Paper presented on occasion of the 26th conference of the Italian Society for the Study of English (AIA) held at Parma University, on 12-14 Sept. 2013.

1. REMEDIATING CORPORATE DISCOURSE:REMEDIATING CORPORATE DISCOURSE:
GLOBAL CORPORATE WEBSITESGLOBAL CORPORATE WEBSITES
ASAS LOCILOCI FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONFOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Emanuela Tenca
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
XXVI AIA Conference
University of Parma, 14th
September 2013

2. ● Background 1: Intercultural corporate
communication via Web
● Background 2: Traditional vs new tools of
corporate discourse
● Objectives
● Materials
● Methods
● Preliminary findings
● Discussion of preliminary findings
● Final remarks
Outline of the presentation

3. Background 1: Intercultural
corporate communication via Web
During the last two decades, corporate communication
has been affected by
● the advent of globalised trade: companies engaged in
business activities across national borders
→ INTERCULTURAL CORPORATE COMMUNICATION
● the introduction of new technologies in the field of CMC:
advancements in the communication infrastructure.
→ Communication technologies are “the ultimate
enablers of global communication” (Louhiala-Salminen &
Kankaanranta 2011, 261).

4. Background 1: Intercultural
corporate communication via Web
The Web, the “pivotal facet of CMC” (Petroni
2011, 24), has provided companies with a medium
to
● reach a global audience 24/7/365,
● disseminate information about their
performances,
● shape their corporate images
● promote their products.

5. Effects of the proliferation of online data interchange on
corporate communication:
● a re-fashioning of corporate discourse: traditional printed
genres have been moved to the Web, and new
discoursive forms have emerged
● the spread of Business English as a Lingua Franca: English,
“the chief lingua franca of the Internet” (Crystal 2007, 117)
is used in the majority of business communication
exchanges especially among NNSs (Louhiala- Salminen &
Kankaanranta 2011).
Background 1: Intercultural
corporate communication via Web

6. Fiercer competition and higher accountability
towards stakeholders characterise today's
globalised business environment.
ACCORDINGLY, the need to shape and project their
identity as trustworthy business partners is growing.
HENCE, the institutional presentation of the
company itself can be a strategical business tool to
be implemented in the context of intercultural
corporate communication.
Background 1: Intercultural
corporate communication via Web

7. Background 2: Traditional vs new tools of
corporate discourse
Company brochures
Askehave 1998
Purpose: to present the company as a qualified partner.
Nielsen 2001
Part of a company's communication (a PR instrument).
Focus: on the company itself.
Polysemiotic nature (both pictures and text).
Bhatia 2004
A „peripheral member” of the colony of promotional
genres (partly promotional, partly information-giving).

8. Background 2: Traditional vs new tools of
corporate discourse
Corporate websites
Virtual repositories of the promotional and informative
materials delivered by companies, brought together into a
common framework thanks to hyperlinks (Poppi 2011).
HENCE corporate websites can be categorised as instances
of a macro-genre (Petroni 2011) that has remediated
traditional genres and given rise to new genres:
● web-migrated genres (e.g. company brochures, annual
reports, press releases)
● web-generated genres (e.g. homepages, FAQs, hotlists).

9. Background 2: Traditional vs new tools of
corporate discourse
In order to create meaning, corporate websites
exploit the capabilities afforded by the medium
(Shepherd & Watters 2004), e.g.
● Multimodality: websites rely on different modes
(text, images, animations, sounds, videos).
● Hyperlinking: different texts combined together
thanks to hyperlinks.
● Interactivity: web users decide their own
navigation within the website.

10. Background 2: Traditional vs new tools of
corporate discourse
Corporate websites now accomplish the purposes
once carried out by traditional printed genres, in
particular they feature a section devoted to the
institutional presentation of the company which
fulfils a function analogous to that of printed
company brochures. This section is usually called
'About (Us)', or '(The) Company' / '(The) Group'.

11. This analysis aims at shedding light on the communicative
practices emerging from a sample of German and Italian
companies operating in the renewable energy sector in
order to provide an institutional presentation of their
organisations.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
● Which are the most efficiently implemented lexico-
grammatical patterns employed?
● How does textual information interact with the other web
capabilities?
● To what extent have corporate websites re-mediated a
traditional genre like the company brochure?
Objectives

12. Web sections from corporate websites in their
version in BELF for a global audience, devoted to
the company's institutional presentation.
Industry sector: renewable energy
→ high-stakes sector: the need for clean energy
production is growing worldwide due to the
depletion of resources, the rising costs of fossil
fuels, and the environmental degradation caused by
the dramatic increase in human activities during the
last decades.
Materials

13. Materials
SELECTION CRITERIASELECTION CRITERIA GERMANYGERMANY ITALYITALY
Cramer's conceptualisationCramer's conceptualisation
of the spread and use ofof the spread and use of
English in the EU (2007)English in the EU (2007)
Transition Circle 1:
English used as a code
for intranational
communication in
professional,
institutional,
educational settings
Expanding Circle:
English is acquired at
school, and used in
international
encounters.
Renewable energy statusRenewable energy status
50% of Germany's
electricity is estimated
to be coming from
renewable energy
sources by 2030
(RenewableEnergyWor
ld.com 2009).
The renewable
energy industry in
Italy is expanding
(Mergermarket 2013).

14. A mixed methodological approach has been
adopted in order to assess the interdependence
between textual information and other web
capabilities:
● Corpus Linguistics: wordlists and concordance
strings (most frequent content words, incidence of
company names, pronouns, modals).
● Multimodal Discourse Analysis: qualitative analysis
of multimodal resources (images, colours, layout),
taking into account hypertextual and interactive
strategies as well.
Methods

15. Germany
COMPANY NAMECOMPANY NAME ENERGYENERGY SECTIONSSECTIONS TOKENSTOKENS TYPESTYPES
AEG Power
Solutions B.V.
Photovoltaics Company
(8 sub-sections) 5,504 1,779
EnBW Energie
Baden-
Württemberg AG
Geothermal
Company
(4 sub-sections)
3,735 1,154
JENZ GmbH Biomass About Us
(5 sub-sections) 1,718 696
PCC SE Hydropower PCC Group
(7 sub-sections) 8,754 2,113
ZF Friedrichshafen
AG
Wind
Company
(6 sub-sections)
62,488 7,776
TOTAL 82,199 9,434

16. Italy
COMPANY NAMECOMPANY NAME ENERGYENERGY SECTIONSSECTIONS TOKENSTOKENS TYPESTYPES
Bonfiglioli SpA Wind Company
(7 sub-sections) 26,734 3,942
IREM SpA Hydropower
Company
(4 sub-sections)
579 299
Micron – Cappello
Alluminio srl Photovoltaics About Us
(5 sub-sections) 278 163
Palazzetti SpA Biomass The group
(10 sub-sections) 6,643 1,860
Turboden srl Geothermal
About
(10 sub-sections)
2,458 939
TOTAL 36,692 5,303

17. Preliminary findings
● In the German corpus, the company name is the most
frequent content word in 4 out of 5 companies' sub-
corpora, ranking second only in Jenz's sub-corpus.
● In the Italian corpus, the company name is the most
frequent content word in 3 out of 5 companies' sub-
corpora (Bonfiglioli, IREM, Turboden). In one sub-
corpus, the group name is the most frequent content
word (i.e. Cappello Group owning Micron company). In
Palazzetti's sub-corpus, the company name is the
second most frequent content word, after 'company'.

18. ● Company name [1]: theme-rheme structure to foreground the
company:
GERMAN CORPUS
- AEG Power Solutions will agree to Suppliers Code of
Conduct [...]. (AEG)
- EnBW Trading GmbH offers green electricity from hydro
power to wholesale customer. (EnBW)
- PCC today employs approximately 2,500 staff in more than
70 subsidiaries and associated companies [...]. (PCC)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- Bonfiglioli is an international group with subsidiaries all over
the world […]. (Bonfiglioli)
- Turboden is a leading European company in development
and production of ORC […]. (Turboden)
Preliminary findings

19. Preliminary findings
● Company name [2] used as a modifier:
GERMAN CORPUS
- The executive committee oversees and executes AEG Power
Solutions strategies across the globe. (AEG)
- The EnBW 2020 Strategy now follows the corresponding
structure. (EnBW)
- ZF Aviation Technology is setting worldwide standards in
this industry segment. (ZF)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- […] Bonfiglioli Inverters are customized to the Indian
conditions. (Bonfiglioli)
- Turboden ORC units generate up to 15 MW electric per unit
[…]. (Turboden)
- 2009/ Palazzetti Pellet Technology was born. (Palazzetti)

20. ● Use of 'company' (5th
most frequent content word in the
German corpus, 7th
most frequent content word in the
Italian corpus) to talk about its history, location, services
offered (indirectness):
GERMAN CORPUS
- The company is located in Piedmont close to
Greenville/SC [...]. (PCC)
- The company also provides catering, vending and party
services to external customers. (ZF)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- The new company was baptized Costruzioni
Meccaniche Bonfiglioli [...]. (Bonfiglioli)
- The company was founded in 1980 in Milan by Mario
Gaia [....]. (Turboden)
Preliminary findings

21. Preliminary findings
● Use of 'we' (as a receiver-exclusive pronoun) to convey an
idea of expertise, commitment, reliability:
GERMAN CORPUS
- We take responsibility for our actions and behavior,
recognizing that we should be held accountable for
everything we say and everything we do professionally. We
are each accountable to all of our internal and external
stakeholders, including co-workers, management, customers
and business partners. (AEG)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- [...] we are committed to satisfying our customers'
requirements by supplying high quality products and
providing excellent service on an increasingly wide scale.
(Bonfiglioli).
- We try to improve all the time, not only in the things we do
but also in the way we do them. (Palazzetti)

22. ● Use of 'you' [1]: involving the audience in a dialogue (in
combination with 'we'):
GERMAN CORPUS
- We are sure that you will find machines for new possibilities.
(Jenz)
- You, as ZF's partners, contribute significantly to the
competitiveness of our products. (ZF)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- We know you want to see your money put to tangible,
practical uses [...]. (Bonfiglioli)
- We want to give you something more than others. We want
to tell you how we work, how we invent, and how we create.
(Palazzetti)
Preliminary findings

23. ● Use of 'you' [2]: guiding the web user during his/her
navigation, often in close proximity to hyperlinks or
downloadable files, in combination with modal 'can':
GERMAN CORPUS
- Archive / In the archive, you can find annual and quarterly
reports for previous business years. (PCC)
- Here you can find the registration form to our events and the
General Terms and Conditions as well as the training
catalogue to download. (ZF)
ITALIAN CORPUS
- In this area you can download material produced for
journalists and press agents. (Bonfiglioli)
- You can download press releases and contact our Press
Office personally for more in-depth information. (Palazzetti)
Preliminary findings

24. High degree of personalisation in the management of the
Company/About US section in each corporate website:
● The section is to be accessed by means of a hyperlink on
the homepage, often combined with a drop-down menu
offering an overview of the content of the section.
● Wealth and variety of information is presented in each
sub-section, also including different genres:
vision/mission, company profile, history, responsibility,
sustainability, annual reports, news area/archive, R&D,
job openings.
● Different stakeholders are addressed: customers,
investors, the press, institutions, the general public,
(prospective) employees.
Preliminary findings

25. ● Communication relies not only on textual information
but also on multimodal resources: media (photo and
video) galleries.
● Colour choice and company logos are strategically used
to stress the corporate image.
● Images occupy prominent positions (use of banner
images), and they are often used as clickable objects.
● Interactivity [1]: hyperlinks, menus, search tools cater for
a personalised navigation within the website.
● Interactivity [2]: hyperlinks may be realised by the use of
directives (read more, click here, download pdf).
● Interactivity [3]: the sections of some websites feature
contact forms to be filled in on-line for the web users to
get in touch with the company.
Preliminary findings

27. The advent of the Web has introduced a wealth of new
capabilities for companies to improve and personalise
their intercultural corporate communication, HENCE
remediating the traditional business discourse genres.
Just as the traditional company brochure, the About
Us/Company section included in corporate websites
● is part of the PR strategies of a company
● aims at presenting the company as a qualified partner
● is polysemiotic
● has a partly informative, partly promotional function,
IN ADDITION, it takes advantage of the capabilities of the
web medium (multimodality, hyperlinking, interactivity),
and it includes other genres thanks to hyperlinks.
Discussion of preliminary findings

28. About Us/Company section
● informative function:
- theme-rheme structure topicalises the company
- the use of third person to refer to the company is
consistent with the degree of formality implied in the
institutional presentation of a company
- multimodal resources integrate textual information.
● promotional function:
- use of we/you to 'personify' the company and reach out
to its stakeholders
- focus on the company's reliability, commitment,
expertise.
- strategical use of images, company logo and colour
choice to stress corporate image.
Discussion of preliminary findings

29. Although the sections investigated belong to websites
owned by companies based in two different countries, the
linguistic choices in BELF implemented to address an
intercultural audience seem to be comparable across the
two corpora. Further investigation of lexico-grammatical
features is needed to support this finding.
YET, all websites differ from one another in the way
information is managed and web capabilities are exploited.
This personalised implementation of promotional
strategies gives added value to the communication of each
company, whose aim is not only to maintain business
relationship with a multiple audience, but also to stand out
from competition.
Final remarks

30. Thank You!
emanuela.tenca@unimore.it

31. Question Time