The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports

As the pharmaceutical sector has become increasingly competitive, companies have adopted a plethora of strategies and practices not only to publicise their products but also to be perceived by stakeholders as transparent and, by way of implication, honest and ethical. Drawing on a corpus of English-...

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Main Authors: Andrea Fenice, Renzo Mocini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Verona 2025-06-01
Series:Iperstoria
Subjects:
Online Access:https://iperstoria.it/article/view/1510
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author Andrea Fenice
Renzo Mocini
author_facet Andrea Fenice
Renzo Mocini
author_sort Andrea Fenice
collection DOAJ
description As the pharmaceutical sector has become increasingly competitive, companies have adopted a plethora of strategies and practices not only to publicise their products but also to be perceived by stakeholders as transparent and, by way of implication, honest and ethical. Drawing on a corpus of English-language Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reports, this study investigates the complexity and dynamism of the discursive strategies used by leading pharmaceutical companies listed on the stock exchange to build and enhance an image of transparency and credibility. By distinguishing between the level of the utterance – what is being communicated – and the enunciational level (Greimas & Courtés 2007; Greimas 1983), which regards the writer and the context of enunciation, this paper conducts a semio-linguistic analysis in an attempt to explore different construals of transparency and opacity. The discourse of pharmaceutical companies is revealed as a sophisticated communicative construct, where various strategies are employed to create meaning effects that are used to foster an image of transparency and boost stakeholders’ trust.
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spelling doaj-art-a89e1d7e8d4a44999c1c16fec0e89c3d2025-08-20T03:31:27ZengDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of VeronaIperstoria2281-45822025-06-012510.13136/2281-4582/2025.i25.15101479The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG ReportsAndrea Fenice0Renzo Mocini1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2011-3665Independent ResearcherSapienza University of RomeAs the pharmaceutical sector has become increasingly competitive, companies have adopted a plethora of strategies and practices not only to publicise their products but also to be perceived by stakeholders as transparent and, by way of implication, honest and ethical. Drawing on a corpus of English-language Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reports, this study investigates the complexity and dynamism of the discursive strategies used by leading pharmaceutical companies listed on the stock exchange to build and enhance an image of transparency and credibility. By distinguishing between the level of the utterance – what is being communicated – and the enunciational level (Greimas & Courtés 2007; Greimas 1983), which regards the writer and the context of enunciation, this paper conducts a semio-linguistic analysis in an attempt to explore different construals of transparency and opacity. The discourse of pharmaceutical companies is revealed as a sophisticated communicative construct, where various strategies are employed to create meaning effects that are used to foster an image of transparency and boost stakeholders’ trust.https://iperstoria.it/article/view/1510pharmaceutical esg reportstransparencyopacitysemiotic squareenunciation
spellingShingle Andrea Fenice
Renzo Mocini
The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
Iperstoria
pharmaceutical esg reports
transparency
opacity
semiotic square
enunciation
title The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
title_full The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
title_fullStr The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
title_short The ‘Transparency Effect’ in Pharmaceutical ESG Reports
title_sort transparency effect in pharmaceutical esg reports
topic pharmaceutical esg reports
transparency
opacity
semiotic square
enunciation
url https://iperstoria.it/article/view/1510
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