TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms build and develop corporate discourse in the field of corporate social responsibility (CRS). The paper has two main objectives: to clarify notions that are used when analyzing discourse; and to provide a qualitative methodology to analyze how the discourse is used to construct a CRS strategy.Design/methodology/approach– The paper presents a qualitative methodology, deconstructing four CRS reports using a story‐telling approach.Findings– The analysis shows that firms construct their environment while marketing the report on social responsibility, in order to make of it an asset in an institutional communication system.Research limitations/implications– Further attention should be devoted to the specificity of qualitative approach and to discourse analysis (selection of the corpus, validity and triangulation, etc.).Originality/value– The paper shows how discourse can be used to provide competitive advantage. It also provides a clear framework while using discourse analysis and identifies the major pitfalls that should be avoided when using such a methodology. VL - 4 IS - 3 SN - 1746-5680 DO - 10.1108/17465680910994182 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17465680910994182 AU - Ocler Rodolphe PY - 2009 Y1 - 2009/01/01 TI - Discourse analysis and corporate social responsibility: a qualitative approach T2 - Society and Business Review PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 175 EP - 186 Y2 - 2024/04/24 ER -