Managing Corporate Image and Corporate Reputation

How Sustainability Ratings Might Deter ‘Greenwashing’: A Closer Look at Ethical Corporate Communication

“…The communicated identity facet-or what the company communicates to its shareholders-has particular importance for this research, because communicated identity serves as a nexus between the company's identity and image (Gray and Balmer, 1998), which reflects the "immediate mental picture an individual has of an organization" (Balmer, 2009, p.558). Furthermore, Fukukawa and colleagues (2007) insist that corporate identity ("what we really are") should be congruent with communication ("what we say we are").…”

“…Fourth, brand Web sites can target the best brand clients and influence their attitudes and perceptions of the brand's personality (Müller and Chandon, 2004). We therefore anticipate that online CSR communication influences corporate brand evaluation after a single exposure, because corporate image generally is malleable compared with corporate reputation and can be modified rapidly through adequate communication (Gray and Balmer, 1998).…”

“…Yet the use of CSR communication is growing, in small-and medium-sized enterprises as in multinational corporations (Nielsen and Thomsen, 2009), in transition markets as in mature economies (Grbac and Loncaric, 2009;Alon et al 2010). The reason is that CSR communication provides a corporate marketing tool that can build a strong corporate image and reputation (Balmer, 1998(Balmer, , 2009Gray and Balmer, 1998;Hoeffler and Keller, 2002;Balmer and Greyser, 2007) and achieve social legitimacy (Waeraas and Ihlen, 2009;Vanhamme and Grobben, 2009). However, we know little about how a central group of stakeholders, namely, consumers, actually respond to it.…”

The Images of Foreign Versus Domestic Retailer Brands in China: A Model of Corporate Brand Image and Store Image

“…Hence the way in which how retailer brand images are developed may be different (Ailawadi & Keller, 2004). Corporate branding of retailing organisation involves management of corporate identity, heritage, image, reputation and communications with multiple stakeholder groups (Balmer, 2012;Gray & Balmer, 1998).…”

Reputation as a Driver in Activity Level Analysis: Reputation and Competitive Advantage in Knowledge Intensive Firms

“…This paper examines the role of reputation in activity level analysis. While reputation, which is defi ned as the external stakeholders ' consensual ranking of a fi rm ' s track record ( Fombrun, 1996 ;Gray and Balmer, 1998 ;Kreps, 1996 ), is considered by many as an important source of competitive advan tage (cf., Dowling, 2006 ;Fombrun, 1996 ;Fombrun and van Reil, 1997 ), Porter (1985Porter ( , 1991Porter ( , 1998 does not consider reputation a driver. If reputation is not considered a strategic factor within activity level frameworks, such as the value chain, it may be overlooked, or even ignored, by the many practitioners, students, and academics that apply or teach activity level tools to perform strategic analysis on a daily basis.…”