Journey Metaphors in Bank Merger Discourse: Cultural Identity Construction of TMBTHANACHART Bank Public Company Limited
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/jlapsu.2023.3Keywords:
Conceptual Metaphor Theory, merger and acquisition discourse, journey metaphor, corporate identity, bank mergerAbstract
Metaphors have been increasingly used to construct and reconstruct images of the new consolidated entity in the discourse of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This study investigated metaphors of mergers used by two Thai banks—TMB and Thanachart Bank—in the mid-merger stage of their organizational integration from December 2019 to December 2020. The aim was to identify the semantic domains of distinct metaphors the two Thai banks deployed in developing a collective cultural identity. The qualitative data consisted of news releases on TMB and Thanachart’s merger plan and its progress. The data were drawn from the bank’s official websites and analyzed from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory to explore the most prevalently used metaphorical domain presented in official news releases so as to shed light onto the banks’ cultural identity construction. The analysis shows that to establish and build customers’ trust, the metaphor of JOURNEY is the core metaphorical theme utilized to convey the optimistic beginnings of the new bank, the bank’s fast and steady progress and the glorious past of the two separate banks.
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