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The purpose of this chapter is to review the accumulated research on a strategically important intangible asset – organizational reputation – and articulate promising research pathways forward. To do so, I first provide definitional clarity by comparing reputation to the related constructs of status, celebrity, legitimacy, and social approval and highlight the codifiable, cumulative, and beneficial nature of reputation. I then discuss three developments in reputation literature: (1) conceptualizing reputation as a multidimensional, rather than generalized, construct; (2) theorizing about reputational malleability rather than its path dependence; and (3) focusing on the costs of a high reputation in addition to its benefits. Based on these developments and the increasing role of social media in affecting and reflecting stakeholder perceptions, I discuss three pathways for future reputation research. Specifically, I focus on the decrease in credibility of powerful intermediaries and increase in stakeholder empowerment, conceptualization of reputation as a flow rather than a stock, and the role of strategic reticence. My hope is that this chapter will stimulate conceptual and empirical work on the role of reputation in the complex and dynamic era of social media.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the nonlinear effects of corporate philanthropy on the responses of both internal and external stakeholders as well as its impact on corporate financial performance.

Based on the stakeholder theory, the authors developed a conceptual model to examine the nonlinear effects of corporate philanthropy on company performance. For the empirical analysis, data from 397 company-years was analyzed using a using a Heckman two-stage model. The robustness of the findings was also confirmed through panel regression analysis.

The study revealed a linear relationship between corporate reputation and corporate philanthropy, whereas job satisfaction exhibited a nonlinear relationship with corporate philanthropy.

This research bridges the gap in extant literature by scrutinizing the nonlinear associations between corporate philanthropy and financial performance. Additionally, it addresses an emerging scholarly demand to uncover the “dark side” of corporate philanthropy through an investigation into its adverse impacts on employee satisfaction. Moreover, the study augments existing understandings of stakeholder theory and corporate philanthropy, positing that the influence of corporate philanthropy, as conceptualized through stakeholder theory, hinges on perceived fairness in multilateral relationships.

This study investigates the influence of e-marketing risks on a Corporation’s Reputation (CR) resulting from its online marketing of products and services.

A comprehensive analysis was conducted to enhance the company’s e-marketing strategies and bolster its reputation in the market. This involved an investigation into key factors of e-marketing risks, such as customer confidence, product quality, marketing fraud, credibility and customer knowledge and proficiency in using online platforms. These factors have directly impacted the company’s reputation, including aspects such as product/service quality, attractiveness, performance and commitment to social responsibility.

Its finding indicates that customers' lack of confidence in e-marketing has a strong impact on CR, followed by product quality and credibility. The absence of consumer awareness about e-marketing websites and e-fraud frequently negatively affects the organizational reputation.

To enhance the corporation’s reputation, it is recommended that companies provide educational resources on online shopping, including guidance on using the company’s website, comparing prices and other services that facilitate online purchases. This will help to support the credibility of e-marketing and enhance customer trust.

This research is an exploration of how e-marketing has affected a Corporation’s Reputation. It provides modern knowledge about the dynamic interplay between digital strategies and brand perception. Investigating this relationship provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of consumer trust in the digital age. By analysing the various ways in which e-marketing influences a company’s reputation, innovative approaches can be developed to enhance its online presence and build lasting customer trust.

This study aims to analyze how sustainability, through an efficient knowledge management (KM) system, can serve as a driving force with respect to corporate culture and reputation. The research questions that guided this study are mainly the following: Are KM and sustainability related? Can culture strengthen the link between KM and sustainability? Can the link between KM and sustainability be affected by reputation?

The methodological approach adopted corresponds to qualitative research of analysis on the reference literature in the international field, also supported by empirical analysis.

In this study, the authors show that there is no explicit correlation between sustainability and KM. This relationship, in fact, is not underlined in nonfinancial reporting because it is absent or because it is not considered relevant. Too often sustainability is reduced to a mere relational and reputational tool, ignoring the fact it must be considered a consequence and not the main goal to improve companies’ culture.

The sample studied by the authors refers to the top 40 companies listed on the Italian market, not allowing to generalize the findings across the international context.

The practical implications that could result from making explicit the relationship between sustainability and KM are multiple: the substantial benefits of the reputational aspect, an increase in the economic value related to sustainability; to ensure the going concern of the company and implement its ability to produce and share value in the long term.

The social benefits of a stronger relationship between sustainability and KM are related to the possibility to improve the wealth of all the stakeholders.

This paper analyzes the links between sustainability and KM to understand the influence of these factors on corporate culture and reputation.

When a crisis occurs, do corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities protect organizational reputation by buffering negative effects or do CSR activities intensify negative effects, potentially leading to a worse reputation compared to if the organization had no prior CSR engagement? The authors hypothesize that if a crisis emerges in a domain aligned with an organization’s CSR initiatives (crisis-congruent CSR) backfire effects would arise, adversely affecting the organization’s reputation. Conversely, in cases of incongruence, where the crisis emerges in a domain not aligned with an organization’s previous CSR involvement, a buffering effect would manifest, protecting the organization’s reputation.

The authors conducted an experiment with a 3 (crisis-congruent, crisis-incongruent, and no CSR activities) × 2 (repeated measures) mixed factorial design. In the first scenario, no information was provided concerning a company’s social commitment. Alternatively, participants were exposed to an article illustrating the company’s dedication either to healthcare (crisis-incongruent commitment) or to combating sexism (crisis-congruent commitment). Afterward, participants were presented with a newspaper article addressing allegations of sexism against the company’s CEO.

The findings demonstrate that prior CSR activities have the potential both to serve as a buffer and to cause backfire effects in times of crisis. Domain congruence is the decisive moderator of these effects: Crisis-incongruent CSR activities acted as a buffer, crisis-congruent CSR activities “backfired” and led to more negative perceptions of the company’s reputation.

The study directly contributes to the understanding of CSR effects in crisis communication, while also addressing the often paradoxical and contradictory findings of prior studies.

In today's risk society, foundations are essential for sustaining democracies. However, the proof of a value-creating function of foundations is rarely assessed. Therefore, this study uses sensemaking theory and the communication value framework to explore to what extent a foundation achieved its overall mission in tackling societal challenges as opportunities.

This study employs a case study approach of a Swiss foundation. Through 20 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, insights about the value-creating function of the foundation were gained, showing how strategic communication activities contributed to the foundation's overall mission in various spheres of action.

The stakeholders overall identified a value-creating function of the foundation. The feedback obtained from the interviews could be structured along the lines of the communication value framework, with minor adjustments, showing that the foundation brought about value through its strategic communication regarding tangible assets (e.g. publicity), intangible assets (e.g. unique reputation), room for maneuver (e.g. renowned network) and opportunities for development (e.g. new formats). However, on each level, value-limiting factors have also been identified (e.g. limited publicity).

This study is the first to employ sensemaking theory to assess a foundation's value-creating function in achieving its overall mission by interviewing direct stakeholders. It is also one of the few studies in the field that analyzes strategic communication of foundations. Thus, this study adds methodological, theoretical and practical knowledge to foundation communication, value-creation and strategic communication management.

Sharing accommodation has lowered the threshold for digital entrepreneurship in the accommodation industry, prompting entrepreneurs to join this industry. However, digital micro-entrepreneurs have been ignored by previous studies. To bridge the gap, this study aims to explore the impact of reputational asset (host popularity) and host’s human capital (entrepreneurial entry speed and managerial seniority) on host expansion grounded on the resource-based theory.

This study obtained crawler data by python from Airbnb.com, locking the time range to the past five years from 2013 to 2018 in Beijing of China. This study finally has 348 hosts’ balanced panel data to estimate the ordinary least squares regression model with fixed-year effect.

Results demonstrate that host popularity has a significant positive effect on host expansion. Furthermore, entrepreneurial entry speed strengthens the positive effect of host popularity on host expansion, whereas managerial seniority weakens the positive effect. The three-way interaction analysis reveals that the positive impact of host popularity on host expansion is strongest when managerial seniority is smaller and entrepreneurial entry speed is faster.

The research has important implications to how the platforms interfere with the implementation of host expansion strategy and adds valuable insights to understand the transformation process of host expansion from nonprofessional to professional.

The research has expanded the literature related to the micro-entrepreneurship of the sharing economy and verified the application of resource-based theory under sharing economy.

This study aims to investigate the impact of venture capital (VC) involvement on investment efficiency (IE) and its potential action mechanisms from the perspective of financial resource allocation.

Using data of Chinese firms between 2008 and 2020, and the propensity score matching–difference in differences method, the authors investigate the relationship between VC and IE.

The results show that VC involvement significantly promotes IE, and the effect exhibits an inverted U-shape dynamic over time. The authors find two mechanisms through which VC promotes IE: alleviating financing constraints and improving corporate governance. Supplementary tests indicate that VC institutions with high reputations play a significant role in enhancing IE; the promotion effect is more pronounced for firms in non-high-tech industries, firms facing higher industrial competition and firms located in areas with better property rights protection systems.

This study provides several original contributions. First, based on principal–agent and financing constraint theories, this study enhances the literature by revealing how VC drives the IE of newly public firms in China. Second, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to identify the mechanisms between VC and IE; Third, from an empirical perspective, besides discussing the average and dynamic effect of VC on IE, this study also explores the impact of the interaction between VC and market competition and property rights protection on IE.

This paper aims to examine the effect of carbon emissions on audit fees. The authors hypothesize that firms in cities with higher carbon emission levels have lower reporting transparency, higher return volatility or are subject to higher reputation risk, causing them to be charged higher audit fees for auditing services.

The authors use panel data of 25,960 firm-year observations from a sample of Chinese firms. The carbon emission data for each Chinese city are obtained from the China Emission Accounts and Datasets for Emerging Economies. This paper adopts a multiple regression model to study the impact of carbon emissions on audit fees.

The authors find that firms located in cities with higher carbon emission levels and firms with more carbon emissions are charged, on average, a higher audit fee. This audit fee effect of carbon risk is transmitted by lessened information transparency and elevated financial risk within these firms. This paper shows that auditors consider carbon risk in their audit fee decisions and other factors that could influence audit risk and effort.

This study draws a connection between carbon emissions and audit fees. It is especially relevant due to the increasing importance of environmental factors in the audit risk assessment. In addition, the findings suggest that a firm implementing a proactive environmental strategy benefits the economy and decreases the costs to the firm for services such as auditing.

Strategic management plays a pivotal role in the growth and success of organizations, significantly impacting their business performance and competitive edge. In today’s globalized markets, strategic management is gaining prominence as a means to enhance company performance and distinctiveness. Within this landscape, the evaluation of organizational effectiveness takes on heightened significance, complemented by the emergence of strategic management frameworks designed to secure enduring competitive advantages for businesses.

One of the best known approaches to organizational resource assessment is the value, rarity, inimitability and organizational-oriented (VRIO) framework. However, this tool comes with inherent limitations that have hindered its advancement, primarily related to the need for less subjective means of identifying and assigning weights to resources and capabilities during the evaluation process. This study, therefore, endeavored to refine the VRIO framework, making it more transparent and empirically robust. To achieve this aim, the framework was combined with the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method (i.e. a multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method), and a real-life application was conducted.

The evaluation system created was tested, and the results demonstrate that the dual methodology used can increase the understanding of resource appraisal and lead to more informed and potentially better evaluations of resources and capabilities. The strengths and shortcomings of this new structured evaluation model are also analyzed.

The authors know of no prior work reporting the integrated use of VRIO and DEMATEL in this study context.