These exchanges in organizations that have succeeded in creating value transcend mere transaction-based exchanges and move toward continuous cooperation, collaboration, and networking with stakeholders. Whether stakeholders have the power authority to influence decisions, possess legitimacy legal right in their claim, and have a highly urgent immediate current appeal are pertinent questions to be asked.
Stakeholders who possess any one of these attributes are referred to as latent, those who possess two are referred to as expectant, and those who possess all three are referred to as definitive. Understanding the attributes and linking them to types of stakeholder behavior enables better management of relationships. As is the case with stakeholder relationships, stakeholder salience positions change and evolve over time, and it is possible to see shifts in the levels of power, legitimacy, and urgency of various groups.
Enhanced strategic alignment stems from the ability of the organization to carefully monitor these shifts and restructure its interactions with stakeholder groups. Research validates that efforts made toward better stakeholder management in terms of attitudes, structures, and processes that consider the legitimate interests of all stakeholders lead to superior corporate performance.
Undoubtedly, addressing the requirements of diverse stakeholder groups is a balancing act. At any given point in time, however, convergence of all stakeholder interests is rare. Differing sets of expectations make varied and sometimes conflicting demands on the organization.
Contradictions in stakeholder expectations may signal conflicting or inconsistent messages from the organization, which may endanger its credibility and reputation. It is a huge task to communicate and balance their expectations with a sense of unity.
Organizations that are successful in creating shared value among stakeholders are able to unify and strengthen the perceptions of each group. Corporate values are normally reflected in the vision statement, which guides employees toward a common target and reassures stakeholders of company intent.
A well-defined vision statement, while considering the macro issues, also presents flexibility in approach and helps in the preparation of a mission statement that managers can use to navigate changes in environment. Ensuring that the organizational vision is understood and shared by all internal and external stakeholders is crucial for strategic alignment to succeed. This can be done in various ways. Standards of acceptable and unacceptable quality of products and services and norms of behavior, when clearly communicated and demonstrated over a period of time, help reinforce their acceptance among all stakeholders.
Researchers posit that the mission statement can also be used effectively to build trust with internal and external stakeholders. Organizations use mission statements to express their identity and their distinctive enduring characteristics.
Additionally, a mission statement that shows consistency of organizational values with those of society at large easily secures the support of external stakeholders. In sum, the stakeholder analysis helps organizations create frames for persuasion where beliefs are matched through a process of sharing identity, disclosing attributes, and generating emotional connection.
Only credible, attractive, and powerful companies are able to create a strategy for connecting with stakeholders. Impact on Reputation As discussed earlier, the very concept of corporate reputation implies that bringing about convergence in perceptions is important to create a consistent image about the organization among its various stakeholder groups, ultimately creating positive reputational capital.
Several studies have proven the strong positive link between stakeholder-specific activities and corporate reputation. Activities focused on customer satisfaction, such as developing a customer orientation, emphasizing quality of products and services, and providing value for money, are shown to have a positive impact on corporate reputation. Similarly, conducting training and development programs for employees and employee satisfaction studies has been shown to be associated with higher reputation scores.
The association between positive financial performance, valued by investors, and overall corporate reputation has also been established. Thus, activities that strategically align the expectations of various stakeholder groups with one another and with the overall vision, mission, and values of the organization are closely linked with increased reputational capital. Building corporate reputation with stakeholders: Exploring the role of message ambiguity for social marketers. Mitchell, R.
Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22 4 , — Myllykangas, P. Journal of Business Ethics, 96, 65— Peyrefitte, J. The relationship between stakeholder communication in mission statements and shareholder value.
Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 9 3 , 28— Roper, S. The corporate brand: Dealing with multiple stakeholders. Journal of Marketing Management, 23 1—2 , 75— Wiedmann, K. How do stakeholder alignment concepts influence corporate reputation?
The role of corporate communication in reputation building. In Toth, The future of excellence in PR and communication management. Findings show CSR- based consumer-company identification influences purchase intent through mediator role of company attitude and company commitment. Academic and managerial implications are presented and discussed. But few studies have looked at how corporate identity influences — or is influenced by — employee participation in CSR programs.
Chong notes close alignment between CSR strategy, corporate identity, and internal communication, are critical to success. Westbrook Jesse H.
Overview: Assumes senior managements are increasingly apprehensive about threats to company reputation from Internet criticism and rumours spreading quickly via online communities. Managing damage to company reputation requires more than adapting traditional media relations to the Internet.
Suggests HR can indirectly help improve corporate reputation. Organisational examples given with implications for HR managers. This paper calls for strategy while using comparison website data to examine online retailer reputation effect on pricing power. Overview: How B2B firms in China view, value, and manage their corporate reputation has received little research attention, say the authors. Definition equally treats objects and people as having reputations.
In general, people are dynamic, content is static unless altered by a person. Primarily focuses on grading and sorting content items, especially user-generated content. Useful insights about both content filtering and establishing user trustworthiness. Overview: In this short article, Johndrow looks at three hot companies — SAP, Sprint and The Geek Squad — leading the reputation economy by tying their products and services and their corporate image together in the interest of both, in a synchronised way and by seeing that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Assesses main effect of two predominant characteristics of contact personnel: competence and benevolence Collects data from customers in financial service setting.
Results reveal that perception of corporate reputation tends to be higher when perceptions of both competence and benevolence are strongly favourable. Suggests benevolence intervenes as a moderator variable to enhance impact of competence on corporate reputation.
Implications discussed from a managerial point of view. Two main findings: reputation may have different dimensions and is issue specific, and different stakeholder groups may have different perceptions of corporate reputations.
Multi-level analysis uses , individual evaluations of companies in Latin America and Spain. Finds strong direct relationship between reputation and supportive behaviour in product, capital and labour markets. Also finds this relationship moderated by variables related to foreignness, industry and local exposure. They have simultaneously expressed increased interest in maintaining or improving the reputation of their firm.
This research demonstrates that the two goals may be incongruous. That, in contrast to previous research, use of incentive contracting may not align the interests of management and sales staff. It may expose the firm to increased reputation risk. Theory-based model enables testing of hypotheses related to culture-specific differences between B2B customers in Australia, Finland, Germany, Spain and Russia.
Empirical aspect uses application example of selling pharmaceutical products to hospitals. Open-minded and honest communication turns out to be of varying importance. Overview: Claims research on trust and distrust has focused mainly on interpersonal relationships within organisations, or the impressions people have about specific companies. Less is known about attitudes toward all corporations i.
Describes theory of distrust toward corporations, how this attitude comes about, and how its study can contribute to organisational research. People who scored higher on corporate distrust were higher on general cynicism, organisation- specific cynicism, negative affectivity, and liberal political attitudes.
Corporate distrust matched negatively with interpersonal trust, positive attitudes toward human nature, and belief in a just world. Findings and implications for communication strategies in international marketing discussed. Traces its development over the past years. Beginning in England, moving to Europe, then further development in the United States. Elaborates on the psychological, relational, and structural underpinnings of collective trust. Discusses individual and organisation-related consequences.
Also discusses methodological approaches to studying collective trust, from laboratory simulations to fieldwork qualitative studies.
Findings from such studies are summarised. However, public perceptions of the economic stimulus plan were marked by beliefs that wealthy business people were getting special treatment while ordinary Americans were not. While most Americans see business as striking a balance, there are clear concerns for how people might see business after the economic crisis. Factors that underlie trust in other people include whether success in life is determined by hard work, whether the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and whether success is determined by factors outside control.
They also shape the belief that businesses balance profits against public service. With greater inequality comes less trust. Trust must be based on trustworthiness of the actors involved and the reliability of the institutions that are created to provide for the public good. Public trust is low when this is not the case. Violation of public trust can impact the repair strategies companies enact. Examines construct of public trust, discusses important aspects of trust violation, and sets framework to repair trust with the public.
Argues communication and strategic institutional reforms are necessary to repair trust, but are more important following competence, rather than integrity violations. Tracks returns for firms listed on DiversityInc. Top 50 Companies for Diversity over five years. Finds market reaction more positive for manufacturing firms than for service firms. Concludes by discussing potential implications of labelling reputation as a key driver of knowledge-intensive firms.
Overview: Two measures commonly used to assess corporate reputation the Reputation Quotient and the Corporate Character Scale tested and revalidated in Thailand in a survey of customers of Tesco Lotus. The factor structures of both measures, as defined when developed in the West, were confirmed.
Some individual measurement items were found to be less appropriate in Thai context but generally both scales were validated. There is also a Publications List p Overview: Very short call for companies to install a reputation crisis response plan next year. Jan Highlights six trends and explains them. Trends are: 1: Customer service goes public as marketing.
Overview: Mainly on the U. He talks about two variables of supporting behaviour on these perceptions: 1. Purchase consideration getting commercial : Only 39 percent of the decision is based on product perceptions, while 61 percent is based on perceptions of the company behind that product.
Study includes students. Structural equation modelling used to estimate relationship between perceived external prestige and turnover intention. Uses competing configuration models. Results show perceived external prestige has indirect and negative impact on turnover intention through partially mediating effect of affective commitment to university and group-based self-esteem.
Implications of findings and directions for future research also discussed. Overview: Crisis management-related analysis of role of pre-crisis reputation for quality on consumer perception of product-related dangers and company responsibility in product-harm crises, with varying risk info. Hypotheses derived from theories and concepts of consumer behavioural psychology, then tested via an online experiment.
Effects of reputation analysed across different crises contexts to obtain general insights useful for crisis management. To illuminate situational differences of the reputation mechanism, effect on individual crisis levels also considered. Finds that reputation for quality can positively influence perceptions of company responsibility, shielding manufacturers from blame. However, an established reputation for high product quality prior to crisis fails to positively impact consumer perception of crisis severity.
Crisis- specific effects of reputation results are ambivalent. Recommendations to crisis managers, and relevant avenues for future research, are given. Flanagan, David and K. This has led some scholars to conclude there is little new to be learned from the series that cannot be ascertained from traditional financial performance data.
Results of a study conducted by Brown and Perry using the Fortune survey in are often cited as evidence of the strong correlation between financial performance and the Fortune data. Also examines impact of industry level controls on this relationship. Main finding is the strong relationship between measures of financial performance and the Fortune overall ratings is far weaker when more recent data are examined. Also finds controlling for industry effects is important when using the Fortune data.
Authors draw on signaling theory to conceptualise corporate reputation as a set of beliefs about companies. Qualitative research conducted in the U. Quantitative studies with multiple samples of participants validated the simplified measure in different geographical locations and confirmed the measure's ability to assess perceptions across stakeholder groups. Specifically, authors examine how the U.
To confirm cross-cultural validity, it collects and analyses data from 17 countries across six continents.
Overview: Businesses competing online frequently face crowded markets where customers have low familiarity with most firms. Examines the question in context of consumers making online product trial decisions on the web site Download.
Finds product risk moderates the relationship between negatively stereotyped country-of-origin signals and product trial, which is taken as a measure of customer reputational evaluations. Findings suggest signals arising from negative country-of- origin stereotypes can be consequential, after controlling for other reputational signals about the firm or its products.
The implication for managers is that stereotyping signals can influence customers in online markets, and they should be wary of disclosing any potentially stigmatising information. Overview: Several studies have investigated the relationship between reputation and various performance measures. However, researchers have reached conflicting results for companies in developed countries, indicating positive, conditionally positive and even no relationship.
Specifically considers the concept of reputation into three dimensions for analysis: commitment to stakeholders, financial performance and media exposure. Differs from previous social and environmental reporting studies in investigating both internal and external contextual factors that influence disclosure practice. Claims that companies with good financial performance, which are adopting an active strategic position towards stakeholders and which are exposed to significant public pressure, are more likely to use sustainability disclosure in order to communicate their legitimacy to operate to stakeholders.
Results show both commitment to stakeholders and media exposure are positively associated with sustainability disclosure.
Overview: Examines legacy identification within the context of a global service company that was dissolved following an ethical disgrace.
The study was based on in-depth interviews with Latin American respondents who previously worked for the disgraced company, but were later hired by competitor firms. Findings suggest legacy identity became the lens through which respondents interpreted the past, negotiated relationships and created a new self.
Blogosphere has also created new opportunities for firms to enhance their reputations. Study shows many established reputation management approaches, which were developed during the era of mass media, need to be reshaped to meet new realities in the age of Web 2. However, few companies provide their stakeholders with detailed information about this resource, as they do not adequately assess the value of such reporting. Nevertheless, against background of CSR discussion, providing human capital information is becoming increasingly important as a key driver of corporate reputation.
Human capital reporting HCR can also be regarded as an instrument that may affect company financial performance and ultimately increase shareholder value. Develops theoretical model that illustrates the transformation of the intangible factors of HCR into tangible outcomes.
Consequently, model considers the cause-and-effect relationships between HCR and company financial performance.
0コメント