Variation in Letters to Shareholders from British, Polish and Spanish Companies - A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study analyzes the moves and the communicative intentions in the letters to shareholders from selected British, Polish and Spanish companies, in order to provide data on variations in intercultural business communication within Europe, a field of research in need of growth. A qualitative approach was used to examine a corpus of letters from energy companies based in these three countries. The variations identified in the use of the moves, and the related salient communicative intentions are discussed with regard to possible cultural influences and the company’s current situation. The results confirm the view that companies tend to align with the values of the societal and cultural environmnet in which they are nested by means of communicative strategies adjusted to this end.