This dissertation consists of three essays in experimental economics. The essays investigate different aspects of reputation in fairness games in a controlled laboratory environment. It has been established in the literature of economics, sociology, and psychology that social norms together with other-regarding preferences often govern subjects' decisions in addition to strategic considerations. The dissertation examines the incentives connected with the existence of social norms that could cause deviations from standard economic model predictions. I use experiments so that I can tightly control the environment and provide rigorous tests of existing theories, stylized facts, and anecdotal evidence on the importance of reputation in economic interactions. The first essay presents findings that reputation triggers indirectly reciprocal behavior of subjects. However, reputation might only be signaling what is considered as socially appropriate behavior. This hypothesis and the results of the first essay led me to develop a set of experiments in the second essay to contrast pure reputation effects with the social influence of reputation. The third part of the dissertation, co-authored with Ninghua Du, examines reputation and efficiency wages in a labor market setting by analyzing the effects of negative technological shocks on long run relationships between firms and workers.

Little attention has been paid, in depth, to the relationship between fitness evaluation in evolutionary algorithms and reputation mechanisms in multi-agent systems, but if these could be related it opens the way for implementation of distributed evolutionary systems via multi-agent architectures. Our investigation concentrates on the effectiveness with which social selection, in the form of reputation, can replace direct fitness observation as the selection bias in an evolutionary multi-agent system. We do this in two stages: In the first, we implement a peer-to-peer, adaptive Genetic Algorithm (GA), in which agents act as individual GAs that, in turn, evolve dynamically themselves in real-time, using the traditional evolutionary operators of fitness-based selection, crossover and mutation. In the second stage, we replace the fitness-based selection operator with a reputation-based one, in which agents choose their mates based on the collective past experiences of themselves and their peers. Our investigation shows that this simple model of distributed reputation can be successful as the evolutionary drive in such a system, exhibiting practically identical performance and scalability to direct fitness observation. Further, we discuss the effect of noise (in the form of “defective” agents) in both models. We show that the reputation-based model is significantly better at identifying the defective agents, thus showing an increased level of resistance to noise.

Purpose: This purpose of this thesis is to investigate a company’s understanding of ‘sustainability’ and how this concept is integrated into organisational processes and decision making. Firstly, the internal sustainability systems which lead up to external social and environmental reporting will be examined. Secondly, the role of reputation management and legitimacy in driving company response behaviours around short-term and long-term environmental issues will be explored. Prior research is mainly limited to studies on external social and environmental reporting. The present study adds to the literature by exploring the internal mechanisms and behaviours which underlie external reporting practice. New theoretical insights are provided into legitimacy theory by presenting a framework linking aspects of reputation, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory. Design and methodology: Research is conducted through an in-depth case study at a wholly-owned foreign affiliate of a large multinational organisation involved in an environmentally sensitive industry. Data collection was extensive, including semi-structured interviews and non-structured talks with 26 participants from top management executives through to production workers. Access was also granted to confidential reports, participation in the company’s annual environmental seminar and a stakeholder engagement meeting. Analysis was conducted in a number of phases, framed around research questions and themes drawn from prior literature. Findings: Findings and discussion are presented on three major research questions. Findings on the first research question about internal sustainability systems in the company suggest that senior management are incorporating sustainability issues into strategic planning. However, concerns over the environment have not fully cascaded down to the lower levels of the firm. Although Management Control and Environmental Management Systems are well integrated, these systems are relatively decoupled from the external reporting process. The second and third research questions focus on the distinction between the concepts of “reputation” and “legitimacy” in the case company. Three short-term issues and a long-term strategic decision in the company are outlined to illustrate how company response behaviours change according to: 1) the visibility of the issue, 2) stakeholder salience, and 3) the interconnectedness of stakeholders around the problem. The case company prefers direct action to contain problems where possible, and external reporting only features in some scenarios. Ultimately, it is proposed that reputation and legitimacy must be understood in terms of behaviours as well as external reporting outcomes. Originality/value: There has been a considerable focus on external reporting in corporate sustainability research, particularly in the accounting literature. The work that has been done on internal systems has been largely limited to case study work focused on characteristics and preconditions of sustainability processes together with limitations in current practice. The purpose of this research is to produce an in-depth case study looking at company responses to sustainability issues. It provides some new perspectives on the well researched concept of legitimacy along with some potential avenues for further theory development.

Universities play an important role within their region and the common economy. They are source of the development of essential knowledge and industrially relevant technology, have a strong influence in economic development of a region, and, as employers, they are part of the regional society. In addition universities have an influence on the competitiveness of a region through a combination of people’s wellbeing, regional feeling, reputation, and everyday happiness. Students of universities get an impression of the universities themselves and of the surrounding environment. They promote their feelings about the universities, the campus, and the city to their relatives, families, and friends. The focus of the present study is to visualize the influence of universities on their region, the development in the past decade and the existing challenges to combine third level education with traditional occurrences and the vicissitude of a region influenced by the universities themselves. The research area is the Austrian municipality Krems at the Danube with five universities which has a long tradition in education. The foundation of the first two universities in the middle of the 1990s was the start of higher education within the region. Inductively based approach was used for investigating how universities are influencing their environment, which needs exist and which benefits are created through a common planning and confident cooperation with the regional government. Empirical data was collected through a mix of methods; in addition to literature and statistics the main data was extracted from interviews with involved persons of the universities and the local government. As a result of this study the predominating topics mentioned by the interviewees are the challenges for both participants which are given by a change of society through increasing numbers of students and young people, the tasks to solve infrastructural problems, the effects and advantages for the local labor market and the purchasing power of the region, the reputation and its effects to the region, and finally the common need and ways to intensify the cooperation between the local government and the universities. The aim of this study is to give a broad but detailed overview about the thinking of involved persons and to compile implications to focus further research.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: Dept. of Accounting. Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Bibliography: leaves 142-149.

No description available.

This study endeavours to conceptualise the corporate trust construct and its relationship with corporate reputation more holistically, to address the current perceived lack of conceptual clarity of the relationship between these two constructs. The key premise of this study is that a for-profit organisation’s ability to generate sustainable wealth over time and ensure its own long-term economic sustainability is related to its relationship with its entire stakeholder network. Since an organisation is dependent on its stakeholders’ approval, commitment and supportive behaviour, it is important to understand what influences and drives their perceptions and assessment of an organisation, and their decision to support it. This highlights the importance of understanding the relationship between corporate reputation and corporate trust. For this purpose this researcher has developed a conceptual model founded on basic, theoretical research, with the aim of clarifying current and existing theory and providing a new theoretical perspective. A conceptual model is a simplified and systematic representation of reality, which is made explicit in some abstract form. The descriptive and explicative properties of a model delineate the complex elements of the system more clearly, which fosters systematic thinking and enhances understanding. The model developed as the result of this study suggests an inverse direction to the generally accepted view in current literature of the relationship between corporate trust and corporate reputation. Where trust is usually regarded as an attribute or antecedent of corporate reputation, this study has conceptualised trust as an outcome of corporate reputation and as the more comprehensive construct in the relationship. Corporate reputation has been conceptualised as being merely a means to an end – to earn stakeholders’ trust and thus their commitment and continued support – and not as an end in itself. Trustworthiness, and not trust, has been identified as the key driver of corporate reputation. Seven key areas in which an organisation should display its trustworthiness have been identified. These are proposed as the new antecedents of corporate reputation in order to build a reputation that will lead to stakeholders’ trust and support. Finally, recommendations have been made and the areas requiring further research have been identified. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Marketing Management / PhD / Unrestricted

Undoubtedly, Dostoyevsky's influence upon the novel is great, but, even yet, few concrete studies have been made and no full-length study has been published. It is hoped that this account of Dostoyevsky's reputation in America during the 1920's will be of assistance in the greater task of tracing Dostoyevsky's influence.

No description available.

An employee who has a low level of awareness of how behaviours impact corporate reputation, and access to large online communities, could potentially expose the business to reputational risk. The vast number of individuals on these networks, combined with the low level of skill needed to publish on these sites, has resulted in comments and behaviours being amplified to a much greater audience. Employees and their behaviours represent the reality of the organisation to external stakeholders, and so offer a potential risk for reputational damage.This research used an online survey with Likert scales to test the hypotheses. The survey was sent out to a convenience sample, and then a snowballing technique was used to reach the employees within the identified companies.Managers and employees are equally aware of their impact on corporate reputation; however, they have a difference in opinion on what are acceptable topics to place in the public domain. A breach in the employee-employer psychological contract does not result in an increase in employee‟s willingness to post sensitive information in the public domain and employees are undecided as to how they feel about being prohibited from posting certain information in the public domain as an infringement of their person rights. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted