1,720,977 research outputs found
Book Review of Vagueness in Normative Texts, Vijay K. Bhatia, Jan Engberg, Maurizio Gotti and Dorothee Heller (eds.), 2005, Bern, Peter Lang
No full textExploring the Image of New World Wine Producers : Website Texts for Wineries in Australia and New Zealand
No full textThis article reports on a study that investigates texts on websites for wineries in Australia and New Zealand. The article focuses on evaluative language in website texts, exploring two interrelated issues. One issue concerns the kind of image that linguistic features help build up for wineries, wine regions, and Australia and New Zealand as New World wine producers. In seeking to shed light on implicit and explicit values underlying the texts, it gives attention to the aspects of local culture and natural elements most frequently represented in the texts, and if or how European wine-making traditions, European settlement, and the indigenous culture are portrayed in the texts. A second issue has to do with the way shared knowledge is built up in the texts and the kind of shared knowledge readers are assumed to have about local elements such as land and climate, traditions, wine-making processes, and local history
Focusing on communication : CEO letters of securities brokerage firms in times of financial market distress
No full textThis paper presents classroom applications involving the CEO letters accompanying the annual reports of securities brokerage firms for fiscal years 2007-2009, a period characterized not only by the recession but also by the financial crisis. The applications are drawn from the authors’ ongoing study of CEO letters of securities brokerage firms and their teaching activity (finance and business communication).
The study investigates (1) whether and how recession-related issues and excesses in the financial services industry are addressed in the letters; (2) which features of the letters contribute to the way the company and its performance are portrayed as relatively affected or unaffected by recession-related issues, processes and events; (3) the way is risk portrayed; and (4) the kind of knowledge about the recession is the reader expected to share. Selected features examined include (a) implicitly and explicitly positive and negative evaluative language; (b) personal pronouns (we, you and I) and references to the firm, the industry, other organizations and individuals.
The activities developed and the questions examined by the paper are of interest for students preparing for careers in the financial services industry. The reader of these letters is at times assumed to share knowledge of industry events that are not explicitly described. Moreover, the way implicitly positive and negative language is used highlights why it is important for students to be aware of taking a critical approach to corporate communications concerning financial performance, the industry and the firm’s behavior. Finally, focusing on the letters represents an opportunity to examine leadership communication
Using Design, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Community Building and Regeneration
No full textThis article discusses how creativity, design thinking, and entrepreneurship enable the development of innovative practices that enhance the exchange of expertise. It presents two specific cases, one based in the north of Ireland and one in the north of Italy, to explore the notion of community. The article first focuses on Design Direction - a University of Ulster based International Design Management Community of Inquiry, Learning & Practice. Design Direction aims to facilitate flows of design management knowledge and the exchange of creative business expertise; to build a sustainable, regenerative ethos; and to harness the role of design as a metaskill. The article then presents the second case, based on the second author’s research investigating ways to enhance knowledge creation and communication in contexts involving members of different professional communities. The project led to a case study of an interuniversity master’s program in Italy and the development of research communication courses at the University of Turin and the University of Milan. The article highlights the significance of university-community dialogue and discusses the formation of international, interdisciplinary communities as a way to help navigate complexity
Multicultural business meetings and the role of languages other than English
No full textThis paper explores the role of languages other than English at an Italian company's meetings of its international distributors, from 12-14 countries. It aims to shed light on the factors that can influence language choice in such settings and to consider the effect of selecting and switching between different languages. In exploring language choice at the meetings, conducted mainly in English, the article takes into consideration participant roles (Goffman 1981), evaluation (Thompson and Hunston 2000), and the business context. Selected data extracts are analyzed, showing how the use of different languages by participants can serve immediate practical purposes and more generally help increase common ground and build relations, and how the main company speaker initiates strategic shifts in language and participant roles
Professional identity at a wine industry event: building shared worlds through pronominal choice and evaluation
No full textSpecialized Discourse about Mergers and Acquisitions: Media Reports and Corporate Communications about a Malaysian Company’s Acquisition of a Majority Shareholding in an Italian Company
No full textThis paper investigates specialized discourse about mergers and acquisitions by focusing on a friendly cross-border deal: Malaysian car maker Proton’s acquisition of a majority shareholding in the Italian MV Agusta, one of the most famous motorcycle manufacturers in the world. The paper examines features of different text types to explore the ways aspects of the deal, the companies and their performance are represented, from exploratory talks in late 2003 through the closing in late 2004
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