Small Stories With Big Roles: Mapping Sage, Pursuer, and Hero Archetypes Onto Authority, Fandom, and Heroism in Chinese Banks’ Weibo Posts

Abstract

Background: The rise of social media has spawned new platforms to communicate the construction of corporate identity and culture for the banking industry in China. Literature review: Corporate identity construction on social media receives emerging attention from narrative studies. However, there exists a lack of a systematic employment of the small story that serves as a suitable research paradigm for corporate social media. Therefore, drawing on the research paradigm of the small story, the concept of archetype and the tripartite-self theory, and cultural constructionism, this study aimed to explore theme development, archetypes and self building, and culture construction in Chinese banks’ Weibo posts. Research questions: 1. What themes and narrative elements are identified in small stories of Chinese banks’ Weibo posts? 2. What archetypes and corporate selves are constructed through theme development in their small stories? 3. What corporate cultures are constructed through the interplay of developing themes and constructing archetypes and corporate selves in their small stories? Research methodology: This study employs thematic and content analysis on a self-built corpus of Sina Weibo posts from five leading Chinese banks. Results: Findings revealed that Chinese banks predominantly release posts under corporation-oriented, relation-oriented, and society-oriented themes represented, respectively, by the subthemes [Market analysis], [Entertainment], and [CSR], correspondingly shaping the archetypes {Sage}, {Pursuer}, and {Hero} of the corporate individual, relational, and collective selves, and mirroring the construction of the culture of authority, fandom, and heroism. Conclusion: The findings enrich understanding of embracing social media for corporate narratives, identity, and culture construction, and offer valuable insights for digital marketing practitioners to improve how they construct and communicate corporate identity and culture via social media.