Deconstructing DuPont discourse: How storytelling shaped the identity and reputation of an American enterprise
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Given increasing competition and decreasing consumer attention spans, businesses must find creative and compelling ways to position their brands and foster connections with stakeholders. Traditional modes of corporate communication designed with the intent to inform and sell specific products have shifted to broader messaging that reflects the institution as a whole. In particular, organizations are using storytelling as a powerful tool to reinforce corporate identity and manage reputation. This dissertation contributes to scholarship on organizational storytelling by examining the historical and current narrative practices of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont). DuPont has used storytelling for over two centuries to communicate the business of science and engage with its stakeholders in meaningful ways. The stories told by the company, as well as DuPont’s approaches to creating corporate narratives, have grown organically and directly reflect the marketplace, social climate, economics, politics, and technology of the day. This project traces those storytelling activities over time and through multiple media and contexts using a multidisciplinary and intertextual approach. To frame DuPont’s storytelling processes, each chapter is based on stories crafted during critical inflection points, or major changes in the company’s corporate strategy. A qualitative analysis using extensive archival resources, informed by theoretical contexts from the disciplines of professional writing, organization studies, and corporate communication, highlights the complex relationship between narratives inside and outside the organization. The analysis builds on previous scholarship, which positions organizations as storytelling entities that use narrative to create and maintain a corporate brand, identity, and reputation to connect with stakeholders. Ultimately, I identify science, invention, performance, and innovation as the cornerstones of DuPont’s corporate story. This project also reveals the important and little-explored use of storytelling through the corporate magazine. The findings further illustrate how storytelling can move beyond a mode of connecting with stakeholders. In fact, storytelling can shape business approaches to communications and public relations strategy, and be especially useful in counteracting and overcoming negative stakeholder perceptions. Finally, this dissertation suggests that contemporary storytelling is most compelling and effective when it builds consistently from an authentic foundation in historical narratives and past performance.