Corporate Communication

Research cluster staff: Annika Beelitz, Sara Close-Davis, Danial Hemmings, Lynn Hodgkinson, Aziz Jaafar, Doris Merkl-Davies, Helen Rogers, Gwion Williams

PhD students associated with the cluster: Jingwen Yang, Emma Hughes, Jirarat Pipatnarapong

Our interests

Members of the Corporate Communication research cluster explore the different means (i.e. communication via text and financial statements) and aspects of corporate communication with audiences using a wide range of theoretical frameworks and methodologies.

The aim is to explore different means and aspects of corporate communication, both via text (e.g. annual report documents, CSR report, press releases, proxy statements) and financial statements, including the way they are prepared and received by a wide range of audiences. Corporate communication plays a crucial role in managing the relationships between business organisations and their various constituents, including shareholders, stakeholders, the media, government agencies, and the general public. Corporate communication aids decision-making for a wide range of stakeholders, serves as an accountability mechanism integral to democracy, as a governance mechanism, and as a means of managing conflict in society. Danial Hemmings, Lynn Hodgkinson and Gwion Williams examine the conflict between providing shareholder-friendly executive remuneration information and the risks of future litigation for providing insufficient/misleading information. Doris Merkl-Davies and Annika Beelitz focus on conflict between firms and stakeholders and society over environmental performance. Helen Rogers is concerned with examining the reporting of taxation liabilities in the context of shifting public attitudes to tax avoidance. Aziz Jaafar explores how different methods to measuring financial statement data are linked to firm valuation.

The group is engaged in multiple research projects in the disciplines of accounting and finance, including interdisciplinary ones. Corporate Communication group members deploy a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including event studies, econometric analyses, content analysis, and critical discourse analysis to explore the way messages are constructed and received.

Topic areas

• Impression management
• Earnings quality
• Decision usefulness of proxy disclosures
• Corporate social responsibility reporting
• Say on pay

Cluster contact

If you would like more information about our current research projects or our cluster, please email Doris Merkl-Davies: d.m.merkl-davies@bangor.ac.uk