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The chapter focuses on brand image and its role in business relationship initiation. The chapter takes the perspective of personal brands, CEO branding in particular, and discusses how brand image of the CEO affects the establishment of new relationships. The corporate brand image provides a first insight into, for instance, perceived quality, while the CEO brand is a strategic combination of the CEO image and CEO reputation. An empirical case study exemplifies and illustrates how the corporate brand and the CEO brand interlink. The reader learns that a strong CEO brand may outperform the corporate brand in the initial stage of establishing new business relationships. Trust and commitment are highlighted through the case, inducing that business relationship performance is dependent on personal interaction and network bonds between the actors. The personal brand of the CEO is an important element in branding strategies and a strategic tool for organizations active in the B2B domain. This relates specially to partner selection and the stage of initiating business relationships. Furthermore, both rational and emotional factors are considered when business partners evaluate each other, in search for information and cues as regards the history of the partner. Eventually, trust is created between the partners, and the relationship is initiated.

This paper aims to model and estimate how celebrity chief executive officers (CEOs) credibility (i.e. expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) is related to their brand image (i.e. functional, sensory/visual). This paper further examines the effects of consumer materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and the image of their brand.

A total of 260 participants knowledgeable of CEOs and their corresponding brands completed an online questionnaire in a cross-sectional study. The data were analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Celebrity CEOs’ expertise and attractiveness are positively related to both functional and sensory/visual images of their brands. Results also demonstrate the positive effect of materialism on both celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image.

The research was conducted in one country (France) using a cross-sectional design. Additional studies in other settings or countries should be carried out to establish the generalizability of results and strengthen causality inferences.

CEOs need to understand and manage their key role as celebrities, given the direct influence they may have on consumer brand perceptions and behavior.

This study refines the relationship between celebrity CEOs’ credibility and brand image. It is the first to introduce and validate the effect of consumer materialism on the perception of celebrity CEOs.

This study examines the role of CEO communication in effective crisis management. Specifically, it examines whether the communication of private information about a CEO can create a positive pre-crisis image that serves as a buffer during actual crises.

This study uses a 2x2 experimental design to analyze the effect of CEO communication (private information vs no private information) on pre-crisis image and its effectiveness in different types of crises (victim crisis vs preventable crisis).

The results of this research show that the communication of private information about a CEO contributes to the improvement of public image perceptions when a crisis occurs. This effect is influenced by the recipient’s identification with the organization as well as perceptions of empathy and competence toward the CEO. Notably, stronger effects are observed in the context of a victim crisis.

This study contributes to the field by highlighting the importance of CEO communication in crisis management and its potential to proactively build a positive pre-crisis image. In addition, it examines how this mechanism varies by crisis type, providing valuable insights for crisis communication strategies.

This study aims to investigate the influence of CEO attire formality on consumers’ perceptions of corporate image, drawing on first impression theory and spillover effect theory.

Four experimental studies were conducted to test the proposed effect, the underlying mechanism and the boundary condition.

The formality of CEO attire significantly influences consumers’ perceptions of corporate image. Specifically, formal CEO attire creates a stronger perception of corporate authority among consumers, mediated by perceived rule-following of the CEO. In contrast, informal CEO attire leads to a stronger perception of corporate friendliness, mediated by perceived psychological distance of the CEO. Moreover, a matching effect exists between the type of industry and CEO attire formality, where consumers perceive a greater match between authoritative industries and formally dressed CEOs, and between friendly industries and informally dressed CEOs. This alignment strengthens consumers’ corporate attitudes.

The findings offer valuable insights for CEOs aiming to foster a positive image through their attire, providing strategic guidance for aligning corporate image with industry characteristics.

This research extends the understanding of how consumers’ perceptions of CEO attire can spill over to affect the corporate image, offering a novel perspective on corporate image communication.

Personalised statements from CEOs can be used as a tool to protect reputation in corporate crises. However, it needs to be considered that CEOs have different personalities. The present chapter, therefore, examines the effects of social distance of a CEO in combination with crisis communication strategies in corporate crises. This is illustrated by means of an experimental study with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design (factor 1: close vs. far social distance of the CEO; factor 2: deny vs. rebuild crisis communication strategy). The results indicate that in preventable crises, a close social distance of the CEO is beneficial for the CEO’s image as well as the image of the organisation because it promotes empathy and motivated assessment. Empathy towards the CEO remains unaffected by the communication strategy. The effect of the social distance on the motivated assessment occurs, however, only with a deny strategy. If an apology is pronounced, there is no difference whether an approachable or a distant CEO is speaking. The study discussed in this chapter is among the first to take empathy and motivated reasoning into account when analysing the effects of privatisation on CEO image and organisational image.

The purpose of this paper is to outline and discuss the main elements of the chief executive officer (CEO) that affect financial and non-financial aspects of companies. CEO reputation and corporate reputation and performance are intertwined concepts. It presents a conceptual framework, the “4Ps of the CEO branding mix”, and shows how they individually and collectively influence company reputation and performance.

An extensive inter-disciplinary research was conducted. Four primary elements of the CEO (performance, personality, prestige and persona) were identified that positively or negatively impact companies.

CEO reputation (prestige) can not only positively but also negatively impact companies and celerity CEO’s are no different. There are certain personality traits, such as honesty and humility, which are mostly associated with positive company outcomes, while other personality traits, such as machiavellianism and narcissism, seems to negatively impact companies. Certain aspects related to the CEO as a persona, such as CEO tenure (experience) and education, and also CEO’s physical appearance and facial expressions impact CEO’s image and, subsequently, company reputation and performance. Finally, this paper shows that CEO performance is more than company financial and market performance and includes aspects such as strategy execution or CEO succession planning.

The four ′P’s of the CEO branding mix provide a useful framework for CEO’s and the corporate communications department to developing a consistent and comprehensive CEO and corporate communication and branding strategy.

This paper contributes as it outlines the various aspects and elements which impact CEOs image and reputation. The four P’s serve as a useful framework for CEO’s as well as corporate communication departments to systematically measure and manage the CEO’s image and reputation and, consequently, company reputation and performance. It forms the basis for developing a consistent and comprehensive CEO and company communication and branding strategy.

This conceptual paper examines the notion of CEO brands and the problems that arise if they are misaligned with company brands. Previous research examines product, company and people brands and implications for senior executives and organizations, but there is no theoretical framework for CEO brand stewardship. This research aims to fill the gap.

The marketing literature is examined to identify differences between products and people as brands, and the potential for CEO brands to enhance corporate brand equity. Based on an application of existing branding concepts to CEOs, a conceptual model of CEO brands is developed to include an analysis of the relationships between its constituent parts.

CEO brands can be legitimately considered as brands, and existing brand conceptualisations can be applied to CEOs as long as some particularities are accounted for. CEO brands are influenced by their personality and their role as managers, and organisations need to constantly monitor CEO brand reputation as well as communicate its positioning. A successful CEO branding enhances perceived brand value and creates value for organisations.

This research informs brand managers and strategists about brand equity creation. Monitoring stakeholder perceptions of CEOs can enhance rather than detract from corporate brand value. As it showed that people and CEOs can be legitimately considered as brands, the concept of branding needs to be extended to embrace people and CEO brands.

For business practice, this research informs about the differences and similarities between traditional product brands and CEO brands. Particularly it informs that organisations should consider that the CEO brand personifies to stakeholders what the organisation stands for, for example, when hiring a new CEO.

This research provides a new conceptual model on the previously under‐researched area of CEO branding. The insights into CEO brands provide the basis for empirical research into relationships between brand identity, reputation, position and equity, with implications for personal fame and company fortune.

The paper aims to explore the processes by which individuals make attributions about a leader's personality and effectiveness based upon information contained within a photograph of a leader's face.

A mixed methodology approach is taken which combines an individual survey with a follow‐up focus group conducted with five classes of MBA students. In the survey, respondents were asked to rate the photographic images of ten CEOs for personality traits and leadership effectiveness that were apparent in the face; in the focus group, they were asked to reflect upon the processes they had utilized in order to make their attributions.

The study demonstrated that the vast majority of the participants actively used the face to attribute personality traits of the leaders as well as their ability to lead. The survey revealed that perceived leadership effectiveness was positively correlated to perceived extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and narcissism. The focus group revealed three strategies that were used when placing these attributions on a leader. These were drawing on explicit facial traits, using the leader's non‐facial traits and general appearance, and telling stories about the leader.

This was an exploratory study set up in an artificial laboratory‐like environment featuring a limited and homogenous collection of CEO photographs and involving a limited and relatively homogenous group of participants. However, it does show that the face is an important and rich source of information from which individuals can make detailed attributions about a leader's personality and their potential leadership ability. The functionality of making such attributions as well as its moral and ethical basis needs to be properly examined and discussed.

The study highlights the leader's face and the visual portrayal thereof, as a potentially important, yet rarely analyzed, aspect of leadership. It foregrounds photographs of leaders, most notably those taken of CEOs, as organizational artifacts that have been largely ignored but worthy data sources. Leadership scholars could profitably focus upon both the production and consumption processes associated with the visual portrayal of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how the media constructs images of infamous chief executive officers (CEOs) through the use of recurring themes, terms and phrases in the popular press.

This research conducts content analyses of secondary data from three popular press business sources over a two‐year period to identify the journalistic construction of 12 infamous CEOs.

The findings reveal 18 themes and eight categories of images constructed by the media, an integrated framework of CEO infamy as constructed by the media and a definition of CEO infamy.

To date, little research has focused solely on the media's construction of the infamous CEO. This paper also begins to bridge positive and negative CEO celebrity concepts.

This study aims to analyze the ways in which chief executive officers (CEOs) communicate via Twitter and help develop guidelines for effective tweeting strategies that can leverage Twitter in leadership communication.

The authors conduct a large-scale content analysis of more than 65,000 tweets by 338 CEOs.

The authors propose a model that categorizes differences in CEO tweets along six independent dimensions: content professionalism, language professionalism, emotional valence, emotion activation, interactional efforts and information cues. The authors also develop coding schemes and measurement scales for each dimension.

This study provides a multi-dimensional paradigm as well as useful tools for future research on corporate leadership communication on social media.