Rajandran, Kumaran
(2016)
Incorporating other texts: Intertextuality in Malaysian CSR reports.
Ibérica, 32.
pp. 87-104.
ISSN 1139-7241
Abstract
In Malaysia, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is relatively new but
corporations have been required to engage in and disclose their CSR. A typical
genre for disclosure is CSR reports and these reports often refer to other texts.
The article investigates the act of referencing to other texts or intertextuality in
Malaysian CSR reports. It creates an archive of CEO Statements and
Environment Sections in CSR reports and studies the archive for keywords,
which can identify the incorporated texts. The function of these texts is
examined in relation to Malaysia’s corporate context. CSR reports contain
explicit references to documents (policies, regulations, reports, research,
standards) and to individuals/groups (CEOs, stakeholders, expert
organizations). The incorporated texts display variation in corporate control,
which organizes these texts along an intertextual cline. The cline helps to identify
corporate and non-corporate sources among the texts. The selection of
incorporated texts may reflect government and stock exchange demands. The
texts are not standardized and are relevant for the CSR domain and corporations,
where these texts monitor and justify CSR performance. Yet, the incorporated
texts may perpetuate inexact reporting because corporations select the texts and
the parts of texts to refer to. Since these texts have been employed to scrutinize
initiatives and results, CSR reports can claim to represent the “truth” about a
corporation’s CSR. Hence, intertextuality serves corporate interests.
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