Dealing with Ethical Dilemmas: A Look at Financial Reporting by Firms Facing Product Harm Crises

Journal of Business Ethics - A product harm crisis (PHC) undermines a firm’s reputation as well as its managers’ career outlook. To shake off the stigmatization resulting from the PHC...     

Marketing Cues and Perceptions of Service Quality in the Selection of Accounting Firms

Abstract

This study tests the survey responses of clients of accounting firms to determine what marketing cues influence their selection of firms and what relationship these cues have on the perceived service quality of the firms' products. The study argues that three marketing cue factors are influential in the clients' selection of accounting firms. Using Principle Components Analysis, three factors were identified: Factor 1, termed Internal Factors-Tangibles includes the following cues: fees, physical facilities, appearance/dress of employees, convenience of location, and available parking. Factor 2, termed Internal Factors-Intangibles includes reputation of the firm, professional quality of employees, and “my own personal experience with other accounting firms.” Factor 3, termed External Factors comprises the opinion of friends/relatives, manner of employees, and word-of-mouth reputation. The relationship betwecn the resultant cues and perceived service quality measures suggests that the intangible and external factors have more influence than tangible factors on the perceived service quality of accounting firms.     

Organizational Virtue and Stakeholder Interdependence: An Empirical Examination of Financial Intermediaries and IPO Firms

Organizational virtue orientation (OVO), an organizational-level construct, refers to the integrated set of beliefs and values that support ethical character traits and virtuous behaviors. To advance the study of organizational virtue, we examine OVO in firms making their initial public offerings (IPOs), with respect to key external stakeholders that serve as financial intermediaries (i.e., venture capital firms and underwriting banks). Drawing on stakeholder and resource dependence theories, we argue that mutual interdependencies occur between financial intermediaries and IPO firms such that venture capital firms’ ownership levels and underwriter reputation are positively associated with the selection of more virtuous IPO firms. We also argue for the moderating relationship of IPO firm age on these main relationships; since IPO firms have more history and information availability, less importance will be placed on OVO in the selection process. In support of our hypotheses, the results of this study suggest the organizational virtue of IPO firms influences the selection decisions of financial intermediaries by reflecting positively on these key stakeholders to improve legitimacy and reputation.     

Locational Choice,Performance and the Growth of British Multinational Firms

This paper examines the role played by Canadian chartered banks in the banking crises that occurred in the United States during the period from 1870 to 1914. The particular hypothesis investigated is whether Canadian chartered banks, through their US branch offices, increased their share of total US deposits during these crisis periods because they were perceived as being relatively safer than US banks. Strong empirical support is found to support the hypothesis. This finding may help to explain the large presence of Canadian chartered banks in US financial markets. The reputation for stability that these banks earned during this period undoubtedly facilitated their expansion into the US market.     

Business Planning Practices of Family‐Owned Firms within a Quality Framework*

Study purpose is to investigate the contribution of an integrated, interfunctional approach to quality management, inclusive of family/business interface management, to the success of 572 small family firms, using multiple measures of success (congruity and business revenues). A positive customer reputation was the most important business goal for 44.6 percent of firms. Interface and business management significantly explained business revenue and congruity between business and family while controlling for owner and business characteristics. Family/business interface management explained 9.7 percent of congruity variance and 8.2 percent of gross revenue variance, whereas business management explained 3.3 percent of congruity variance and 2.2 percent of gross revenue variance.     

The Creation and Growth of Small Business Service Firms in Post-Industrial Britain

Since 1980, the United Kingdom has experienced a dramatic growth in firms and employment in information-intensive business services, such as management consultancy and market research. This article reports the results of the first substantial nation-wide investigation into the nature and causes of small professional business service firm growth in Britain, undertaken in 1991. It reveals marked differences in the characteristics, markets and competitive requirements of such firms, compared with small manufacturing firms. The demand for their services comes predominantly from large companies, and is more focussed on financial and other services and government. But small firms are also making increasing use of business services. Specialised expertise, reputation and educational and professional qualifications are essential prerequisites for the establishment of new business service firms. Their success is also being enhanced by increasing use of informal networking, collaborative partnerships, and subcontracting.     

An Investigation of Real Versus Perceived CSP in S&;P-500 Firms

Firms are spending billions annually in the name of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Whilst markets are increasingly willing to reward good and responsible firms, they lack the instruments to measure corporate social performance (CSP). To convince investors and other stakeholders, firms invest heavily in building a reputation for good corporate behaviour. This article argues that reputations for CSP are often unrepresentative of true CSP and investigates how differences in ‹perceived’ and ‹actual’ – as measured by the Fortune and KLD databases, respectively – can partly be explained by firm characteristics. Amongst other things, it finds that overrated firms are more likely to be relatively big, profitable, operating in non-polluting but competitive industries and with no history of wrong doings to their primary stakeholders. They will also typically spend a lot of effort satisfying the claims of their secondary stakeholders. Above all, the results emphasise the need for researchers to recognise that the databases measure different phenomenon and are not interchangeable.     

Firm Resources and Host‐Country Factors Impacting Internationalization of Knowledge‐Intensive Service Firms

In the era of the global economy, knowledge‐based services are becoming important sectors of the service industry. Services offered by a university are knowledge‐based services. Universities are in the service business, and they play a key role in creating and disseminating knowledge through teaching, research, and related services that cross domestic borders. The current research focuses on the internationalization of US MBA programs. The internationalization of US MBA programs refers to the delivery of knowledge‐based services beyond the domestic borders. The main objective of our research is to examine the effect of an organization's (e.g., a US business school) resources and a host country's attractiveness on the internationalization of knowledge‐based services offered by a firm (a US business school). Using data gathered from MBA programs of US colleges and universities, theÊstudy findings show that internationalization is influenced by human capital, prestige and reputation, management's willingness, and foreign market attractiveness. The results of this study offer practical insights for US business school leaders. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

信誉战略——企业在市场信誉机制不健全环境下的战略选择

基于信誉是企业竞争优势之源的观点,可以得出企业信誉战略是企业战略理论的演化的趋势。在市场信誉机制不健全环境下企业信誉成为稀缺资源。企业构筑信誉战略要有良好的内外环境作为支撑,依着企业信誉战略内涵和性质,构建起企业信誉战略体系框架。处理好企业所要处理的问题。     

Employees' awareness of their impact on corporate reputation

Corporate reputation is critical for cultivating stakeholder relationships and, specifically, for regaining public trust. Corporate reputation results from the firm's interactions with stakeholders, emphasizing the important role employees play in reputation management. However, employees are not necessarily aware of, or prepared for, this extra-role assignment, indicating a gap in research and a managerial challenge. The purpose of the present article is to identify how employees' awareness of their impact on their employers' reputation is influenced by pride, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and perceived corporate reputation. An online survey of employees working for firms ranked in Fortune's America's Most Admired Companies Index provides empirical evidence. The findings underline the prominent effect pride in membership has regarding employees' awareness of their impact on corporate reputation. Study findings further deliver insights into opportunities and risks for managers who wish to use internal reputation building strategies to enhance corporate reputation.     

The Use of Quality and Reputation Indicators by Consumers: The Case of Bordeaux Wine

The absolute and relative impact of current quality and reputation variables on consumer decisions are examined using data from the market for Bordeaux wine. The estimates indicate that a model of consumer decision making which incorporates information on reputation (past quality) and collective reputation (average group quality) rejects alternative models that include current quality. The results also indicate that reputation has a large impact on the willingness to pay of consumers, that long term reputation is considerably more important than short term quality movements, and that consumers react slowly to changes in product quality. Collective reputation is shown to have an impact on consumer willingness to pay that is as large as that of individual firm reputation. If reputation and collective reputation effects are ignored, the estimated impact of current quality and short term changes in quality on consumer behaviour are overstated.     

I Love That Company: Look How Ethical,Prominent, and Efficacious It Is—A Triadic Organizational Reputation (TOR) Scale

Within the corporate social responsibility (CSR) research field, the construct of organizational reputation has been extensively scrutinized as a crucial mediator between the firm CSR engagement and valuable organizational outcomes. Yet, the existing literature on organizational reputation suffers from substantive divergence between the studies in terms of defining the construct’s domain, dimensional structure, and the methodological operationalization. The current study aims to refine the organizational reputation construct by reconciling varying theoretical perspectives within the construct’s definitional landscape, suggesting a holistic but parsimonious triadic view on the organizational reputation construct for customer stakeholders. Based on commonly used extant organizational reputation measures, we theoretically and empirically develop the customer-based triadic organizational reputation (TOR) scale and position it as a superordinate multidimensional construct (generalized favorability) influencing three distinct first-order dimensions: product and service efficacy, societal ethicality, and market prominence. Results show that the proposed triadic conceptualization of organizational reputation is theoretically defensible, and the resulting scale is cross-culturally generalizable and performs well compared with existing, longer measures of organizational reputation. Together, the organizational reputation model developed here suggests that, for cognitive economy and functional efficiency, customers will access a second-order reflective model of organizational reputation as the default implicit attitude (reputation as assessment), which in turn will activate reflections of the implicit attitude in the form of first-order dimensions (reputation as asset).     

Information asymmetry and small business in online auction market

This paper explores how seller reputation affects auction prices using detailed Taiwanese data. Our empirical results show that returns to reputation are nonlinear and differ considerably across different reputation scores. Marginal returns to scores drop sharply after the first reputation quartile, indicating that building up sellers’ reputation is extremely important, especially in the early stage. Our study reveals that the mechanism of seller reputations is effective in mitigating asymmetric information in online auctions.     

Analyzing the relationship between CSR and reputation in the banking sector

Theoretical studies form the core of the literature on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and bank reputation, with few empirical applications discussing the validity of these theoretical proposals. Additionally, the evidence for the links between CSR aspects and bank reputation is inconclusive. This study aims to shed light on the impact of CSR on bank reputation. First, a systematic review of the literature on the empirical studies that relates CSR to bank reputation is performed. These studies indicate significant discrepancies in the measurement of CSR and its links with bank reputation. Second, an empirical study is presented in order to test the impact that CSR (employer branding, integrity and social action) has on the reputation of leading banks in the United Kingdom and Spain. The results obtained call into question the ability of CSR to improve a banking reputation in an unstable financial system.     

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure on Corporate Reputation: A Non-professional Stakeholder Perspective

This paper examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure on corporate reputation as perceived by non-professional stakeholders. Proponents of CSR disclosure argue that CSR disclosure can be considered as a tool for reputation management. We empirically investigate this claim using a reputation index which tracks the general public’s perceptions of corporate reputation over time. In our analysis, we focus on disclosure in stand-alone CSR reports and control for CSR performance. We find that, in contrast to the common belief, stand-alone CSR reports do not influence corporate reputation among non-professional stakeholders. However, we are able to document that stand-alone CSR reports influence corporate reputation among professional stakeholders. We also provide some evidence that transparent CSR disclosure on corporate websites can influence corporate reputation among non-professional stakeholders.     

The interaction between reputation and information search: Evidence of information avoidance and confirmation bias

This paper investigates how the valence of reputation affects the information search, and how the outcome of the search can result in a reevaluation of reputation. The protocol uses a digital version of the Information Display Board (IDB) to examine the dynamics of information search and reputation building. A sample of 1811 respondents was asked about their perceptions of the reputation of specific performing arts events, pre- and post-information search. The findings provide evidence of a confirmation bias (between positive information and the information search), and support information avoidance theories. Specifically, our results show that prior reputation only affected the online information search for consumers with no opinion, or with a positive opinion of a show's reputation. Furthermore, the information search only modifies reputation when consumers have no prior opinion.     

企业声誉的话语性修复——基于海底捞公开话语的案例研究

公开发布致歉信及事件处理方案已经成为企业在危机中即时修复声誉的常见做法，但并非所有的话语都能实现预期的声誉修复目标。鉴于此，文章将声誉管理和话语分析相结合，对2017年海底捞在后厨卫生危机后第一时间发布的致歉信及处理通报进行话语分析，详细探讨及时、准确的话语如何帮助企业在较短时间内实现声誉的初步修复。案例分析表明，公开话语的语篇、概念及人际三大元功能与声誉修复过程中的问题识别、解决方案及关系调节存在侧重性对应关系，通过准确表述、传达企业的态度、行动及持续改进能力来改变利益相关者的负面看法，从而实现企业声誉表层与实质修复的结合。基于这些发现，文章提出企业声誉的话语性修复模型，该模型有助于探索、理解危机中企业声誉的修复过程，并在实践上为企业声誉管理、组织沟通提供借鉴。     

Synthesizing Crisis Communication and Reputation Management

Abstract

This experiment used a counterbalanced, within-subjects design to assess two factors in crisis communication and reputation management: Defensive and apologetic responses to news stories and the effects of good and bad reputation. The dependent measures examined subjects' memory about the companies in the short and long term. Interaction effects ran counter to conventional wisdom abjuring the stonewall response. Subjects recalled fewer details about corporations with a bad reputation that apologized. However, a positive reputation reinforced by an apologetic response resulted in stronger ability to recall details. Reputation appears to be a powerful force in subsequent attributions about other aspects of the organization. The power of reputation was evidenced by significant differences found as a function of reputation and response in a measure assessing defensiveness. Subjects did not, however, link response with the measure evaluating reputation. The interaction of reputation and response found here suggests that traditional strategies do not apply in all cases and certainly calls into question pat answers or formulaic principles such as: “Always apologize” or “Never Say No Comment.” Taking a relational approach, reputation is an ongoing index of previous responses to situations, making the most immediate response strategy a key element of that index, but also a response that should be made in light of current reputation.     

Avoiding Malicious Agents in E-Commerce Using Fuzzy Recommendations

This paper presents a complex computing reputation mechanism to be applied in a domain of e-commerce, that handles reputation as a fuzzy set while decision making is inspired in a cognitive human-like approach. This reputation algorithm has been proved in several scenarios where the goal is to avoid (in other words, filter out) the disturbing influence of wrong recommendations from agents with malicious intentions, such as a collusion between a merchant and a recommender. Results show how the evolution of reputation computed with our fuzzy reputation algorithm is compared with other previous reputation models.     

Managing internal stakeholders’ views of corporate reputation

The aims of this paper are to determine what constitutes internal reputation from the perspectives of both senior managers and employees and to use this understanding to create and assess measures of internal reputation. We also hypothesise and test the relationships between the views of each group and performance, using data from a survey of auditing firms. Manager views of reputation are found to co-vary with performance and to have a significant influence over employee views of reputation. We use these findings to illustrate how employee views of reputation can be managed.