Constructing the convenient stakeholder in ‘best practice’ integrated reporting
通过语料库语言学工具分析最佳实践综合报告，发现利益相关者被被动建构，而股东被赋予权利和影响力，这种建构使公司表面回应利益相关者实则聚焦股东，强化了可持续性的金融化。
Integrated Reporting (IR) is a globally adopted framework, yet little is known about the actual reporting practices it entails. To address the ongoing tension over whether IR genuinely adopts a broader, more inclusive stakeholder orientation or remains primarily, or even exclusively, shareholder-focused, we examine how stakeholders in general, and shareholders in particular, are discursively constructed in best practice integrated reports. We use transitivity analysis, operationalised through Corpus Linguistics (CL) tools, to examine how grammatical and lexical choices construct meaning by revealing who is represented as ‘acting’, or ‘being acted upon’, in the text. We find that stakeholders are portrayed as passive, in need of guidance, yet also appreciative of corporate actions, while shareholders are presented as rights-bearing, and influential. We argue that this convenient construction allows companies to appear responsive to stakeholders while maintaining a primary focus on shareholders, thereby further reinforcing the financialisation of sustainability.