Communication With Stakeholders Through Corporate Web Sites

Abstract

Drawing on an earlier study that views CEO communication as an important strategic tool, this study analyzes the content of CEO messages on Web sites of major corporations in Greater China to reveal their extratextual and intratextual characteristics. The study suggests that the language style employed in these messages, including the linguistic characteristics, regional themes, and interlingual themes, is associated with a corporate communication strategy that is underpinned by CEOs’ beliefs and rooted in cultural values. The findings enhance our understanding of how CEOs view their stakeholders and the content that they include in their messages to stakeholders in order to compete in this digital age.

Keywords

CEO messages corporate communication Greater China bilingual texts content analysis

The CEO of a global corporation in the new millennium is increasingly seen as the architect of and key driving force behind its corporate communication strategy (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001). Amid the dynamic growth of major corporations in Greater China—mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (Weidenbaum, 1993)—the use of CEO communication that targets stakeholders from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds is growing in frequency and importance. The major challenge CEOs face is to improve the effectiveness of their messages in order to strengthen relations with stakeholders in a multilingual and multicultural context via modern media, such as corporate Web sites.

Kitchen and Schultz suggested the growing importance of the corporate CEO when they defined such an individual as “the primary person to raise the corporate umbrella” (2001, p. 24). This view resonates with that of Ted Zorn, who sees CEOs as “talking heads” who “not only have the task of leading and directing the corporation, but also of communicating with confidence with the various stakeholders and publics who constitute the organization’s sphere of influence and who often raise major social questions about the firm” (as cited in Kitchen & Schultz, 2001, p. 15). Kitchen and Schultz further suggested that CEOs are “talking” umbrella men who are obligated to “develop and implement communication and operational strategy on behalf of the corporation” (p. 11).

Segars and Kohut (2001) and Ranft, Zinko, Ferris, and Buckley (2006) confirmed these views, suggesting that the CEO’s role has become significant in the operation and communication of corporations. As the umbrella man of a corporation, the CEO is now expected to set the tone, instill a culture, and establish a vision for the corporation (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001). This identity should be communicated not only within the corporation but also with the shareholders of the corporation. In addition, effective CEO communication has become increasingly essential to both the management and financial performance of the corporation (Segars & Kohut, 2001).

But little research has been conducted on CEO messages, which are perceived as strategic communication tools for corporate communication. In this study, we briefly review the well-established literature on CEO communication studies. Then we provide a theoretical grounding for examining and identifying the language use, themes, and linguistic patterns in the messages and addresses delivered to stakeholders by the CEOs of major corporations in Greater China. After we describe our research method, which involved the use of content analysis, we provide the results of our analysis. Finally, we discuss the methodological limitations, significance, and implications of this study.

Problems With CEO Communication Studies

There is no shortage of studies on CEO communication, especially regarding narrative documents such as CEO letters. The focus of such studies has been on three dimensions: (a) linguistic analysis of CEOs’ letters, including their metadiscourse (Hyland, 1998), textual analysis of CEOs’ letters (Prasad & Mir, 2002), symbolic representations of CEOs’ letters (Amernic & Craig, 2004), rhetorical discourse of CEOs’ letters (Bournois & Point, 2006), discourse analysis of annual reports and CEOs’ letters (Garzone, 2004), linguistic markers in CEOs’ annual letters (Amernic & Craig, 2007), and thematic analysis of CEOs’ letters (Conaway & Wardrope, 2010); (b) the correlation between CEOs’ letters and corporate reputation (Amernic, Craig, & Tourish, 2010; Fanelli & Grasselli, 2005; Fiol, 1989; Kendall, 1993; Palmer, King, & Kelleher, 2004; Prasad & Mir, 2002); and (c) the impact of CEOs’ letters on organizational performance (Chang, Jackson, & Grover, 2003; McClelland, Liang, & Barker, 2009; Pegels & Yang, 2000; Rogoff, Lee, & Suh, 2004; Short & Palmer, 2003). There have also been studies on the informational content and accountability of presidents’ and CEOs’ letters (Abrahamson & Amir, 1996; Jonall & Rimmel, 2010).

Compared with the amount of studies on CEO letters, far too little attention has been paid to analyzing the CEO messages and addresses that are considered to be a strategic communication tool of the 21st century. In distinguishing between CEO messages and addresses in this study, we use Horton’s (1995) definition of corporate messages as “instruments of or complements to actions” (p. 180). Effective corporate messages are used as tools for accomplishing business transactions successfully. In contrast, a CEO address is a formal speech delivered to an audience. CEO addresses are also commonly adopted tools for communicating with stakeholders. Although CEO addresses are more formal than are CEO messages, with the wider use of Internet marketing strategies, such addresses are no longer confined to their traditional usage.

CEO addresses and messages are both treated as modern communication tools to foster better relations between corporate CEOs and stakeholders. They both are used to introduce the company and its core values, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, strategic objectives, narratives, and operations and to provide regular updates. The scant research on CEO messages and addresses can be explained by the limited practice of employing CEO messages as a tool for communicating with internal and external stakeholders in the early 21st century. But with the widespread use of the World Wide Web, the popularity of digital media, the movement toward “informalization” (Fairclough, 1992), and the trend of “personalization” in CEO communication (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001, p. 29), CEOs are increasingly communicating with both internal and external stakeholders by using various forms of narrative discourse, such as CEO messages, statements, addresses, and letters, on the electronic platform (Segars & Kohut, 2001). And the CEO message is increasingly becoming a dominant means for CEOs to engage with their stakeholders both formally and personally on the Internet. Segars and Kohut’s (2001) observation on the growing use of CEO messages and addresses further supports the notion that the CEO message has emerged as one of the most important corporate communication tools.

Despite the limited literature on CEO messages, some studies focusing on the practicality of CEO message writing, such as giving the CEO message a makeover (Crescenzo, 2005) and keeping the CEO’s message simple (Briggs, 2007), have emerged over the past 10 years. Such studies might indicate the growing importance of CEO messages on corporate Web sites. A common practice for world-class multinational corporations is to include a CEO message or letter to stakeholders on their Web sites, which has in turn generated interest in further exploring CEO communication. Thus, in-depth structured research should be undertaken to provide a thorough investigation into the representations found in CEO messages and how they relate to the attitudes and behavior of CEOs and organizational actors in a rational, purposeful, and goal-directed manner (Boland & Pondy, 1983, as cited in Merkl-Davies, Brennan, & Vourvachis, 2011). With the dynamic growth of global corporations in the new millennium, effective CEO communication strategies targeting stakeholders in different languages and from various cultural backgrounds will enable corporations to hold strategic positions not only within multinational corporations based in Western countries but also within major corporations operating in Greater China.

The use of CEO messages and addresses via corporate Web sites has undoubtedly provided a convenient platform for multinational corporations to enter the China market as well as enabled corporations with a Chinese background to break into the world market (Wu, 2008). Based on this analysis, we suggest that CEO communications with stakeholders in multilingual and multicultural contexts via corporate Web sites in Greater China (specifically, in this study, Taiwan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong) will continue to be of significant interest to both academics and practitioners.

Research Objectives and Questions

Given our location in a multilingual and multicultural hub with access to corporations that are listed in stock markets operating in Greater China, we were drawn to examining the use of CEO messages and addresses in the communication of the leading listed corporations, including multinational corporations that are strategically planning to enter the China market and those from Greater China aspiring to break into international markets. But we needed to determine what to investigate and how to examine CEO messages and addresses. We observed that CEO messages and addresses on corporate Web sites hosted by major corporations in Greater China had not only different textual characteristics but also regional variation in their themes, so we decided to examine the following research questions:

What languages do listed corporations in Greater China adopt on their corporate Web sites and in CEO messages and addresses?

Are there any regional variations in the language use and the linguistic or technical characteristics in the CEO messages and addresses of these corporations? If so, why?

Are there any regional variations in the themes adopted in the CEO messages and addresses of these corporations? If so, why?

Are there any theme variations in the bilingual representations of the CEO messages and addresses of these corporations? If so, why?

Our major objective in examining and identifying the language use, themes, and linguistic styles in these CEO messages and addresses that were delivered to stakeholders in multilingual and multicultural contexts was to identify the beliefs and attitudes of CEOs and their corporations operating in Greater China.

Research Design, Method, and Sample

Merkl-Davies, Brennan, and Vourvachis (2011) recently stated that “the choice of either form-oriented or meaning-oriented content analysis is dependent on metatheoretical commitments with respect to the aim of research, which, in turn, is determined by the type of positivist research paradigm adopted” (p. 9). Thus, in search of both the causes of disclosure behavior and the themes in CEO messages and addresses under investigation, we adopted a combination of form-oriented and meaning-oriented content analyses (Smith & Taffler, 2000).

The form-oriented content analysis focuses on the “routine counting of words or concrete references” (Smith & Taffler, 2000, p. 627) used to measure the various dimensions of disclosure behavior whereas meaning-oriented content analysis is associated with the underlying themes that entail the actual meaning of the documents (Johnson, Buehring, Cassell, & Symon, 2006). Either type of orientation in content analysis involves coding content with context units such as a sentence, a paragraph, or the entire text of the message or address (Merkl-Davies et al., 2011). In this study, we thoroughly examined the macrostructure of the CEO discourse, including the number of words, sentences, and language, and two trained bilingual coders coded the text of the CEO messages and addresses on a sentence-by-sentence basis. To reduce subjectivity, the two coders did not know the research questions when they were coding. We calculated the consensus estimate, one of the classifications in interrater reliability, by using the percentage of agreement figure (Stemler, 2004).¹ In doing so, we found 89% of agreement between the two coders. A third coder should only be introduced in the coding procedure when there are discrepancies between the two coders.

To thoroughly examine CEO communication in Greater China, we adopted a contextual data collection method to investigate CEO-related discourse: CEO messages and addresses on the corporate Web sites of major corporations that are listed in the stock markets of prominent cities. To gather the most updated and largest amount of CEO discourse in the business environment, we obtained samples from corporate Web sites in 2010 that served the purpose of fostering two-way communication between the corporation and stakeholders and promoting corporate values and brand promise (Simmons, 2007). Through this, we were able to access geographically dispersed research information. We employed purposive sampling in order to obtain sufficient samples to support the analysis of any subgroup. From this sampling, we selected 234 corporations listed in three representative stock market indexes in Greater China in 2010: all 38 blue-chip and all 96 red-chip organizations from the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index, the top 50 key performers from the Shanghai Composite Index, and the top 50 dominant players from the Taiwan Weighted Index.

Regarding form-oriented content analysis, we studied in detail the language use, word count, sentence length, and sentence number of the CEO messages and addresses from the corporate Web sites. Regarding meaning-oriented content analysis, we identified valid cases in which to further examine the regional variations of CEO communication. Applying grounded theory, we used open coding² to analyze the textual meaning of all our chosen CEO messages and addresses. Then we selected cases to further study line by line and categorize based on different themes in order to uncover the tendencies and characteristics of CEO communication in Greater China.

To thoroughly examine the regional and interlingual variations of the CEO messages and addresses delivered via major corporations’ Web sites in Greater China, we gathered texts categorized under the titles “Message” and “Address” that were written by CEOs or leading figures of major corporations in Greater China. Although CEO messages and statements could easily be found in annual reports, we decided not to include this genre because such statements in annual reports focus merely on reporting the financial performance of the corporation and do not generally emphasize communicating other corporate information, such as operating philosophy, sustainability, CSR, or business opportunities, to internal and external stakeholders.

We used Kohut and Segars’s (1992) thematic categorization system, which focuses on investigating themes in CEO letters to stockholders in order to examine the regional variations in the CEO messages and addresses generated by major corporations in Greater China. We believed that Kohut and Segars’s system for examining CEO communication in CEO letters within annual reports could also be employed in our study because, as Ditlevsen (2012) indicated, an annual report is “a genre” that includes a “category of texts that share the same act pattern” and serves as an “important way to convey strategic stakeholder communication” (p. 96). Similar to the CEO messages and addresses in our study, CEO letters included in annual reports are texts that serve the purpose of communicating with stakeholders in a strategic manner. In other words, we gathered that the themes suggested by Kohut and Segars would also apply in our thematical study of CEO messages and addresses. We especially wanted to use this thematic system because there has not been a thematic categorization system adopted in the past few decades. To better reflect the characteristics of today’s CEO messages and addresses, we included additional and specific keywords in our identification of themes. We derived these additional keywords, such as world market, CSR, employee or people culture, from Kitchen and Schultz’s (2001) study on CEO communication and corporate needs in the 21st century. Table 1 lists themes, related words and phrases from Kohut and Segars’s (1992) study, and additional keywords and examples from our thematic categorization of sentences in our sample.

Table 1.

Themes and Related Words and Phrases, Additional Key Words, and Examples.

Themes (T)	Related Words and Phrases (Kohut & Segars, 1992)	Additional Keywords	Examples (in English) With Related Words and Phrases and Additional Keywords (Italicized)
T1: Environmental factors	Economy, recession, inflation, housing starts, legislation	Global, worldwide, world market	“The main economic, technical and environmental-protection indices have already topped the national iron and steel industry.” (CNS7)
T2: Growth	Rapidly expanding markets, improving sales trends, expanding market share	Rank	“In addition, CREC was ranked the fourth largest Global Construction Contractor in 2005 and the third largest in 2006.” (SHS5)
T3: Operating philosophy	Building a stronger organization, strong position	CSR, corporate citizen, people/employee	“As a ‘Caring Company’ in Hong Kong, PCCW subscribes to the importance of CSR.” (HKS3)
T4: Product/Market mix		Brand	“Now, HKCTS has invented and developed its own ‘Travel Green Real Estate Brand.’” (CNS8)
T5: Unfavorable financial reference	Short-term losses, reduction in asset size	Downturn	“But the increasingly fierce commission price competition will further reduce the traditional business revenue for securities dealers.” (SHS4)
T6: Favorable financial reference	Gains, increased profits, resumption, increase in dividends	Recovery	“Emerging markets in particular have shown a strong recovery, leading the global economy on its way to recuperation.” (TWS8)

Note. CSR = corporate social responsibility.

We generated descriptive statistics in order to ascertain the regional variations in language use and the linguistic and technical characteristics in the CEO messages and addresses of target corporations, and we conducted a qualitative content analysis to identify the themes delivered in these messages and addresses. By using these blended analyses of form and meaning content, we could measure and highlight the disclosure behavior and attitudes of CEOs whereas if we had used a survey approach, we would have only been able to focus on how people describe their behavior (Segars & Kohut, 2001).

In summary, we examined CEO messages and addresses from 234 corporations in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan in 2010, independently coding them on a sentence-by-sentence basis to classify their dominant themes. In addition, we categorized each sentence of the selected text on the basis of past or future reference to the text’s theme. We incorporated the past and future reference to examine the time orientation of the themes from an intracultural perspective, which we explain further in the following section.

Results

In this section, we discuss our results for each of our four research questions.

Language Use on Corporate Web sites and in CEO Messages and Addresses

Our findings show that 96% of the 234 corporations had corporate Web sites. Both English and Chinese were used as the medium of communication in 91% of these Web sites. All of the listed blue-chip corporations in Hong Kong operated bilingual Web sites whereas 87% of the listed red-chip corporations in Hong Kong, 82% of the corporations on the Shanghai Composite Index, and 92% of the corporations on the Taiwan Weighted Index operated either bilingual or trilingual corporate Web sites (see Table 2). Four corporations from the Taiwan Weighted and Shanghai Composite Indexes—the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, AU Optronics, TPK Holding Company, and Shantong Gold Group Company—operated trilingual Web sites in English, Chinese, and Japanese, Korean, or Spanish when providing information to stakeholders from different cultural backgrounds. None of the major corporations operating in Hong Kong had trilingual Web sites.

Table 2.

Breakdown of Language Use on Corporate Web Sites Within Greater China.

		Hong Kong Blue Chips (n)	Hong Kong Red Chips (n)	Shanghai Composite Index (n)	Taiwan Weighted Index (n)	Total
Total no. of corporations investigated	234	16.2% (38)	41% (96)	21.4% (50)	21.4% (50)	100%
No. of corporate Web sites identified	225	17% (38)	40% (90)	21% (47)	22% (50)	100%
No. of monolingual corporate Web sites (Chinese and English)	16	0%	37.5% (6C, 0E)	37.5% (6C, 0E)	25% (4C, 0E)	100%
No. of bilingual corporate Web sites (Chinese and English)	205	18.5% (38)	41% (84)	19.5% (40)	21% (43)	100%
No. of trilingual corporate Web sites (Chinese, English, and other languages)	4	0% (0)	0% (0)	25% (1)	75% (3)	100%

Note. C = Chinese; E = English.

The dominance of bilingual Web sites reveals the importance for globalized and localized corporations to disseminate messages in both Chinese and English to stakeholders from the East and West. In an apparent attempt to cater to different audiences of different linguistic preferences and cultural backgrounds, some corporate Web sites also incorporated both traditional and simplified Chinese into their Web sites.

Of the 225 corporations with corporate Web sites, only 20% used CEO messages and addresses on their Web sites (see Table 3). According to Segars and Kohut (2001), world-class multinational corporations usually include CEO messages or letters to stakeholders on their Web sites. But such messages seemed to be less important in Greater China. Nonetheless, corporations included in the Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong red chips—mostly mainland Chinese enterprises—were more likely to include CEO messages and addresses than were Hong Kong blue chips and corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index. Most of the corporations using CEO messages and addresses tended to communicate with stakeholders via messages (60%) instead of addresses (40%). Bilingual representation was apparent in both categories because 93% of the 225 corporations with corporate Web sites communicated with their stakeholders in a bilingual or trilingual mode.

Table 3.

Breakdown of Language Use in CEO Messages and Addresses.

		Hong Kong Blue Chips (n)	Hong Kong Red Chips (n)	Shanghai Composite Index (n)	Taiwan Weighted Index (n)	Total
No. of CEO messages and addresses identified	45	7% (3)	33% (15)	38% (17)	22% (10)	100%
No. of CEO messages identified	27	11% (3)	33% (9)	19% (5)	37% (10)	100%
No. of CEO addresses identified	18	0% (0)	33% (6)	67% (12)	0% (0)	100%
Language use in CEO message
No. of monolingual messages (Chinese and English)	5 (2C, 3E)	0% (0)	40% (1C, 1E)	20% (1E)	40% (1C, 1E)	100%
No. of bilingual messages (Chinese and English)	22	14% (3)	32% (7)	18% (4)	36% (8)	100%
No. of trilingual messages (Chinese, English, and other languages)	0	0% (0)	0% (0)	0% (0)	0% (0)	100%
Language use in CEO address
No. of monolingual addresses (Chinese and English)	13 (12C,1E)	0% (0)	31% (4C)	69% (8C, 1E)	0% (0)	100%
No. of bilingual addresses (Chinese and English)	4	0% (0)	50% (2)	50% (2)	0% (0)	100%
No. of trilingual addresses (Chinese, English, and other languages)	1	0% (0)	0% (0)	100% (1)	0% (0)	100%

Note. C = Chinese; E = English.

In the next part of our analysis, we identified and examined 26 bilingual messages and addresses (see Table 3), 3 of which were from Hong Kong blue chips, 9 from Hong Kong red chips, 6 from corporations included in the Shanghai Composite Index, and 8 from corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index (see Appendix A for the list of 26 corporations identified). Because these messages and addresses were bilingual, we were able to conduct an in-depth analysis of their interlingual variation and theme adoption.

For most corporations in Greater China, corporate Web sites serve as a dominant channel of communication with stakeholders. In contrast to Segars and Kohut’s (2001) findings on the use of CEO messages in multinational corporations, we found that these messages were less frequent in Greater China, with only 20% of corporations using such messages. Rather, our findings are consistent with those of Kelly and Zak (1999), who found an underuse of narratives in professional communication in spite of their persuasive power. Our results also corroborate Barker and Gower’s (2010) findings concerning the insignificant use of business narrative as a strategic storytelling technique in mainstream organizational CEO communication even though such stories can “help impart knowledge, implement widespread change, and motivate teams” (p. 308).

Suchan (2006) offered a possible explanation for the underuse of CEO messages and addresses in Greater China, suggesting that it is difficult for a corporation to change its existing communication norms or practices. Indeed, CEO communication that is intended to foster a closer relationship with stakeholders has not been a norm in Greater China. This corroborates Gallo’s (2011) view that “many books on leadership written by Westerners assume that a close relationship between the leader and the followers is expected. This is not always the case in China, which has a high power-distance culture. The assumption that all Chinese leaders desire to be close to their followers is false” (p. 12).

As for those corporations that have chosen to use CEO messages and addresses for stakeholder communication, we identified an unanticipated regional variation in their use of CEO messages and addresses. Corporations included in the Shanghai Composite Index (38%) and the Hong Kong red chips (33%), which are mostly mainland Chinese enterprises rooted in China, were more likely to use CEO messages and addresses than were the Hong Kong blue chips (7%) and corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index (22%). This difference might be explained using Hofstede’s (1980) national culture dimensions. National culture can be defined as a “collective programming of the mind” that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another (Hofstede, 1980, p. 25). Hofstede found that national cultures differ in regard to the four dimensions of individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity (quantity) versus femininity (quality). Power distance pertains to “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 1997, p. 28) whereas individualism “pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family” (p. 51).

Compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan, mainland China has a relatively high power-distance index (PDI), and members of this Chinese community are likely to be accustomed to unequally distributed power and have high levels of anxiety. Hence, CEOs use messages and addresses to provide strong leadership and make people feel more informed and secure in times of uncertainty (Hofstede & Hoftstede, 2005, p. 43). In Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (2012) model of national culture, the Chinese were positioned relatively high on particularism (valuing personal relationships over rules). This dimension could explain why CEO messages and addresses are important in mainland China because they serve as a means through which the CEO can further develop relationships with stakeholders. The high power-distance culture accords a great deal of respect to CEOs, expecting them to provide strong leadership and answers, especially in times of crisis, which they can do through CEO messages and addresses.

In contrast, corporations based in Hong Kong and Taiwan have a relatively low PDI. They also tend to be more universalistic, which Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2012) defined as placing more emphasis on rules than on personal relationships. Thus, these corporations might be less likely to use CEO messages and addresses. Taiwan’s lower score on the index of individualism could also be associated with its infrequent use of CEO messages and addresses.

Popper and Zakkai’s (1994) analysis of leadership styles based on organizational psychological contexts, such as hierarchy (the distance between leaders and their people), leaders’ relationship with their stakeholders, and conditions in which organizations function (stability vs. crisis or uncertainty), might further provide explanations for these findings. In mainland China, where the PDI is higher than in Hong Kong and Taiwan, people have higher levels of anxiety and insecurity in their business operations. Leadership style tends to be more charismatic, with CEOs needing to instill confidence in stakeholders through regular messages. Thus, CEO messages and addresses assume greater importance in serving as a medium to reassure stakeholders in Hong Kong’s mainland-based red chips than they do in Hong Kong’s blue chips that are not based in mainland China. Because the PDI is lower in Taiwan and Hong Kong, people’s level of anxiety and insecurity about business operations is also lower. Stakeholders have more confidence in corporations, so CEOs tend to adopt a more transactional leadership style, placing less emphasis on communication via messages and addresses.

Not only do CEO messages suggest a strong sense of leadership in Hong Kong red chip and Shanghainese corporations, but they also reflect high power distance through the adoption of a certain linguistic style. The following examples from our data illustrate the relatively high power distance between CEOs and stakeholders in these corporations:

CNS6: Message from chairman of Wuling Motors Holdings Limited.

As the chairman of the group, I am so delighted to lead the group for further expansion in the burgeoning economy of the Greater China and Hong Kong.

作為俊山五菱汽車集團有限公司的主席，本人很高興繼續帶領集團在經濟急速發展的環境下開拓大中華及香港地區。

CNS5: Message from chairman of Beijing Development (Hong Kong) Limited

In the future, the board of directors will lead the management team and all staffs to strengthen the management and the capability of technical creation in accordance with our tenet of “practical, creative and strenuous” and the principle of “profound, professional, cooperative.”

未來，新一屆董事會將引領管理團隊和全體同仁秉承”求實、創新、圖強”之企業宗旨和”深化、專業、協同”之發展原則

These messages show the authority or leadership of the CEOs through their frequent use of words such as lead, in English, or 帶領/ 引領, in Chinese. This usage suggests that the CEOs play a central role in decision making, in terms of maintaining business operations and further expanding their business in the global market.

The CEOs’ choice of pronoun use in their messages also indicates the unequal power distribution in corporations in Greater China. Brown and Gilman (1960) found that the writer’s choice of pronoun conveys the correlation between power and solidarity (closeness and shared intimacies). The use of the first-person pronoun I can be viewed as an indication of the writer’s authority or power (Green, 2007, as cited in Gocheco, 2012). In giving guidance to all his stakeholders, the CEO in message CNS6 expressed a high power status as leader of the corporation. On the contrary, using an inclusive pronoun, such as we, may build solidarity with readers. Scollon and Scollon (1995) suggested that if there is no power difference and distance between the leader and participants, the leader would be more likely to use involvement strategies in the form of inclusive pronouns. Comparing messages from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, we found that the CEOs’ use of pronouns reflects the variation of power and solidarity in different regions. As the following examples illustrate, CEOs employ the pronoun we in order to connect with and engage stakeholders in Hong Kong blue-chip and Taiwanese corporations:

HKS2: Message from chairman of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited

Welcome to the Web site of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited (CKI). We appreciate your interest in our company.

Whether you are a customer, investor, financial analyst or someone who wants to know more about CKI, I invite you to spend a few minutes getting to know us better.

我們均歡迎你查閱本網頁資料以加深對本集團的認識。

We and Us are inclusive pronouns that build a sense of solidarity with readers (Wilson, 1990, as cited in Gocheco, 2012). CEOs wish to keep their stakeholders informed of their corporation’s latest developments and to develop closer relations with them by expressing their feelings. As such, they tend to adopt a warm and friendly, yet professional tone by using familiar pronouns such as we and the active voice to identify themselves and their stakeholders as a collective unit. In the preceding, you and your are also used. As Guffey and Du-Babcock (2010) observed, when focusing on the benefits provided to readers of messages, particularly in relation to persuading them, writers commonly use an audience-centered, you attitude, using second-person pronouns (you, your) instead of first-person pronouns (we, us, our). But Guffey and Du-Babcock argued that placing too much emphasis on the you attitude “can result in stilted expression” (p. 36), and the readers might perceive that they are being manipulated, particularly in sales letters. In addition, overuse of the you attitude may lead to an excessive use of passive voice. According to Thill and Bovée (2008), you conveys empathy and addresses stakeholders’ needs, wishes, and preferences whereas we refers to the CEO and stakeholders as part of the same team. CEOs aim to convey warmth, empathy, and sincerity by using either the we or the you attitude. In the HKS2 example, the CEO invited readers directly by using the phrase “I invite you,” thus expressing a sincere desire to connect with and engage readers.

HKS3: Message from group managing director of PCCW (only in English)

With the enhancement of our CSR initiatives, we pledge to contribute to sustainable economic development and to work with our employees, their families and the community to improve the quality of life.

TWS3: Message from CEO of Chunghwa Telecom (only in English)

We are committed to clear, consistent communication with our shareholders and to maintaining the highest levels for financial transparency. We aim to provide our investors, employees, and customers the public information that gives a clear and transparent description of our business operations and performance.

Reflecting the lower PDI in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the CEO messages HKS3 and TWS3 express low power relations by using involvement strategies in the form of inclusive pronouns. In addition, the frequent use of we as an inclusive pronoun encourages readers to connect with the corporation and even suggests that they share in the decision-making responsibilities (Durant & Lambrou, 2009). Those two examples suggest that CEOs in Hong Kong blue chips and in corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index did not express a strong sense of authority through their linguistic choices in their messages and addresses. For instance, HKS3’s message suggests that the corporation and readers should work together for better business and social performance.

Regional Variations in the Language Use and Linguistic or Technical Characteristics of CEO Messages and Addresses

Although the major corporations in Greater China underused CEO messages and addresses, the technical characteristics of those messages and addresses that we identified are still worth exploring. Using form-oriented content analysis, we determined the length and number of sentences in the documents (see Table 4). What stood out in this analysis is the large number of Chinese words in the bilingual messages and addresses. The average number of Chinese words in the bilingual CEO messages and addresses greatly outnumbered the average number of English words in most cases (see Figure 1). We found regional variation in the technical characteristics of the CEO messages and addresses. Compared to the Hong Kong blue chips and red chips and those corporations listed in the Shanghai Composite Index, corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index used the highest ratio of Chinese to English words in their messages. We also found that in these bilingual CEO messages and addresses, the Chinese messages included a substantially greater number of words per sentence than did the corresponding messages in English (see Figure 2).

Table 4.

Word and Sentence Counts in CEO Messages and Addresses.

	Hong Kong Blue Chips		Hong Kong Red Chips		Shanghai Composite Index		Taiwan Weighted Index
	English	Chinese	English	Chinese	English	Chinese	English	Chinese
Word count
Maximum	208	426	464	1,313	725	1205	695	2,842
Minimum	191	243	79	157	130	176	221	379
Variability	46	101	118	322	217	368	192	772
Average	171	241	280	564	305	508	495	1,074
Number of sentences
Maximum	10	10	42	31	25	23	85	56
Minimum	5	2	2	2	4	3	10	5
Variability	3	4	12	8	8	7	24	16
Average	8	6	14	10	11	8	26	19
Words per sentence
Maximum	41	204	52	203	105	208	67	162
Minimum	8	21	5	12	7	12	2	4
Variability	9	40	11	36	22	45	13	37
Average	23	51	21	56	29	61	24	59

Note. Variability is expressed by the standard deviation (SD), and the average is expressed by the mean; the SD and mean numbers are rounded up to the nearest integer.

Figure 1.

Average number of words in bilingual CEO messages and addresses.

Figure 2.

Average number of words per sentence in bilingual CEO messages and addresses.

Differences in the number of words and sentences between the English and the Chinese messages could be explained by the distinct linguistic features of the two languages. Chinese is more paratactic (with emphasis placed on meaning and the meaning of different words denoting connections in sentences) whereas English is more hypotactic (with emphasis placed on form in order to create meaning; Tse, 2010). Researchers have noted that longer sentences are very common in modern Chinese (Chen, 1993; Galligan, 2001), and sometimes more words are required to produce the same meaning in Chinese than in English (Nie, Brisebois, & Ren, 1996; Yang & Li, 2003). As indicated in Table 4, the average number of words in the Chinese and English bilingual CEO messages of the Hong Kong red chips was 564 and 280, respectively, whereas the average number of words in the Chinese and English bilingual CEO messages of corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index was 1,074 and 495, respectively. The number of Chinese words was more than twice as much as that of English words in both instances. This great difference stems not only from the distinct linguistic features of Chinese and English but also from the different communication strategies that these corporations adopted.

Typical messages that were elaborated in Chinese included the address from the chairman of Franshion Properties (CNS4), the message from the president of China Resources Power Holdings Company (CNS9), and the message from the chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc. (TWS1). In CNS4, the ratio of the number of Chinese versus English words was 496:234. A whole paragraph expressing Franshion Properties’ gratitude to its local investors in the Chinese version was omitted in the corresponding English version. In CNS9, the slogan, abstract, and subthemes in the Chinese version were absent in the corresponding English version. And in TWS1, the information on origin and history (O&H), sales revenue (SR), and brand value (BV) in the Chinese version was missing in the corresponding English version. Compare the bilingual version of the first part of TWS1:

TWS1: Message from the chairman of ASUSTek Computer Inc.

華碩自1989年起，從一家小公司開始經營，逐漸成長至今，成為以創新與品質而聞名的全球性企業(O&H)，營收超過80億美元(SR)，品牌價值高達13.24億美元(BV)。

我們將我們在這快速變動的產業中獲得重大成長，歸因於以下兩項不變的因素：我們對於創造全新使用者體驗的熱切渴望，以及我們對於品質的堅定承諾。這些價值都包含在我們的品牌承諾之中：「精采創新、完美品質」。

Inspiring Innovation • Persistent Perfection (IIPP) is the ASUS brand promise. It symbolizes our commitment to making life better through innovation, and our belief that life-changing shifts can only be achieved by keeping ahead of the curve and not resting on past successes.

Inspiring Innovation • Persistent Perfection isn’t mere management mumbo jumbo — it is a guiding philosophy that manifests itself in a myriad of ways within the ASUS organization.

The Chinese versions of the CEO messages of the Hong Kong red chips and the corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index were twice as long as their corresponding English versions, which suggests that these corporations preferred to provide their local stakeholders with more detailed and elaborate information, such as by expressing their heartfelt gratitude and using slogans and couplets in their CEO messages. The reason for this particular communication strategy could be that the major audience of the CEO messages of these specific corporations is Chinese readers, so less information is given in the corresponding English versions of these messages. But Ngan (2009) provided a better explanation. She found that in translating business discourse between English and Chinese, translators tend to adopt a strategy of “bilingual representation in order to be communicative” (p. 41). She added that the English version of publicity materials, in most cases, is “rather plain,” but the Chinese version is “more elaborate and more lively” and “tends to expand and explain” the message in a clearer manner (p. 55). Ngan’s observation is congruent with our findings that a more communicative and informative approach is adopted in CEO messages addressing Chinese stakeholders in Hong Kong red chips and corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index.

Regional Variations in Theme Adoption

The CEO messages and addresses in our study adopted themes that varied within Greater China. Kohut and Segars (1992) found six recurring themes embedded in CEO letters. We examined whether any of these themes were evident in these CEO messages from listed corporations in Greater China and, if so, whether there was any regional variation in their use.

Each sentence in the bilingual and trilingual CEO messages and addresses of 209 corporations operating in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan was classified by the two independent coders according to these six recurring themes: environmental factors (T1), growth (T2), operating philosophy (T3), product/market mix (T4), unfavorable financial reference (T5), and favorable financial reference (T6). The coders also took time perspectives into account, categorizing each sentence based on past (P) and future (F) reference to its theme. In other words, PT1–PT6 referred to themes that were tied to the past perspective whereas FT1–FT6 referred to themes that were tied to the future perspective. We included the past and future reference in order to examine the time orientation of the themes from an intracultural perspective. As Kalliny and Ghanem (2009) indicated, time orientations could unfold “certain cultural aspects and outlooks” (p. 319). They noted that time orientation differs across cultures in that the United States tends to be a future-oriented society whereas China tends to be a past-oriented society.

Our analysis found that operating philosophy (T3) tied to the past was the most prominent theme perspective across Greater China (see Table 5). Next were growth (T2), which appeared in the CEO messages and addresses presented by major corporations operating in Mainland China and Taiwan, and product/market mix (T4). Unfavorable financial reference (T5) and favorable financial reference (T6) seemed to be the least common themes for the blue-chip and red-chip corporations listed in Hong Kong. Of all the corporations we studied, those included in the Taiwan Weighted Index adopted the most themes. This finding is not surprising because the CEO messages and addresses on the Taiwanese Web sites tended to be lengthy.

Table 5.

Theme Adoption and Distribution in the CEO Messages and Addresses.

	Hong Kong Blue Chips Variability	Hong Kong Blue Chips Average	Hong Kong Red Chips Variability	Hong Kong Red Chips Average	Shanghai Composite Index Variability	Shanghai Composite Index Average	Taiwan Weighted Index Variability	Taiwan Weighted Index Average
PT1			0.43	0.22	0.49	0.33	1.15	0.63
PT2			0.85	0.61	1.35	2	8.21	4.13
PT3	3.22	3.67	10.07	5.94	4.15	3.17	4.87	11.5
PT4	0.52	0.33	1.43	0.83	0.91	0.5	0.58	0.25
PT5							0.54	0.19
PT6							1.32	0.44
FT1			0.32	0.11	0.78	0.33
FT2			0.69	0.33	0.29	0.08	0.5	0.13
FT3	1.17	1.17	1.84	2.11	0.52	1.08	2.41	2.06
FT4
FT5					0.62	0.25	0.25	0.06
FT6					0.39	0.17	0.25	0.06
NA	1.55	1	1.90	1.78	1.45	1.5	1.02	0.69

Note. Numbers represent theme-embedded sentences. Variability is expressed by the standard deviation, and the average is expressed by the mean. P = past; T1 = environmental factors; T2 = growth; T3 = operating philosophy; T4 = product/market mix; T5 = unfavorable financial reference; T6 = favorable financial reference; F = future; NA = not applicable.

In general, the CEO messages from Greater China tended to carry fewer themes than did those from the multinational corporations that Kohut and Segars (1992) studied. The foci of the CEO messages from Greater China were primarily about the corporations’ operating philosophy, products, and environmental and company growth—especially concerning past performance. For instance, the theme operating philosophy with a past orientation (PT3) appeared in all the CEO messages of Chunghwa Telecom (TWS3).

The themes covered in CEO messages and addresses from Greater China were seldom tied to the future perspective. Most CEOs centered their messages on past issues rather than future development. This finding agrees with the significant amount of research showing that China is one of the past-oriented societies where the past is a core value (Chan & Rossiter, 1998; Fan, 2000; Ouyang, 1995). CEOs’ avoidance of talk about the future in their messages might also be related to the uncertain and ever-changing economic environment in Greater China and the world.

Kalliny and Ghanem (2009) noted that time orientation differs across cultures. In our study, CEO messages in Taiwan covered all six themes with a past orientation whereas Hong Kong red chips and the corporations on the Shanghai Composite Index included four of the six themes with a past orientation. But the theme of product/market mix (T4) with a future orientation was missing from the CEO messages of all the corporations in this study whereas the themes environmental factors, unfavorable financial reference, and favorable financial reference (T1, T5, and T6) from the future perspective were less prominent than were the themes environmental factors, growth, operating philosophy, and product/market mix (T1, T2, T3, and T4) with a past orientation. Drawing on Kalliny and Ghanem’s study helps us to understand that a culture such as China, which has a long history and tradition of emphasizing its heritage, beliefs, values, and past accomplishments, tends to be more past oriented.

Given the growing importance of staff engagement and CSR, listed corporations have become keen on building “real relationships with real stakeholders” (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001, p. 14). In Greater China, this desire has been manifested by the predominance of the theme operating philosophy, especially with foci on staff engagement and CSR, in CEO messages and addresses. We found that 19 out of the 26 bilingual CEO messages and addresses expressed concerns about staff engagement and CSR. Of these, some CEO messages posted by corporations in the Taiwan Weighted Index—namely, the CEO message from Chimei Innolux Corporation (TWS4), the CEO message from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TWS5), the chairman’s message from United Microelectronics Corporation (TWS6), the president’s message from Compal Electronics (TWS7), and the chairman’s message from Shin Kong Financial Holding Company (TWS8)—placed a particularly strong emphasis on CSR.

The first four of these messages (TWS4, TWS5, TWS6, and TWS7) are not found on the corporations’ “About Us” or “Company Profile” pages. Instead, they appear in the corporations’ CSR page. The other one of these messages appears on the corporation’s “Corporate Governance” page, which strongly emphasizes corporate good citizenship. Of the 1,763 English words in the message, 448 are dedicated to explaining the corporation’s good citizenship in four dimensions: global warming, indigenous education and elderly care, animal conservation, and public welfare awards. In this era of globalization, CSR has been a focus of discussion in the Taiwanese community. The CSR Taiwan, an association aimed at promoting CSR in corporations that operate in Taiwan, has been set up to help such corporations adopt CSR practices locally.

We also found that corporations in Taiwan appeared to lean more toward a traditional approach to writing CEO messages and addresses. That is, their messages and addresses tended to include a lengthy presentation and detailed report on product marketing and financial performance that resemble the content and structure of the letters to stockholders that Kohut and Segars (1992) investigated.

Theme Variations Between Languages

The themes of these CEO messages and addresses also varied between languages. We recorded these theme variations in the bilingual messages of each of the corporations. The theme distributions in both the English and Chinese CEO messages and addresses of these corporations are shown in Appendix B. For example, Appendix B shows that the first Hong Kong blue chip had 5 sentences in English (E) that were associated with the theme past operating philosophy (PT3) and no sentences in Chinese (C) that were identified with that theme.

In our findings, variation of themes in bilingual messages and addresses seemed to be common for corporations listed in Greater China. Among all, variations in PT2, PT3, and PT4 were particularly dominant, with the theme-embedded sentences in the English messages significantly outnumbering those in the Chinese messages. Although PT5, PT6, and FT5 recorded a high percentage of theme variations, the total number of cases was too small, so the results were not conclusive. Figure 3 shows the variation between the two languages of dominant themes, which included growth (PT2), operating philosophy (PT3), and product/ market mix (PT4), in messages from the Hong Kong blue chips and Hong Kong red chips and the corporations listed in the Shanghai Composite Index and Taiwan Weighted Index. For example, 60% of the CEO messages and addresses from the Hong Kong red chips and 100% of those from corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index recorded a variation of growth whereas over 60% of those from Hong Kong blue chips, Hong Kong red chips, and corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index recorded a variation of operating philosophy (PT3). Also, we identified variation in the theme product/market mix (PT4) in over 50% of the messages and addresses from the Hong Kong red chips and the corporations listed on the Taiwan Weighted Index. As Figure 3 shows, a vast majority of the theme variations that we identified came from the bilingual CEO messages and addresses of corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index. The Hong Kong red chips had the second-largest amount of variation in their bilingual CEO messages and addresses.

Figure 3.

Percentage of variations between languages in the dominant themes in CEO messages and addresses according to regions.

In addition to the variation of themes, we observed that many of the corporations employed more English sentences than they did Chinese sentences to deliver a theme. Using the three dominant themes (PT2, PT3, and PT4) as examples, Figure 4 shows the percentage of corporations from various regions that employed a larger number of such theme-embedded sentences in their English messages than they did in their corresponding Chinese messages.

Figure 4.

Percentage of CEO messages and addresses that had more theme-embedded sentences in English than in Chinese according to regions.

We found significant theme variations between languages for three themes with a past orientation, namely growth (PT2), operating philosophy (PT3), and product/market mix (PT4). In messages containing the growth theme that were posted by prominent Hong Kong red-chip and Taiwanese corporations, we found three cases (60%) and four cases (100%), respectively. Of these seven cases, five had more theme-based sentences in the English text than in the corresponding Chinese version. Similarly, regarding operating philosophy, six of the nine cases in Hong Kong red chips and eight of the eight cases in the Taiwan Weighted Index had theme variations between languages. Of these 14 cases, 86% included more theme-based sentences in English than in Chinese. And for the theme product/market mix, four of the six cases in Hong Kong red chips and three of the three cases in the Taiwan Weighted Index had theme variations between languages, with all of the seven cases with theme variations documenting more theme-based sentences in the English versions than in the Chinese versions.

We have excerpted the following paragraphs from the message of the executive director of China Resources Power Holdings Company (CNS9) to illustrate the variation between languages for the theme operating philosophy (PT3). Table 6 compares the English and Chinese versions of the theme-based sentences. In this excerpt, the operating philosophy of people orientation and teamwork is made more salient in the English version through the inclusion of additional theme-embedded sentences that are not included in the corresponding Chinese version. The bilingual messages also exhibit differences in tone and linguistic style. The Chinese version is designed to emphasize the importance of the director in leading the corporation to new heights (e.g., the “leader” aims at leading the company to achieve “ultimate success”) whereas the English version emphasizes staff engagement with words such as “culture,” “people,” and “team spirit.”

Table 6.

Excerpt From the Message of the Executive Director of China Resources Power Holding Company That Illustrates the Variation Between Languages for the Theme Operating Philosophy.

Chinese Version	English Version
我们坚持「以人为本，团队致胜 [success]」的管理理念。	We are a people-oriented company with strong focus on team building.
我们关心员工的利益，尊重员工的需求，让员工分享公司的成就；我们为员工创造一个即充满挑战、又宽松、和谐、有序、快乐的工作环境；我们为员工提供良好的个人发展机会和舞台。	We care for and respect our employees' needs and welfare. We created a challenging and yet interesting work environment for our staff members who are also provided with opportunities for personal development.
我们致力于建立学习型组织，推动组织、团队和员工个人的学习与成长。	We foster a learning culture within the Company and encourage our employees to learn and grow with the Company. We value team spirit.
我们建设团队的标准是，尊重人才，包容个性，倡导融入，鼓励合作，最终达到 1+1+1>3的效果，以团队成功 [success] 为最大成功 [ultimate success]。	On one hand, we accommodate individuality. On the other hand, we encourage teamwork because we believe in synergistic value.

In another example, an excerpt from the address of the president of China Railway Group (SHS5) exhibits more sentences that are embedded with the theme growth (PT2) in the English version than in the corresponding Chinese version. That is, the English version has more sentences that are embedded with a past orientation of the theme growth by emphasizing the corporation’s global ranking whereas the Chinese version focuses on the corporation’s ranking in the local market (see Table 7).

Table 7.

Excerpt From the Address of the President of China Railway Group (CREC) That Illustrates the Variation Between Languages for the Theme Growth.

Chinese Version	English Version
经过连续多年的跨越式发展，企业的经营规模不断扩大，综合实力不断增强，社会知名度不断提高。	Through decades of far-reaching development, CREC has been constantly expanding its business scope, strengthening its abilities, and enhancing the enterprise’s reputation.
2010年, 在世界企业500强中排名第137位，在中国企业500强中排名9位 [Ranks 9th in China 500]，在中央企业排名第6位 [Ranks 6th on the list of state-owned enterprises]，是全球第2大建筑工程承包商。	In the year of 2007, CREC is ranked 342nd in Fortune Global 500 Companies and 417th among the World's 500 Most Influential Brands. In addition, CREC was ranked the fourth largest Global Construction Contractor in 2005 and the third largest in 2006.

The inclusion of additional theme-based sentences in the English Web-based messages that contain information about the history and growth of the corporation, operating philosophy (e.g., CSR and staff engagement), and product information could be ascribed to the CEO’s intention to connect with and engage stakeholders in the global arena, especially English-speaking stakeholders who have a limited understanding of how these listed corporations operate in Greater China.

Discussion

This study has examined the language use, linguistic styles, and the regional and bilingual theme variations in CEO messages and addresses to stakeholders that were posted on corporate Web sites in Greater China. Several important results have emerged.

First, we had hypothesized that listed corporations in Greater China, with the ambition of moving onto the world stage, would communicate with their stakeholders equally in both Chinese and English. In recent years, China has been caught up in the English “fever,” which brings with it the pervasive belief that the English language is the window to the outside world. Johnson (2009) observed that to China, English is “the mode of communication for the world, the ultimate solution for global integration” and that the country has “embraced the power of English language for the dual purpose of national development and personal success” (p. 147). But our findings only partially supported our initial hypothesis. Except for the blue-chip corporations based in Hong Kong, which provided all of their CEO messages and addresses on corporate Web sites in a bilingual mode, a number of China-based corporations (e.g., in Hong Kong red chips and the Shanghai Composite Index) still tended to use monolingual messages and addresses on their corporate Web sites. In addition, the Chinese CEO messages in Hong Kong red chips and the Taiwan Weighted Index included a substantially greater number of words per sentence and incorporated more detailed information than did their corresponding English versions. These findings suggest that the Chinese language still dominated in Internet-based CEO messages and addresses at the time of our study.

It is understandable that corporations with strong regional backgrounds and local communities would prefer to communicate with their stakeholders in Chinese. Johnson (2009) explored the effectiveness of a regional lingua franca such as Chinese for reaching out to a greater audience, quoting Fishman’s view that “for all the enthusiasm and vitriol generated by grand-scale globalization, it is the growth in regional interactions—trade, travel, the spread of religions, interethnic marriages—that touches the widest array of local populations” (as cited in p. 141). A country’s preferred language choice might also be intertwined with its political and economic status in that, for a country such as China, the use of a monolingual language serves to reinforce the national identity and pride of its people.

But the use of monolingual messages may deter some corporations from expanding their businesses internationally. Indeed, CEOs are required to communicate skillfully and regularly using a few languages, especially English, not only with consumers but with all stakeholders and the public who can exert an important influence on organizational performance (Kitchen & Schultz, 2001). More important, the fact that more elaborate information is conveyed in the Chinese CEO messages may reflect that CEOs tend to adopt a reserved communication strategy when communicating with foreign stakeholders, which in turn might impede these stakeholders’ understanding of how these corporations operate.

Blue-chip corporations in Hong Kong, however, appear to be well prepared to communicate bilingually with stakeholders, given Hong Kong’s colonial legacy and location in a melting pot of the East and West. The English versions of the CEO messages posted by these corporations are literal translations, and they contained similar themes and adopted the same tone as the Chinese versions. Especially after the introduction of a biliterate and trilingual language policy under the administration of chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, an increasing number of people in Hong Kong have been more receptive to using English. In accordance with this policy, in 1999, the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) submitted a variety of proposals to promote a better understanding and awareness of the need to enhance the use of Chinese (including Putonghua) and English (Lee & Leung, 2012). Because of this historical, political, and social background, CEOs of major corporations in Hong Kong are able to communicate in both languages with ease.

The second significant finding of this study is that the CEO messages posted by Hong Kong red chips and corporations listed in the Taiwanese corporations packed in substantially more themes and information about these themes in their English versions than in their corresponding Chinese versions. In other words, there are more themes and theme-embedded sentences in the English messages than in their corresponding Chinese versions. This finding suggests that Hong Kong red chips and Taiwan Weighted Index corporations tend to communicate more fervently with their English stakeholders by including additional theme-based sentences in their English messages. These corporations, which aim at addressing both local and worldwide stakeholders, might have produced detailed CEO messages and addresses in English because English is “the mode of communication for the world, the ultimate solution for global integration,” as Johnson (2009, p. 147) suggested.

The linguistic style adopted in the Chinese CEO messages of Hong Kong red chips and corporations listed in the Taiwan Weighted Index was quite different from their English versions in that the Chinese messages emphasized the CEO’s leadership and authority whereas the English versions emphasized engagement words such as teamwork and culture. This finding suggests that CEOs are likely to adopt a different linguistic style in communicating with foreign versus local stakeholders. This communication strategy might be rooted in cultural values because in high PDI countries such as China, CEOs assert their authority in communicating with local stakeholders and thus use more authoritative words.

We also found that the CEO messages and addresses of Taiwanese corporations tended to contain lengthy presentations and detailed reporting on their products and financial performance. Although this approach allows readers to gain more detailed information, it could hinder effective communication between CEOs and stakeholders. As Oliver (2000) suggested, a 3-minute rule generally applies to the delivery of a CEO message, and she found that the average reading time of a CEO message by managers is approximately 2 minutes (pp. 166–167). In view of this finding, a lengthy CEO message that involves a reading time exceeding 3 minutes may discourage the audience from reading it.

The third significant finding is that corporations listed in the Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong red chips, which are mostly enterprises that are rooted in mainland China, were more likely to use CEO messages than were Hong Kong blue chips and corporations included in the Taiwan Weighted Index. This finding might be explained by the cultural differences in power distance (Hofstede, 1997) and leadership styles between mainland China and other regions of Greater China (Popper & Zakkai, 1994). In China, the power distance is higher than it is in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and people have a higher level of anxiety and thus insecurity in their business operations. To accommodate people’s insecurity, then, a CEO’s leadership style might need to be more charismatic in that the CEO would focus more on fostering better relations with stakeholders and reassuring them by disseminating regular messages. Because the power distance is lower in Taiwan and Hong Kong, people feel more secure in their business dealings; thus, CEOs may adopt a transactional leadership style, placing less emphasis on communicating with stakeholders via messages. Nonetheless, with increasing globalization, the narrowing of power distance, and the growing importance of the CEO as the umbrella man in a corporation, this finding has important implications because CEO messages can serve as a major tool to connect with and engage stakeholders on a regular basis, and more important, in times of uncertainty. CEOs should especially harness the power of the Web in connecting with their stakeholders effectively.

Fourth, we found that the bilingual CEO messages in different parts of the Greater China region were not translated into other languages in ways that retained the same meaning and themes. CEOs adopted a certain linguistic style that was underpinned by their beliefs and rooted in their cultural values. For instance, the CEO messages in Chinese that were posted by corporations in Shanghai and Hong Kong red chips had a more personalized, engaging, and cordial tone than did corresponding messages in English. In particular, China Resources Power Holdings Company posted a more personalized and cordial CEO message in Chinese than it did in its corresponding English version. The Chinese messages addressed the Chinese stakeholders in an engaging tone, using Chinese proverbs, such as “立言、立业、立功,” and classical four-character parallel slogans, such as “挑战自我，持续进步”, “业绩导向，结果第一”, “客户满意，互利双赢”, “激情投入，追求最好”, “诚信立身，言行一致”, “以人为本，团队致胜”. In addition, CEO messages in these corporations tended to highlight the CEO’s leadership role and authority by frequently using words such as lead, implying the high power distance between stakeholders and the CEO. These messages tended to use first-person pronouns, again indicating the authority of the leader.

This finding implies that the CEOs in these corporations might value Chinese stakeholders more highly than they do foreign stakeholders because they appear to communicate in a more friendly and cordial tone in Chinese; however, at the same time, these CEOs seem to distance themselves from their stakeholders by emphasizing their role as an authority figure. With paramount importance placed on CSR and the engagement of stakeholders worldwide, these corporations should put more effort into communicating with foreign stakeholders, especially if they want to expand their business globally. Moreover, CEOs might consider varying their linguistic style in their messages by using inclusive pronouns and words such as team spirit and people orientation to engage stakeholders and narrow the distance between themselves and their stakeholders. Hong Kong blue chips and Taiwan Weighted Index corporations tended to adopt a different linguistic style that used inclusive pronouns such as you and we and a variety of engagement words in order to reduce the social distance between CEOs and stakeholders.

Fifth, we found that most of the themes in these messages revolved around the corporations’ growth, operating philosophy, and products, emphasizing past performance more than future development. This future-avoidance approach that we observed in these CEO messages might be explained by the fact that we collected our data in late 2010, and the economic recession of 2008–2009 followed by the volatility in the economy worldwide might have led CEOs to avoid discussion of the future in their messages.

Finally, the themes in CEO messages in most regions might have undergone some changes to keep up with current times. In particular, Taiwanese corporations placed stronger emphasis on CSR compared to other corporations in Greater China. This finding has important implications because these corporations might project a better image of themselves to the public because their practices, values, and beliefs are in line with what most people value and expect of responsible organizations (e.g., CSR, climate concerns, animal rights). Perhaps more corporations will take up CSR initiatives in the future.

In general, these findings enhance our understanding of how CEOs view their stakeholders and what CEOs need to focus on in order to compete in the globalized age. Although this study has limitations, its findings could serve as an impetus for further research.

Limitations of the Study

Notwithstanding its important results, this study has a number of limitations. The most important limitation is that the corpus was small, including only 26 bilingual CEO messages and addresses. The findings are thus not generalizable to different CEO messages and addresses in different regions. Even though the sample size was small, this study can be used as a pilot study, providing opportunities for researchers to discover potential errors and to modify the methodology before implementing it within a large-scale quantitative or qualitative research project (Joel, 2001).

Our theme analysis also had limitations. The keywords that Kohut and Segars (1992) used to identify main themes did not accurately reflect the themes in the bilingual texts selected for this study. For instance, we could no longer identify outmoded keywords such as economy, recession, inflation, housing, and legislation in the bilingual texts, so we included additional keywords such as global and worldwide in our categorization of themes. Although our study draws on Kohut and Segars’s thematic categorization system that might seem dated, no other categorization system has been developed since that time. Some sentences could not be categorized according to any of the themes, but these sentences were mostly related to the backgrounds and achievements of the corporations and their appreciation for the effort and support of stakeholders. Future researchers need to develop a more comprehensive list of theme words in order to create a more up-to-date, credible, and regional-specific list for further analysis of CEO communication in Greater China.

Further Research

Future research might build on this exploratory study and examine a larger corpus of CEO messages and addresses from corporations in Greater China to determine their common themes and linguistic styles. But first of all, a more comprehensive thematic categorization scheme is necessary in order to analyze CEO messages and addresses in Greater China because no up-to-date, reliable, and regional-specific key word list has been developed in the last 20 years.

Because English is a necessity for successful business communication in this globalization era, a longitudinal study could investigate whether corporations within a certain region are better able to enter the global market from a cultural or political perspective based on their willingness to communicate with stakeholders in English.

Research could also evaluate the effectiveness of employing CEO messages as a strategic communication or business-narrative tool to influence stakeholders’ perceptions of corporations and thus corporate image in the Greater China region; such research in Greater China is lacking. In addition, research could examine issues related to the relationship between different CEO leadership styles and the features of CEO messages across regions and languages. The findings of our study imply that CEOs in regions with higher power distance and with business operations involving more risks and uncertainty tended to adopt a charismatic leadership style, communicating more frequently with their stakeholders in order to keep them informed and allay their anxieties regarding business operations. A corpus study tracking CEO messages on corporate Web sites over a few years could shed light on various features of those messages and the reasons for adopting certain leadership styles in major corporations across Greater China.

Last but not least, most of the bilingual messages and addresses that we identified not only are a product of direct translation but are embedded in the beliefs and values of CEOs and the needs of stakeholders. As such, research that encompasses the differences in bilingual representation in CEO messages and translation of multimodalities, such as the visual and verbal representation in bilingual CEO messages employed in CEO communication, are also projects that are worth undertaking.

Footnotes

Appendix A

Table A1.

Listed Corporations With Bilingual CEO Messages and Addresses in Greater China.

Subject Code	Name of Corporations	Index Listed
1. HKS1/BC1	中國人壽保險(海外) 股份有限公司 China Life Insurance (Overseas) Company Limited	Hong Kong Blue Chip
2. HKS2/BC2	長江基建集團有限公司 Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited	Hong Kong Blue Chip
3. HKS3/BC3	電訊盈科有限公司 Pacific Century Cyber Works Limited	Hong Kong Blue Chip
4. CNS1/CN1	中國糧油控股有限公司 China Agri-Industries Holdings Limited	Hong Kong Red Chip
5. CNS2/CN2	五礦建設有限公司 Minmetals Land Limited	Hong Kong Red Chip
6. CNS3/CN3	方正控股有限公司 Founder Holdings Limited	Hong Kong Red Chip
7. CNS4/CN4	方興地産 Franshion Properties (China)	Hong Kong Red Chip
8. CNS5/CN5	北京發展(香港)有限公司 Beijing Development (Hong Kong) Limited	Hong Kong Red Chip
9. CNS6/CN6	俊山五菱汽車集團 Wuling Motors Holdings Limited	Hong Kong Red Chip
10. CNS7/CN7	盈天醫藥集團有限公司 Winteam Pharmaceutical Group Ltd.	Hong Kong Red Chip
11. CNS8/CN8	中國港中旅集團 China National Travel Service (HK) Group Corporation	Hong Kong Red Chip
12. CNS9/CN9	華潤電力控股有限公司 China Resources Power Holdings Company	Hong Kong Red Chip
13. SHS1/SH1	武漢鋼鐵(集團)公司 Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation	Shanghai Composite Index
14. SHS2/SH2	宝山鋼鐵股份有限公司 Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd.	Shanghai Composite Index
15. SHS3/SH3	中国山东黄金集团有限公司 Shandong Gold Group Co., Ltd.	Shanghai Composite Index
16. SHS4/SH4	海通证券股份有限公司 Haitong International Securities Group Limited	Shanghai Composite Index
17. SHS5/SH5	中国中铁股份有限公司 China Railway Group Limited	Shanghai Composite Index
18. SHS6/SH6	中国冶金科工集团有限公司 China Metallurgical Group Corporation	Shanghai Composite Index
19. TWS1/TW1	華碩電腦股份有限公司 ASUSTeK Computer Inc.	Taiwan Weighted Index
20. TWS2/TW2	統一企業 Uni-President Enterprises Corporation	Taiwan Weighted Index
21. TWS3/TW3	中華電信股份有限公司 Chunghwa Telecom	Taiwan Weighted Index
22. TWS4/TW4	奇美電子 Chimei Innolux Corporation	Taiwan Weighted Index
23. TWS5/TW5	台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited	Taiwan Weighted Index
24. TWS6/TW6	聯華電子股份有限公司 United Microelectronics Corporation	Taiwan Weighted Index
25. TWS7/TW7	仁寶電腦工業股份有限公司 Compal Electronics Inc.	Taiwan Weighted Index
26. TWS8/TW8	新光金融控股股份有限公司 Shin Kong Financial Holding Company, Ltd.	Taiwan Weighted Index

Appendix B

Table B1.

Theme Distributions and Variations in English and Chinese CEO Messages and Addresses.

	PT1	PT2	PT3	PT4	PT5	PT6	FT1	FT2	FT3	FT4	FT5	FT6	NA
BC1			5E 0C						3E 2C
BC2			0E 1C	1E 1C									3E 3C
BC3			8E 8C						1E 1C
RC1		3E 2C	4E 3C				1E 1C						1E 0C
RC2		0E 1C	3E 2C	1E 1C					5E 5C				1E 1C
RC3	1E 0C		7E 3C	1E 0C					2E 3C
RC4			3E 3C	2E 1C					3E 3C				3E 2C
RC5		1E 0C	0E 1C	1E 1C				1E 1C	4E 1C				1E 1C
RC6		1E 1C	3E 3C					2E 2C	2E 2C				3E 3C
RC7	1E 1C		1E 1C
RC8	1E 0C	1E 1C	4E 0C	6E 0C					4E 4C				7E 4C
RC9			37E 29C	1E 0C									4E 1C
SH1	1E 0C	4E 1C	3E 3C						1E 0C				2E 2C
SH2	1E 1C	3E 3C	14E 9C	3E 1C					2E 2C				2E 5C
SH3			1E 1C						1E 1C				2E 1C
SH4		3E 3C					2E 2C		1E 1C		2E 1C	1E 1C
SH5		3E 2C	2E 1C	1E 1C					1E 1C				2E 2C
SH6	1E 0C	1E 1C	2E 2C					1E 0C	1E 1C
TW1		1E 5C	7E 8C	2E 0C					1E 1C
TW2	1E 0C		10E 7C	1E 0C					1E 0C
TW3			9E 4C						1E 1C
TW4		3E 2C	13E 8C						1E 1C				2E 1C
TW5	2E 2C		14E 13C						1E 1C
TW6	0E 1C	4E 2C	12E 7C		2E 0C				6E 6C				2E 3C
TW7			17E 15C	1E 0C					3E 0C
TW8	4E 0C	28E 21C	22E 18C		1E 0C	5E 2C		2E 0C	8E 1C		0E 1C	1E 0C	1E 2C
Cases (%)	7/10 (70)	9/14 (64)	18/25 (72)	8/12 (67)	2/2 (100)	1/1 (100)	0/2 (0)	2/4 (50)	7/22 (32)	0/0 (0)	2/2 (100)	1/2 (50)	9/15 (60)

Note. PT1 = past environmental factors; PT2 = past growth; PT3 = past operating philosophy; PT4 = past product/market mix; PT5 = past unfavorable financial reference; PT6 = past favorable financial reference; FT1 = future environmental factors; FT2 = future growth; FT3 = future operating philosophy; FT4 = future product/market mix; FT5 = future unfavorable financial reference; FT6 = future favorable financial reference; BC = Hong Kong blue chips; RC = Hong Kong red chips; SH = Shanghai Composite Index; TW = Taiwan Weighted Index; NA = not applicable because some sentences did not contain major themes. The numerical number before E (English) and C (Chinese) indicates the number of theme-embedded sentences.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank David R. Russell, Charlie Kostelnick, and the four anonymous reviewers for their invaluable suggestions and comments.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is funded by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Notes

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