IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/accfor/v36y2012i3p194-208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports

Author

Listed:
  • Colin Higgins
  • Robyn Walker

Abstract

We demonstrate how persuasive strategies activate the ‘middle ground’ discourses of responsible and sustainable business constructed in three social/environmental reports. Drawing on insights from impression management and communication studies, and Kenneth Burke's understanding that rhetoric is all pervasive, we focus on Aristotle's rhetorical ‘proofs’: ethos (credibility), logos (reason), and pathos (emotion). We study the social/environmental reports produced by three New Zealand companies during a wider discursive struggle over the ‘proper’ role of business in society. We argue that persuasive strategies facilitate the social effects of ‘middle ground’ discourse by making business-centred understandings of social responsibility and sustainability appear reasonable and business organisations appear trustworthy in their pursuit of sustainable development. This study complements discourse analyses of social/environmental reporting by providing a finer-grained picture of how language use influences how social actors think, feel and act.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin Higgins & Robyn Walker, 2012. "Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 194-208, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accfor:v:36:y:2012:i:3:p:194-208
    DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammed Hossain & Md. Tarikul Islam & Mahmood Ahmed Momin & Shamsun Nahar & Md. Samsul Alam, 2019. "Understanding Communication of Sustainability Reporting: Application of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 563-586, December.
    2. Tuvana Cüre & Emel Esen & Arzu Özsözgün Çalışkan, 2020. "Impression Management in Graphical Representation of Economic, Social, and Environmental Issues: An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Carlota Rocha Araújo & Paulo Botelho Pires & Catarina Delgado & José Duarte Santos, 2023. "Persuasive Determinants in the Hotel Industry’s Newsletter Opening Rates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-27, February.
    4. Keramitsoglou, Kiriaki M. & Mellon, Robert C. & Tsagkaraki, Maria I. & Tsagarakis, Konstantinos P., 2020. "Designing a logo for renewable energy sources with public participation: Empirical evidence from Greece," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1205-1218.
    5. Peggy A. Kakisina & Tantri R. Indhiarti & Muchamad Sholakhuddin Al Fajri, 2022. "Discursive Strategies of Manipulation in COVID-19 Political Discourse: The Case of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, February.
    6. Andersen, Sophie Esmann & Høvring, Christiane Marie, 2020. "CSR stakeholder dialogue in disguise: Hypocrisy in story performances," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 421-435.
    7. Lorenzo Gelmini & Valentina Minutiello & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Maurizio Comoli, 2021. "Rhetoric, Accounting and Accountability: COVID-19 and the Case of Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    8. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Valentina Minutiello & Patrizia Tettamanzi, 2022. "Gender disclosure: The impact of peer behaviour and the firm's equality policies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 385-405, March.
    9. Wendy Stubbs & Colin Higgins & Markus Milne, 2013. "Why Do Companies Not Produce Sustainability Reports?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(7), pages 456-470, November.
    10. Christensen, Lars Thøger & Morsing, Mette & Thyssen, Ole, 2020. "Timely hypocrisy? Hypocrisy temporalities in CSR communication," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 327-335.
    11. Ionel Bostan & Ionela-Corina Chersan & Magdalena Danileț & Mihaela Ifrim & Viorica Chirilă, 2020. "Investigations Regarding the Linguistic Register Used by Managers to Convey to Stakeholders a Positive View of Their Company, in the Context of the Business Sustainability Desideratum," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Kougiannou, Nadia K. & O'Meara Wallis, Matthew, 2020. "‘Chimneys don't belch out carnations!’ The (in)tolerance of corporate hypocrisy: A case study of trust and community engagement strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 348-362.
    13. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    14. Charl de Villiers & Jing Jia & Zhongtian Li, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility: A review of empirical research using Thomson Reuters Asset4 data," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4523-4568, December.
    15. La Torre, Matteo & Dumay, John & Rea, Michele Antonio & Abhayawansa, Subhash, 2020. "A journey towards a safe harbour: The rhetorical process of the International Integrated Reporting Council," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    16. Charles H. Cho & Michele Fabrizi & Silvia Pilonato & Federica Ricceri, 2024. "Not all bad news is harmful to a good reputation: evidence from the most visible companies in the US," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(1), pages 9-36, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:accfor:v:36:y:2012:i:3:p:194-208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/racc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.