Wim J.L. ElvingU of Amsterdam / ASCoRIE University Madrid, Spain

Conference on Corporate Communications

• CCIJ is proud to be involved & will be involved in the future

• CCI is THE platform for the exchange of research and insights in Corporate Communication that is vital for our field of study

• The conference showed the increasing importance of Corporate Communications and its internationalization over the years

Agenda

• Developments in Corporate Communications• Developments in CCIJ over the 10 last years• Relation CCIJ with CCI and this conference• Current position of CCIJ

– ISI Ranking update– Best Papers Volume 19 (2014)

• New editor in chief of CCIJ• Closing remarks

Corporate Communications (CorpCom)• Scholars & practitioners from

– PR– Marketing– Communication– Management– Organization

…. look for similarities in terms of challenges, foci and driving forces across different fields, acknowledging that such similarities are often more important than the differences

STRATEGY MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONORGANIZATION

CORPCOM

PSYCHOLOGYSOCIOLOGYLANGUAGESPOLITICAL SCIENCES etcetera

Corporate Communications II

• Concerned issues about– Identity - Legitimacy – Consistency - Responsibility– Transparency - Ethics– Accountability - Persuasion– Credibility - Involvement

CorpCom

Corporate communication is the notion, the ideal and the managerial process of communicating the organization as a unique, coherent and credible entity (Elving, Illia, Christensen, Podnar, Lurati, Golob, Romenti & Invernizi, forthcoming)

The notion• Great persuasive power, because it suggests a focus on

the corporation as a whole• It is a more contemporary and sophisticated version of

public relations, marketing and / or mass communications, • Includes elements from these fields in addition to

specialized communication practices such as crisis communications, media relations, community relations, investor relations, employee relations, public affairs, etc. (Goodman, 1994; Argenti, 1998; Dilenschneider, 2000)

• Corporate communication is an umbrella term for a field of practice that draws on multiple communication and management activities (Shelby, 1993)

The ideal• Corporate Communication represents an significant

and managerial ideal:– The organization can be and must be accessible and

manageable as a whole• Manage all communication that involve an

organization as a corporate entity (Harrison,1995) • As an all embracing framework designed and

organized to integrate ‘the total business message’ (Van Riel, 1995)

A central managerial activity• Orchestration of different messages and behaviors

becomes a central managerial activity• The set of activities involved in managing and

orchestrating all internal and external communications aimed at creating favorable starting points with stakeholders on which the company depends (van Riel & Fombrun, 2007)

• Rather than pursuing different identities vis-à-vis different audiences or letting different departments handle their communications autonomously, the vision of corporate communication, in other words, is to manage all communications under one banner.

Reasons• … are multiple, but often cohere around on issues of

identity and legitimacy • In a globalized world of increased complexity,

organizational existence hinges on the ability to establish and maintain the organization as a unified whole across a pool of different and often critical stakeholders

• This belief increasingly shapes the communication strategies of contemporary organizations e.g. branding themselves rather than their products, attempting so to speak to “sell” the company behind the product

UmbrellaThe fact that many organizations now place their communication activities under the umbrella of corporate communications, however, reflects more than a shift in branding strategies.

Orientation with total images of organizations – images that are able to cover physical, symbolic and behavioral dimensions of an organization’s life.

CorpCom

Study & practice of CorpCom• Develop and refine a particular mind-set, that is, a

certain way of thinking about and approaching an organization’s communication, focusing on unity, wholeness and coherence

• Many disciplines may contribute to the development of such mind-set, as evidenced by the growing number of conferences, journals and study programs that show interest in corporate communication as a field and practice

• For historical, political and/or pragmatic reasons, not all programs that develop such corporate communication mind-set use CorpCom as label

Masters in CorpCom (MCC’s)• Offered in a big variety of settings• Business schools, humanities, language departments,

social sciences offer MCC’s with their own emphasis and ideas

• We need a system in which MCC’s are constructed to ensure employers with the knowledge of what they are hiring with a Master in Corporate Communication

• We need to set up a set of core elements and core competencies of MCC’s and create Benchmarks between these

Masters in CorpCom (MCC’s)• In the long run this might lead to accreditation like the

European EQUIS for MBA’s• If we don’t take the initiative in this, our administrators

will do and in the best option will force us to do• We started with this several years ago with scholars

from various Universities in Europe and US – Copenhagen Business School; U of Amsterdam; U of

Lugano; IE U Madrid; IULM, Milano; U of Ljubljana; LSE, London; Brunel U.; Harvard U.; Aarhus U.; Free U. Amsterdam, Middlesex U, London; Erasmus U, Rotterdam; Stern U, New York

MCC’s• We had five different sessions over the last seven

years with colleagues of several European and US CorpCom programs

• Position paper on MCC’s soon in CCIJ• What elements should a MCC have, what should be

taught etcetera• Not a blueprint, but a set of guidelines to construct

programs, or to benchmark programs• First step to accreditation• If we as a community do not take this 1st step, our

administrators will force us to do so in the long run

Masters in CorpCom (MCC’s)• In the long run this might lead to accreditation • The Position paper will be published in CCIJ, and will

be starting point (hopefully) for an extended discussion in this

• We will include the associations of professionals (international, but also local) in to this

• It is a very necessary step for getting to the next level with CorpCom

CorpCom as a field of study• Is and has been partially dominated by a

functionalistic view (Shannon & Weaver,1949; Schramm, 1954)

• Reality exists and communication has the function conveying it in a controlled way (Christensen et al., 2005)

• An organization must determine what it wants in response from a particular constituency before it decides to communicate (Argenti, 1996)

• Drivers informing the evaluation of the firm (reputation) and the need to project what the organization is about, its identity (Van Riel, 1997)

CorpCom activities• designed starting from stakeholders’ concerns • differently from traditional PR, corporate

communication considers the identity of the organization, its raison d’être, as the second central area in the development of a sustainable corporate story

• We have seen an increase of studies into ‘corporate identity’ and ‘corporate branding’, which allow to explicitly link communication to corporate strategy (Cornelissen, et al., 2006)

• In particular to acknowledge that communication plays a role in defining corporate strategy

Organizational communication• An organizational communication view, that allows to

foreground how “communication organizes rather than the traditional focus on the organization of communication”, provides a better equipment to fully comprehend this (potential) evolution of corporate communication (Christensen and Cornelissen, 2011)

• Organizational communication framework allows to move from a macro perspective to a micro perspective and from a functionalist to an interpretative view, and therefore to go beyond the conduit and deterministic understanding of communication

Sensemaking

Communication is seen as a complex sense making process driven by individuals and their agency. • This change has not to be associated with the concern of

alignment across identities, cultures and reputations (Christensen

& Cornelissen, 2011; Fombrun & Rindova, 2000; Hatch & Schultz, 2001 & 2008; Van Riel, 2012)

Organizations are considered as realities that needs to be discovered and represented• Communication is

– an active driver in the definition of organizational reality” (Weick, 2004)

– and that “organizations to a great extent create their environment” (Christensen, et al, 2007)

Saying & Seeing• Reality is co-created by actors through discourse,

which is here seen not anymore as only saying, but also as seeing (Weick, 2004)

• Seeing being meant in socio-constructivist terms, where meaning, and therefore reality, emerge from conversations through interpretation and joint-authorship (Putnam, et al. 1996)

• Conversations and texts coexist (Weick, 2004)

CCO• Existing identities, expertise, responsibilities, material

artefacts, etcetera matter not because they are conveyed by communication, but because they act in communication and as such they become part of the co-creation of reality, i.e. the organization

• As such they also assume meaning, following a co-orientation process, which takes the form of a self-organizing loop between text and conversation (Cooren et al., 2011).

• Organizations are constantly (re)produced, (re)incarnated, and (re)embodied in local interactions, and thus subject to change and renewal”.

• Communication is at the heart of this process

2 sides of the same coin?Organizations are constantly monitored by an increasing number of internal and external stakeholders who look for gaps, discrepancies and contradictions in organizational messages and actions and who participate in conversations that influence the environment in which firms compete and how firms decide to compete

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION

Organizational approach to CorpComFrom functionalistic to interpretative

Methodological • observing conversations requires relying on inductive,

interpretativist, and qualitative methods

Strategic focus• Not only cognitive, i.e. the constituency’s response

(Argenti, 1996) • But also corporate and business, i.e. the production of

organizations in communication (Cooren et al., 2011), and organizational, i.e. the agency of individuals, in particular associated to “political, cultural and structural aspects related to practice CC” (Cornelissen et al., 2006)

Organizational approach to CorpCom IIInterpersonal communication• For instance

– dialogic communication for making “the world come alive” by having people think together (Isaac, 1999) and storytelling as the method that acknowledges the “discursive, social nature of the strategy project” (Barry and

Elmes, 1997: 430).

10 years

2006• I took over from Sandra Oliver• Main first task was to set up a robust double-blind

review procedure• Prior to Scholar one, by hand we had to select

reviewers, and copy/past the feedback provided

International

Country of origin 1st authors in CCIJ (Elving, 2010)

2015

Countries of 1st authors 2006 – 2014 (Elving, 2015)

Country of 1st author 2006 - 2014

USA & Canada; 55

Scandinavia; 64Rest of Europe ; 60

UK; 20

Australia & NZ; 15

Asia; 26

Africa; 2 South America; 2

Topics 2008 – 2013(Elving, 2014)INT

ER

NA

L CR

ISIS

C

OM

MU

NIC

AT

ION BUSINESS

WRITING

CO

MM

UN

ICA

TIO

N

MA

NA

GE

ME

NT

FINANCIAL COMMUNICATION

CRISIS COMMUNICATION

CORPORATE REPUTATION

CSR COMMUNICATION

SOCIAL MEDIA

STA

KE

HO

LD

ER

T

HE

OR

YIN

VE

ST

OR

R

EL

AT

ION

SLANGUAGE

Role Name H-Index CitationsRegional Editor Joep Cornelissen 17 891

EAB John M.T. Balmer 14 925NEW Editor W. Timothy Coombs 13 549

EAB Juan Llopis 12 611EAB T.C. Melewar 12 570EAB Judy Motion 9 250

Regional Editor Shirley Leitch 8 183OLD Editor Wim Elving 8 247

EAB Juliet Roper 8 230EAB Sabine Einwiller 7 191EAB Peggy Simcic Bronn 7 139

Regional Editor Shaun Powell 6 63EAB Lars Christensen 6 174EAB Irene Pollach 6 143EAB Pertti Hurme 6 139EAB Sabrina Helm 6 108EAB Friederike Schultz 6 147EAB Oyvind Ihlen 6 108EAB Klement Podnar 6 122EAB Mette Morsing 5 113EAB Dejan Verčič 5 63EAB Paul Capriotti 5 98

Regional Editor Michael B Goodman 5 120EAB Paul Argenti 5 185

Regional Editor Finn Frandsen 4 40EAB Winni Johansen 4 40EAB Laura Illia 4 59

H-index Editorial Advisory Board(average of EAB is 5)

Statistics Usage

2013 - 149,143 (YTD - 74,203)

2014 - 195,106 (YTD - 88,266)

2015 (YTD 22.5.15) - 92,665

2013 2014 20150

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

downloads

YTD

5% ahead of this time last year

Scopus Data 2012

Citations = 341

Impact factor = 1.042

2013

Citations = 397

Impact factor = 0.905

2014

Citations = 412

IPP = n/a

SCImago

H Index = 18Category: Business, Management and Accounting Quartile: Q2

No. of Original Submissions

2012 = 86

2013 = 106 (REF year)

2014 = 91

2015 (YTD) = 27

2012 2013 2014 20150

20

40

60

80

100

120

Increase of words per Manuscript from 6,000 8,000Increase from 6 papers to 8 papers per issue

Best Papers Volume 19, CCIJ (2014)1. A multidisciplinary approach for a new understanding of

corporate communication -Alessandra Mazzei

2. Repertoires of the corporate past: explanation and framework. Introducing an integrated and dynamic perspective - Mario Burghausen & John Balmer

3. Negotiating crisis in the social media environment: evolution of crises online, gaining credibility offline - Augustine Pang

Best Reviewer Award: • Anne Ellerup Nielsen, Aarhus School of Business,

Department of Language and Business Communication

Most popular articles from CCIJLast year Most citedThe role of communication in Organisational Change – Wim J.L. Elving (2005)

Corporate reputation: seeking a definition – Manto Gotsi & Alan Wilson (2001)

Developing internal crisis communication – Mats Heide and Charlotte Simonsson (2014)

CSR expectations: the focus of corporate marketing – Klement Podnar & Ursa Golob (2007)

Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach – Mary Welch & Paul Jackson (2007)

Rethinking internal communication: a stakeholder approach – Mary Welch & Paul Jackson (2007)

Integrated marketing communication: from tactics to stratey – Olof Holm (2006)

Ethical branding and corporate reputation – Ying Fang (2005)

Corporate reputation: seeking a definition – Manto Gotsi & Alan Wilson (2001)

Can a city communicate? Bradford as a corporate brand – Myfanwy Trueman, Mary Klemm & Axele Giroud (2004)

Relation with CCI @BARUCH U.• CCI Conference on Corporate Communication is one

of the drivers of progress of CorpCom• A conference, truly international, aimed at the

exchange of insights and research in CorpCom• CCIJ is proud to be involved with this conference, and

the prominent role at the conference• No special issues but special sections (as of 2015)• Papers still can be submitted and we will have a

special section in each volume on the conference of the previous year

Why NO Special Issues anymore• To develop the journal and be eligible for an ISI

ranking we need to have Special Issues around special themes

• Papers from CCI conference are general• A special issue of this conference has no SPECIAL

feature, since these can be in regular issues as well• Special issues need to have a particular theme, like

CCIJ has these on Corporate Apologia, CSR Communication, and Corporate Marketing

• These Special issues attract more downloads and interest in the journal

Ranking• CCIJ is ranked high in some countries (Scandinavia it

is considered as top journal, as well as in some other countries)

• CCIJ has a B ranking in the Australian Business Deans Council

• CCIJ has another submission for an ISI ranking (Thomson)– ISI is to some extension self oriented; once a journal is

in the list, it is hard to get out– A new field of study as CorpCom is complex– Citations in listed journals (..) are needed

New Editor in Chief• As of Next years Volume Timothy Coombs, currently in

Central Florida State University, but as of this summer at Texas A&M University will take over my role as Editor in Chief

"Corporate communication is a unique mix of academics and

practitioner interests that provides fertile ground for future research.  In part the

future is so bright given the unique fields that flow together to create corporate communication.  I look

forward to expanding the number of people involved with the journal through

submissions and reviews."

Sum up• State of our CorpCom field is progressing • CCIJ needs an ISI ranking!• We need to

– Include regions of the world like South America, Africa and some parts of Asia

– Come up with benchmarks in Master programs

It was an honor to serve the CorpCom community by being editor in chief of Corporate Communications, an International Journal

Thank you all for making this possible

Best Papers CCI conference 2015Highly commended applied paper

From Output to Impact: How to Increase the Accountability of Your Communication Department by Making Use of Available Data within Your Organization - Carlijn Remmelzwaal and Caroline Wehrmann, Department of Science Education and Communication, Delft University of Technology; and Frank Körver, GKSV (consultancy on Reputation & Communcation & Public Affairs), The Netherlands

 

Best applied paper

“Visual Press Release”: A Qualitative Analysis of Public Relations Infographics as Brand and Reputation Management Tactics - Candace P. Parrish, Ashley O. Jones and Jason A. Fuller, Richard T. Robertson School of Media & Culture, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

 

Highly commended theoretical paper

A Micro-Ethnographic Perspective on Strategy Change Communication: Framing Downsizing as an Institutionalized, Strategic Process - Helle Kryger Aggerholm and Birte Asmuß, Department of Business Communication, Aarhus University, Denmark

 

Best theoretical paper

Developing a Thematic Categorization System for Corporate Leaders' Web-based Communication in Greater China - Cindy Sing Bik Ngai, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Rita Gill Singh, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong