Evaluate the collective function of references cited together in a given text segment.
Classify their combined role into one of the following categories: 'method', 'background', or 'result'.

Text:As proposed by Hendriks et al. “in some narratives the speaker may not yet have clearly established the second character as the new topic” (p. 404, Hendriks et al., 2014), which could explain the use of NPs instead of pronouns to bring these characters in focus.
Category: