中美跨境电商平台企业使命陈述的体裁对比分析

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

The emergence and popularization of the e-commerce has made great transformation to the international economic and social landscape within a few decades. (Shu-Chun Ho,  Robert  J.  Kauffman  &  Ting-Peng  Liang,  2006).  E-commerce  is about  using computer  networks  to  conduct  business  like  buying,  selling,  exchanging  products, services  and information  (McKay  and  Marshall,  2004).  The  nature  of  e-commerce makes  trade  on  the  internet  become  more convenient  and  efficient.  The  immense benefits  e-commerce  brings  make  an  increasing  number  of  enterprises expect  to  get more benefits from this ocean of fortune. Of course, Chinese e-commerce businesses are  no  exception to this  trend  (Ramakrishnan  Ramanathan,  Usha  Ramanathan  & Hsieh-Ling Hsiao, 2012). 

After  the  financial  crisis  hit  in  2008,  the  traditional  foreign  trade  industry  has suffered a constant downturn. Meanwhile, with the RMB appreciation and rising labor cost, the import and export growth fell significantly, leading to the closing down of many  small  and  medium  enterprises.  On  the  contrary,  electronic  commerce  offers unprecedented opportunities  to  both  developing  and  developed  countries  (Nuray Terzia,  2011).  As  on-line  channels  are becoming  increasingly  convenient  and available  for  business  worldwide,  more  and  more  consumers  choose  to purchase  on cross-border  e-commerce  platforms,  the  cross-border  e-commerce  has  maintained good development momentum because of the advantages like low cost and high profit margins. More and more overseas business is transacted with Chinese companies on the cross-border e-commerce platforms. 

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1.2 Rationale

As  mentioned  above,  as  an  emerging  industry  in  China,  the  e-commerce  industry reveals  many  problems  that need  to  be  improved  in  order  to  keep  up  with  the international  standard,  in  which  mission  statement  is  a critical  part.  Meanwhile,  the significance  of  mission  statement  has  raised  many  enterprises’  concern  about  the quality of the mission statement. Since most of the researches on mission statement are  conducted  from  the perspective  of  economics  and  management,  it  would  a beneficiary  taking  to  conduct  a  comparative  study  on the  mission  statement  by combining the management theory and the genre analysis theory in order to provide some implication to improve the quality of the mission statement writing. That’s what motivates the author to choose this research topic. This research has both theoretical and practical significance. The author will illustrate as follows:

Theoretically,  the  thesis  will  make  contribution  to  the  range  broadening  of  the genre study. The current study on linguistics has extended the study of genre beyond the literary domain, for example, more and more research targets have transferred into the business field. The busy international trade makes the use of English as a lingua franca  (ELF) for  business  in  China  has  become  increasingly  important.  Although mission  statement  remains  a  hot  research topic  in  the  field  of  management  and economics and becoming increasingly prevalent, little attention has been received in the  field  of  genre  analysis.  Meanwhile,  this  thesis  is  going  to  combine  the management theory and the linguistic theory to compare the format, content and move structures of mission statements of Chinese and American cross-border e-commerce enterprises, which is a new attempt in the research of mission statement. 

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Mission Statement as a Genre

The rapid development of the economy and technology give birth to the emerging of new  genres,  of  which  mission statement  is  one  of  the  example.  Although  it  is  a specific  type  of  genre,  little  research  has  been  conducted on  the  genre  analysis  of mission  statements.  This  part  will  make  a  detailed  explanation  of  the  definition, components, function and previous studies on mission statements.

2.1.1 Definition of Mission Statement

Many scholars have given their understanding of mission statement. Pearce (1982:15), in his paper The Company Mission as a Strategic Goal, argues that mission statement is an enduring statement of purpose that distinguishes one business from other similar firms. According to F.G. Boseman and A.V. Phatak analysis (1989), mission statement is the ultimate guiding force that governs where the firm’s critical resources will be deployed. An organization without a vision or mission of what it plans to be is like a ship without a direction (Russell L. Ackoff, 1987:185). 

Meanwhile,  the  mission  statement  also  keeps  it  in  the  frame  of  a  specific operation  area  and  controls  this, guides  and  motivates  all  the  stakeholders  while informing them (Bart and Baetz, 1998:823).

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2.2 Genre Analysis

2.2.1 The Definition of Genre

The word “genre” comes from French vocabulary and means “kind” or “sort”. Genre can be the category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment. Based on the stylistic standard, it could be any form written or spoken, audio or visual. As the development of the society, new genres emerges constantly. Lots of studies have been  done  on the  genre  research  and  many  scholars  give  the  definition  on  the  term “genre”.

According to Campbell and Jamieson (1978), a genre is a group of acts unified by a constellation of forms that recurs in each of its members. These forms, in isolation, appear in other discourses. What is distinctive about the acts in a genre is a recurrence of the forms together in constellation.

Later,  Miller  (1984)  advances  Campbell  and  Jamieson’s  view  in  a  number  of important  ways.  First,  she  has principled  reasons  for  extending  the  scope  of  genre analysis to types of discourse usually disregarded by rhetorical scholars; secondly, she argues  that  ‘a  rhetorically  sound  definition  of  genre  must  be  centered  not  on  the substance  or  form  of  discourse  but  on  the  action  it  is  used  to  accomplish’.  Thirdly, Miller gives serious attention to how genres fit into the wider scale of human affairs.    

As a key figure in genre studies, Martin (1985) gives a definition of genre as how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them. They range from literary to far from literary forms: poems, narratives, expositions, lectures, seminars, recipes, broadcast and so on.

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CHAPTER THREE   THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................. 20

3.1 John M. Swales’ CARS Model .................... 20

3.2 Bhatia’s Seven-Move Model Analysis of Promotional Genre ......... 21

3.3 Hofstede’s Culture Dimensions Theory ............... 24

CHAPTER FOUR   ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ................ 29

4.1  Format  and  Content  of  Mission  Statements  of  Chinese  and  American Cross-border E-commerce Enterprises .............. 29

4.1.1 Format of Mission Statements of Chinese and American Cross-border E-commerce Enterprises ............. 29

4.1.2  The  Content  of  Mission  Statements  of  Chinese  and  American Cross-border E-commerce Enterprises ....... 34

CHAPTER FIVE   CONCLUDING REMARKS ................... 57

5.1 Major Findings .................... 57

5.2 Implications................... 59

CHAPTER FOUR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1  Format  and  Content  of  Mission  Statements  of  Chinese  and  American Cross-border E-commerce Enterprises

The  following  part  will  make  a  comparison  of  the  format  and  content  between  the Chinese and American cross-border e-commerce enterprises.

4.1.1  Format  of  Mission  Statements  of  Chinese  and  American  Cross-border E-commerce Enterprises

According  to  Jeffery  Abraham  (2004),  the  length  of  the  mission  statements  of different companies varies from one sentence to a whole page, including the mission statement,  values,  philosophy,  guidelines,  strategies  and  so forth.  Thus,  the  mission statements can be some key words or phrases, a sentence or some paragraphs.

Generally, mission statements have several formats as follows: (1) a sentence or some key words and phrases, (2) several sentences to illustrate the key principles, (3) one paragraph, (4) several paragraphs. The table below shows the different kinds of format adoption of mission statements of Chinese and American enterprises.

The  following  two  tables  shows  the  format  samples  of  Chinese  and  American cross-border e-commerce enterprises respectively.

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CHAPTER FIVE     CONCLUDING REMARKS

This thesis conducted a genre analysis of mission statements of Chinese and American cross-border  e-commerce enterprises  based  on  Swales’  CARS  Model,  Bhatia’s seven-move model and Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory. 

The  author  finds  out  that  great  differences  are  manifested  between  the  English mission statements of Chinese and American cross-border e-commerce enterprises in the form adoption, content involving and move structure choosing.

First, by the analysis of the adoption of format and content chosen of the mission statements of Chinese and American cross-border e-commerce enterprises, the thesis summarizes  the  similarities  and  differences  of  the  two  mission statements  based  on Fred R. David’s nine elements of the evaluation of mission statements and figures out the cultural reason that behind the differences. 

Second,  by  analyzing  the  move  structures  of  the  sample  of  the  two  Countries’ mission statements and the frequency of each move of all the data collected, the thesis concludes  the  similar  and  different  moves  and  steps and  figures  out  the  culture elements leading to this phenomenon.

Third,  by  the  illustration  of  the  similarities  and  differences  of  the  mission statements of Chinese and American cross-border e-commerce enterprises, the author provides  some  implications  on  the  high-quality  mission  statement writing  and  some inspirations on the ESP teaching. 

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