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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify convergent elements between corporate reputation and financial resources. The paper seeks to draw parallels between corporate reputation management and corporate financial management in order to define common management principles. Design/methodology/approach -In this paper, the analogy-based approach is used to identify similarities in the functions and risks between corporate reputation and financial resources. This approach is the prerequisite for defining common management principles. Findings -The paper proposes some arguments in favour of common functions and risks thesis of corporate reputation and financial resources. The finding of common functions and risks opens the way for an analysis of common principles in corporate reputation management and corporate finance management.Research limitations/implications -Cross-fertilization between corporate communication and reputation and corporate finance can encourage effective evolution over time of the common management principles. The limitation of the research is the parallelism between two types of resources which traditionally belong to different subjects/disciplines. Cultural barriers may oppose the acceptance of this unusual juxtaposition of resources. Practical implications -The use of these common principles allows for the development of an appropriate cultural background of managers. It could create advantages both for large companies and small businesses. The shared cultural background and language should serve to improve interaction and dialogue among managers on an intra-and inter-organizational levels. Originality/value -The parallels between corporate reputation and financial resources; the common management principles of these different resources; and their theoretical-conceptual and practical implications, are entirely new topics in literature.

Purpose -The role of metaphors in information management has generally been acknowledged due to their ability to convey immediately huge amounts of information and richness. Their role is more and more important in the current digital context of communication and marketing activities, as the decision speed and accuracy are crucial. The aim of this study is thus to analyse physical metaphors as tools for making sequential decisions to achieve effective Integrated Corporate Communication (ICC).Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws on critical analysis of literature on corporate communication and stakeholder management as building blocks for implementing an integrated approach to corporate communications.Findings -A revision of two well-known physical metaphors in the communication literature (the "wheel" and "umbrella") has been proposed. It is argued that integrated communication within corporate communications is more complex than in marketing communications, since it involves a greater variety of elements to coordinate and harmonize. The proposed physical metaphors suggest an effective sequential decision-making as they allow a clear distinction between different decision levels.Research limitations/implications -The paper adds to the debate on the link between theory and practice of ICC. From a practical standpoint, the proposed metaphors as simple and concrete tools for handling complex information and ICC problems could aid novice practitioners and students of corporate communications courses.Originality/value -The paper shows that while scholars have concurred that integrated corporate communication is crucial for different type of organisations, the use of physical metaphors can be beneficial for the reality-based challenge of ICC. Key words: integrated corporate communication, physical metaphors, communication mix, message coordination 2 IntroductionUntil the end of '80s, in the traditional approach to marketing communications, companies and communication agencies create separate plans for each communication technique, such as advertising, direct marketing, sales promotions, etc. In most cases, the result was a fragmentation of information about the company/brand that was perceived in a different way according to the different type of communication means used. From the early '90s, an integrated approach to communication has been progressively introduced to use the same communication tools and to reinforce each other. By communicating the same information in advertising messages, in press releases and in direct mails, companies are in fact able to improve the effectiveness of communication.The basic principle of coordinating communication activities has thus been referred to by authors wishing to see a convergence of the Corporate affairs/Public Relations and Marketing functions of companies, based on shared concepts and methodologies (e.g., Kotler and Mindak, 1978;Porterfield, 1980;Smith, 2012).The integrated communication paradigm then spread under the name of "Integrated Marketing Communi...

This paper aims to introduce a model for social media content management that is focused on both the strategic and operational levels to guide companies in setting, formulating and spreading social media marketing content and monitoring the achieved results. The framework has been realized considering different cognitive goals related to the organizational unit responsible of the development of the content marketing processes, corporate content identity, decision making elements for digital content creation, the diffusion of content through social media platforms, and the tools and parameters used to measure and evaluate performance. The model presented here is an attempt to fill in the existing gap in the recent literature regarding digital content marketing and social media content management. The framework introduces some consequential steps of a well-defined process that is composed of decisions and activities that must be carefully planned, thus preventing (from an operational level) the recurrent use of specific management tools. By adopting an integrated vision, is it possible to keep the business strategy’s objectives and all the operative tasks conducted by the content marketing team aligned.

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to propose a taxonomy of sustainability communication (SC) topics that provide digital content managers with a guide for setting a sustainability content agenda and for fostering stakeholder engagement mechanisms on environmental, social and economic issues that increasingly characterize conversations on social media of all stakeholder groups.Design/methodology/approachTaxonomy is a conceptual and qualitative way used to classify and represent the corporate sustainability (CS) domain of knowledge. The taxonomy categories of SC topics are both theoretically and empirically derived, combining an in-depth literature review with a thematic content analysis of 300 web pages of the corporate websites of the top ten sustainable brands selected in “The 2019 GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Survey.”FindingsThe analysis of the results led to the construction of a hierarchical dictionary of tags that categorizes all sustainability topics based on a new, four-dimensional conceptual structure: planet, people, profit and governance. Each dimension is organized in four groups of sustainability themes, which, in turn, group multiple topics, considered the smallest communication unit to develop the SC content.Practical implicationsThe taxonomy provides a concise and immediate conceptual framework on all those topics of broader interest, which, suitably modulated, can act as touch points with several groups of stakeholders. Drawn upon the best practices of thematic organization of SCs via the web, the taxonomy represents a guide for programming an editorial plan based on environmental, social, economic and governance issues from a sustainability content marketing perspective. The taxonomy of sustainability topics also finds application as a framework for a content intelligent system, providing a dictionary of tags that can be used for the indexing and retrieval of SC web content.Originality/valueThe study represents the first attempt at reaching a taxonomic organization of the sustainability aspects from a communicational perspective, supporting a new way of thinking and managing SC in the digital realm. Moreover, the results highlight, for the first time, that the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory, applied to corporate communications, lacks the governance aspect, which is essential to pursue sustainability consistently and effectively.