Wired reputation: the psychophysiology of interpretations

Few studies of organizational reputation explicitly link the macro-level, sociological phenomenon of reputation with the micro-level psychological phenomenon of emotions. In addition, the study of reputation lacks proper empirical tools to combine these two levels. We suggest that human emotions should be considered and studied as factors in reputation formation. In this paper we first ponder the possibilities psychophysiological study of emotions can offer to organizational reputation research. Secondly, we present empirical findings from two research projects. DiRe (Digital Reputation) is a fundamental research project examining the relationship of reputation, emotions and motivation by using advanced psychophysiological methods. A follow-up project Media2 uses communication research and psychophysiology to explain how the emotional reputation of media corporations and their brands affects audiences’ media consumption decisions. In these studies we adopt the view that emotions guide human cognition, and that reputation as an emotional experience is a powerful influencer in stakeholder decision making. We argue that reputation is a set of beliefs within an individual that both affects and is affected by cognitive and emotional processes. We approach this view of reputation by combining communication research to measuring psychophysiological signals, which give detailed information on the unconscious emotional and motivational processes.

In this paper we evaluate the possibilities psychophysiological study of emotions can offer to communication research, main focus being on studies of 246 Salla M. LAAKSONEN et al. Use of psychophysiological measurements… organizational reputation. We briefly discuss the study of emotion in communication sciences and then describe the experimental protocol for studying reputation and emotions with the psychophysiological methods and offer some empirical results from our first experiments. The results obtained from studies reviewed in this paper show that reputation is at least partly emotional appeal and hence can be measured on an individual level through bodily reactions. Secondly, the results show that the valence of company-related content (e.g., news) also has emotional implications and thus consequences. After presenting the studies we discuss our findings and reflect our observations during the research collaboration from two different perspectives: methodological and theoretical.

Corporate Reputation Review, 1997

Background The vast majority of existing research on corporate reputation clearly accepts the basic tenets of methodological individualism, or the belief that explanations must be given in terms of the individual actions and interactions that give rise to social phenomena.

Public Relations Review, 2011

This paper discusses the conceptual and empirical connections between an organization's reputation management and online communication. The paper develops a theory driven model of the structural dimensions of reputation and analyzes organizational communication professionals' views on the potential that online communication has for reputation management. The survey data showed that online communication was perceived to have positive impacts on the structure and advantages of reputation, and that these two aspects would seem to be strongly dependent on each other. Thus, online communication can be used to influence the assessments made by stakeholders about an organization's products and services, corporate responsibility, success, its ability to change and develop, and its public image. In addition, online communication can generate reputational advantages by strengthening stakeholder relationships and building social capital for the organization.

Business & Management Studies: An International Journal

Logo design is the most powerful visual instrument that indicates how brands seem to their stakeholders and determines the brand's reputation. In the past, corporations focused only on the graphic design of logos, and this situation has changed over time and included many intangible features such as the institution's culture, stance goals, and the position that individuals want to be in the content of the logo. In this context, the current research looks for similarities of linear effects in logo designs belonging to brands with strong corporate reputations. It investigates the relationship between the character traits and emotions reflected by these effects and the perception of reputation. We employed an artificial intelligence-based “Psychophysiological Data Harvesting” technique for this research and used a multi-method. While conducting the research, the visual identities of the world's top 10 brands with the strongest corporate reputation (2016-2020), according to ...

2012

The concept of reputation was introduced to management literature from sociological literature on impression management. Fombrun developed an understanding of reputation in business by introducing several aspects of corporate reputation. However, attempts at making it all-inclusive resulted in the concept becoming unusable as it is not possible to distinguish it empirically from other related sociological concepts. Moreover, its measure lacks validity and reliability, thus making the concept of reputation empirically impossible to use. This contribution aims at understanding the concept of reputation by analyzing the items used to measure it, along with the related concepts of economic, symbolic, cultural and social capital – which characterize every entity in its context. Thus, in this contribution the concept of reputation is drawn back to its sociological roots. Results indicate that, once different capital forms are controlled for, reputation reflects output quality and an entit...

Current Psychology, 2014

Reputation is highly important within groups as it provides a number of benefits, both instrumental (including access to valuable resources and the likelihood to influence others) and symbolic ones (e.g., satisfaction of fundamental esteem needs). In the present paper, we proposed and found that the degree to which people are concerned about their reputation is sensitive to personality differences. We found evidence that prevention focus and others' approval as contingency of self-worth predict concern for reputation via self-monitoring orientation (mediation model). Results are discussed in terms of reputation management, and future research avenues are proposed.

Trends in cognitive sciences, 2018

Until recently, many psychologists were skeptical that young children cared about reputation. New evidence suggests that by age five, children begin to understand the broad importance of reputation and to engage in surprisingly sophisticated impression management. These findings prompt exciting new questions about the development of a fundamental social competency.