga, H., Milne, M., & Lehman, G. (2012). Analyzing the quality, meaning and accountability of organizational reporting and communication: Directions for future research. Accounting Forum, 36(3), 223–230. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Bommel, K., Rasche, A., & Spicer, A. (2023). From values to value: The commensuration of sustainability reporting and the crowding out of morality. Organization & Environment, 36(1), 179–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Carradini, Stephen, Mathew Gillings & Sky Marsen
2025. Qualitative Methods in Business Communication: Interpreting the Language and Images of Business. International Journal of Business Communication 62:4 ► pp. 635 ff. DOI logo
Gillings, Mathew & Sylvia Jaworska
2025. How humans and machines identify discourse topics: A methodological triangulation. Applied Corpus Linguistics 5:1 ► pp. 100121 ff. DOI logo
Lu, Rickey & Paul Baker
2025. Holistic, nurturing and sustainable: Discursive shift in corporate social responsibility reporting. Discourse & Society DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue