Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise: Where Business Meets Discourse

This volume collects research studies that investigate various aspects of corporate communication from the viewpoint of language and discourse, giving special attention to emerging issues and recent developments in times of rapid sociotechnical evolutions. “Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise (DICOEN)” is the denomination of a global informal research network, comprising scholars from all continents working in a variety of disciplines – linguistics, discourse analysis, communication studies, organisation and management studies, economics, marketing, accounting, etc.– who are interested in the relevance of discourse and communication to the world of business and organizations. Researchers belonging to this informal network meet every two years to discuss the results of their investigations, exchange views on research methods and analytical tools in light of the latest developments, pinpoint topical issues and research themes to which the attention of the discipline is currently addressed, and debate them collaboratively. The chapters of this book are loosely based on a selection of the papers presented at the DICOEN VI Conference, held in Naples in June 2015. The choice of the aspects to be dealt with in the various chapters was made with a view to covering a range of issues and topics that is as wide and representative as possible, providing a broad outline of ongoing research in the area of business and corporate communication. The resulting collection includes studies that are diverse in their outlook, analytical procedures, and objects of enquiry, spanning across various areas of corporate communication, both external and internal: corporate image and reputation management, various forms of corporate behaviour, branding at different levels including employer branding, recruiting, consumer reviews, etc. Similarly diversified are the settings, genres and media analysed (from face-to-face interaction to communication through the press, from traditional websites to social networking sites). But, in broad terms, all the studies presented in this volume are set in a discourse-analytical framework and share the ultimate purpose of providing new insights into the evolution of communication and discourse practices in the corporate environment, taking account of the most important issues that have attracted researchers’ interest and are still open to debate.