abstract: Given the major investment young people make in earning and maintaining a peer reputation, our goal in this study was to explore the association between dimensions of negative and positive peer reputation in middle school and adjustment several years later, by the end of high school, among upper middle class youth. Prior research has shown negative reputations such as aggressive-disruptive and sensitive-isolated to be associated with maladjustment later in life, whereas reputations like popular and prosocial-leader have been related to positive future outcomes. However, there are contrary findings that reveal a more complex relationship between peer reputation and adjustment, showing certain “negative” reputations to be tied with better outcomes in some domains and the converse in others. Using a sample of middle school students, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to test a four-factor model of the Revised Class Play, a peer report measure on peer reputations. CFA findings supported the four-factor model with the following reputations: popular, prosocial, aggressive, and isolated. Structural equation models were used to predict 12th grade adjustment outcomes (academic achievement, psychopathology, substance use) from middle school peer reputation. Prosocial reputation in middle school was connected to higher academic achievement and fewer externalizing symptoms in 12th grade. Both prosocial and isolated peer reputation were negatively associated with alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, whereas a popular reputation was related to higher levels of alcohol use. Middle school reputation did not predict internalizing symptoms in 12th grade. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive and maladaptive adjustment outcomes associated with each peer reputation and implications for future research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2016

A number of historians have studied the meanings of reputation in early modern English society through the medium of defamation cases in the church courts. More recent work has tended to focus on the gendering of participation in ecclesiastical litigation and the differences in the ways that men and women constructed and maintained their good names. This thesis takes a broader approach, and places defamation cases firmly in their legal and social context. The main focus of this thesis is a sample of defamation cases from the Chester consistory court in the later seventeenth century; this is supplemented by material from the church courts of Sussex and various secular tribunals in both Cheshire and Sussex. A discussion of the law forms an important part of this thesis for it shaped both the patterns of participation in litigation and the content of insults that were alleged. A central objective of this thesis is to discuss the complexity of the gendering of reputation in this period and to show that reputation was not as rigidly polarised around gender as has previously been thought. It explores the ways in which reputation was constructed for both men and women and relates this to both the sorts of social relationships which tended to produce litigation, and the mechanisms of social control which operated within communities. It is argued that defamation litigation reveals much more about attitudes to gender relations, reputation and social order than has been realised hitherto, and that reputation was experienced not as an abstract value, but in relation to the social situations of individual women and men.

Focusing on corporate identity (i.e. employee view of corporate reputation), this study is an analysis of the employee branding process encompassing an antecedent (PC; psychological contract), a mediator (CI; corporate identity), consequences (OI and OC; organisational identification and commitment), and a covariant (EP; employee personality). Customers and employees are the two most important stakeholder groups of a business organisation. A review of the existing literature suggests that research into corporate reputation predominantly takes a customer perspective. In contrast, the employee view of corporate reputation has rarely attracted academic attention. For this reason, the value of this study is justified not only by the importance of employer brand as a strategic asset that drives competitiveness, but also by the paucity of academic research into the employee branding process over the years. Previous literature suggested that the employee psychological contract directly influences employees' organisational commitment. Based on a survey of 390 employees from 14 firms in the UK and China (PRC), a structural equation model has been developed and tested. It shows that the effect of PC is better seen as indirect and operating via corporate identity (i.e. the employee view of corporate reputation) and their sense of identification. Both corporate identity (Agreeableness) and organisational identification have strong influences on employees' organisational commitment. Both corporate identity (Agreeableness and Competence) and identification mediate the effect of the psychological contract on commitment. Further, this study shows that the personality of the employee can influence their perceptions of the content of the psychological contract. Employee personality also covaries with their perceptions of corporate identity. This study also has several practical implications. In order to enhance organisational identification and commitment managers need to, first, promote corporate identity dimensions of agreeableness (e.g. friendly, supportive, trustworthy) and competence (e.g. reliable, leading, secure); second, clearly communicate management willingness to offer a series of employment inducements and try to keep these promises. Finally, managers should introduce personality tests into the recruitment and selection process and hire applicants who score high in agreeableness (e.g. friendly, cooperative, compassionate) and conscientiousness (e.g. efficient, organised, achievement-oriented).

<p> </p><p> </p><p><em>The interest in the concept of corporate reputation is growing. Prior research has recurrently shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to organisational performance and gives organisations competitive advantages. Because of this, understanding the antecedents and how to manage corporate reputation is important. The industry of PR consultancies has grown on the Swedish market over the last decades and their services offered aims to help organisations with their communicative efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine how the work of PR consultants relates to their clients’ corporate reputation. The empirical findings are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding of the services provided by PR consultants. In the analysis the interviewees’ understanding the concept of corporate reputation is linked to a theoretical background of the antecedents and management of corporate reputation.  In our conclusions we propose that the PR consultants’ work, seeking to affect the comprehension of stakeholders’ minds about organisations through corporate messages, also relates to the forming of corporate reputation. </em></p>

The interest in the concept of corporate reputation is growing. Prior research has recurrently shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to organisational performance and gives organisations competitive advantages. Because of this, understanding the antecedents and how to manage corporate reputation is important. The industry of PR consultancies has grown on the Swedish market over the last decades and their services offered aims to help organisations with their communicative efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine how the work of PR consultants relates to their clients’ corporate reputation. The empirical findings are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding of the services provided by PR consultants. In the analysis the interviewees’ understanding the concept of corporate reputation is linked to a theoretical background of the antecedents and management of corporate reputation.  In our conclusions we propose that the PR consultants’ work, seeking to affect the comprehension of stakeholders’ minds about organisations through corporate messages, also relates to the forming of corporate reputation.

In order to succeed, it is imperative that all e-commerce systems include an effective and reliable trust and reputation modeling system. This is particularly true of decentralized e-commerce systems in which autonomous software engage in commercial transactions. Many researchers have sought to overcome the complexities of modeling a subjective, human concept like trust, resulting in several trust and reputation models. While these models each present a unique offering and solution to the problem, several issues persist. Most of the models require direct experience in the e-commerce system in order to make effective trust decisions. This leaves new agents and agents who only casually use the e-commerce system vulnerable. Additionally, the reputation ratings of agents who are relatively new to the system are often indistinguishable from scores for poorly performing agents. Finally, more tactics to defend against agents who exploit the characteristics of the open, distributed system for their own malicious needs are required. To address these issues, a new metric is devised and presented: seniority. Based on agent age and activity level within the e-commerce system, seniority provides a means of judging the credibility of other agents with little or no prior experience in the system. As the results of experimental analysis reveals, employing a reputation model that uses seniority provides considerable value to agents who are new agents, casual buyer agents and all other purchasing agents in the e-commerce system. This new metric therefore offers a significant contribution toward the development of enhanced and new trust and reputation models for deployment in real-world distributed e-commerce environments.

In order to succeed, it is imperative that all e-commerce systems include an effective and reliable trust and reputation modeling system. This is particularly true of decentralized e-commerce systems in which autonomous software engage in commercial transactions. Many researchers have sought to overcome the complexities of modeling a subjective, human concept like trust, resulting in several trust and reputation models. While these models each present a unique offering and solution to the problem, several issues persist. Most of the models require direct experience in the e-commerce system in order to make effective trust decisions. This leaves new agents and agents who only casually use the e-commerce system vulnerable. Additionally, the reputation ratings of agents who are relatively new to the system are often indistinguishable from scores for poorly performing agents. Finally, more tactics to defend against agents who exploit the characteristics of the open, distributed system for their own malicious needs are required. To address these issues, a new metric is devised and presented: seniority. Based on agent age and activity level within the e-commerce system, seniority provides a means of judging the credibility of other agents with little or no prior experience in the system. As the results of experimental analysis reveals, employing a reputation model that uses seniority provides considerable value to agents who are new agents, casual buyer agents and all other purchasing agents in the e-commerce system. This new metric therefore offers a significant contribution toward the development of enhanced and new trust and reputation models for deployment in real-world distributed e-commerce environments.

In order to succeed, it is imperative that all e-commerce systems include an effective and reliable trust and reputation modeling system. This is particularly true of decentralized e-commerce systems in which autonomous software engage in commercial transactions. Many researchers have sought to overcome the complexities of modeling a subjective, human concept like trust, resulting in several trust and reputation models. While these models each present a unique offering and solution to the problem, several issues persist. Most of the models require direct experience in the e-commerce system in order to make effective trust decisions. This leaves new agents and agents who only casually use the e-commerce system vulnerable. Additionally, the reputation ratings of agents who are relatively new to the system are often indistinguishable from scores for poorly performing agents. Finally, more tactics to defend against agents who exploit the characteristics of the open, distributed system for their own malicious needs are required. To address these issues, a new metric is devised and presented: seniority. Based on agent age and activity level within the e-commerce system, seniority provides a means of judging the credibility of other agents with little or no prior experience in the system. As the results of experimental analysis reveals, employing a reputation model that uses seniority provides considerable value to agents who are new agents, casual buyer agents and all other purchasing agents in the e-commerce system. This new metric therefore offers a significant contribution toward the development of enhanced and new trust and reputation models for deployment in real-world distributed e-commerce environments.

Prior literature suggests that tax avoidance is an effective way to enhance firm value. However, there appears to be considerable cross-sectional variation in tax avoidance, and it is not clear why some firms do not take full advantage of the tax avoidance opportunities being used by others. This study examines whether managerial reputation, as proxied by high-profile awards to top managers, is helpful in explaining corporate tax avoidance. The empirical results show that, relative to a matched control group, firms managed by a celebrity manager have significantly higher cash and GAAP effective tax rates in the three year period following the manager's first award than preceding the award. This result is consistent with the conjecture that celebrity managers, for fear of being labeled as "poor citizens," engage in less tax avoidance once they have an established reputation.

In order to succeed, it is imperative that all e-commerce systems include an effective and reliable trust and reputation modeling system. This is particularly true of decentralized e-commerce systems in which autonomous software engage in commercial transactions. Many researchers have sought to overcome the complexities of modeling a subjective, human concept like trust, resulting in several trust and reputation models. While these models each present a unique offering and solution to the problem, several issues persist. Most of the models require direct experience in the e-commerce system in order to make effective trust decisions. This leaves new agents and agents who only casually use the e-commerce system vulnerable. Additionally, the reputation ratings of agents who are relatively new to the system are often indistinguishable from scores for poorly performing agents. Finally, more tactics to defend against agents who exploit the characteristics of the open, distributed system for their own malicious needs are required. To address these issues, a new metric is devised and presented: seniority. Based on agent age and activity level within the e-commerce system, seniority provides a means of judging the credibility of other agents with little or no prior experience in the system. As the results of experimental analysis reveals, employing a reputation model that uses seniority provides considerable value to agents who are new agents, casual buyer agents and all other purchasing agents in the e-commerce system. This new metric therefore offers a significant contribution toward the development of enhanced and new trust and reputation models for deployment in real-world distributed e-commerce environments.