Concession conjunctions in American, Pakistani, and Indonesian companies’ shareholder letters: A World Englishes perspective

Abstract

Companies use impression management strategies to create narratives, distance themselves from negative events, and frame positive impressions. They employ distinctive rhetorical strategies for disclosing negative information, which are analyzable through stylistic features such as concession conjunctions. This study examines the use of concession conjunctions as a rhetorical strategy for disclosing negative information. Data were collected from 45 annual reports from the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX), Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Using WordSmith 4.0, we built a word list of English concession subordinating conjunctions (e.g., however, although, despite, though) and used the concordance feature to identify relevant sentences. Findings show all companies use these conjunctions, but patterns differ significantly. American and Indonesian companies favor the use of ‘however’, while Pakistani companies prefer ‘despite’. When disclosing negative information, U.S. and Indonesian companies lean toward using clauses rather than noun phrases, while Pakistani companies favor noun phrases. For rhetorical strategy, all prioritize presenting negative information before positive information. The results confirm that Outer Circle countries, such as Pakistan, develop their own endonormative models rather than copying Inner Circle (U.S.) norms, whereas Expanding Circle countries, such as Indonesia, adhere to exonormative Inner Circle models. These findings advance contrastive rhetoric and World Englishes research, with practical tips for cross-cultural business communication.