Today, the proliferation of social communication channels and the rapidization of communication cause fast dispersion of information and interpretation of social, cultural and economic developments. Therefore, societies interact with organizations not only through products and services, but also through image, visibility, perceptions, rumors, etc. Organizations have to develop reputation policies / they have to measure, track and manage their reputation. The most important element of an organization&rsquo / s reputation management is the ability to see its current reputation standing and make proper projections. Reputation measurement studies aim to achieve that. However, these studies usually focus on the perceptions and assessments of organizations&rsquo / characteristics and performances. There are social dynamics and social identities, which are constituted independent of what an organization is and does, and they are influential on reputation. Ignoring this would lead to a blurry picture of reputation. Social issues and developments operating independent of the organization, but are related to its products/services, do have impact on people&rsquo / s assessment of reputation. This study focuses on the significance of the social determination of reputation. It claims that socially influential discourses like health, anti-Americanism, environmentalism, along with political or cultural identities, act as a filter for people&rsquo / s evaluations of companies&rsquo / reputations. Individuals, when they give reputation scores to companies, not only consider their characteristics, products or services, their size, internationality, etc. but also evaluate companies&rsquo / identities, their positions with respect to social issues related to their products/services. Individuals also evaluate reputation according to their own habituses, their political and cultural identities.

The purpose of this study was to propose and test a comprehensive model ofmarketability using both individual and situational predictors. Participants in thisstudy were members of professional associations and were recruited from internetlistserves. They consisted of 485 employees and 176 co-workers. This study used amatching technique to link participant and co-worker data and was the first study toassess multiple perspectives of marketability. Results demonstrated the relationshipsof human capital variables, positivity traits, proactive career behaviors, thenvironment and industry characteristics on internal and external marketability.Interestingly, not all predictors related to both internal and external marketabilityuniformly, suggesting that the two constructs may have different consequences.

Geros reputacijos palaikymas ir apsaugojimas nuo krizių yra svarbus kompanijų, siekiančių konkurencinio pranašumo, uždavinys. Baigiamojo darbo problema: kaip suvokiama reputacijos svarba ir kaip valdoma reputacijos rizika Lietuvos telekomunikacijų sektoriaus įmonėse. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti reputacijos svarbą, reputacijos rizikos atsiradimo veiksnius ir jos valdymo praktiką Lietuvos telekomunikacijų sektoriaus įmonėse ir palyginti su praktika užsienio įmonėse. Darbe atsakoma į klausimus: kaip suvokiama reputacijos svarba, kokie reputacijos riziką įtakojantys veiksniai ir kaip reputacijos rizika valdoma Lietuvos telekomunikacijų sektoriaus įmonėse. Darbą sudaro įvadas, literatūros apžvalga, empirinio tyrimo eigos ir rezultatų aprašymas, apibendrinimai, išvados, praktinė interpretacija vadovams. Literatūros apžvalgoje išnagrinėta mokslinė literatūra. Šioje dalyje nagrinėjama reputacijos vieta tarp kitų sąvokų, pateikiamas suinteresuotų asmenų sąvokos paaiškinimas ir jų daromos įtakos kompanijos reputacijai analizė. Akcentuojama korporacinės reputacijos svarba kompanijos veiklos kontekste, analizuojami skirtingų autorių požiūriai į reputacijos rizikos atsiradimo šaltinius bei autorių įžvalgos kaip reikėtų valdyti reputacijos riziką. Siekiant atsakyti į darbe iškeltus klausimus, atliktas kiekybinis tyrimas Lietuvos telekomunikacijų sektoriaus įmonėse. Tyrimo duomenys apdoroti naudojant SPSS statistinės analizės programinį paketą. Siekiant interpretuoti tyrimo rezultatus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The maintaining of a good reputation and its protection from crises is an important task for companies seeking competitive advantages. The issue of this final thesis is to explore the level of perception of the importance of reputation and the ways of reputation risk management in the Lithuanian telecommunications sector companies. The goal of the thesis – to analyze the importance of reputation, factors contributing to the occurrence of reputation risk and its management practice in the Lithuanian telecommunications sector companies, and to compare it with practice in foreign companies. The thesis provides answers to the following questions: How is the importance of reputation perceived? What are the factors influencing reputation risk? How is this risk managed in the Lithuanian telecommunications sector companies? The thesis consists of the following parts: Introduction, Literature Review, Description of the Process of an Empiric Research and its Results, Summing-Up, Conclusions, and Practical Interpretation for Leaders. The Literature Review provides an analysis of scientific literature. This part explores the place of reputation among other concepts, provides a definition of the concept of stakeholders and analysis of the influence they have on the company’s reputation. Stress is laid on the importance of corporate reputation in the context of business activities. This part of the thesis also contains an analysis of the views of different authors on the sources of... [to full text]

Šiandien vis garsiau kalbama apie augantį poreikį kryptingai, sistemiškai ir apgalvotai valdyti organizacijos reputaciją. Tad šio darbo siekiamas tikslas: ištyrus UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ darbuotojų požiūrį į reputacijos valdymo svarbą ir aktualumą, pasiūlyti įmonei strateginį reputacijos valdymo modelį. Darbe ne tik analizuojamos mokslinės literatūros šaltinių teorinės nuostatos apie organizacijų reputacijos formavimo modelių aspektus, tačiau, remiantis projekto „Gerbiamiausia Lietuvos įmonė 2008“ vertinimo metodika, atliekamas ir UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ darbuotojų požiūrio į reputacijos kūrimo ir valdymo svarbą vykdant kompanijos veiklą tyrimas. Gauti rezultatai rodo, jog UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ netaiko atskiros, konkrečios strategijos įmonės reputacijos kūrimui, o nuolat kintantis įmonės personalas yra silpnoji grandis kuriant teigiamą kompanijos reputaciją. Tad trečioje darbo dalyje, remiantis viešojo sektoriaus organizacijų veiklos tobulinimusi, taikant įsivertinimą pagal Bendrąjį vertinimo modelį (BVM), siūloma pastarąjį adaptuoti ir pritaikyti strateginiam UAB „Sabelijos prekyba“ reputacijos valdymo modelio sudarymui, kuris suteiktų organizacijai galimybę įsivertinti ir tobulinti savo veiklą norint suformuoti teigiamą kompanijos reputaciją. / Strategical management and control of corporte reputation plays a big role in all over the world. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to analyse the employees attitude of JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ to the importance of controlling company reputation and propose the strategic corporate reputation management model. This paper reviews the conceptual development of the corporate reputation process and also analyses the employees attitude of JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ to the importance of controlling company reputation. The findings shows that JSC „Sabelijos prekyba“ heavily has any strategy how to manage and control it‘s corporate reputation. For this reason, in the third part of this study the new strategic corporate reputation management model is proposed which is based on Common Assessment Framework (CAF) model, developed by European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) for the public service institutions in the EU Member States.

Purpose: Social media is a global phenomenon that has developed from an opportunity of contact between people, into a platform for contact between organizations and people. This essay aims to investigate the public relation strategies of one organization on a popular social network.The main question that this study aims to answer is how the travel agency Ving chooses to create and preserve relationships to the public on Facebook in order to maintain a good reputation. Asub-question explores whether any patterns exist in Ving’s approach of interaction with its stakeholders. Method/Material: This study consists of a quantitative content analysis in which the interaction between the organization and the audience has been studied. Posts published by the public as well as replications from Ving have been categorized and then analyzed using two analytical models. The collected material consists of 513 posts published by the public and 457 answers published by Ving. The 56 posts that remained unanswered by Ving were also categorized and analyzed. Main results: One of the main findings of this study shows that Ving has a high frequency of responding to to their publics on their Facebook page. 89 % of the published posts have been responded by Ving with an informative answer and an answer that calls for further contact,suggesting that a will of Ving to interact with its followers and create a long-lasting and sustainable relationships will lead Ving to good relations among the followers. Good relationships creates a good reputation.

The focus of this research is on the development of ontology and on a more effective way to measure corporate reputation that takes into consideration the orientations of a company’s various stakeholders. The focus by researchers and by practitioners on corporate reputation and on its management attests to an expanding interest. Yet there remains disparate knowledge about how corporate reputation should be defined; about what are its key components; about the relationships between those components and about how corporate reputation should be measured. This point to a need for clarification: to develop a methodology based on ontology of corporate reputation that has relevance for a company’s various stakeholder groups. This research builds on a review of the academic literature and employs text analysis, the nominal group technique and a quantitative survey among stakeholders about the reputation of a high profile company. Theory-driven analysis provides insights into the corporate reputation construct and into a tool for measurement that takes into consideration stakeholder perceptions of a company’s reputation. The results of the study indicate that, in the eyes of its stakeholders, a company’s reputation is driven by nine factors: image, identity, management leadership, performance, corporate brand, products and services, financial performance, ethical management and leadership, and corporate leadership. Not all nine components share the same degree of relevance for stakeholders: different stakeholder groups rank the importance of the components of corporate reputation differently; they evaluate the reputation of the same company differently. The drivers of stakeholders’ overall evaluations of a company’s reputation vary by stakeholder segment. Stakeholder groups are seen to display the characteristics of segments.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD), / The confluence of a number of marketplace phenomena has provided the impetus for the selection and conduct of this research. The first is the so called value relevance of intangibles in determining share market performance of publicly listed companies. The growing gap between market and book values has been proposed as an indication of the impact of intangibles on share price values. A second related phenomenon is the increasing reliance on share price appreciation as the principal means for shareholder return as opposed to returns through dividends. This suggests that share prices are becoming an even more critical firm performance measure than traditional accounting-based firm performance measures like return on investment (ROI). A third phenomenon is the rapid growth in marketplace alliances and joint ventures, the number of which has grown rapidly over the past 30 years. The explanation for these phenomena may lie in the concept of corporate social capital (CSC) which, as an intangible asset (IA), has been proposed in several normative studies. CSC has been defined as “the set of resources, tangible or virtual, that accrue to a corporate player through the player’s social relationships, facilitating the attainment of goals” (Leenders & Gabbay, 1999, p3). However, constructs for CSC have only been loosely defined and its impacts on firm performance only minimally empirically tested. This research addresses this gap in the literature. The key aim of this research is to explore the impact of CSC on firm performance. Through the use of CSC as a lens for viewing a firm’s intangibles, several important sub-components of the CSC formulation are exposed. These include a firm’s market centrality (CENT), absorptive capacity (AC), internal capital (INC), human capital (HC) and financial soundness. Therefore, an extended aim for this research is to identify the differential impacts of the CSC sub-components on firm performance. Firm performance was measured as ROI, market-to-book ratios (Tobin’s Q) and total shareholder return (TSR). Overall, the research results indicate that CSC is a significant predictor of firm performance, but falls short of fully explaining the market-to-book value disparity. For this research an innovative computer-supported content analysis (CA) technique was devised to capture a majority of the data required for the empirical research. The use of a commercial news aggregation service, Factiva, and a standard taxonomy of terms for the search, allowed variables for intangible constructs to be derived from a relatively large sample of firms (n=155) from the global information technology services (ITS) sector from 2001 to 2004. Data indices for joint venture or alliance activity, research and development (R&D) activity, HC, INC and external capital (EC) were all developed using this CA approach. The research findings indicated that all things aren’t equal in terms of how the benefits of CSC accrue to different firms in the sector. The research indicated that for larger, more mature firms, financial soundness does not necessarily correlate with improved shareholder return. The inference is that these firms may have reached a plateau in terms of how the market is valuing them. In terms of market centrality, the research indicates that software firms could benefit from building a larger number of alliances and becoming more centrally connected in the marketplace. The reverse is true, however, for larger, more established firms in the non-software sectors. These companies can be penalised for being over-connected, potentially signalling that they are locked into a suite of alliances that will ultimately limit their capacity to innovate and grow. For smaller, potentially loss-making firms, the research indicates that investments in HC are potentially the only investment strategy that could result in improvements in profitability and shareholder return. Investments by such firms in R&D or INC developments are likely to depress shareholder value and therefore should be minimised in favour of HC investments. For larger, more established firms, investment in HC is beneficial for both ROI and TSR. Investments in areas like R&D and INC were found to be only beneficial to those firms who have the financial capacity to afford it. Firms that don’t appear to have the financial resources to support the level of investments they are making in R&D and/or INC were penalised by the market. Overall, the research provides specific insights into the links between firms and their performance, through appropriate investments in CSC. In terms of research practice, this research demonstrates the viability of computer-supported CA. Progress in the development of more intelligent search technologies will provide increasing utility to CA researchers, promising to unlock a vast range of textual source data for researchers that were previously beyond manual CA practices.

Η αγορά των συνταγογραφούμενων φαρμάκων λειτουργεί σε ένα πολύπλοκο περιβάλλον που διαμορφώνεται από ισχυρές κυβερνητικές πιέσεις, ριζικές αλλαγές στην ιατρική περίθαλψη σε παγκόσμιο επίπεδο, αυξανόμενο συγκεντρωτισμό της αγοράς και μεγαλύτερο ανταγωνισμό από αντίγραφα φάρμακα. Δημιουργείται έτσι η πιεστική ανάγκη για τις φαρμακευτικές εταιρίες να συγκεκριμενοποιήσουν την εικόνα που έχουν οι μέτοχοί τους για αυτές (εταιρική εικόνα) και αν είναι εφικτό να προσπαθήσουν να την διαμορφώσουν. Η δημιουργία και διατήρηση μιας θετικής εταιρικής φήμης είναι μια πολύ δύσκολη και πολύπλοκη διαδικασία, που λίγες εταιρίες κατορθώνουν να πετύχουν. Περισσότερη μελέτη του αντικειμένου υποστηρίζει την άποψη ότι υπάρχουν πολλοί εσωτερικοί παράγοντες που πρέπει να ρυθμιστούν από μια εταιρία για να απολαμβάνει ευνοϊκή φήμη από τους ομάδες ενδιαφερομένων (stakeholders). Οι εσωτερικοί παράγοντες αφορούν πληροφορίες ή σήματα που εκπέμπουν οι εταιρίες, σχετικά με την οικονομική και λογιστική τους επίδοση, την ύπαρξη θεσμικών επενδυτών στο μετοχικό τους κεφάλαιο, και την στρατηγική τους τοποθέτηση. Στηριζόμενοι σε αυτές τις πληροφορίες οι stakeholders, αξιολογούν την εταιρική φήμη. Ο απώτερος σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η αξιολόγηση των παραγόντων που προσδιορίζουν την εταιρική φήμη στο φαρμακευτικό κλάδο, καθώς και ο τρόπος που συσχετίζονται μεταξύ τους. / The market of prescribed medicines functions in a complicated environment that is shaped by powerful governmental pressures, radical changes in the medical care in world level, increasing centralism of market and bigger competition than generic medicines. It's thus created the pressing need for the pharmaceutical companies to particularise the picture that have their shareholders for them (corporate picture) and if it is feasible they try they shape it. The creation and maintenance of positive corporate reputation is a very difficult and complicated process that few companies are achieving. Further study of the object supports the opinion that there are a lot of internal factors that should be regulated from a company in order to achieve a favourable reputation from their stakeholders. The internal factors concerns information and data that companies are emitting, with regards to their financial and accounting record, the existence of institutional investors in their participial capital, and their strategic placement. Based on this information the stakeholders are evaluating the corporate reputation. The ultimate aim of present study is the evaluation of factors that determines the corporate reputation in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the way they are related to each other.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Young Soo Shim, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Accountancy, presented on 03/10/2017, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: INVESTIGATING THE DETERMINANTS AND ENDOGENOUS INFLUENES OF ENVIRONMENTAL REPUTATION MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Royce D. Burnett This study investigates (1) the determinants of a firm’s environmental reputation and (2) the impact of this reputation on employee productivity and financial performance. I extend existing work in this area by focusing on both the endogenous and exogenous benefits of the reputation. The endogenous benefits refer to positive impacts of the reputation on employee morale and employee productivity, which have generally been ignored by prior research. In developing my research hypotheses, I draw on the following five well-established theories: the costly signaling theory, the resource-based view of firm, the Porter’s eco-efficiency perspective, the social identity theory, and the third-person effect theory. A sample of 271 companies was drawn from the 500 largest U.S. public companies listed in the 2010 Newsweek’s green report. The corporate environmental data for this study were gathered from this report. Meanwhile, the corporate financial data were obtained from the Mergent database. Via multiple regression analyses, I find (1) environmental reputation is significantly and positively predicted by environmental management when firm environmental reputation is high; (2) environmental reputation is significantly and positively related to environmental performance when firm environmental reputation is low; (3) across the board, environmental reputation does not predict employee productivity; (4) environmental reputation is a significant and positive predictor of financial performance only for firms with high environmental reputation; and (5) employee productivity positively and significantly predicts financial performance only for firms with a high environmental reputation.

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-03-30T18:08:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Meirelles, Luize Pinheiro.pdf: 1048019 bytes, checksum: 2a9f865e5d7d3b5d6466d052d8dc04c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2015-04-06T19:53:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Meirelles, Luize Pinheiro.pdf: 1048019 bytes, checksum: 2a9f865e5d7d3b5d6466d052d8dc04c2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-06T19:53:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Meirelles, Luize Pinheiro.pdf: 1048019 bytes, checksum: 2a9f865e5d7d3b5d6466d052d8dc04c2 (MD5) / Esta pesquisa qualitativa, com abordagem metodológica de estudo de caso, tem a finalidade de examinar a reputação organizacional do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Bahia (IFBA), a partir das dimensões da nova institucionalidade, através da perspectiva dos gestores. Para tanto, considera-se o conceito de reputação organizacional como uma imagem organizacional mais consolidada ao longo do tempo, resultado de repetidas interações e experiências acumuladas entre a organização e seus stakeholders e, por isso, com um vínculo difícil de ser rompido. Como corte temporal, estabeleceu-se o período a partir de 2008, uma vez que representou a transformação dos Centros Federais de Educação Tecnológica (Cefets) em Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (IFs) pela Lei nº 11.892, de 29 de dezembro de 2008. As técnicas de pesquisa utilizadas para viabilizar a triangulação das informações mapeadas foram análise de documentos, observação participante e entrevista, esta última fundamentada pelo Método de Configuração de Imagem Organizacional, de Schuler (2004). A análise de documentos resultou na definição do conceito de nova institucionalidade e suas dimensões. Já a observação participante e a entrevista permitiram identificar os atributos que compõem a percepção da reputação organizacional do IFBA. Foram utilizadas 18 entrevistas de gestores, nos cargos de reitor, pró-reitores e diretores gerais dos campi. A estratégia de análise que possibilitou trabalhar estas diferentes técnicas de pesquisa foi a análise de conteúdo, com o suporte do software Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Os resultados obtidos revelaram que a percepção sobre a nova institucionalidade do IFBA está em transição, com a presença simultânea de características do passado e relacionadas ao perfil mais atual. A pesquisa mostrou ainda que os gestores possuem papel relevante nesta transformação para a nova institucionalidade, bem como ainda são influenciados pela reputação organizacional vinculada à antiga institucionalidade. This qualitative research, based on a case study methodological approach, has as its objective the examination of the corporate reputation of Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Bahia (IFBA), taking as a starting point the dimensions of the new institutionality, from the perspective of the managers. For this purpose, we consider the concept of corporate reputation as a corporate image that has been consolidated over time, as the result of many interactions and experiences accumulated between the organization and its stakeholders, which resulted in a link that became difficult to be broken. We established the period of research from 2008 on, since it represented the transformation of the Centros Federais de Educação Tecnológica da Bahia (Cefets) into Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (IFs), according to Federal Law 11.892, dated December 29th, 2008. The research techniques used to triangulate the mapped information were documentary analysis, active observation and interview, this last one based on Schuler’s Method for Organizational Image Configuration (2004). The result of the documentary analysis was the definition of the new institutionality concept, as well as its dimensions. The active observation and interview steps allowed the identification of the attributes that constituted the perception of IFBA’s corporate reputation. We used a total of 18 interviews, made with managers in the posts of rector, pro-rectors and directors of the campi. The analysis strategy that allowed the usage of these different research techniques was the content analysis, developed with the aid of Microsoft Office Excel 2007 software. The results revealed that the perception about IFBA’s new institutionality is changing, but we notice that, simultaneously, there is the presence of some past characteristics associated to its current profile. The research has also shown that, at the same time managers have a relevant role in the transformation to the new institutionality, they