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This paper aims to use rhetorical theory to understand how actors mobilise persuasive communication to justify the arguments for and against transfer pricing and tax management schemes in an international context. The strategic adoption of transfer pricing by transnational corporations is controversial since it affects wealth transfers.

This paper adopts a micro-rhetorical analysis of submissions to a recent government Inquiry in Australia based on Aristotle's appeals of logos, ethos and pathos. The arguments used by Chevron Australia, and its protagonist civil society organisation, the Tax Justice Network highlight the vexed nature of tax management schemes.

Transfer pricing (TP) is more than a mere technical practice, as it involves wealth transfers initiated by powerful economic players. From a neoliberal justification of fair markets and shareholder wealth maximisation, the moral ambiguity is attenuated because it is accepted as a normative social ideal.

Prior studies on TP and tax schemes are primarily theoretical and conceptual. This paper adopts a rhetorical approach which provides important insights into the communication devices used to legitimate taken-for-granted ideas about corporate actions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide reflections on business ethics in the 25-year window from 1992-2017, and to then seek to examine some of the concerns for the future of which we all need to be cognizant.

The paper represents the reflections of a now retired academic who spent the period from 1992 to 2017 researching in the area of business ethics.

In the world of commerce, we are still seeing the same alleged behaviours by corporations from developed economies that have dogged business for so long. Have we moved forward and how far have we moved are difficult to determine.

The paper is based on the reflections on 25 years of research in the area of international business ethics. The limitation is that the paper is based on the experiences of one academic.

The paper points to considerations that are required if the field of business ethics is to move forward in a positive manner.

The paper looks at many of the pertinent issues facing the field of commerce in respect to business ethics now and into our foreseeable future.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a linguistic perspective for corporate brochures. Corporate brochures are published to introduce an organization and to provide information about it but the brochures have been claimed to include promotional elements. By conducting a genre analysis the paper aims to confirm that genre-based writing is not formulaic but instead demonstrates versatility and creativity.

Corporate brochures from a specific industry, oil and gas were sourced from the websites and a total of 16 were available. The method of analysis was genre analysis to establish the generic structure of the brochures by examining the rhetorical moves and strategies, and to identify the textual features of the texts to explain why they are written the way they are.

The oil and gas brochures display a five-move generic structure with a number of strategies. The moves show high occurrence proving the industry as a specialized one. Although the moves are the same, the contents are varied. Versatility is also seen in the presentation style in terms of form, content and language.

Findings on generic structure and textual features of brochures can be used as a guide for corporate writers, as well as trainees and students of corporate communication.

The data for this research represent one industry which has not been explored before thus contributing to the body of knowledge in the field of genre analysis. Although generic in form, genre-based writing has proven to be versatile. The textual features show how companies project their corporate image via brochures.

Indigenous Australians report mental health problems at a much higher rate than non-Indigenous Australians. However, rather than more services, it has been proposed that there should be a positive, socially based approach to improving mental health in Indigenous communities. The population-wide Western Australian Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign appeared to be consistent with such an approach. Hence, after consultation with Indigenous community members, a culturally adapted version of the campaign was developed and launched in a largely Indigenous remote Australian community. A survey of Indigenous community members was conducted two years later to assess campaign impact. The aim of this paper is to report on the impact on community members of this cultural adaptation.

Intercept interviews were conducted with Indigenous community members (n = 31) to assess respondents’ awareness of the campaign elements and activities, understanding of campaign messages and whether respondents had undertaken activities to improve their own or their family’s social and emotional well-being as a result of the campaign.

There was universal awareness of the adapted campaign in this sample, with 81% reporting doing something for their own social and emotional well-being, 74% reporting doing something for the social and emotional well-being of their family or friends and 48% reporting doing something for community well-being, as a result of campaign exposure.

The cultural adaptation of the Act-Belong-Commit campaign in the Australian Roebourne community is the first reported Indigenous adaptation of a population-wide mental health promotion campaign.

The Mentally Healthy Schools Framework (MHSF), based on the population-wide Act-Belong-Commit mental health promotion campaign, is a whole-school approach primarily targeting student mental health, but it is also intended for staff. This paper presents the results of an impact survey on staff after the implementation of the Framework in a number of schools in Western Australia.

A baseline questionnaire was completed by n = 87 staff at schools that had just signed up to the programme, and a participant questionnaire was completed by n = 146 staff at schools that had been participating for at least 17 months.

The results show that the Framework has had a substantial impact on many staff in terms of increased mental health literacy and taking action to improve their mental health.

Mental health interventions in schools generally focus on students' well-being and how to deal with student mental health problems. There are few comprehensive interventions that also include staff well-being.

This study explores a hegemonic alliance and the role of relational forms of accounting and accountablity in the making of contemporary capitalism.

We use the WikiLeaks “Cablegate” documents to provide an account of the detailed machinations between interest groups (corporations and the state) that are constitutive of hegemonic activity.

Our analysis of the “Cablegate” documents shows that the US and Chevron were crafting a central role for Turkmenistan and its president on the global political stage as early as 2007, despite offical reporting beginning only in 2009. The documents exemplify how “accountability gaps” occlude the understanding of interdependence between capital and the state.

The study contributes to a growing idea that official accounts offer a fictionalized narrative of corporations as existing independently, and thus expands the boundaries associated with studying multinational corporate activities to include their interdependencies with the modern state.

The study traces how global capitalism extends into new territories through diplomatic channels, as a strategic initiative between powerful state and capital interests, arguing that the outcome is the empowerment of authoritarian states at the cost of democracy.

The study argues that previous accounting and accountability research has overlooked the larger picture of how capital and the state work together to secure a mutual hegemonic interest. We advocate for a more complete account of these activities that circumvents official, often restricted, views of global capitalism.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies use corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertisements to legitimise their ethical positions and how CSR advertisements vary across countries.

The paper evaluates CSR advertisements from Chevron and Banco Real published in the news/business magazines (The) Economist and Time in the UK as well as in Veja and Exame in Brazil, leaders in their categories. The advertisements were analysed using a set of semiotic concepts.

Companies use different strategies for publicising CSR. There are campaigns that appeal to consumer rationality as well as campaigns that appeal to the emotions. There is also evidence that companies use their advertisements to respond to public pressure and thus create or maintain their legitimacy in the eyes of society.

CSR communication is an emerging field, with research focusing on corporate social disclosure mainly through web sites and corporate reports. However, little is known regarding CSR advertisements. The paper provides insights on this issue and focuses on comparative research, which is also a neglected area in the CSR field.