International Journal of Strategic Communication

Rationale

The study of financial communication represents one of the most significant areas of strategic communication research (Laskin, 2022). The ways in which companies communicate to investors and manage relationships with financial stakeholders have a substantial impact on their long-term “survival and sustained success” (Zerfass et al, 2018, p. 487). It is not by chance that corporate strategy is one of the central ingredients of the investment story and the conversations that executives and investor relations officers have with institutional shareholders and security analysts (Palmieri et al., 2022; Whitehouse 2023). Not less relevant, the emergence in the last decade of ESG-concerned investors who expect companies to fulfil sustainability goals along with financial returns, has made of financial communication a privileged context of corporate strategic communication. To successfully communicate with investors increasingly means to participate to complex discussions in which financial profit, human rights, climate impact, image and reputation, and similar strategically relevant themes are questioned.

In recent years journal special issues and collective volumes have been published within accounting (e.g., Jack et al., 2013) and linguistics/discourse studies (e.g., Whitehouse et al. 2018; Rocci et al., 2015) with a particular focus on the disclosure practices and the rhetorical aspects of financial communication. However, the connection between financial communication and strategic communication has no longer been adequately thematised since the 2014 special issue of this journal, edited by Alexander Laskin (Laskin 2014).

In his guest editor’s introduction, Laskin wrote that“[…] this special issue [...] offers a unique opportunity to bring together scholars from various disciplines and backgrounds to start building a unified body of knowledge specific to financial strategic communication” (p. 127). Laskin went on to argue that one of the core problems of the emerging field was a missing ”focus on building or testing theories and models of strategic financial communication” (ibid.). Ten years onward, this special issue takes stock of the current status in the field of strategic financial communication.

• Conceptual and theoretical approaches to integrate financial communication with strategic communication
• The foundations of strategic financial communication and communication management
• Conceptualizations of key issues such as reputation, image, trust, status, against the background of financial communication
• Rhetoric and language in strategic financial communication
• Financial communication as (costly) signaling
• Interdisciplinary approaches to strategic financial communication
• Storytelling and narratives in financial communication
• Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG in relationship to financial communication
• Ethical and moral implications for strategic financial communication
• Practical applications of strategic financial communication

Contributions to the Special Issue should conceptualize how insights may be utilized to approach, unpack and disentangle key issues in the field of strategic communication such as reputation, image, trust, status, prestige, power and influence, manipulation and deception, ethical and unethical communication, etc. Ideally, authors should not stop at ‘exploration’, however. While exploratory discourse is an important first step, the aim is to work towards theory with explanatory power and practical utility. Ultimately, our project is to connect theories of public relations, strategic communication, and organizational communication with the mind and natural sciences in a rigorous way. Beyond the Special Issue, we hope to gather a small but determined group of researchers who will collaborate and cooperate in this project.

The selection of papers will reflect the scope of the International Journal of Strategic Communication, which aims to build an interdisciplinary body of knowledge in strategic communication, defined as “all communication that is substantial for the survival and sustained success of an entity. Specifically, strategic communication is the purposeful use of communication by an entity to engage in conversations of strategic significance to its goals. Entity includes all kind of organizations (e.g., corporations, governments, or non-profits), as well as social movements and known individuals in the public sphere. Communication can play a distinctive role for the formulation, revision, presentation, execution, implementation, and operationalization of strategies” (Zerfass et al., 2018, p. 487).

Submitted papers should clearly be linked to existing scholarship in strategic communication and reflect the understanding mentioned above, but can be based on theoretical and methodological approaches from diverse disciplines. Research questions and topics addressed should be valuable for a global readership. While international, comparative, and cross-cultural studies are especially welcome, research with a regional or national focus is suitable if insights or results build understanding of strategic communication in other parts of the world.

Submission and Selection Process

Abstracts with proposals for submissions should be no more than 1.000 words, including references (double-spaced with 1” margins, Times New Roman 12 pt.). Abstracts should outline the paper, providing research questions and/or hypotheses, methods, key messages or results, and contribution to the body of knowledge.

Please also submit a separate title page to list all author names and affiliations, as well as a short bio (2-3 sentences; max 75 words) of the author(s).

The authors of the abstracts most suited to the topic of the Special Issue will be asked to submit full papers of not more than 32 pages, including references and tables/figures (maximum 8,000 words), by August 31, 2024. Full paper submissions should follow the Instructions for Authors on the IJSC website. Authors must use APA 7 style for citations, references, tables and figures caption. All identifying information must be deleted before full paper submissions.

Full papers will receive blinded external review, as well as review by the guest editors. The accepted manuscripts will be published online in early 2025 and in print in IJSC, Vol. 19(3).

Depending on the overall breadth and quality of the selected submissions, the articles might also published later on as an edited book by Routledge – this was done with some special issues of this journal before and gained more outreach for all authors.

Timeline

• Deadline for abstract submission: March 31, 2024
• Requests for full papers provided: April 30, 2024
• Deadline for full article submissions: August 31, 2024
• Reviews of full papers provided: October 31, 2024
• Deadline for revised submissions: December 15, 2024
• Additional revisions (if necessary): subsequently
• Final versions due: January 31, 2025
• Papers and editorial transferred to production: February 28, 2025
• Proofs sent to editors and authors: subsequently
• Special Issue 19(3) published: April 2025

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article