Francesco Lurati / Simone Mariconda - room A14 - 13.30-15.00

Corporate Reputation Robustness: Expanding Reputation

Management Through a Better Understanding of Reputational Risk

In this paper, we introduce the construct of reputation robustness to explain why the reputation of some organizations is more resilient to adverse conditions than the reputation of other organizations. We identify three sets of factors potentially determining reputation robustness (i.e., structural, cognitive, and quality factors) and for each of these we formulate a series of propositions that can be investigated empirically. We argue that our study contributes to the existing research on reputation in two main ways. First, it promotes a shift in focus for the research on reputation from one mostly based on understanding its antecedents and consequences to one based on understanding its properties (i.e., its ability to withstand shocks). Second, the concept of reputation robustness increases our understanding of the nature of reputational risk. Together, these contributions allow for the development of a new set of managerial implications that move the focus of reputation management from the control and mitigation of risks to the creation of structural and cognitive conditions that make organization reputation more resilient to negative events regardless of their predictability. We conclude by claiming that this approach might prevent companies from becoming too defensive in the way they manage reputational risks and, therefore, from suffering the potential negative business implications that such behavior might imply.