The relationality of parts for narrative identity constitution in the corporate profile translations of China's multinational corporations

Globalization has significantly benefited emerging economies like China, yet challenges remain. Western consumers often hold less favorable views of emerging markets, and global events like the 2008 financial crisis and the US-China trade war have impacted globalization. To address this and align with the Chinese government's 'Go Global' strategy, Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) have adapted their storytelling through corporate profile translations. These translations provide valuable insights into narrative analysis. Existing literature defines storytelling in international and business communications as narrative, grounding this interpretation in narrative research within the social sciences. Margaret Somers' relational approach emphasizes that narrative features form a systematic whole, with identities constituted within this relational network. The study focuses on MNC corporate profiles and their translations, which serve as prominent self-presentation tools. Corporate profiles are crucial because they convey selected information and function as a direct way for readers to form impressions of a corporation. While narrative has been applied to other fields, its application to corporate profile translation, particularly in emerging economies, remains undertheorized. This research addresses how parts relate to form a whole narrative in these profiles, how the relationality of parts shifts during translation, and the extent to which these shifts influence corporate identity constitution.

Narrative research in social sciences provides the theoretical foundation for understanding storytelling in international and business communications. Margaret Somers' relational approach advocates using narrativity features (relationality of parts, causal emplotment, selective appropriation, and temporality) as a systematic whole. Somers' work primarily focuses on monolingual narratives, requiring further exploration within multilingual contexts. Mona Baker connects Somers' work with Jerome Bruner's, highlighting overlaps in their definitions of narrativity features. However, Baker's work doesn't explicitly address narrative identity constitution within the relational setting of translation studies. The relationality of parts, often referred to as connectivity, focuses on how individual elements configure within a narrative to acquire meaning. Scholars differ on defining these parts, with some considering episodes as the central organizing elements. William Labov's narrative structure, encompassing precipitating events, complicating actions, codas, and evaluations (external and embedded), provides a practical framework for analyzing the relationality of parts. Previous research has employed these concepts in analyzing various genres, but a systematic study of corporate profile translation is lacking. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationality of parts in Chinese MNC corporate profiles and their English translations, focusing on how these parts form a whole narrative, the shifts in relationality during translation, and their impact on corporate identity.

This study employs a qualitative approach with homogenous purposeful sampling, selecting twelve state-owned Chinese manufacturing MNCs. These were chosen to minimize confounding factors related to environmental forces and focus on identity shifts within a specific setting. The selection criteria included state ownership and involvement in the manufacturing industry, ensuring a similar political and social context and rich information for analysis. Theoretical thematic analysis was used to identify, analyze, and report patterns (themes) within the data, addressing the research questions. The analysis process involved three steps: 1. Determining the parts and structure of each narrative, identifying episodes, precipitating events, complicating actions, codas, and evaluations. 2. Identifying differences and similarities in relationality of parts between source and target texts to detect translation shifts. 3. Examining shifts in relational settings between source and target texts to assess their influence on identity constitution. To enhance the study's validity, five semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with translators and a project manager involved in corporate profile translation. The interviews aimed to verify the translation shifts and underlying decisions regarding corporate identities. The interviews focused on the translation process, corporate requirements, and the desired image presented to stakeholders. The interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis and cross-checked with the corporate profile data analysis results.

The analysis revealed two predominant patterns in the relationality of parts: temporally sequenced and causally sequenced. In the temporally sequenced pattern (seven out of twenty-four texts), narratives progress chronologically from origin to achievements or future promise. In the causally sequenced pattern (seventeen out of twenty-four texts), narratives proceed from the corporation's business nature to its achievements, showcasing a causal link between qualifications and success. The study found shifts in the relationality of parts in seven out of twelve paired samples (source and target texts). These shifts involved variations in precipitating events, evaluations, and codas. No unified pattern emerged among these shifts; some showed changes in only one element, while others had multiple shifts. The impact of these shifts on corporate identity constitution varied. Shifting precipitating events repositioned the corporation's identity within a different context (e.g., from emphasizing a historical predecessor to focusing on current business capabilities). Shifts in evaluations altered the focal points, highlighting different aspects of the corporate identity (e.g., emphasizing domestic strength in the target text). In cases with multiple element shifts, the effect on identity reconstitution was more pronounced, leading to a more significant change in the overall corporate presentation. The in-depth interviews validated these findings, confirming that corporations are aware of the impact of translation on their identity and actively shape their narrative to create a desired image for target stakeholders. The corporations' understanding of their position in the market and the target audience's preferences guided their choices in the translation and adaptation of their narratives.

The findings demonstrate the utility of Somers' relational approach integrated with Labov's narrative structure to analyze corporate profile translation. The study confirms that corporate profiles are not random collections of information but rather carefully constructed narratives with selected and purposefully arranged episodes, which reflect dynamic corporate identities. The diverse shifts in relationality during translation highlight the fluidity and uniqueness of corporate identities. These shifts are strategically employed by corporations to tailor their image for target markets. The research contributes theoretically by offering a novel approach to analyze narrative structure in translation and by highlighting the dynamic nature of identity constitution. It practically assists corporations, especially in emerging economies, in strategically presenting themselves to global markets. The findings emphasize translation's crucial role in shaping corporate communication and identity.

This study reveals that corporate profile translations of Chinese MNCs follow specific narrative patterns and undergo strategic changes during translation to present a desired image to target stakeholders. The findings underscore the importance of considering the relationality of parts and their impact on corporate identity construction during the translation process. Future research could explore other industries and geographic contexts to validate the findings' generalizability and investigate the applications of narrative identity theory to other forms of corporate communication, particularly in multimodal contexts.

The study's use of homogenous sampling (state-owned Chinese manufacturing MNCs) limits the generalizability of the findings to other contexts. Future research could examine MNCs in other industries or geographical regions to assess the robustness of the identified patterns. The reliance on a limited number of in-depth interviews could also limit the depth of insights into corporate decision-making processes related to translation.