Manfred Schwaiger

Components and Parameters of Corporate Reputation - An Empirical Study

A wide variety of scientific and semi-scientific publications state that (amorphous) constructs like corporate reputation may cause sustainable profits. The reason for their interest in reputation is that increasing competition in a globalized economy promotes the identification of drivers of sustainable competitive advantages in the field of intangible assets, too. Therefore, in this paper we describe the state of the art in defining and measuring corporate reputation. Literature review, theory based conceptualization, and expert interviews allow us to develop and test an item battery, resulting in a new measurement approach. Our results show that fitting a structural model is much easier if we do not follow American literature, where reputation is supposed to be one-dimensional, but instead split corporate reputation into two dimensions, a cognitive component we call competence and an affective one we call sympathy. We show that performance aspects drive competence but dampen sympathy, whereas responsibility items have positive impact on sympathy and negative impact on competence.

Corporate reputation: disentangling the effects on financial performance

Purpose – Theory has made many assumptions about the consequences of a “good” corporate reputation. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence of the effect of a positive corporate reputation on the firms future financial performance by means of a more differentiated concept of reputation than the one commonly used in literature.Design/methodology/approach – In contrast to prior research, reputation is conceptualised by means of a two‐dimensional approach. Therefore, two distinct reputational components are hypothesised as affecting financial performance differently. A large‐scale representative survey of 30 of the largest German firms is conducted to gain reputational evaluations of these firms. The overall assessment of reputation is differentiated into a part that is explained by past financial performance and an idiosyncratic part to control for the effect of past performance on todays reputation. Finally, the idiosyncratic effect of reputation on future performance is assessed with an econometric...

Uncovering and Treating Unobserved Heterogeneity with Fimix-Pls: Which Model Selection Criterion Provides an Appropriate Number of Segments?

Since its first introduction in the Schmalenbach Business Review, Hahn et al.’s (2002) finite mixture partial least squares (FIMIX-PLS) approach to response-based segmentation in variance-based structural equation modeling has received much attention from the marketing and management disciplines. When applying FIMIX-PLS to uncover unobserved heterogeneity, the actual number of segments is usually unknown. As in any clustering procedure, retaining a suitable number of segments is crucial, since many managerial decisions are based on this result. In empirical research, applications of FIMIX-PLS rely on information and classification criteria to select an appropriate number of segments to retain from the data. However, the performance and robustness of these criteria in determining an adequate number of segments has not yet been investigated scientifically in the context of FIMIX-PLS. By conducting computational experiments, this study provides an evaluation of several model selection criteria’s performance and of different data characteristics’ influence on the robustness of the criteria. The results engender key recommendations and identify appropriate model selection criteria for FIMIX-PLS. The study’s findings enhance the applicability of FIMIX-PLS in both theory and practice.

The value‐relevance of corporate reputation during the financial crisis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the value‐relevance of corporate reputation during times of crisis. The paper seeks to extend the view beyond the traditional focus on the cognitive component of reputation, shed light on its affective component, and integrate the perceptions of different stakeholder groups.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses two large‐scale surveys, one from before and one from after the financial crisis year of 2008, to ascertain the reputation evaluations of the largest publicly listed corporations in Germany. The paper employs a model augmented with standard accounting variables (i.e. sales, return on assets, etc.) to analyse the link between corporate reputation as noted by different stakeholder groups and future firm value.Findings – Even though corporations are not able to elude the overall negative impact of an economic crisis, the magnitude of influence depends on the individual firm dynamics as related to the firms reputation. In particular, firm value ...

Art for the Sake of the Corporation: Audi, BMW Group, DaimlerChrysler, Montblanc, Siemens, and Volkswagen Help Explore the Effect of Sponsorship on Corporate Reputations

ABSTRACT This article examines whether exposure to a companys sponsorship of cultural activities such as “high-brow” arts—including classical music, literature, art exhibitions, and museums—provides a long-term increase in the general publics assessment of corporate reputation. As corporate reputation has been found by previous studies to be composed of two primary dimensions (i.e., the likeability of the firm, the competence of the firm), it is of particular interest to examine whether sponsorship of cultural events affects one or both of these dimensions. A two-dimensional model of image transfer is used as the theoretical basis for a study of more than 3,000 German consumers conducted in collaboration with 10 major multinational companies (e.g., BMW Group and Siemens). Results show that some significant effects of culture-sponsoring activities can be demonstrated for the likeability dimension of corporate reputation and some of its antecedents. However, no significant link between culture sponsorships and consumer perceptions of firm competence is found.

Realizing Customer Retention Potentials by Electronic Banking

New media, e.g. the internet, are no longer just the playground for “online-freaks”, firms have recognized the chances offered by online communication. An empirical study, conducted by the LudwigMaximilians-University of Munich, Germany, reveals that service industries (mainly financial service providers) regard online advertising as very important (Schwaiger 1998). When asked about future importance of 20 communication instruments, service industries ranked online advertising on 3rd place right in front of classic advertising (1st and 2nd place are taken by employee training and public Some aspects concerning online communication of financial service providers shall be discussed focusing electronic banking.

The Drivers of Customer Satisfaction with Industrial Goods: An International Study

The importance of customer satisfaction as a critical success factor has been recognized by practitioners and academics for several years now. Although customer satisfaction plays an important role in industrial markets due to their special characteristics, most researchers focus on consumer goods or services, leaving industrial goods fairly uncovered. In order to give manufacturers of industrial goods well-founded recommendations on how to reach a high level of satisfaction, the main drivers of customer satisfaction have to be revealed. The identification of these drivers is the primary goal of this study. Taking into account that there has been a change of paradigms in scale development we created a state-of-the-art questionnaire consisting of 15 constructs to be measured with 52 items, which was administered to respondents in 12 countries worldwide. The drivers’ analysis using Partial-Least-Squares (PLS) reveals a lot of penalty-services, whereas only the quality of machines and the quality of quotations offer a significant chance on increasing customer satisfaction, therefore disagreeing with previous results.

Can Comparative Advertising Be Effective in Germany? A Tale of Two Campaigns

ABSTRACT After many years of being legally banned, comparative advertising has recently been permitted in Germany. So far, advertising practitioners and researchers have neither reached a consensus on its effectiveness nor on its usefulness for corporate communications. While findings from the U.S. literature suggest that comparative advertising can be effective in several contexts in the United States, there has been a lack of research on whether comparative advertising can be effective in Germany. Because of cultural factors, it should not be automatically concluded that comparative advertisements will be effective in Germany. The authors explore the effectiveness of comparative advertising in Germany by analyzing two separate campaigns, one that theoretically lends itself to effective comparative advertising and one that does not. A general theory that makes predictions about the effectiveness of comparative advertising is proposed and tested. While an analysis of two campaigns is not sufficient to establish the generalized efficacy of comparative advertising in Germany, the results clearly support the idea that comparative advertising can be effective in some contexts in Germany. However, as predicted by our theory, there are other conditions under which comparative advertising is not effective.

The role of company reputation in business simulations

The literature on simulation and gaming has done very little to address emerging concepts such as relationship marketing, brand equity, and company reputation. This article is the first of a two-part series relating these to each other and business simulations. This article begins by casting company reputation in the context of an emerging business paradigm in which companies seek to harness the long-term value of reputation and relationships to lower transaction costs with key stakeholders. It presents a model for incorporating the concept of company reputation into a total enterprise simulation. It builds on an empirically derived model of company reputation in which various company characteristics are linked to two underlying dimensions of reputation: sympathy and competence. The article suggests how the various components of company reputation might be operationalized in a simulation game. It then discusses how they might be used to both help determine and evaluate student performance.

Recognition or rejection – How a company’s reputation influences stakeholder behaviour

Even in times of financial crisis a large percentage of a company’s market value is determined by intangible assets, among which corporate reputation is frequently quoted as the most important one. While some research has been done lately on the correlation between reputation and customer behaviour, we focus on the effects of a good reputation on financial performance and on the willingness to apply it surveyed in the recruiting market. The main findings cover the facts that reputation leaders substantially outperform the corresponding stock market index at lower risk and that there is a high correlation between reputation and willingness to apply as well as salary demand.