Zulhamri Abdullah

Towards the professionalisation of public relations in Malaysia: Perception management and strategy development

The aim of this study is to explore how the status and standards of public relations as a profession are perceived by the three main groups involved in public relations: academics, practitioners, and business leaders. It is concluded that public relations can be a ‘true’ profession if all parties involved are united and committed to developing standardised, universal forms of public relations practise.

Institutionalizing corporate social responsibility: effects on corporate reputation, culture, and legitimacy in Malaysia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop measures of Asian corporate social responsibility (CSR) based on Davids dual process model for Malaysian government linked corporations (GLC) and publicly listed companies (PLC). Design/methodology/approach - A survey consisting was conducted and a structural equation model was used to test the relationships among constructs. An instrument to measure CSR practices focusing on CSR relational, CSR ethical/moral, and CSR discretionary is developed to evaluate impacts on corporate reputation, culture, and legitimacy. Findings - Findings suggest CSR antecedents emerge through formalization of corporate communication management in Malaysian organizations. The structural model provides evidence that CSR initiatives impact corporate reputation directly. The study acknowledges the increase in CSR initiatives in corporate communication practices in GLCs and PLCs in the quest to gain public legitimacy and corporate governance. Originality/value - The study contributes to the corporate communication literature by linking CSR to corporate reputation and culture, and developing a CSR model that explores a critical dimension in management of corporate identity in an Asian country.

Building a unique online corporate identity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of mission and vision statements on corporate websites of Malaysian and Singaporean corporations based on Aakers brand personality dimensions and analyze how the dimensions are effectively used to develop a unique corporate identity.Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis is employed to examine similarities and differences for 300 Malaysian and 214 Singaporean consumer corporations based on Aakers big five brand personality framework.Findings – Generally most companies tend to publish and communicate their mission and vision statements visibly to general stakeholders. First, both Malaysian and Singaporean companies have weak brand personality dimensions which reflect the projection of corporate identity of companies. Second, there is a significant difference in the brand personality dimensions between Malaysian and Singaporean consumer corporations. Finally, evidence showed that most Malaysian and Singaporean companies rather fai...

The Customers’ Perception Toward Secret Recipe’s Reputation by Using the Reptrak™ Model

Reputation is a key feature of a successful business. To be among the most precious intangible assets to a small business, the excellent reputation is taken into account. However, in order to assess the company reputation, the variety of dimensions of corporate reputation can be perceived in different ways by different customers. This study perceives that these differences are significant to find out customers’ perception toward the Secret Recipe’s reputation specifically by using seven key dimensions of the Reptrak™ model.