Abstract
By the increasing awareness of managers about the vital role of brands, the intangible elements of brands such as image and value become primary issues of their strategic plans. The widened communication platforms forced the significant role of reputation to sustain corporation life cycle, and this challenge triggers the recent discussion of reputation management. From this aspect, it can be seen that, for any organization, building the stakeholder communications and interactions accurately and maintaining the strong cooperation and communication with them play positive roles in organizational reputation. As well as the components of a strong reputation, the essential point is to understand the eco-system of communication. For this purpose, the chapter explains the communication eco-system of a corporation in terms of stakeholders, and the role of stakeholders in ultimate reputation is grounded on the congruity theory. As an example of the stakeholder role on communication eco-system, a qualitative research is applied in the research part.
TopIntroduction
The corporate world centralized the concept reputation as “a vital element of an organization’s credible source together with its tangible benefits in financial performance and social innovation” (Watson and Kitchen, 2008, p.2). An excellent reputation provides economic and social profits to a corporation by its proven associations like trustworthily, credibility or quality. Gotsi and Wilson(2001) states that a positive corporate reputation: a) increases the financial value of the organization, b)affects consumers’ purchasing behavior, c) leads to the quality of products and services, d) leads to closer ties with employees and customers, and e) leads to leadership in the sector(p.99). In the 80s, the image of a brand was realized by the brand managers due to its economic contribution to the company and remained the priority of the market with the rise of new communication platforms (Chernatony, 1999). The increasing role of the digitalization promptly extended to the road of digital communication between the corporation and its target audiences (Çakır, 2016). Previous research has shown that 74 percent of consumers rely on social media testimonials during the period of conveying a purchase decision (Masroor, 2015). Similarly, 78% of consumers are influenced by social media comments on generating a corporate image (Olenski, 2012). Therefore, in parallel with the components, the communication process started to be considered over as a significant factor in reputation management (Koçak, 2018).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Congruity Theory: The congruity theory of communication developed by Osgood and Tannenbaum to explain the roles of parts in communication.
Collaboration: Collaboration is a partnership with an organization or institution to improve the communication effect
Reputation: Reputation is the overall estimations of target audiences’ perception towards a corporation.
Balance in Communication: Balance is an essential component of the communication that provides two-part communication.
Ultimate Reputation: Ultimate reputation is the result of the corporation’s efforts and perception of audiences.
Reputation Management: Reputation management is the strategy and efforts that a corporation applies to strengthen its leadership in the field.