Rhetoric, Accounting and Accountability: COVID-19 and the Case of Italy

Lorenzo Gelmini, Valentina Minutiello, Patrizia Tettamanzi and Maurizio Comoli
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Lorenzo Gelmini: Department of Economics and Business Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont, 28100 Novara, Italy
Valentina Minutiello: School of Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), 21053 Castellanza, Italy
Patrizia Tettamanzi: School of Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), 21053 Castellanza, Italy
Maurizio Comoli: Department of Economics and Business Studies, University of Eastern Piedmont, 28100 Novara, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: The current dramatic context of COVID-19 has urged academics and practitioners to tackle the topic of the pandemic not only regarding its medical side but from the perspective of social sciences, accounting and accountability as well. In this sense, our paper moves from the pivotal work of Higgins and Walker (2012) and Merkl-Davies and Brennan (2017) and tries to trace the use and the extent of accounting communication by companies during the peculiar context of the pandemic. Considering the nature of the elements to be evaluated, we applied a manual content analysis, a more suitable technique than software to capture subjective and emotional elements. Among the main preliminary results of the paper, the volume and the importance of emotional content come to the surface, such as self-assessment and emotional tone. The paper confirms the important role of rhetorical analysis in understanding the quality and the meaning of the information provided by companies and contributes to the stream of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) studies on corporate reporting.

Keywords: rhetoric; content analysis; accounting communication; Critical Discourse Analysis; Italy; pandemic; non-financial information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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