Search results

The paper highlights the strategic importance of being alert to the power of the language and words used by CEOs in their various communications – their CEO‐speak.

The paper employs a close reading analysis of several contemporary examples of one of the most significant genres of CEO‐speak – the CEO's annual letter to stockholders.

Four perspectives important for understanding corporate strategy are highlighted: the importance of CEO‐speak as a linguistic marker of CEO narcissism; the revealing nature of metaphors chosen by CEOs; the potential rhetorical potency that arises from the way CEO‐speak is framed; and the significance of cultural keywords.

Case examples, such as the close readings in this article, possess the strength of specific instance detail and interpretation, and the ostensible weakness arising from interpretation of small samples. But such research may provide for a reframing of conceptual perspectives and practical approaches.

The case examples and advice provided will help business executives and corporate stakeholders to monitor the quality of CEO‐speak, engage CEO‐speak more effectively for strategic purposes, and improve CEO text and leadership‐through‐language.

Readers are reminded of the power of CEO text, the benefits of subjecting it to greater scrutiny, and are provided with some practical, operational advice.

This paper aims to summarize advice from two professors of accounting on the language CEOs should and should not use in their official communications.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments.

The paper suggests that readers ought to think of the last time they either gave, advised or heard a CEO's speech. They ought to reflect on the last letter they sent or received with a CEO's signature at the bottom and to ask if they were the writer, how did they went about choosing their words and if they were on the receiving end, how did they respond? It suggests that what was said and what was actually communicated might not be the very same thing.

The paper offers case studies which may help CEOs and their teams put together savvier communications documents.

Readers are made to focus on the potentially large impact of the use or misuse of certain words, encouraging them to be more aware of the minor details of their communications.

This paper was stimulated by the chilling vision of the corporate university described by Moore and touted by numerous others. It exposes the ways in which Newman’s The Idea of a University will be abrogated and transformed by corporate universities. Fundamental issues are raised about the nature and purpose of universities and about the roles of its professors and schools of business, especially in a world characterized by “the triumph of the market”. An urgent plea is proferred for broader debate about the place of Corporate Universities in business higher education.

Conventional theories of market entry assume choice availability. This investment assumption is subject to challenges in the power generation market of an emerging economy where the host government controls most key resources and market entry choices. With such constraints, entrants become heavily dependent on their host country partners. This study investigates how the resource dependency frameworks explain better in respect of some US power generation firms that manage to operate electricity facilities in China whereas some have to abort. Using cross‐case analysis, patterns emerged illustrate how two groups of entrants manage key resources differently.

This paper addresses leadership and strategy issues associated with the management of safety. The paper proposes that companies conduct an annual safety leadership audit involving collaboration between their external financial auditors and their internal operational safety experts.

Three possible questions auditors should address in such a safety leadership audit are highlighted. The railroad industry is drawn upon for empirical support, including by reference to recent major railroa0d crashes in the US, Greece, and India.

The paper highlights the potential benefits of conducting a safety leadership audit, including that it will help assess whether a leader’s claims regarding safety are verifiable and accord with the data reported in financial statements. Several matters of critical but under emphasized importance in good safety leadership are highlighted.

This paper explores the somewhat novel idea of using audit procedures and external financial auditors to address matters of safety strategy and leadership. The paper proposes that a leader’s claims in respect of safety should be assessed in terms of whether they encourage a climate of “psychological safety,” report meaningful safety indicators, and use a “vocabulary of safety leadership.”

The Corporation of the City of London are about to appoint a Public Analyst, and by advertisement have invited applications for the post. It is obviously desirable that the person appointed to this office should not only possess the usual professional qualifications, but that he should be a scientific man of high standing and of good repute, whose name would afford a guarantee of thoroughness and reliability in regard to the work entrusted to him, and whose opinion would carry weight and command respect. Far from being of a nature to attract a man of this stamp, the terms and conditions attaching to the office as set forth in the advertisement above referred to are such that no self‐respecting member of the analytical profession, and most certainly no leading member of it, could possibly accept them. It is simply pitiable that the Corporation of the City of London should offer terms, and make conditions in connection with them, which no scientific analyst could agree to without disgracing himself and degrading his profession. The offer of such terms, in fact, amounts to a gross insult to the whole body of members of that profession, and is excusable only—if excusable at all—on the score of utter ignorance as to the character of the work required to be done, and as to the nature of the qualifications and attainments of the scientific experts who are called upon to do it. In the analytical profession, as in every other profession, there are men who, under the pressure of necessity, are compelled to accept almost any remuneration that they can get, and several of these poorer, and therefore weaker, brethren will, of course, become candidates for the City appointment.

This paper reviews an array of psycholinguistic techniques that auditors can deploy to explore written and oral language for signs of deception. The review is drawn upon to propose some elements of a forward research agenda.

Relevant literature across several disciplines is identified through keyword searches of major bibliographic databases.

The techniques highlighted have considerable potential for use by auditors to identify audit contexts which merit closer audit investigation. However, the techniques need further contextual empirical investigation in audit contexts. Seven specific propositions are presented for empirical testing.

This paper assembles literature on deceptive communication from a wide range of disciplines and relates it to the audit context. Auditors’ attention is directed to potential linguistic signals of fraud risk, and opportunities for future research are suggested. The paper is consciousness-raising, has pedagogic purpose and suggests critical elements for a future research agenda.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature has focused mainly on larger firms. Only recently has discussion of the engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in CSR emerged in research studies. Here we contribute to that growing discussion of CSR in SMEs by analyzing the disclosure practices of 57 Portuguese companies of different sizes (small, medium, large).

We use stakeholder theory to identify the stakeholders that SMEs and large firms prioritize. By means of thematic content analysis and an index of disclosure (calculated according to company type and stakeholder type) we analyze whether business characteristics influence CSR disclose strategies.

Companies give priority to CSR activities that are directly related to maintaining business and achieving economic results. CSR disclosure practices of SMEs and large companies do not differ significantly. However, larger companies disclose more information on Environment and Society. Companies who are closer to consumers disclose more information on Customers, Community and Society. The act of assuring a CSR report drives system improvements and extended CSR disclosure.

We recognize that it is difficult to compare CSR in Small and large enterprises. For this reason, we have developed a methodology based on the most basic aspects of the CSRD, and therefore applicable without distinction to large and small companies.

A framework to evaluate the CSRD of SMEs was developed. We identify CSR indicators divided in five dimensions (customers, employees, environment, community and society) that are applicable to firms of all sizes.

This study extends knowledge of CSR by comparing the disclosure practices of SMEs and large (listed and un-listed) Portuguese companies. This study takes account of the particularities of SMEs and other fundamental business characteristics using a replicable assessment framework.