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Bibliometric analysis of literature on narrative discourse in corporate annual reports (1990–2019)

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Abstract

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of prior studies on narratives in corporate annual reports (CARs) between 1990 and 2019. It is found that studies in the past longitudinally follow an ascending trend with uneven distribution across disciplines and nations. Their primary data source is the entire CAR or its components. Usually based on the content or textual analytical approaches, they aim to uncover the mapping of narrative discourse onto the corporate performance. Their hotspots include CARs’ readability, financial reporting aggressiveness, firm disclosure genres, firm disclosure content, and corporate impression management. They rely heavily upon the theoretical or methodological frameworks involving corporate governance, dictionary, machine learning, and statistical modeling. Findings of the present research point to five under-investigated areas that need future research.

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Notes

  1. The query sets are “TS = (narrati* OR text* OR discourse) AND TS = annual report AND TS = (compan* OR firm* OR corporat* OR enterprise*) NOT TS = (“narrative review” OR narrative therapy OR textile* OR texture* OR textbook*)”.

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Funding

Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UCAS (Y95402GXX2) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in UIBE (CXTD9-08).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foreign Languages Department, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 19A,Yuquan Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100049, Beijing, China

    Yubin Qian

  2. School of International Studies, University of International Business and Economics, No.10, Huixin East Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, China

    Ya Sun

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  1. Yubin Qian
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Qian, Y., Sun, Y. Bibliometric analysis of literature on narrative discourse in corporate annual reports (1990–2019). Qual Quant 56, 429–446 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01135-5

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