How Do Environmental Violation Events Harm Corporate Reputation?

This study, based on attribution theory, provides empirical evidence for how environmental violation events (EVEs) damage corporate reputation, using media reputation as a proxy. Hypotheses are developed to address the influences of violating firms’ past environmental behaviors and ownership on the reputational effect of EVEs. The results show that firms with a history of unfavorable behaviors (precedent environmental violation) are deemed by the media to be more culpable for adverse environmental events and consequently suffer more damage to their reputation, while for firms with a favorable environmental record (environmental awards and honors gained) the reputational harm of an EVE is alleviated to some extent. EVEs cause more reputational damage to foreign‐owned enterprises than to domestic‐owned firms. These findings reveal that certain company behaviors could exert an indirect effect on a firm's reputation by influencing public perception of later relevant behaviors, and imply a discriminatory treatment in a host country for foreign‐owned enterprises. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate Reputation and Social Performance: The Importance of Fit

abstract    Utilizing data on a sample of large firms, we estimate a model of corporate reputation. We find reputation, derived from the assessments of managers and market analysts, to be determined by a firm's social performance, financial performance, market risk, the extent of long-term institutional ownership, and the nature of its business activities. Furthermore, the reputational effect of social performance is found to vary both across sectors, and within sectors across the various types of social performance. Specifically, our results demonstrate the need to achieve a 'fit' among the types of corporate social performance undertaken and the firm's stakeholder environment. For example, a strong record of environmental performance may enhance or damage reputation depending on whether the firm's activities 'fit' with environmental concerns in the eyes of stakeholders.     

Doing good or choosing well? Corporate reputation,CEO reputation,and corporate financial performance

Using data from Taiwan’s top 150 listed companies over the period 2003 to 2014, our study explores the influence of CEO reputation and corporate reputation on the financial performance of companies. The analysis focuses especially on the interaction between CEO reputation and corporate reputation to identify which dimension of reputation is more relevant to firm performance. We show that, though both corporate reputation and CEO reputation have an individual impact that benefits the financial performance of the company, the impact of CEO reputation is more persistent across different time periods and more comprehensive across different industries. Furthermore, we find that CEO reputation still has a positive impact on firm performance when corporate reputation is poor, indicating that CEO reputation is more important to firm performance. To pursue better financial performance, should a company make greater effort to build a good corporate reputation, or merely recruit a CEO with a good reputation? Our suggestion here is simple: “choosing well” is better than “doing good.”     

Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility Aberrations,Trends, and Hypocrisy: Reactions to Firm Choices in the Stock Option Backdating Scandal

Drawing on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation theory, this paper examines the market reaction to firm disclosures of involvement in the US stock option backdating scandal. We examine how a firm's prior signals regarding ethical behaviour and values, as demonstrated through CSR initiatives, may both ameliorate and exacerbate market reactions. CSR initiatives may buffer a firm against general wrong‐doing but expose it to greater scrutiny and sanction for related wrong‐doing. Our results show that firms with enhanced overall reputations for CSR are partially buffered from scandal revelations. However, we find that when firms possess an enhanced reputation for CSR associated with corporate governance, violations pertaining specifically to governance are viewed as hypocritical and more harshly sanctioned. We also find lower and negative market reactions for firms that delay but self‐disclose their involvement in the scandal. The study extends the emergent, related literatures on strategic CSR and reputation management, and documents dynamics in the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.     

Corporate Political Activities and the SEC's Oversight Role in the IPO Process

We study how a regulator (Securities and Exchanges Commission; SEC) responds to IPOs that have a higher political profile. We find that IPOs with issuers (intermediaries) that actively pursue political strategies receive more (less) SEC comment letters than IPOs without such actors. Cross-sectional analysis reveals that the IPO's political environment moderates the relationship between social pressure for more corporate transparency and SEC scrutiny. Additional tests indicate that the political activities of issuers (intermediaries) contribute to a less (more) efficient IPO process. Overall, our findings suggest that politically active intermediaries have stronger incentives to accurately portray the IPO financial reporting environment than politically active issuers because they have greater reputational and political capital at stake; quite simply, the former have more to lose. We draw out the implications for theory, in terms of agency and reputation.     

Corporate motivations for environmental sustainable development: exploring the role of consumers in stakeholder engagement

This paper examines the extent to which the end‐consumer appears to influence corporate behaviour towards reporting specific environmental management activities, through examination of environmental disclosures by the UK FTSE 100 companies. The paper also explores whether proximity to the end‐consumer is associated with particular motivations for environmental management – whether cost‐reducing or reputational benefits, hypothesizing that close‐to‐consumer companies (C2C) will have a greater focus on reputational benefits than their counterparts. The results established that C2C companies were significantly more active in particular environmental measures (climate change and management processes) than their counterparts. They were also more likely to undertake environmental activities for which there was no explicit cost‐reduction benefit, suggesting that reputation with consumers/society may be a particular business motivator for them. These findings are important to policy makers, government and investors in terms of identifying which companies are leading particular aspects of the corporate environmental agenda and understanding the driving forces for it. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The moderating effect of the technological level of industry on the relationship between innovation and corporate reputation

Corporate reputation is one of the principal intangible assets a firm possesses. The entrepreneurial, innovative nature of the firm has been recognized as one of the antecedents of corporate reputation. However, specialist literature has paid scant attention to the relative importance of an entrepreneurial nature as an element that helps to improve corporate reputation in comparison with other antecedents such as product quality. Even less is known about exactly how this antecedent influences corporate reputation among different stakeholders. Little is also known about possible variations in how this antecedent is perceived by different industries. Thus, with a view to contributing to knowledge on how corporate reputation is formed, derived from the innovative nature of the firm, this article attempts to analyze how the environment affects the causal relation between the entrepreneurial, innovative nature of the firm and its corporate reputation. We particularly analyze the environment according to its technological level, distinguishing between three types of industry: high tech, medium tech, and low tech, using a sample of 308 US firms and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The empirical test provided some unexpected and interesting results.     

Reputation and lying aversion in the die roll paradigm: Reducing ambiguity fosters honest behavior

This paper examines reputation as motive for lying aversion. In a control treatment, participants roll a six-sided die and report the outcome, which the experimenter cannot observe. In a digital die treatment, the outcome of the die roll is determined randomly on the computer. Contrary to prior literature, we reduce ambiguity in the digital die treatment by making observability common knowledge. We find that partial lying and full lying disappear when the experimenter can track participants' behavior. This result can be explained by reputational costs: Participants care about how they are viewed by the experimenter and abstain from lying.     

企业社会责任、企业声誉对员工满意度影响的实证研究

构建了企业社会责任、企业声誉和员工满意度的关系模型,以西北工业大学深圳地区和西安地区MBA班工程硕士学员为调研对象,欲探讨现阶段企业员工对企业社会责任的认知状况。通过构建结构方程模型,实证分析发现:企业社会责任对企业声誉有显著正向影响;企业声誉对员工满意度有显著正向影响;企业社会责任不直接对员工满意度产生影响,而是通过影响企业声誉后对员工满意度产生作用。     

Weekend racer: cheating and self-governance in road racing

This paper studies how reputation enforces socially cooperative behavior in road racing in the New Orleans metro area. We find that reputation mechanisms have a much stronger effect for frequent road racers than for members of the New Orleans Track Club. We find that club membership cuts cheating in half while a runner who has finished at least one-third of the 2013 running season does not cheat. Thus, self-governance eliminates corruption when there is a reputational mechanism in place. Since data on informal running clubs are unavailable, our analysis underestimates the effect of club membership on socially cooperative behavior in road racing.     

Reputation und Unternehmenserfolg

About 30 years ago the first scientific papers were published that address the construct of corporate reputation from the perspective of management science. This article aims at providing a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art of corporate reputation research. First, we discuss conceptualizations and operationalizations of this intangible asset. Second, we review studies which examine the relationship between corporate reputation and stakeholder behavior respectively firm performance. We find that a superior corporate reputation influences the behavior of stakeholders favorably and thus has a positive impact on the (financial) success of the firm. Finally, we present some hints for future research.     

The impact of face-to-face street fundraising on organizational reputation

Although many stakeholders perceive face-to-face street fundraising as unpleasant, nonprofit managers encourage it as a way to attract donors. To understand the long-term effects of this fundraising method, we used a mixed-methods experimental design to investigate how face-to-face street fundraising affects organizational reputation and stakeholder support intentions in comparison with letter fundraising. The findings reveal that face-to-face street fundraising has a significant negative influence on the stakeholders' perceptions of an organization. Further, qualitative data show that the negative perception originates primarily from perceived pressure, distrust, and obtrusion, which are triggered by face-to-face street fundraising. Our study thus reveals long-term reputational consequences that nonprofit organizations should consider before deciding on fundraising methods.     

The Visible Hands of Hierarchy within the M‐Form: An Empirical Test of Corporate Parenting of Internal Product Exchanges*

ABSTRACT In this paper, we dismiss the traditional contingency argument that corporate staff should have minimal involvement with the decisions that its divisions make, because predictability, which underlies this contingency logic, is erroneous for most large corporations at this time. We offer an alternative theory of corporate involvement for the M‐form: under unpredictable environments greater interdependence of corporate staff with divisional operating decisions may be necessary to create value for the corporation. Since corporate staff cannot be involved in all divisional affairs, we empirically explore when corporate involvement is most likely. Building on transaction cost economics and the strategy literature, we reason that corporate staff may selectively involve itself in business level strategy and operating decisions when product characteristics signal threats to effective inter‐divisional coordination as well as opportunities for value creation. To explore this topic, we surveyed corporate managers of Fortune 500 companies. The results suggest some initial support for our theoretical argument: corporate staff is more likely to involve itself in business‐level decisions for uncertain products. We further find that when corporate staff is responsible for the capital investments used for the divisional venture, it is more likely to guide and influence product strategy decisions and inter‐divisional conflicts. We do not find, however, consistent evidence that specialized assets or brand‐name reputation trigger corporate involvement. Implications and limitations are further discussed.     

Is there a bigger and better future for employer branding? Facing up to innovation,corporate reputations and wicked problems in SHRM

Employer branding is becoming an increasingly important topic for research and practice in multinational enterprises (MNEs) because it plays directly into their corporate reputation, talent management and employee engagement agendas. In this paper, we argue that the potential effects of employer branding have yet to be fully understood because current theory and practice have failed to connect this internal application of marketing and branding to the key reputational and innovation agendas of MNEs, both of which are at the heart of another strategic agenda – effective corporate governance. However, these agendas are characterised by ‘wicked problems’ in MNEs, which have their origins in competing logics in strategic human resource management (SHRM). These problems need to be articulated and understood before they can be addressed. This paper proceeds by (1) setting out a definition and model of employer branding and how it potentially articulates with corporate governance, innovation and organisational reputations, (2) discussing and analysing the ‘wicked problems’ resulting from the sometimes contradictory logics underpinning innovation and corporate reputations and SHRM in MNEs and (3) evaluating the potential of employer branding as a contribution to the third SHRM approach – HR strategy-in-action – as a way of resolving three particularly wicked problems in MNEs. We conclude with some ideas for research and practice on the future for employer branding.     

How do corporate environmental policy and corporate reputation affect risk‐adjusted financial performance?

The current study aims to answer dual, related questions: Does corporate environmental policy affect corporate reputation, and does this link also influence risk‐adjusted profitability and company's risk? With a comprehensive framework involving analyses of each question, among a sample of firms traced by the Reputation Institute, this study reveals several notable results, after correcting for endogeneity biases. First, environmental engagement and green product innovation are both antecedents of corporate reputation. Second, corporate reputation has a positive impact on risk‐adjusted profitability and Z score indicator of financial distress risk. Thus, corporate environmental responsibility and green practices represent cospecialized assets that enhances an intangible asset, namely, corporate reputation. The latter influence constitutes a missing link between sustainable development and the firm's financial performance. Overall, environmental engagement and corporate reputation act as insurance‐like protections of firm competitiveness.     

Does downsizing improve organisational performance? An analysis of Spanish manufacturing firms

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of downsizing on corporate performance, considering a sample of manufacturing firms drawn from the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies for the 1993–2005 period. No significant difference in post-downsizing performance arises between companies that downsize and those that do not. Likewise, we find that substantial workforce reductions through collective layoffs do not lead to improved performance levels either. Downsizing may not, therefore, be a way for managers to enhance performance. This is particularly true of Spain, where the labour market is characterised by the ring-fencing of employees' rights and substantial severance costs.     

Justifying health IT investments: A process model of framing practices and reputational value

Despite important research contributions on the financial and operational dimensions of information technology (IT) value, justifying health IT (HIT) investments remains a difficult and enduring issue for IT managers. Recent work has expanded our understanding of HIT value, by focusing on the initial resource allocation stage, and through conceptualizations of value across multiple dimensions. Building on these developments, we adopt a performative perspective to examine the research question of how practitioners justify early stage HIT investments, with a focus on reputational value. We explored this question through a comparative field study of two hospital organizations in the English National Health Service (NHS). We found that practitioners' temporally orientated framing practices matter in justifying HIT investments, enacting different possibilities for reputational value. We develop a process model to explain these dynamics and highlight the mutability of reputational value, which can lead to different possibilities for restoring, enhancing, or maintaining reputation. We conclude by discussing the implications for justifying HIT investments.     

Do Family Firms Have Better Reputations Than Non‐Family Firms? An Integration of Socioemotional Wealth and Social Identity Theories

We draw from socioemotional wealth and social identity research to develop a theory on reputational differences among family and non‐family firms. We propose that family members identify more strongly with their family firm than non‐family members do with either a family or non‐family firm. Heightened identification motivates family members to pursue a favourable reputation because it allows them to feel good about themselves, thus contributing to their socioemotional wealth. We hypothesize that when the family's name is part of the firm's name, the firm's reputation is higher because family members are particularly motivated for their firm to have a better reputation. Family members also need organizational power to pursue a favourable reputation; thus, we hypothesize that the level of family ownership and family board presence should be associated with more favourable reputations. We find support for our theory in a sample of large firms from eight countries with disparate governance systems and cultures.     

The Power of Stakeholders' Voice: The Effects of Social Media Activism on Stock Markets

Building on social movement theory, this study assesses the influence of social media activism on the stock market performance of targeted firms. We focus on information published on Twitter by two critical stakeholders: consumer associations and trade unions. To the extent that social media represent a valid medium to mobilize stakeholders' activism, protests on Twitter may damage firm reputation, leading to capital market reactions. Using a corpus of over 1.5 million tweets referring to Spanish listed banks, we study the impact of activism by looking at targeted firms' abnormal variations in price and trading volume. Our findings suggest that the Twitter activism of key stakeholders has a significant impact on investors' decisions. Further, our empirical analyses indicate that the mechanisms affecting investors' behavior differ depending on the characteristics of the stakeholder group. Hence, this study contributes to understanding how social movements influence corporate behavior via social media. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Interplay between reputation and growth: the source,role and audience of reputation of rapid growth technology-based SMEs

Abstract

Drawing on resource-based view and signalling theory, this paper presents a comparative case of four (young vs. old; small vs. medium-sized) business-to-business firms to examine how (i.e. through which sources), why (i.e. for which managerial purposes) and for whom (i.e. for which audiences) do technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises build their reputation along the process of rapid growth? The results indicate that in the pre-growth stage product awards as well as technological and financial partners are important sources of reputation for demonstrating technological capabilities and firm sustainability to potential customers especially for young firms. Older firms, in turn, rely on technology partners and acquisitions in the rapid growth stage to convince existing customers that the firms’ can keep up with their customer’s changing needs. Moreover, the reputation gained from the first well-known customer and a focused clientele appear to be two critical antecedents of rapid growth whereas patents do not seem to have a significant reputational role in rapid growth. Our study informs the theory of reputation development of growing technology-based firms by abstracting a more nuanced understanding of stakeholder- and stage-contingent reputation that fosters rapid growth, and provides new insight into the literature on small firm growth.