Showing papers in "Corporate Reputation Review in 2001"

The Personification Metaphor as a Measurement Approach for Corporate Reputation

Abstract: Many existing approaches to the measurement of corporate reputation have been criticized as being overly focused on the financial performance of companies and on the views of external stakeholders. Further, there is as yet no established universal measure to assess both the internal (often referred to as identity) and external (often referred to as image) elements of reputation. A number of models of reputation see these two elements as interlinked. It follows that any comprehensive measurement tool for reputation should be applicable both inside and outside of the organization. This paper addresses the potential for the personification metaphor as a measurement strategy in the assessment of both the internal and external facets of reputation. Its purpose is to apply the personification metaphor to the measurement issue and to formalize the approach using an established methodology. Empirical evidence is provided of data from three companies, each in a different sector: retailing, financial services and business-to-business. The personality framework and validated scales of Aaker (1997) are used to assess the identity and image of each company. The data are used to demonstrate significant linkages between image and identity and the ability of the scales to identify differences between the images and identities of different organizations. While we conclude that there is merit in the application of the personality metaphor to the issue of the measurement of reputation, a number of weaknesses in using the one existing scale are identified, including items that are culturally specific. Consequently, the reliability measures achieved are not as high here as in the original work. Further research is envisaged to develop scales that are of greater efficacy in the field of reputation.

Corporate Reputation: Image and Identity

Abstract: It is fruitful to consider two complementary perspectives on the concept of corporate reputation and its relationship to success and credibility. The first of these can be said to be a managerial or pragmatic perspective. Its basis is economic rationality and it focuses on traditional notions of corporate success. It is primarily concerned with the qualities imputed to the corporation by its stakeholders and aims at protecting and improving corporate image. This pragmatic perspective on corporate reputation is having an increased effect upon the behavior of business leaders due to the growing expectations of employees, customers, investors, and the media — and is promoted and marketed by eager hordes of consultants and PR experts. The second perspective can be said to be a reflective perspective. It is existential or philosophical in nature and, in comparison with the pragmatic perspective, employs a broader repertoire of measures of corporate success and focuses on organizational identity rather than image. It is reflective rather than communicative in nature and is more concerned with the inherent ‘character’ of the organization rather than its outward appearance. This perspective does not receive nearly as much conscious leadership attention as the pragmatic perspective. Nevertheless, its focus on ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’ — rather than on ‘what appears to be’ — is rapidly becoming central to the theory and practice of leadership. This is evident in the increasing interest in such concepts as corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and values-based leadership. This paper concludes that supplementing the primarily ‘external’ image orientation of the pragmatic perspective with the ‘internal’ identity perspective of the reflective perspective can lead to increased corporate self-awareness, to an improved capability for reflecting on corporate identity, and to more realistic methods for measuring, evaluating, and reporting on the organization's impact on its stakeholders and society as a whole — in other words, to an improved and more inclusive depiction of the enterprise and its performance which will be necessary for organizational viability and success.

Sticky Reputation: Analyzing a Ranking System

Abstract: In contrast to most studies of reputation ranking systems, this paper discusses the constitutive aspects of such systems. It analyzes the mechanics used to construct them, thus making their procedures the object of research. Based on a study of a Danish ranking system similar to the Fortune system, the authors suggest that reputation is sticky over time in spite of shifting ranking criteria and fragile statistical methods. We show that the ongoing development of an increasingly complex measurement system paradoxically becomes ‘more of the same’ and thus creates sticky reputation for large and visible companies.

Implicit Claims: The Role of Corporate Reputation in Value Creation

Abstract: This paper draws on an economic/strategy perspective to address the relationship between corporate reputation and shareholder value We argue that in selling a product or service or purchasing inputs, companies issue both explicit and implicit claims The former refers to the contractual basis on which goods and services are sold or purchased by companies whereas the latter relates to company promises to stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, etc) that are either too vague or too costly to specify in writing Implicit claims reflect promises of quality, good working conditions, and service levels which are not explicitly stated in any contracts, but which, when present, permit a company to sell products and/or services at higher prices, and purchase goods and services from suppliers at lower prices than competitors Implicit claims are not sold separately from the product, cannot be traded on a market, and hence have no legal standing However, implicit claims do have economic value, and that value is reflected in the company's share price Implicit claims have a value only if stakeholders believe that the company will honor them It is in this context that reputation generates value to firms By expending resources to fulfil implicit claims, a company can establish trust with its stakeholders that it will honor the implicit claims and hence confirm their value to stakeholders Reputation is built by incurring expenditures in fulfilling promises of implicit claims and by signaling that future implicit claims will be honored Corporate reputations affect a firm's ability to issue valuable implicit claims By viewing reputation through the implicit claims perspective, management is presented with a framework that permits identification of the link between implicit claims, reputation, and shareholder value Decisions can be made on the extent of investments to generate reputation and the responses to reputational threats The next section describes the explicit and implicit claim scenario in more depth and relates it to academic literature Section three demonstrates that conventional reputation literature describes reputation in terms of stakeholders' perceptions and that this analysis confounds implicit and explicit claims Section four argues that the reputation impact on shareholder value is best viewed through the implicit claims perspective By understanding the importance of implicit claims and the costs of building and maintaining reputation that facilitates issuance of these claims, managers can make informed decisions on reputation creation and maintenance The last section discusses the implications of implicit claims for managing corporate reputation

From the Pentagon: A New Identity Framework

Abstract: This paper summarizes the latest developments relating to a new approach to corporate identity management called ‘Dr Balmer's AC2ID Test™’. The approach is the most recent development of a model that was initially reported in Balmer and Soenen (1999). The revised model makes explicit what was implicit in the original ACID Test and, as such, accords perception, which in the revised framework is styled ‘the conceived identity,’ an enhanced status. Furthermore, it is posited that ten key interfaces require examination rather than the six interfaces outlined in the original model. This new approach has the objective of reconciling the five identity types which impinge upon any corporate entity. The approach also draws on the diverse disciplinary strands which inform our understanding of an organization's identity. The five identity types are the actual, communicated, conceived, ideal, and desired identities. To date, the nascent field of identity studies appears to have lacked an overarching structure that would enable managers and scholars to orchestrate these seemingly different perspectives into a meaningful whole. Dr Balmer's AC2ID Test™ is grounded in the premise that the lack of alignment between any two of the identity forces will sow the seeds of corporate malaise. Thus, the modus vivendi of the test is that senior management should align the five identities so that they are broadly congruent with each other.

NGOs: The New Super Brands

Abstract: The world bore witness to the new, new world order at the Seattle WTO meeting in 2000. More recently, January's World Economic Forum was akin to an armed camp with official attendees separated from protestors by barbed wire. The chaotic cauldron of protesters in Seattle painted the clearest picture of the mix — or morass — in which global companies must exist. The protestors included anarchists who reject any organized civil society, environmental and social justice advocates who genuinely lay claim to concerned constituencies, shrill activists that monitor and condemn every move every global company makes, labor leaders and NGO experts from various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who have a sophisticated grasp of the scientific, social, economic and environmental impact of global business — many of whom actually partner with business on shared goals.

Failing the Reputation Management Test: The Case of BHP, the Big Australian

Abstract: This paper explores the decline in the corporate reputation of the Australian company BHP (Broken Hill Propriety Ltd), ‘The Big Australian’, which occurred as a result of the company's involvement in the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea. We argue that the problems of BHP stemmed primarily from the inability of the company to recognize and respond to the changing societal expectations of companies which occurred during the period of the operation of the mine in the 1990s. These societal changes were evident in two media ities. The first was the general trend of increased media attention to business activities. The second media activity, which impacted on BHP specifically, was the reframing by the media of the activities of BHP from a ‘commercial success’ to an ‘environmental and social crisis’. BHP's corporate reputation suffered as a result of the media attention on the performance of a company relative to new expectations and norms of corporate social responsibility. We conclude that BHP needed to change its strategic direction from a narrow conceptualization of its corporate identity as ‘a mining company’ (‘The Big Australian’) to a broader view of itself as ‘a company that undertakes mining in relation to environmentally and socially complex interactions with land and people’.

‘Living’ the Corporate Identity: Case Studies from the Creative Industry

Abstract: Two case studies of well-reputed creative organizations examine the processes involved in managing employees' identification with the desired corporate identity. Findings illustrate that the creative organizations under study use the ‘bonding’, ‘inspirationalizing’ and ‘breaking new grounds’ processes to encourage employee identification with the key values and behaviors their organizations aim to project to their stakeholders. The proposed framework provides academics and practitioners with further insight on processes that are actually applied in practice to cater for employees' need for inclusion and create emotional contract with the desired identity.

The Mediated Transparent Society

Abstract: This paper analyzes major consumer boycotts reported by the media during the last two decades. The paper draws on Foucault (1977) in particular and seeks to explore how viewer consumers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the media collectively exercise power over business corporations in the mediated transparent society. The paper concludes that, based on these analyses, the mediated panopticism working on the business segment is not an effective disciplinary apparatus, which can guarantee that business corporations are carrying out important ecological or ethical improvements.

Managing Political Communications

Abstract: This paper examines the world views that underpin the ascendance of political communication as a separate ‘governmental domain’ by investigating the diffusion, local adaptation and transformation of the managerial concepts of identity and image building in public sector organizations. The discussion is organized around four cases: two texts articulating the discourse of New Public Management drawing on professional expertise and scientific clout, and two studies of the identity and image building efforts in the municipalities of Newham, UK, and Tijuana, Mexico. The analysis demonstrates how current managerialism links identity and image management at the organizational and territorial levels to the goal of improving the performance of public sector organizations. A social constructivist approach enables us critically to reflect on public sector organizations' concern with identity and image building and connect this development to the travel of specific knowledge about governance and public sector reform, to the managerialization of statecraft and to broader societal shifts.

Construed Artistic Identity and Resistance to Identity Change in UK Theaters: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract: The paper argues that the ‘looking glass self’ approach to the formation of individual self-identity can also be applied to the determination of the core identity of an organization A survey of 126 state-subsidized UK theater companies was completed to ascertain managerial opinions regarding each theater's ‘artistic identity’ The latter was defined in terms of a theater director's evaluation of his or her theater's educational and cultural role and its fundamental ideological and philosophical orientation Concomitantly, respondents were asked to declare their perceptions of how they believed key stakeholder groups saw their theaters' artistic identities The replies were used to test the hypothesis that the greater the degree of congruence between a director's own opinion of his or her theater's artistic identity and the director's assumptions about how valued stakeholders interpreted the theater's artistic identity, then the lower the likelihood that the theater's artistic identity would be altered, even if the objective need for an identity change was acknowledged

Why Do Goliaths Fall?: Performance Referents in Successful Organizations

Abstract: Referents are standards of comparison that managers use to interpret organizational performance. In this paper, it is argued that managers holding identities of their firms as successful are subject to psychological processes influencing the content and stability of such comparators. While a number of different referents are implicit in many organizational perspectives, social comparison theory and temporal comparison theory are two cognitive viewpoints that provide insights into why some referents are preferred over others by executives of successful organizations. It is argued that the selective use of a small number of referents, and their associated effects on learning, is one factor promoting organizational decline. Implications for practicing managers and suggestions for future theory building are discussed.

Corporate Images, Attributes and the UK Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract: This paper presents the findings of a research exercise carried out to determine the attributes used by UK General Practitioners and Pharmacists to form images of ethical drug manufacturers. Using attributes from similar studies in the USA and Greece, this omnibus-based research program finds that Drug Effectiveness is the main attribute used by the medical profession to form images of pharmaceutical companies. All the attributes tested appear to contribute to the images formed of these companies. General practitioners appear to form distinct images of pharmaceutical companies, unlike pharmacists whose indirect and direct rankings suggest a more variable perception. Glaxo and AstraZeneca are perceived to be the most reputable of the companies in the sample.

Branding.com: Building Brand Leadership in the New Economy

Abstract: Do new economy companies build more sustainable brands than old economy companies? Do they see branding as the bridge to achieve customer satisfaction, leading to customer loyalty? Do they use different media and different methods in building their brands? Or do they apply existing media more effectively? Do they build their brand faster than it took the companies in the ‘old’ economy to build theirs? Or is the dot.com brand a short-term promise leading to short-term profits? How should ‘old economy’ companies take advantage of these ‘new economy’ branding advantages? This paper looks for answers to these questions. It will explore the new economy brand enablers, and how companies can apply these enablers to build a more powerful (brand leadership) and a more dynamic (brand velocity) corporate brand?

How the Network Economy Redefines PR and Why Only Those with Creative Business Ideas Survive

Abstract: The term PR is often used and misused as a term for describing the services of all those firms, agencies or consultancies trying to attract attention to their clients' goods, services, or organizations as a whole. For a number of reasons the term describes only a part of what people in this profession do, and in fact the term PR should be replaced by the term Corporate Communications. It is not only about public relations anymore. It is also not about communication disciplines getting integrated with each other or some of them ceasing to exist completely, with only one discipline remaining. However, this article is not about the debate of the name of the discipline; that will be solved by itself. This article is about the huge opportunities for the field of Corporate Communications to shrug off the murky image of just being old-fashioned information providers to the press and media. Corporate Communications is about creative business ideas and developing business opportunities that will launch an experience for their client's clients. It is about creating the total brand experience for their client's clients. The fact of the matter is that the companies we work for have become public figures. Today, knowing, understanding, and enhancing a company's brand name or reputation is essential to the company's success. With today's technological changes, restructuring, and globalization, the traditional ideological, religious, and political assessments of the company are no longer pertinent. In today's world, it is the emotional viewpoint of the media and public opinion that predominates and influences changes in corporate reputation. Indeed, the world has changed. The major economic growth in the last couple of years and the fact that the Internet changed our industry forever has forced PR people with their own firms and those working within companies to rethink their position in the world surrounding them. Online Corporate Communications firms seemed to have grasped it the best at this time, but other firms will follow shortly.

Nokia Game: Brand Experience Campaign in Europe

Abstract: Nokia, the Finnish-originated telecommunications company, is one of the organisations that pairs a long, traditional history to a highly innovative present. Nokia's history dates back to 1865 when a mining engineer established a wood-pulp mill in southern Finland and began manufacturing paper. Since then, Nokia has evolved dramatically, first growing into a conglomerate consisting of industries ranging from paper to chemicals, rubber, and electronics, then streamlining into a dynamic telecommunications company, which brought the company global success in a relatively short period of time during the 90s. The history of the company reflects its ability to recognize and exploit new opportunities, emerging from continuous market and technological changes. Making the right decisions at the right time indeed proves to breed success. Located in 50 countries with over 60,000 employees, Nokia sells mobile phones in 130 countries, phones which are manufactured in ten countries on three continents. This all proves to be very profitable business. In February 2000, the company reported the strongest annual (1999) operating results in its history, with net sales increasing by 48 per cent (to EUR 19.722m) and operating profit growing by 57 per cent (to EUR 3.908m). Commenting on the results, Jorma Ollila, Nokia's Chairman and CEO, said, ‘Our sound competitive position, comprehensive product portfolio and innovative solutions, strong brand, and highly efficient global operations have driven our profitability growth. We will continue to focus on these areas to enhance our leadership in creating the Mobile Information Society.’