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Scholarship on reputation in and of organizations has been going on for decades, and it always has separated along level of analysis issues, whereby the separate literatures on individual, group/team/unit, and organization reputation fail to acknowledge each other. This sends the implicit message that reputation is a fundamentally different phenomenon at the three different levels of analysis. We tested the validity of this implicit assumption by conducting a multilevel review of the reputation literature, and drawing conclusions about the “level-specific” or “level-generic” nature of the reputation construct. The review results permitted the conclusion that reputation phenomena are essentially the same at all levels of analysis. Based on this, we frame a future agenda for theory and research on reputation.

There are two objectives of this study: to analyze gaps in customer satisfaction and to test the customer loyalty gap on the basis of the reputation of Busan New Port. This study identifies the relationships between variables as well as the conceptual and operational definitions using prior research. Data was collected from 93 members of the International Freight Forwarders Association. The reliability and validity of the data was analyzed and the relationships between the variables were tested by analysis of covariance. The results are as follows: First, the reputation of Busan New Port means the abilities in which the port provides valuable benefits to international freight forwarders. The analytical results show that there is a gap in customer satisfaction between high- level and low- level reputation. Second, the levels of reputation are based on the gap in customer loyalty. This means that there are gaps in the friendly attitude of international freight forwarders and sustainable usage on the basis of the varying levels of port reputation.

The article hypothesizes that the level of reputation affects both the informativeness of earnings and the magnitude of discretionary accounting accrual adjustments. The hypothesis exploits the following: the positive relationship between reputation and firms' risk‐return profiles, and managers' incentives in using discretionary accounting accrual adjustments. Results show that reputation is positively associated with earnings' explanatory power for returns, and related to the magnitude of accounting accrual adjustments.

Corporate reputation is a strategic asset leading to numerous positive firm-level outcomes. Motivated by the prediction that the translation of customer-based corporate reputation to customer-level outcomes (trust, customer–company identification, and word-of-mouth intentions) might be highly context-dependent, we investigate the moderating role of national culture (particularly, individualism–collectivism dimension) and individual trait (self-construal) in the association between reputational dimensions (product and service efficacy, market prominence, and societal ethicality) and their outcomes. Using survey data from two countries (US and India, N = 812), we estimate the effects of corporate reputation on focal outcomes, moderated by country as a proxy for individualism/collectivism and independent self-construal (IND)/interdependent self-construal (INTER). The results strongly suggest that when individual-level variables are taken into account, the country-level variable does not affect the translation of reputational dimensions to customer-level outcomes. Moreover, individuals high on IND are more responsive to utilitarian (egoistic) reputational dimensions of product and service efficacy, whereas individuals high on INTER are more sensitive to the group-oriented reputation for market prominence and society-oriented reputation for social ethicality. The reported findings have major implications for cross-country reputational research and global reputation management strategies.

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of corporate reputation (hereafter CR) and the degree of economic development on firms’ cost of capital remains unresolved. This study addresses these issues.

Using a global sample across 20 countries, the study investigates the discrete and joint effects of CR and jurisdictional economic development on the cost of equity (COE) and cost of debt (COD) capital. The analysis encompasses a dual data set, comprising 1,308 observations for COE and 1,223 observations for COD, allowing for a comprehensive exploration of these dynamics.

The findings indicate that CR leads to a reduction in the cost of capital for reputable firms. Nevertheless, the extent of this decrease varies per type of capital and firm’s reputation level and is contingent upon the economic development level within the firm’s jurisdiction. Particularly noteworthy is the moderating effect of economic development on CR, which shows that COE capital tends to be lower for reputable firms operating in economically developed jurisdictions. Albeit, this is not the case for COD capital for reputable firms in similarly developed jurisdictions.

This study illustrates that effective CR management, aimed at reducing the cost of capital, necessitates a combination of the firm’s unique competitive advantage and the economic development context of its jurisdiction to truly achieve its intended goal.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first global study to explore the impact of CR on both COE and COD capital. Furthermore, this study is primarily towards understanding the moderating role of economic development in the relationship between CR and cost of capital.

We model the interaction between a profit-maximizing firm and an activist using an infinite-horizon dynamic stochastic game. The firm enhances its reputation through “self-regulation”: voluntary provision of an abatement activity that reduces a negative externality. We show that in equilibrium the externality-reducing activity is subject to decreasing marginal returns, which can cause the firm to “coast on its reputation,” that is, decrease the level of externality-reducing activity as its reputation grows. The activist, which benefits from increases in the externality-reducing activity, can take two types of action that can harm the firm’s reputation: criticism, which can impair the firm’s reputation on the margin, and confrontation, which can trigger a crisis that may severely damage the firm’s reputation. The activist changes the reputational dynamics of the game by tending to keep the firm in reputational states in which it is highly motivated to invest in externality-reducing activity. Criticism and confrontational activity are shown to be imperfect substitutes. The more patient the activist or the more passionate it is about externality reduction, the more likely it is to rely on confrontation. The more patient the firm and the more important corporate citizenship is to firm’s brand equity, the more likely that it will be targeted by an activist that relies on confrontation.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an empirically tested framework for public awareness and reputation of facilities management (FM) as a business sector.

A national survey of representative sections of the population was designed and carried out to determine the level of public awareness and the reputation of FM. This survey was based on image/reputation categories from the international European Performance Satisfaction Index studies.

The findings provide a highly differentiated picture and give an interesting insight into the varied understanding of FM. Only a small fraction of the population has a realistic understanding of what the term FM means. The additional information collected about selected features of the respondents (age, gender, occupation, education, household income, etc.) facilitates interesting cross‐references to the level of public awareness and reputation of FM thus allowing an illuminating analysis of the findings.

A framework for measuring public awareness and reputation of FM is presented and tested. It can be used in the development of a cross‐national survey. In this study, the measurement of public FM awareness and reputation is applied only to one pilot country and further international research is needed to validate this tool within other geographical settings.

This survey represents the first quantification of public awareness and reputation of FM and is planned to be repeated on an international level at a two‐year interval, thus enabling comparisons between countries and corporations.

The purpose of this study is to predict cooperation in negotiation through the lens of individual differences. Specifically, this paper examines how a social competence variable called “political skill” relates to cooperation and subsequent effects on negotiation process, outcomes and negotiator reputation. The authors demonstrate how political skill fits in the evolving literature focusing on individual differences in negotiation by comparing political skill to a wide range of other individual difference measures.

This study was conducted by assessing individual difference measures at the beginning of graduate-level negotiation courses and tracking negotiation behaviors and outcomes over several months. This approach was chosen to minimize the potential for short, time-limited interactions to mask existing relationships. It also allowed the authors to include multiple negotiation interactions, which takes a broader view of negotiation performance, and assess negotiator reputation by allowing it to emerge over time.

The results of this study show that political skill, self-rated at the beginning of this study, is significantly related to a negotiator’s overall use of cooperative behavior as rated by peers. Political skill also showed a significant relationship with reputation for cooperativeness and aggregate outcomes in negotiations. These results control for other individual difference measures such as personality, implicit negotiation beliefs, social value orientation and negotiation self-efficacy.

Using a method that allows the effects of an individual difference to materialize over time, this study empirically establishes the connection between political skill and negotiation reputation, process and outcomes. The methodological contributions of this study explore the relations between self-rated individual difference variables, peer-rated cooperative behaviors and objective coded negotiation outcomes in evaluating political skill in negotiation.

The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between publicity, advertising activity and corporate sales in the context of a company’s existing reputation.

The study brings together four unique industry datasets and uses discriminant analysis and multiple regression methods to examine the relationship between existing corporate reputation, publicity, advertising activity and sales levels for major multi-national companies in the technology products sector.

Positive publicity is most important in distinguishing between firms with higher and lower sales. The effects of negative publicity and advertising are dependent on a firm’s existing reputation. For companies with weaker reputations, positive publicity in tandem with business-to-consumer (B2C) advertising is most highly associated with higher company sales. Conversely, for firms with stronger existing reputations, advertising has a significantly diminished role; positive and even negative publicity are most crucial in distinguishing between companies with high and low sales. Negative publicity can be harmful to these firms though if it is not balanced by more positive publicity. Finally, the topic of news coverage is related to sales. Generally, stories that are positive reporting on business outcomes, leadership and business future and marketing practices are most important in discriminating between firms with stronger vs weaker sales.

For this set of technology product firms, publicity and advertising are relevant for sales. Firms with higher levels of sales have both more positive and negative publicity, but the volume of positive stories is much higher. Attracting negative publicity is common for firms that achieve higher sales, but it is offset by a greater number of positive stories, an aspect that public relations efforts can influence. B2C advertising spending meanwhile matters more for firms with weaker rather than stronger existing corporate reputations. It is most effective for firms with weaker existing reputations to maximize the positive signals in the marketplace as exemplified by positive publicity and B2C advertising efforts.

Little research has examined the relationship between different forms of corporate communications and sales; this study is a rare examination using publicity, advertising spending, existing reputation and sales in a durable goods and services context where there has been a particular dearth of even basic advertising studies. Beyond understanding the relative importance of publicity v. advertising, it also uniquely focuses on the individual topics of news publicity.

This study examines the relationship between ethical reputation, CEO compensation and firm performance for the top corporate citizens as rated by Business Ethics magazine. The results show that there was not a direct relationship between CEO compensation and firm performance, that a high level of CEO compensation combined with a high ethical reputation did not impact the financial performance of the firm, and firms with a high ethical reputation had only average financial results, while firms with low ethical reputations displayed both high and low financial performance. Furthermore, CEOs of unfirms had, on average, higher compensation levels than firms that were profitable. These findings bring useful inputs for CEO on how they can justify high levels of compensation even during periods when the firm is not profitable or has a low level of profitability. An interesting sidelight of the study is that three CEOs in the sample whose firms were profitable did not accept any compensation during 2002, probably because the financial performance was below expectations.