A multi-dimensional analysis of corporate blogs
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Yang Wu
und
Hui Ren
Abstract
Using a corpus-based multi-dimensional analysis, this study investigates the linguistic features and variation of corporate blogs from four industries: Service industry, the Wholesale and Retail Trade industry, the Manufacturing industry, and Information industry. The primary goal of this study is to examine the linguistic variation in corporate blogs from different industries. The data used for the current study is a 570,745-word corpus consisting of 995 textual posts from 40 top-ranked corporate blogs. In the multi-dimensional analysis, 67 linguistic features in the corpus are tagged, counted and normalized by using a Multidimensional Analysis Tagger (MAT). We imported the output files containing relevant statistical information from the MAT and then to SPSS 25.0 for a further t-test analysis. Overall, the corporate blogs are closest to the text type of general narrative exposition. The study finds that, as a hybrid genre, corporate blogs are basically informationally dense, non-narrative, interactive, and contextually independent. There are some statistically significant differences between four sub-corpora in corporate blogs. In particular, the Wholesale & Retail Trade sub-corpus is the most distinctive one that is significantly different from others on many dimensions, characterized by giving instructions, or telling stories, rather than persuading their audiences to do something.
Funding source: The Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China: Research on the Construction and Communication of the International Discourse System of China’s Poverty Governance Since the Reform and Opening-up (Project No. 20&ZD140)
Award Identifier / Grant number: Project No. 20&ZD140
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Research funding: Supported by the project: The Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China: Research on the Construction and Communication of the International Discourse System of China’s Poverty Governance Since the Reform and Opening-up (Project No. 20&ZD140).
Appendix A: The industrial classification of corporate blogs
| Corporate blogs/number of CB texts | Primary industry codes | Industry type | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ①Delta Air Lines Blog (25) | SIC CODE 4512 | Air transportation, scheduled | Service |
| NAICS CODE 481112 | Scheduled freight air transportation | ||
| ②Whole Story (25) | SIC CODE 5411 | Food stores | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 445110 | Supermarkets and other grocery (except convenience) stores | ||
| ③Marriott on the move (30) | SIC CODE 7011 | Hotels, rooming houses, camps, and other lodging places | Service |
| NAICS CODE 721110 | Hotels (except casino hotels) and motels | ||
| ④The Cleanest Line (22) | SIC CODE 5651 | Family clothing stores | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 448140 | Family clothing stores | ||
| ⑤Toyota open road blog (27) | SIC Code 5511 | Motor vehicle dealers | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 441110 | New car dealers | ||
| ⑥Red Cross Chat (28) | SIC CODE 8082 | Home health care services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 621610 | Home health care services | ||
| ⑦FedEx Citizenship Blog (30) | SIC CODE 4212 | Local trucking without storage | Service |
| NAICS CODE 484110 | General freight trucking, local | ||
| ⑧Facebook Blog (20) | SIC CODE 7374 | Computer processing and data preparation and processing services | Information |
| NAICS CODE 518210 | Data processing, hosting, and related services | ||
| ⑨Turkey Hill (29) | SIC CODE 5411 | Grocery stores | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 445120 | Convenience stores | ||
| ⑩Lede (20) | SIC CODE 2711 | Newspapers: publishing, or publishing and printing | Information |
NAICS CODE 511110 |
Newspaper publishers | ||
| ⑪Wallet (5) | SIC Code 2711 | Newspapers: publishing, or publishing and printing | Information |
NAICS CODE 511110 |
Newspaper publishers | ||
| ⑫Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (7) | SIC Code 2711 | Newspapers: publishing, or publishing and printing | Information |
NAICS code 51111 |
Newspaper publishers | ||
| ⑬Amazon Web Services Blog (25) | SIC CODE 5961 | Miscellaneous retail | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 454110 | Electronic shopping and mail-order houses | ||
| ⑭Avaya – The Blog (25) | SIC CODE 8742 | Management consulting services | Service |
NAICS CODE 541611 |
Administrative management and general management consulting services | ||
| ⑮Brand Channeler (25) | SIC CODE 8743 | Public relations services | Service |
NAICS CODE 541820 |
Public relations agencies | ||
| ⑯BreakingPoint Labs Blog (25) | SIC Code 7379 | Computer related services | Service |
NAICS CODE 541519 |
Other computer related services | ||
| ⑱Clorox – Dr. Laundry (25) | SIC CODE 5169 | Chemicals and allied products | Wholesale trade |
| NAICS CODE 424690 | Other chemical and allied products merchant wholesalers | ||
| ⑲ComScore Voice (23) | SIC Code 7389 | Business services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 561990 | All other support services | ||
| ⑳Converge – A Bader Rutter Blog (23) | SIC CODE 8743 | Public relations services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 541820 | Public relations agencies | ||
 Corporate eye (22) |
We provide a variety of consulting services ranging from digital strategy (including benchmarking) through to supporting IT and business transformation projects. (https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/about-us/) | Service | |
 Dr. Laskys Blog (19) |
SIC Code, 3356 | Primary metal industries. | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 331491 | Primary metal industries. | ||
 Fiskars Ambassador (27) |
SIC CODE 3999 | Manufacturing Industries | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 339999 | All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing | ||
 Fandango Movie Blog (28) |
SIC Code: 7999 | Amusement and recreation services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 512130 | Motion picture and video exhibition | ||
 Garmin Blog (38) |
SIC Code: 3812 | Navigational systems and instruments | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 334511 | Navigational and guidance instruments manufacturing | ||
 Hu Yoshida (54) |
SIC CODE 3999 | Manufacturing Industries | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 339999 | All Other Miscellaneous Manufacturing | ||
 IAGblog (29) |
SIC Code 8742 | Management consulting services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 541619 | Other management consulting services | ||
 Infusionsoft Blog (21) |
SIC Code: 7371 | Computer Programming Services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 541511 | Custom Computer Programming Services | ||
 JNJ BTW (20) |
SIC CODE 2834 | Pharmaceutical Preparations | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 325412 | Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing | ||
 Logos Bible Software Blog (30) |
SIC Code: 5734 | Computer and Computer Software Stores | Retail trade |
| NAICS CODE 443142 | Electronics Stores | ||
 Marketing Conversation (21) |
SIC CODE 7389 | Business Services | Service |
NAICS CODE 561990 |
All Other Support Services | ||
 Oracle Blogs (22) |
SIC CODE 7371 | Computer Programming Services | Service |
NAICS CODE 541511 |
Custom Computer Programming Services | ||
 Rubbermaid – Adventures in Organization (20) |
SIC CODE 3499 | Fabricated Metal Products | Manufacturing |
| NAICS CODE 332999 | All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing | ||
 RS Consulting blog (35) |
SIC CODE 8742 | Management Consulting Services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 541611 | Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services | ||
 PurinaCare Pet Insurance Blog (19) |
SIC Code 6399 | Insurance carriers | Service |
| NAICS Code 541940 | Veterinary services | ||
 The LinkedIn Blog (28) |
SIC CODE 7371 | Business services Other business support services |
Service |
| NAICS Code 561499 | |||
 Tyson Foods Hunger Relief (20) |
SIC CODE 5144 | Poultry and Poultry Products | Wholesale trade |
| NAICS CODE 424440 | Poultry and Poultry Product Merchant Wholesalers | ||
 The Unboxed Thoughts Blog (25) |
SIC CODE 8743 | Public Relations Services | Service |
| NAICS CODE 541820 | Public Relations Agencies | ||
 Upside Learning Blog (30) |
SIC Code 8200 | Educational services | Service |
NAICS Code 61161 |
Fine arts schools | ||
 Verizon-Policy Blog (25) |
SIC CODE 4813 | Telephone Communications, except Radiotelephone | Service |
NAICS CODE 517911 |
Telecommunications Resellers | ||
 Xerox Blogs (23) |
SIC CODE 7371 | Printing, publishing, and allied industries | Manufacturing |
NAICS Code 323111 |
Printing |
Appendix B: Linguistic features selected for the MD analysis of corporate blogs
| 1 | Amplifiers (AMP) |
| 2 | Independent clause coordination (ANDC) |
| 3 | Word length (AWL) |
| 4 | Be as main verb (BEMA) |
| 5 | By-passives (BYPA) |
| 6 | Causative adverbial subordinators (CAUS) |
| 7 | Concessive adverbial subordinators (CONC) |
| 8 | Conditional adverbial subordinators (COND) |
| 9 | Conjuncts (CONJ) |
| 10 | Contractions (CONT) |
| 11 | Demonstratives (DEMO) |
| 12 | Demonstrative pronouns (DEMP)* |
| 13 | Discourse particles (DPAR) |
| 14 | Downtoners (DWNT) |
| 15 | Emphatics (EMPH) |
| 16 | Existential there (EX) |
| 17 | First person pronouns (FPP1) |
| 18 | Gerunds (GER)* |
| 19 | Hedges (HDG) |
| 20 | Indefinite pronouns (INPR) |
| 21 | Attributive adjectives (JJ) |
| 22 | Necessity modals (NEMD) |
| 23 | Total other nouns (NN) |
| 24 | Nominalizations (NOMZ) |
| 25 | Other adverbial subordinators (OSUB) |
| 26 | Agentless passives (PASS) |
| 27 | Past participial clauses (PASTP)* |
| 28 | Perfect aspect (PEAS) |
| 29 | Phrasal coordination (PHC) |
| 30 | Total prepositional phrases (PIN) |
| 31 | Pied-piping relative clauses (PIRE) |
| 32 | Pronoun it (PIT) |
| 33 | Place adverbials (PLACE) |
| 34 | Possibility modals (POMD) |
| 35 | Predicative adjectives (PRED) |
| 36 | Present participial clauses (PRESP)* |
| 37 | Private verbs (PRIV) |
| 38 | Predictive modals (PRMD) |
| 39 | Pro-verb do (PROD) |
| 40 | Public verbs (PUBV) |
| 41 | Total adverbs (RB) |
| 42 | Sentence relatives (SERE)* |
| 43 | Seem|appear (SMP) |
| 44 | Split auxiliaries (SPAU) |
| 45 | Split infinitives (SPIN) |
| 46 | Second person pronouns (SPP2) |
| 47 | Stranded preposition (STPR) |
| 48 | Suasive verbs (SUAV) |
| 49 | Synthetic negation (SYNE) |
| 50 | That adjective complements (THAC)* |
| 51 | Subordinator that deletion (THATD) |
| 52 | That verb complements (THVC)* |
| 53 | Time adverbials (TIME) |
| 54 | Infinitives (TO) |
| 55 | That relative clauses on object position (TOBJ)* |
| 56 | Third person pronouns (TPP3) |
| 57 | That relative clauses on subject position (TSUB)* |
| 58 | Type-token ratio (TTR) |
| 59 | Past tense (VBD) |
| 60 | Present tense (VPRT) |
| 61 | WH-clauses (WHCL) |
| 62 | WH relative clauses on object position (WHOBJ) |
| 63 | Direct WH-questions (WHQU) |
| 64 | WH relative clauses on subject position (WHSUB) |
| 65 | Past participial WHIZ deletion relatives (WZPAST)* |
| 66 | Present participial WHIZ deletion relatives (WZPRES)* |
| 67 | Analytic negation (XX0) |
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Metaphors across cultures
- Complexity trade-off in morphosyntactic module: suggestions from Japanese dialects
- The syntactic variety and semantic unity of the V de resultative construction in Mandarin Chinese
- A multi-dimensional analysis of corporate blogs
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Metaphors across cultures
- Complexity trade-off in morphosyntactic module: suggestions from Japanese dialects
- The syntactic variety and semantic unity of the V de resultative construction in Mandarin Chinese
- A multi-dimensional analysis of corporate blogs
