Gaining trust: The construction of corporate ethos in Alibaba's U.S. IPO

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper reports from a case study project on the construction of corporate ethos in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the Chinese ecommerce company, Alibaba, in 2014. In the field of rhetoric, ethos has been conceptualized and re-conceptualized by classical and contemporary scholars. Rhetorical ethos is used in this case study as an interpretative tool. Meanwhile, (tacit) knowledge generated in this case study may help refine existing theories on ethos. This paper reports the complexity of Alibaba's U.S. IPO from a narrative constructed by pieces of evidence the researcher collected from observing the case to date. Three sources of evidence emerged as good data sources: the IPO prospectus, the electronic roadshow, and the online news media reactions in English and Chinese language environments and related documents. This paper explicates rhetorical ethos through a brief review of classical and contemporary scholarly works, explains why IPOs are worth the attention of researchers in technical and professional communication, introduces research questions, outlines the research methodology, and shares preliminary findings.