Management by keywords

Abstract We examine a corpus of integrated reports endorsed as best practice to explore how the concept of ‘capital’ and its novel extension into six types of capitals — including ‘human’, ‘social and relationship’, and ‘natural’ — are discursively constructed and legitimised in the corporate field. Our findings show that the new capitals are mentioned frequently, but in a bullet point-like way without elaboration on their significance — a response strategy that we call ‘management by keywords’. Our analysis suggests that the collective business mindset remains centred on financial value creation, with the new capitals acting as servants to financial objectives. This questions the transformative power of the six capitals, hailed as a business innovation, to move corporate practices towards more social and environmental sustainability via enhanced corporate accountability. At the conceptual and methodological level, the study showcases the potential of corpus linguistics for fostering interdisciplinary research involving linguists and scholars in business and accounting.