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Firms’ Rhetorical Nationalism: Theory, Measurement, and Evidence from a Computational Analysis of Chinese Public Firms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2024

Lori Qingyuan Yue Open the ORCID record for Lori Qingyuan Yue [Opens in a new window] ,
Jiexin Zheng  and
Kaixian Mao
Lori Qingyuan Yue
Affiliation:
Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Jiexin Zheng
Affiliation:
Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics, and Operations Management The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China
Kaixian Mao*
Affiliation:
School of Labor and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
*
Corresponding author: Kaixian Mao (kxm@ruc.edu.cn)
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Abstract

In this article, we develop a computational measure of firm-level rhetorical nationalism. We first review the literature and develop a four-dimensional theoretical framework of nationalism relevant to firms: national pride, anti-foreign, dominant agenda (national revival), and corporate role. We then use machine-learning-based text analysis of over 41,000 annual reports of Chinese public firms from 2000 to 2020 and identify a dictionary of words for each dimension. Using a weighted ratio of nationalism-related words, we describe the overall picture of Chinese public firms’ rhetorical nationalism and provide the first empirical evidence regarding rising rhetorical nationalism among Chinese firms. Firms’ demonstration of rhetorical nationalism is related to both strategic and socialization factors; firms that are state-owned enterprises, older, larger, more profitable, consumer-facing, with more individual investors, and lower sales from overseas demonstrate a higher level of nationalism. Firms that demonstrate more rhetorical nationalism also have a better future financial return. Our study provides a theoretical framework for the organizational study of nationalism and a new measure for firms’ rhetorical nationalism, and demonstrates that rising rhetorical nationalism among Chinese firms is more strongly driven by firms’ motivations to appeal to domestic investors and consumers than to obtain government subsidies. Our dataset is publicly available at: https://sites.google.com/view/firms-rhetorical-nationalism

摘要

摘要

本文建立了企业民族主义的理论框架和概念测量。我们首先回顾了相关文献，并建立了一个四维的企业民族主义理论框架：民族自豪感、排外、国家民族主义、和企业在实现国家民族主义目标中的使命和角色。我们使用基于机器学习的文本分析方法，对 2000 年至 2020 年中国上市公司的 41000 多份年报进行分析，并为每个维度确定了一个词库。利用相关词汇的加权比例，我们创建了中国上市公司的语言民族主义的测量，并首次提供了中国企业的语言民族主义上升的实证证据。企业在语言上表现出的民族主义与其战略因素和社会化因素有关；国有企业、历史较长、规模较大、盈利能力较强、面向消费者、个人投资者较多、海外销售额较少的企业表现出较高的民族主义水平。那些在语言上表现出更多民族主义的企业，其未来的财务回报率也更高。本文为企业层面的民族主义研究提供了一个理论框架，为企业的语言民族主义提供了一个新的衡量标准，并显示了中国企业中日益高涨的民族主义语言更多地受到企业吸引国内投资者和消费者的动机的驱动，而不是获得政府补贴的动机。我们的数据集公开于：https://sites.google.com/view/firms-rhetorical-nationalism

Keywords

Chinese public firmsmachine learningrhetorical nationalismword embedding model企业民族主义机器学习词语嵌入模型中国上市公司
Type
Article
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 161 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Association for Chinese Management Research

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