Car manufacturers’ annual reports: a linguistic analysis of corporate culture and values

5 
importance for the firms under investigation. In this context, the principle of transparency 
has turned out to lie at the foundations of the communication of the other values. The 
second analytical phase is characterised by a preliminary comparison between the most 
frequent lexical terms of the Annual Reports of each company. This procedure has allowed 
to ascertain, first of all, that Fiat Group highlights its interest towards research, 
development and good relationships with its employees. Secondly, General Motors is 
clearly oriented towards an international dimension of its business. Finally, Renault, 
Nissan and DaimlerChrysler emphasise their prospective projects by means of the 
continuous recourse to the modal will. 
In conclusion, the corporate values identified are interpreted as persuasive 
communicative strategies deployed by the companies under study for self-promotional 
purposes. In this respect, the firms emphasise their attention to customer satisfaction, and 
they simultaneously manage to focus on the reduction of costs in order to stress their 
profitability and their leading role in the market. Additionally, the value of transparency 
can be understood as a persuasive strategy by means of which well-selected information 
enables the firm to guide its publics of shareholders in the construction of a shared system 
of values and to inspire confidence in them. Nonetheless, this research must not be 
considered an exhaustive investigation. It should rather encourage a more in-depth 
examination of the results obtained and further research on the same topic or other related 
fields of enquiry. 
 
 
6 
Riassunto 
 
 
Questa tesi si prefigge lo scopo di identificare la cultura e i valori aziendali comunicati da 
società automobilistiche attraverso una accurata analisi linguistica di alcune parti narrative 
dei loro Rapporti Annuali. Si tratta di un’analisi computerizzata di un corpus formato dai 
Rapporti Annuali di cinque grandi costruttori di veicoli: Gruppo Fiat, General Motors 
Corporation, DaimlerChrysler AG, Renault SA e Nissan Motor Company. 
Il corpus riunisce i Rapporti Annuali che ciascuna delle aziende ha pubblicato sul 
Web tra il 2000 e il 2006 (ad eccezione di General Motors, che ha reso disponibili i propri 
Rapporti Annuali dal 2002 al 2006). Il corpus generale è quindi si compone di trentatre 
documenti. L’analisi linguistica è stata effettuata su un sotto-corpus, il quale include 
soltanto alcune parti narrative dei relativi Rapporti Annuali. L’analisi è stata condotta 
grazie alle potenzialità informatiche messe a disposizione dal software WordSmith Tools 
(Scott, 1998). 
Questa ricerca parte dal presupposto secondo il quale una raccolta sufficientemente 
corposa di testi che appartengono allo stesso genere consente di identificare alcuni dei tratti 
linguistici che la caratterizzano. Si tratta di un approccio empirico che considera il corpus 
di documenti quale fonte primaria di conoscenza sugli usi della lingua. Altrettanto 
importanti come fondamento teorico della presente analisi sono gli studi di natura più 
economica e di marketing sulla portata della cultura aziendale come sistema di riferimento 
per l’intera impresa. Le organizzazioni necessitano di costruire una struttura di valori 
aziendali e di comunicarli, nel tentativo di trasmettere una immagine positiva e di costruire 
relazioni durature con tutti gli stakeholders. I Rapporti Annuali sono stati scelti come 
oggetto di analisi in quanto sono considerati uno degli strumenti di comunicazione 
aziendale più completi a disposizione delle grandi imprese. 
L’analisi linguistica effettuata sulle parti narrative dei Rapporti annuali è stata 
condotta con due scopi principali. Da un lato, si è cercato di individuare le parole chiave 
lessicali che indicassero i valori aziendali condivisi da tutte le imprese selezionate. 
Dall’altro lato, si è tentato di discernere valori aziendali propri e distintivi delle singole 
imprese. Per quanto riguarda la prima analisi, sono state individuate come 
quantitativamente significative le parole safety, environmental, quality, development e 
training, associate ai relativi valori aziendali. Questi sono stati successivamente investigati 
7 
qualitativamente, attraverso l’osservazione di concordanze e collocazioni di parole, con lo 
scopo di definirne il significato e l’importanza per le imprese in oggetto. In questo ambito 
si è identificato anche il valore fondamentale della trasparenza, che sembra sottendere alla 
comunicazione di tutti gli altri principi aziendali. La seconda fase analitica, invece, è stata 
condotta preliminarmente con una comparazione tra le parole più frequenti dei Rapporti 
Annuali delle singole imprese. Con ciò si è potuto verificare, innanzitutto, che il Gruppo 
Fiat enfatizza il suo forte interesse per la ricerca, lo sviluppo e il mantenimento di buoni 
rapporti con il proprio personale dipendente. Secondariamente, il Gruppo General Motors è 
spiccatamente orientato verso l’internazionalizzazione e la propria dimensione globale. 
Infine, Renault, Nissan e DaimlerChrysler si soffermano sui propri progetti futuri, segnalati 
dall’uso cospicuo del modale will. 
In ultimo, si è avvertita la necessità di interpretare i valori aziendali individuati alla 
luce delle strategie comunicative di persuasione utilizzate dalle imprese in oggetto per 
scopi auto-promozionali. In questo modo, si è verificato che le imprese sottolineano 
costantemente la loro attenzione per la soddisfazione del consumatore, e che enfatizzano 
allo stesso tempo i loro sforzi di riduzione dei costi nell’ottica di profitto e di una posizione 
di leader sul mercato. Inoltre, il valore della trasparenza può essere inteso come una 
strategia persuasiva attraverso la quale la trasmissione di informazioni ben selezionate e 
mirate può consentire all’impresa di guidare la formazione presso i propri pubblici di un 
sistema condiviso di valori e ispirare la loro fiducia. Questo lavoro non deve essere 
considerato, tuttavia, esaustivo, e deve piuttosto incoraggiare una verifica dei risultati 
ottenuti e ulteriori studi di approfondimento sul tema stesso o su aree d’indagine ad esso 
correlate. 
8 
Résumé 
 
 
Cette thèse poursuit l’objectif d’identifier la culture et les valeurs d’entreprise 
communiquées par des sociétés automobiles, à l’aide d’une analyse linguistique de 
quelques parties narratives de leurs Rapports Annuels. Il s’agit d’une analyse informatisée 
d’un corpus qui inclue les Rapports Annuels de cinq sociétés : Fiat Group, General Motors 
Corporation, DaimlerChrysler AG, Renault SA et Nissan Motor Company. 
Les Rapports Annuels réunis dans le corpus on été publiés sur le Web entre les 
années 2000 et 2006 (à l’exception de General Motors, qui n’a publié que les Rapports 
Annuels du 2002 au 2006). En conséquence, le corpus général comprend trente-trois 
documents. L’analyse linguistique a été effectuée sur un sous-corpus qui n’inclue que 
quelques sections narratives des Rapports Annuels. L’analyse a été supportée par les 
moyens informatiques du logiciel WordSmith Tools (Scott, 1998). 
Cette recherche se fonde sur la prémisse suivant laquelle un recueil suffisamment 
riche de textes qui appartiennent au même genre permet d’identifier quelques traits 
fondamentaux qui la caractérisent. Il s’agit d’une approche empirique qui considère le 
corpus de document comme la source primaire de connaissance sur l’usage de la langue. 
Des études plus économiques et de marketing sont également importants comme 
fondement théorique de l’analyse. Ces prémisses prennent en considération la culture 
d’entreprise en tant que référence commune pour tous les membres de l’organisation e 
comme facteur de cohésion. Les organisations doivent construire une structure cohérente 
de valeurs d’entreprise et elles doivent les transmettre à tous leurs stakeholders 
(dépositaires d’enjeux). Ainsi, les entreprises peuvent établir des relations solides avec tous 
ces acteurs. Les Rapports Annuels ont été choisis comme objet de recherche car ils sont 
l’un des instruments de communications les plus efficaces à disposition des organisations. 
L’analyse linguistique des sections narratives sélectionnées a été menée en 
poursuivant deux objectifs. D’une part, on a essayé de repérer les mots-clé lexicaux qui 
indiquent les valeurs d’entreprise partagées par toutes les sociétés choisies. De l’autre, on à 
recherché les principes qui caractérisent chaque entreprise et qui la distinguent de ses 
concourantes. Grace à une analyse quantitative, on à identifié cinq mots-clé, i.e. safety, 
environmental, quality, development et training, qui expriment des valeurs partagées. Ces 
mots on été examinées dans leurs concordances et collocations pour découvrir leur 
9 
signifiance et importance pour les entreprises. Une autre valeur, c'est-à-dire la 
transparence, a été reconnue en tant que principe qui détermine les stratégies de 
communication d’autres cinq valeurs. La seconde partie de l’analyse est le résultat d’une 
comparaison entre les mots les plus fréquents dans le sous-corpus de documents de chaque 
entreprise. Premièrement, on a observé que le groupe Fiat déclame son intérêt pour la 
recherche, le développement et la construction de bonnes relations avec son personnel. 
Deuxièmement, le groupe General Motors est clairement orienté envers 
l’internationalisation de ses affaires. En outre, Renault, Nissan et DaimlerChrysler 
présentent leurs projets à venir, qui sont signalés par l’usage répété du verbe modal will. 
Enfin, les valeurs d’entreprise identifiées ont été interprétées en remarquant les 
stratégies communicatives utilisées par les sociétés pour promouvoir leur image. On a 
constaté que les entreprises expriment constamment leur attention pour la satisfaction 
client. Au même temps elles font valoir leurs efforts pour la réduction des couts généraux 
en tant que facteur de performance et de bénéfices. En outre, la valeur de transparence peut 
être considérée comme une stratégie persuasive qui permet de diffuser des informations 
précises et soigneusement sélectionnées pour gérer la formation d’un système de valeurs et 
confiance partagées par les publics avec lesquels les entreprises sont contact. Toutefois, 
cette thèse ne doit pas être vue comme une recherche complète. Elle doit plutôt favoriser 
l’inspection des résultats obtenus et encourager de nouvelles études sur le même sujet ou 
sur des domaines de recherche reliés. 
 
 
 
 
10 
1. Introduction 
 
 
The present MA dissertation focuses on a linguistic analysis of a specialised corpus of 
Annual Reports written by large corporations operating in the automobile industry. Its 
main objective is to shed some light on the firms’ corporate culture and its lexical 
manifestations which stand for an almost unexplored area of research. 
The data collected consist of 33 Annual Reports published on the Web between 
2000 and 2006 by five major car and truck manufacturers headquartered in different 
countries, i.e. Fiat Group in Italy, General Motors Corporation in the United States, 
DaimlerChrysler AG in Germany, Renault SA in France and Nissan Motor Company in 
Japan. The Annual Reports selected were downloaded from the institutional website of 
each organisation. Specifically, the study has centred on a sub-corpus drawn from the 
larger database and including the most narrative parts of the Annual Reports, which are 
deemed more appropriate for a linguistic analysis of corporate values. 
The examination of car manufacturers’ corporate culture moves from a theoretical 
background concerning business, marketing and corporate communication studies which 
all place emphasis on the substantiality of an attractive and endearing culture for 
promotional purposes (cf. Chapter 2). Not only must a common corporate culture be built 
within the company, but it should also be communicated to a variety of addressees, 
including investors, employees and other stakeholders. In this respect, Annual Reports are 
considered one of the main tools employed to transmit the corporate culture and the 
essential values of each firm to a diversified audience. 
The materials under study and the methods adopted for corpus collection and 
analysis will be described in Chapter 3. Particular emphasis is placed on the analytical 
approach and procedure, which draw on the principles and prerogatives of corpus 
linguistics. Corpus linguistics was opted for as the core methodology because it allows to 
process a large amount of words and texts electronically (the software employed here is 
WordSmith Tools, Scott 1998). Corpus tools have enabled the observation of single words 
referring to specific values (e.g. safety, environmental, quality, development and training) 
and larger units of texts in which they occur. Thus, this research is characterised by a 
corpus-driven approach, which relies entirely on the corpus to generate hypotheses: it is the 
corpus that ‘speaks by itself and about itself’. 
11 
In the light of such theoretical and methodological assumptions, Chapter 4 presents 
the results of the linguistic analysis. The study, which combines a quantitative and 
qualitative approach, concentrates on five corporate values expressed by five keywords, 
that is safety, environmental, quality, development and training. Once identified, each 
corporate principle was analysed in its occurrences and its wider co-text through the 
examination of concordances. In this context, the principle of transparency has emerged as 
an additional feature underlying the firms’ communicative practices. The analysis was 
followed by a further investigative phase in which the most frequent lexical terms of the 
each company’s sub-corpus are compared. This procedure aims at detecting the corporate 
values which distinguish each firm from its competitors. In this way, it was possible to 
discover, first of all, that Fiat Group highlights its interest in research, development and 
good relationships with its employees. Secondly, General Motors differentiates itself from 
the other organisations thanks to a clear orientation to internationalisation and its global 
dimension. Finally, Renault, Nissan and DaimlerChrysler tend to emphasise their 
promising prospective projects, which are signalled by the pervasive use of the modal will. 
They often forecast their future performance, but they manage, at the same time, to keep a 
connection with their past and present activities. 
To conclude, the corporate values identified through the analysis are interpreted in 
the light of some promotional strategies used by the companies to effectively communicate 
their corporate culture and to project a positive image of themselves. It is observed, indeed, 
that the firms underline their care to satisfy customers’ needs, and they simultaneously 
shed some light on their efforts to reduce costs, to enhance profitability and to strengthen 
their position in the market place. Additionally, the value of transparency is to be 
interpreted as a persuasive strategy by means of which the disclosure of well-selected 
information enables the firms to shape the construction of a shared system of meaning and 
evaluations of the company among its audiences. The concluding chapter provides a 
thorough summary of the analytical results and attempts to reflect on the methodological 
implications of the research. On the basis of the limitations of the research, some 
suggestions for further investigation are presented as well.  
 
 
 
 
12 
2. Literature Review 
 
 
This study examines some lexical aspects of a particular type of financial documents 
issued by large corporations listed on the stock exchange all over the world, i.e. Annual 
Reports (ARs). ARs are documents which companies deploy to inform their shareholders 
and the general public of investors about firms’ financial performance, the development of 
the share value, and the strategies pursued. While Annual Reports were initially considered 
a mere informative type of text, their persuasive potential has been recently investigated 
and demonstrated by numerous scholars. This chapter presents the theoretical framework 
underlying the subsequent analysis of those corporate values which are emphasised by 
firms in their ARs for promotional purposes. Specifically, the study is set against a 
background which combines business and linguistic research. 
 
 
2.1. Annual Reports as an Investor Relations tool 
 
Annual Reports have long been investigated by corporate and financial experts, who have 
always taken them into account for the quantity and specificity of the financial data they 
provide. ARs aim indeed at presenting financial analyses of companies, such as the 
company’s share value evolution, profitability indicators and profit and loss accounts. For 
this reason, Annual Reports have always been considered important informative tools by 
current and potential shareholders, financial analysts and financial intermediaries. 
Additionally, ARs are to be intended as an instance of corporate communication practices 
which are usually referred to as Investor Relations. This domain is to be understood as 
“continuous, planned, deliberate, sustained marketing activities that identify, establish, 
maintain and enhance both long and short term relationships between a company and not 
only its prospective and present investors, but also other financial analysts and 
stakeholders” (Dolphin 2004: 26). 
This research area has gained growing importance in the last decades, when 
marketing experts started to recognize that companies’ success and reputation went beyond 
the building of a relationship with customers. Shareholders started to be perceived as 
owners of a specific right, i.e. the possibility of benefiting from full and exhaustive 
13 
information about a company’s performance (Corvi and Fiocca 1996: 138). However, the 
growing concern for corporate transparency seems to have been motivated primarily by the 
need to achieve a high degree of efficiency of capital markets. (Corvi and Fiocca 1996: 
138). Capital markets are efficient when investors can choose between good and bad 
investments depending on the price of shares, but investors may not know whether the 
share price offered actually mirrors the real market value. When corporations want to 
enlarge their capital through private investments, they must gain the trust of current and 
potential shareholders, small investors, brokers and institutional investors. If they are 
provided with truthful disclosures of information, investors will be in the condition to 
choose the company that turns out to be the most profitable (Ricciardi 2002: 66).  
Shareholders’ trust is also directly connected with the degree of risk they perceive 
when evaluating possible investments: the lower the risk perceived, the higher the trust. In 
particular, the uncertainty of investors’ decisions and prospect investments, the so-called 
“information asymmetry” problem (Corvi and Fiocca 1996: 140), can be substantially 
reduced by improved transparency. Efforts to enhance transparency were first made when 
the publication of corporate balance sheets was made compulsory by law. This is the 
minimum amount of financial information that companies are obliged to disclose for the 
benefit of the investing public. Furthermore, another type of risk for investors, which is 
more psychological, runs parallel to the lack of financial data made available to the public, 
that is the “information risk” (MacGregor and Campbell 2006). This problem is claimed to 
be caused by an abundance of confused and redundant information, which is difficult to be 
fully grasped by investors. Accordingly,  
In the age of the ‘efficient market’, where all relevant information is, at least in theory, instantly 
reflected in share prices, information risk seems an odd one to highlight. Regulatory filings are 
voluminous and readily available electronically. News media proliferate; databases abound. 
Websites archive practically everything. Chat rooms and blogs provide the gossip, rumours and 
colourful titbits that bring the data to life. This is, indeed, today’s problem: there’s just too much 
information out there, and a lot of it is incomplete, out of context or just plain wrong. (MacGragor 
and Campbell 2006: 67) 
In the light of the previous considerations, companies should provide investors with 
truthful and clear information, but should not limit it to income statements and balance 
sheets because such documents are static, past-oriented and not accounting for 
management actions (Mazzola 2002: 31). 
In contrast with “simple” balance sheets, ARs are a very useful tool because they 
usually include not only financial results, but also more discursive descriptions of past