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

The paper situates Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) within globalization and notes the challenges to global expansion (financial crisis, trade tensions, COVID-19) and Western consumer perceptions. In response and aligned with the Chinese government’s Go Global strategy, Chinese MNCs increasingly use corporate profile translations to present themselves to overseas markets. Corporate profiles are prominent corporate communications that serve a self-presentation function and strongly shape target readers’ impressions. While narrative perspectives have been applied in translation studies, storytelling in corporate profile translation, especially for emerging economies, remains undertheorized. This study asks: (1) How do the parts relate to form a whole narrative in the corporate profiles of China’s MNCs? (2) How is the relationality of parts in corporate profiles shifted during their translation? (3) To what extent do these shifts influence the constitution of corporate identities?

The study integrates Somers’ relational approach to narrative identity with Labov’s narrative structure. Somers conceptualizes narratives as networks of connected parts embedded in time and space and constituted by causal emplotment, with four interdependent narrativity features: relationality of parts, causal emplotment, selective appropriation, and temporality. In translation studies, Baker introduced these features and related Somers’ relationality of parts to Bruner’s hermeneutic composability, but did not address identity constitution within translation. The paper problematizes what counts as narrative parts. While Baker lists elements (events, characters, language, layout, imagery), Bamberg and Marchman define episodes as the elements that hold a narrative together—a view aligned with Somers’ notion that relationality transforms events into episodes. Köppe’s event criteria (something happens involving a substance, a predicate about it, and a time interval), with approximate boundaries captured via linguistic units (e.g., sentences), are adopted to delineate events that can be sequenced into episodes. Labov’s structure clarifies how episodes are organized via irreducible clausal sequences and justified via evaluations, distinguishing precipitating events (starting points that trigger storytelling), complicating actions (interwoven episodes), and codas (closures linking narrative to the present), together with evaluations that justify tellability. Evaluations can be external (authorial remarks to readers) or embedded (within the action). In translation, shifts in evaluations indicate changes in the markers of self-presentation. An illustrative example from CRRC shows an external evaluation upgraded in translation from “important business card” to “one of the jewels in China’s crown,” repositioning corporate identity from transactional to nationally valorized. The paper also reviews identity theory: corporate identity, as organizational self-presentation, is fluid and unique, constituted within relational settings that shift over time and space (Somers). Identity is a position within a network of relationships among institutions, public narratives, and practices; studying how parts relate and how these relationships shift across translations helps locate identity positions and their changes.

The study employs a qualitative design with homogenous purposeful sampling to focus on identity shifts while controlling for environmental confounds. Sample: 12 state-owned Chinese manufacturing MNCs identified from the CEC/CEDA Top 100 Chinese MNCs list (2020) and verified via Qichacha for ownership and sector. Manufacturing was chosen for richness in corporate communications and salience in an emerging economy context. Data: Chinese source texts (STs) and English target texts (TTs) of corporate profiles (12 pairs; 24 texts). Analysis: theoretical thematic analysis. Coding units are episodes (events sequenced into narrative parts). Three structural themes were initially coded per Labov: precipitating event, complicating actions, and coda; evaluations were extracted and categorized as external or embedded. The first research question was addressed by identifying how episodes and evaluations form whole narratives. The second by comparing STs and TTs to detect shifts in relationality of parts (including precipitating events, evaluations, codas). The third by examining how shifts reposition identities within relational settings. To identify causal sequencing among episodes, the study applied Dahlstrom’s causality model (necessity criterion: A is causal for B if B could not occur without A) to map causal networks. Triangulation: five semi-structured interviews (four translators, one translation project manager) involved in corporate profile translation for Chinese MNCs; interviews (15–20 minutes via phone/online), recorded and transcribed. Core questions covered translation processes, corporate requirements, and desired stakeholder-facing images. Transcripts were thematically analyzed and cross-checked against textual findings to validate interpretations of translation decisions behind relationality shifts.

- Two predominant patterns of relationality of parts were identified across the 24 texts (12 ST–TT pairs): (1) Temporal sequence pattern (7/24 texts: STs of Samples 1, 2, 9; both ST and TT of Samples 3 and 4): narratives proceed chronologically, typically from origin (precipitating event) through achievements and operations (complicating actions) to present/future promise (coda), with embedded evaluations highlighting status and CSR. (2) Causal sequence pattern (17/24 texts): narratives present business nature as precipitating event, progress through qualifications and capabilities (complicating actions), and culminate in present achievements (coda); embedded evaluations emphasize the outcomes as evidence of success. - Translation-induced shifts: 7 of 12 pairs exhibited shifts in relationality of parts between ST and TT; 5 pairs did not. Shifts were diverse with no unified pattern: precipitating event shifts in 4 pairs; evaluation shifts in 5 pairs; coda shift in 1 pair; some pairs had multiple elements shifted (e.g., Sample 8: precipitating event and embedded evaluations; Sample 9: precipitating event, external evaluations, and coda). - Effects of specific shifts: • Precipitating event-only shifts (e.g., Sample 1, Sinopec): ST begins with historical origin; TT begins with business nature as a super-large enterprise; codas and evaluations remain aligned. This repositions the contextual trigger from macro (state-linked historical predecessor) to micro (firm’s own qualification) without altering overall narrative focus on present achievement. • Evaluation shifts (e.g., Sample 4, Aluminium Corporation of China): TT adds embedded evaluations emphasizing domestic leadership and rare earth status, thickening identity layers and accentuating qualifications for foreign audiences. • Multiple-element shifts (e.g., Sample 8): ST foregrounds state ownership as precipitating event; TT shifts to origin and adds embedded evaluation stressing internationalization, downplaying state ownership and projecting a more independent, outward-facing identity. In Sample 9, reordering across elements led to a more evident identity reconstitution in TT. - General pattern: Most single-element shifts (only precipitating event or only evaluation) do not change the overall relationality pattern, but they reposition contextual triggers or focal points. The more elements that shift, the greater the impact on relationality of parts and identity constitution. - Interview corroboration: Practitioners report iterative, multi-party translation processes with structural adjustments directed by superiors, adherence to corporate market positioning and desired image, and sensitivity to target stakeholders’ acceptance (sometimes informed by executives’ overseas experience or customer surveys). These insights align with observed textual shifts and confirm intentional identity design via translation.

The findings address the three research questions by demonstrating that corporate profiles of Chinese state-owned manufacturing MNCs are coherently organized narratives that predominantly follow temporal or causal sequencing; that translations frequently modify the relationality of parts, albeit without a single dominant shift pattern; and that such shifts reposition identity within different relational settings. Shifts in precipitating events alter the contextual triggers from macro (state/history) to micro (firm attributes), while shifts in evaluations redirect focal points toward specific identity facets (e.g., leadership, internationalization). When multiple elements shift, identity reconstitution is more pronounced, sometimes altering the overall narrative trajectory. These results underscore the fluidity and uniqueness of corporate identities and the strategic role of translation in tailoring narratives to target markets. The integration of Somers’ relational identity theory with Labov’s structural model proves analytically useful in multilingual corporate communication contexts, showing how relational networks within narratives drive identity positioning in TTs.

The study demonstrates that corporate profile translations are structured narratives whose parts (episodes and evaluations) are organized predominantly in temporal or causal sequences, and that translation can shift these relational configurations to varying extents. Such shifts, often intentional, enable Chinese MNCs to reconstitute corporate identities for foreign stakeholders, highlighting the fluid and unique nature of organizational identity. Theoretically, the research advances understanding of narrative relationality and identity constitution in a multilingual corporate communication genre by integrating Somers’ relational framework with Labov’s narrative structure. Practically, it informs corporations in emerging economies about strategic options for presenting identities through translation amid complex economic environments and stakeholder expectations. Future research should replicate in other industries and national contexts (including developed economies), and extend analysis to multimodal corporate communications to examine how narrative identity theory and Labov’s structure operate beyond text-only profiles.

The study employed homogenous purposeful sampling of 12 state-owned Chinese manufacturing MNCs, which supports focus and comparability but limits generalizability across industries, ownership types, and countries. The genre focus on textual corporate profiles excludes multimodal formats, and the small number of practitioner interviews, while triangulating findings, may not capture the full diversity of translation practices. The authors recommend replication in different contexts and exploration of multimodal corporate communications.