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Corporate Reputation Review,
Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 299–315
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.,
1363-3589
Corporate Reputation Review Volume 12 Number 4
299
www.palgrave-journals.com/crr/
ABSTRACT
Previous research has assumed uniform effects
of the news media ’ s influence on corporate
reputation. This study uses theories of media
system dependency and ‘ need for orientation ’
to examine contingent conditions affecting
the degree of the media influence. Our
integrated measurement approach gauging
media coverage and stakeholder evaluations
on the same dimensions of reputation fur-
thered the methodological approach to this
research area. We found that stakeholders
depend more on the news media to learn about
reputation dimensions that are difficult to
directly experience or observe and for which
the news media are the main source of
information.
Corporate Reputation Review (2010) 12, 299 – 315.
doi: 10.1057/crr.2009.28
KEYWORDS: corporate reputation ; media
effects ; agenda-setting theory ; media system depen-
dency theory ; need for orientation
INTRODUCTION
The function of media relations is often part
of the strategy that organizations use for
building their reputations ( Sheafer, 2001 ;
Yoon, 2005 ). As previous media research
has revealed, the news media are one of the
primary ways that the public learns about
organizations, their activities and their
connections to matters of public interest
( Deephouse, 2000 ; Dutton and Dukerich,
1991 ). Media research on organizations ’
media relations efforts and the news media ’ s
infl uence on corporate reputation includes
organizations ’ attempts to work through the
news media to convey their points of view,
but also the salience of news coverage about
organizations on the salience of these fi rms.
The predominant theoretical framework
for media research applied to organizations
has been agenda-setting theory ( Carroll and
McCombs, 2003 ).
Carroll and McCombs (2003) used agenda-
setting theory as a conceptual framework
applied to organizations for examining how
Under What Conditions Do the News
Media Infl uence Corporate Reputation ?
The Roles of Media Dependency and
Need for Orientation
Sabine A. Einwiller
Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Craig E. Carroll
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Kati Korn
University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, School of
Business, Olten, Switzerland
Media and Reputation
Corporate Reputation Review Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589
300
media visibility and media favorability infl u-
ence the prominence of fi rms, their attributes
and the evaluation of fi rms and their
attributes. The fi rst level of agenda-setting
explains how the volume of reports the news
media devote to fi rms (called media visibil-
ity) infl uences the public ’ s perceptions of
which fi rms are the most prominent. The
second level of agenda-setting applied to
organizations suggests that the salience of
attributes described in the context of fi rms
relates to the public ’ s perceptions that those
attributes are the most important attributes
to know about for those fi rms.
Thus far, the fi ndings for agenda-setting
applied to organizations ’ news coverage have
been somewhat mixed. For instance, Meijer
and Kleinnijenhuis (2006) found support for
how these media portrayals of these substan-
tive attributes infl uenced fi rms ’ reputations,
while Kiousis et al. (2007) found mild sup-
port for only some attributes. Carroll (2004)
found that the amount of media coverage
on certain attributes of a company (eg,
executive performance and workplace envi-
ronment) but not others (eg, fi nancial
performance, products and services or social
responsibility) corresponded to the use of
these attributes by the survey respondents.
These results provide some indication that
media effects on corporate reputation are
not uniform and vary in context and degree.
Thus, the question becomes under what con-
ditions do the news media infl uence the pub-
lic ’ s perceptions of corporate reputation?
One explanation lies in the differentiated
information needs and interests of corporate
stakeholders who evaluate the importance of
a fi rm ’ s attributes differently ( Helm, 2007 ).
Post et al. (2002) defi ne the stakeholders in
a fi rm as individuals and constituencies that
contribute, either voluntarily or involuntarily,
to wealth-creating capacity and activities, and
who are therefore its potential benefi ciaries
and / or risk bearers. While employees, for
example, are more interested in the fi rm ’ s
attributes concerning workplace environment
conditions, investors ’ information needs are
more focused on fi nding out about a
fi rm ’ s economic performance and corporate
strategy.
Drawing on media system dependency
theory ( Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976 )
and need for orientation ( Weaver, 1980 ),
we argue that stakeholders are more depend-
ent on the news media to learn about those
attributes of a fi rm ’ s reputation that are
important to them and on which they feel
the need to gain information compared
to those that they fi nd less important. We
argue, furthermore, that dependency is also
a factor of availability of information, mean-
ing that stakeholders depend more on the
news media to learn about such aspects that
are diffi cult to directly experience or observe
(eg, corporate strategy or social responsibil-
ity). To learn about such ‘ unobtrusive ’
aspects audience members have not had
direct experience with ( Demers et al. , 1989 )
the news media are often the main source
of information.
To test our assumptions of the infl uence
of media dependency on the relationship
between media coverage and corporate
reputation, we developed a differentiated
and integrated measurement instrument.
Reputation was conceptualized as a multi-
dimensional construct, and the tone of the
news reports was coded on exactly the same
dimensions as stakeholder evaluations of the
fi rm. With this instrument, we were also
able to overcome shortcomings of previous
research where the measurement was either
undifferentiated or not integrated. A prom-
inent automobile company served as the
research object. News stories were collected
and coded from national and regional
newspapers and magazines for the period
of 11 months before the survey that was
conducted among 295 university students.
As buyers of cars, future employees and
opinion leaders, university students repre-
sent one of the auto company ’ s important
stakeholder groups.
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 301
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Corporate Reputation
General agreement exists in the literature as
to the importance of corporate reputation.
Despite agreement on the importance of
corporate reputation, considerable variation
exists in its defi nition ( Coombs and Holladay,
2002 ; Fombrun and Shanley, 1990 ; Fombrun
et al. , 2000 ; Gotsi and Wilson, 2001 ; Rindova
et al. , 2005 ). Reviewing over 60 studies
from six different scholarly disciplines,
Rindova et al. (2005) concluded that schol-
ars have defi ned reputation as assessments of
particular attributes or collective knowledge
about or recognition of a fi rm. They syn-
thesized and summarized these defi nitions
to conceptualize organizational reputation as
comprising two dimensions: stakeholders ’
perceptions of quality for specifi c attributes
evaluated in the context of the fi rm and the
degree to which the fi rm receives large-scale
collective recognition.
While large-scale collective recognition
can be conceptualized as extensive coverage
of a fi rm in the media, stakeholders ’ evalu-
ative perceptions can be described as atti-
tudes ( Rosenberg and Hovland, 1960 ).
Attitudes have been defi ned as psychological
tendencies that are expressed by evaluating
a particular entity with some degree of
favor or disfavor ( Eagly and Chaiken, 1993 ).
According to psychologists, the evaluative
component of an attitude comprises cogni-
tive, affective and behavioral responses (eg,
Katz and Stotland, 1959 ; Rosenberg and
Hovland, 1960 cited in Eagly and Chaiken,
1993 ). Responses of the cognitive type are
often conceptualized as beliefs, where beliefs
are associations people establish between
the attitude object (eg, a fi rm) and various
attributes (eg, product quality) ( Fishbein and
Ajzen, 1975 ). Evaluative responses of the
affective type consist of feelings and emotions
and the behavioral responses consist of the
overt actions (eg, buying a product) that peo-
ple exhibit in relation to the attitude object.
When referring to corporate reputation,
we prefer to restrict the concept to the cog-
nitive and affective responses of the attitude.
The behavior a person exhibits as well as
the intention to behave in relation to a fi rm
shall not be regarded as part of the reputation
but rather as its desired outcome or ultimate
goal the fi rm wants to achieve with its
stakeholders (eg, buying, applying, labor-
ing). Based on empirical research, Fombrun
and colleagues (eg, Fombrun and Gardberg,
2000 ; Fombrun et al. , 2000 ) conclude that
people evaluate companies on fi ve cognitive
dimensions (products and services, fi nancial
performance, management ’ s vision and lead-
ership, workplace environment, corporate
social responsibility) as well as one emotional
dimension (emotional appeal). Each dimension
is again qualifi ed by various attributes.
Hierarchy of Effects
Ray (1973) proposed in his learning hierar-
chy model, which was essentially an exten-
sion of the model proposed by Lavidge and
Steiner (1961) , that for high involvement
products (such as automobiles) the consum-
er is obligated to enter into a learning proc-
ess of fi rst thinking (cognition) then feeling
(affect) before acting (behavior) in order to
make a satisfying choice. Applying Ray ’ s
model to corporate reputation, we postulate
a hierarchy of effects in a way that the cog-
nitive reputation dimensions precede and
infl uence the affective dimension, which in
turn can have an impact on a person ’ s
behavioral intention and behavior. Hence,
the affective reputation dimension takes on
the role as mediator between cognition and
behavior.
According to this learning hierarchy
model, the affective dimension is generally
important for eliciting a behavioral response.
The importance of the different cognitive
reputation dimensions that precede affect,
however, depends on the interests and
needs of a particular stakeholder group. For
investors, for example, the fi rm ’ s fi nancial
Media and Reputation
Corporate Reputation Review Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589
302
performance and strategy is more important
than it is for its customers, who should be
particularly interested in the fi rm ’ s products
and services. ‘ Importance ’ is considered one
component of attitude strength. Strong
attitudes have signifi cant impact on cogni-
tive and affective processes and are powerful
determinants of behavior ( Petty and Krosnick,
1995 ). Therefore, we derive the rather
obvious assumption that those cognitive
reputation dimensions that are important to
a person exert a stronger infl uence on the
affective dimension and stakeholders ’ behav-
ioral intentions than those that are not so
important. We propose the following
hypothesis:
H1: Cognitive reputation dimensions that are
considered important by stakeholders exert
a stronger infl uence on the affective repu-
tation dimension and stakeholders ’ behav-
ioral intentions than cognitive reputation
dimensions that are considered not so
important.
The question arises as to how the corpo-
rate reputation is formed in the minds of
a fi rm ’ s stakeholders? Personal experience
is often considered a powerful source for
attitude formation (eg, Fazio and Zanna,
1981 ). However, not all reputation dimen-
sions can easily be experienced in person
(eg, fi nancial performance); thus, people
often generate attitudes about a fi rm without
ever having had direct personal contact with
it or any of its products, services or repre-
sentatives. Information from other sources
besides direct experience is important for
the formation of attitudes and, consequent-
ly, reputation. Third-party sources like the
news media are considered particularly
infl uential ( Carroll and McCombs, 2003 ;
Kiousis et al. , 2007 and Sternthal et al .,
1978 ). The circumstances under which the
news media exert an infl uence on corporate
reputation are discussed next.
Contingent Conditions of the News
Media ’ s Infl uence on Reputation
Two theoretical perspectives that explain
contingent media infl uences on corporate
reputation are media system dependency
theory ( Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976 )
and need for orientation ( Weaver, 1980 ).
We describe each and then formulate a
hypothesis about contingent conditions of
the news media ’ s infl uence on corporate
reputation.
Media system dependency theory
Media system dependency theory (eg,
Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976 ) proposes
an integral relationship among audiences,
the news media and the larger social
and economic system. Ball-Rokeach and
DeFleur defi ne dependency as ‘ a relationship
in which the satisfaction of needs or the
attainment of goals by one party is contin-
gent upon the resources of another party ’
(p. 6).
Firms, as part of the economic system,
depend upon the news media to reach their
stakeholders and to foster their reputation
among those individuals or groups who con-
tribute to its wealth-creating capacity and
activities. Firms depend upon the news
media in particular for the dissemination of
such information that cannot be directly
experienced through consumption or inter-
action and that lacks credibility when
communicated by the fi rms themselves.
Communication about socially responsible
corporate activities is a good example for
such information. The news media, on the
other hand, depend on fi rms for content
that is of interest to their audiences, and
oftentimes they rely on fi rms to make
revenues from advertising.
Media system dependency theory outlines
the media dependence of individuals to
reach their personal goals ( Ball-Rokeach,
1985 ). DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989)
propose three fundamental goals individuals
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 303
aim to achieve: understanding (eg, knowing
about and interpreting fi rms ’ activities), ori-
entation (eg, getting hints on where to buy
or work), and play (eg, having fun using
a fi rm ’ s products). Figure 1 depicts the
dependencies between fi rms, the news
media and stakeholders.
Depending on stakeholders ’ goals, their
dependence on different sources and con-
tents of business media coverage varies. Fry
and McCain (1983) state that media depend-
ence is different ‘ from condition to condi-
tion and from audience segment to audience
segment ’ (p. 542). We argue that, fi rstly,
media dependence is contingent upon
stakeholders ’ goals concerning what they
want to learn about a fi rm, that is what
reputation dimensions they fi nd important.
Potential employees, for example, have an
interest in learning about the workplace
conditions of a fi rm, whereas investors ’ main
goal is to understand its fi nancial perform-
ance. Secondly, media dependence is con-
tingent upon whether the news media are
the only source or one of a few sources from
which to obtain the information of interest.
For example, whereas many fi rms ’ products
are available for personal inspection and
experience (eg, cars, food, clothes, ie so-called
search goods; Nelson, 1970 ), information
on corporate strategy or social responsibility
is usually not easily experienced in person.
Demers et al. (1989) call such aspects
audience members have not that directly
experienced ‘ unobtrusive ’ . Media depen-
dence on unobtrusive dimensions should
be particularly pronounced if stakeholders
fi nd them important and thus have the
goal to learn about how fi rms behave in
relation to them.
Need for orientation
In a separate line of research examining
contingent conditions of agenda-setting,
Weaver (1980) argued that individuals ’
need for orientation affects the infl uence of
media salience. In Weaver ’ s typology, a
high level of interest in the subject of a
message (eg, social responsibility) coupled
with a high level of uncertainty regarding
this subject (eg, the company ’ s behavior or
stance toward social responsibility) pro-
duces a strong need for orientation. A mod-
erate level of need for orientation is
produced by either the condition of high
interest and low uncertainty or the condi-
tion of low interest and high uncertainty.
Then, fi nally, the condition of low interest
combined with either a low level of un-
certainty or a high level of certainty pro-
duces a low level of need for orientation.
Certainly individuals ’ levels of relevance or
uncertainty could independently predict
individuals ’ information seeking about
companies ’ behavior or stances on issues,
but combining the two variables into a sin-
gle construct offers theoretical parsimony
with a wide range of applications ( Weaver
1980 ) (see Table 1 ).
With respect to media dependency ’ s
infl uence on individuals ’ attitudes and be-
havior we cite Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur
(1976) who argue: ‘ The greater the need
[to gain information on a certain reputation
dimension] and consequently the stronger
the dependency in such matters, the
greater the likelihood that the information
supplied will alter various forms of audience
Economic system /
Firms
Media system /
Media
Stakeholders
Effects
-cognitive
-affective
-behavioral
Figure 1 : Media system dependency model;
adapted from Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur
(1976)
Media and Reputation
Corporate Reputation Review Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589
304
cognitions, feelings and behavior ’ (p. 6). We
formulate our second hypothesis:
H2 : News media infl uence on corporate repu-
tation is particularly pronounced for those
reputation dimensions that are regarded
as important by stakeholders and that
are diffi cult to personally inspect or
experience.
METHODOLOGY
Context of the Study
The empirical research was conducted in
Germany using a prominent automobile
company as research object. The automobile
industry is one of the most important indus-
tries for the German economy. According
to the German Federal Ministry of Eco-
nomics and Technology, every seventh job
in the country is directly or indirectly
connected with automobiles.
1 Firms in this
sector, especially the car producers, are fre-
quently covered in the regional and nation-
al news media. Thus, our research object
scores high on the reputation component
‘ large-scale collective recognition ’ suggested
by Rindova et al. (2005) .
To test the proposed hypotheses, two
types of data were generated: survey data
and news reports. Previous research has
either measured corporate reputation as
one-dimensional ( Meijer and Kleinnijenhuis,
2006 ) or has aggregated the dimensions into
an index score ( Kiousis et al. 2007 ). Our
study improves on previous research by
measuring news media content about our
focal organization matched to the exact same
dimensions of corporate reputation in stake-
holder attitudes. Specifi cally, news reports
on the focal fi rm were coded on the exact
same cognitive reputation dimensions that
were evaluated by respondents in a survey.
This synchronized methodology is a central
and unique element of our research pre-
sented here; it enables us to gauge infl u-
ences of media coverage on a particular
reputation dimension on stakeholder per-
ceptions on the very same reputation dimen-
sion. Although we were able to use the news
media analyses generated by a professional
media research fi rm, we conducted original
survey work among university students.
Survey Measures
Corporate reputation
To develop a valid and reliable instrument
to measure the reputation of the focal
automobile company we followed a process
to measure latent constructs suggested by
Homburg and Giering (1996) . We drew on
previous corporate reputation research
and theory ( Fombrun and Shanley, 1990 ;
Fombrun et al. , 2000 ) and conducted inter-
views with industry experts to defi ne the
reputation dimensions and to generate poten-
tial attributes for measuring those dimensions.
All potential attributes were compiled into
a questionnaire. Independent judges (ten
academics and 30 industry executives) eval-
uated the attributes concerning their fi t with
the respective dimension as well as ease of
responding to them.
The fi nal instrument contained 29 att-
ributes to measure fi ve cognitive dimensions
and one affective dimension of corporate
Table 1 : Individual ’ s Need for Orientation;
Adapted from Weaver (1980)
Uncertainty
Low High
Relevance High Moderate
need for
orientation
(Group II)
High need
for
orientation
(Group I)
Low Low need for
orientation
(Group III)
Moderate
need for
orientation
(Group II)
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 305
reputation. The dimensions and their att-
ributes were:
products and services (eg, quality products
services, reliable products, satisfying custom-
ers, strong brands, fascinating products),
innovativeness (eg, leader in R & D, best
innovation for customers, promising prod-
uct pipeline, seminal technologies, innova-
tive potential),
social and environmental responsibility (eg,
commitment for environment, environ-
mental production, environmental prod-
ucts, social responsibility, ethical standards,
care for employees),
management and corporate strategy (eg, com-
petent top management, clear vision for
future, leveraging opportunities, path
breaking, convincing strategy),
fi nancial performance (eg, good fi nancial per-
formance, fi nancially strong, fi nancially
sound, leading role), and
emotional appeal (eg, like fi rm, respect fi rm,
enthusiastic about fi rm, trust fi rm).
In the survey, respondents were asked to
give their detailed evaluations on the different
attributes on a scale from one ‘ completely
disagree ’ to seven ‘ completely agree ’ .
Importance of reputation dimensions
To assess the perceived importance of the
cognitive reputation dimensions, respond-
ents were asked, ‘ If you judge the reputation
of a company, how important are the fol-
lowing aspects for you? ’ The item used a
7-point scale ranging from 1 ( not important )
to 7 ( very important ). The dimension ‘ prod-
ucts and services ’ was considered most im-
portant to the survey respondents when
judging the reputation of a company
( M = 6.29, SD = 1.12), followed by ‘ innova-
tiveness ’ ( M = 5.62, SD = 1.39), ‘ emotional
appeal ’ ( M = 5.38, SD = 1.56) and ‘ social
and environmental responsibility ’ ( M = 5.30,
SD = 1.41). Least important were the
dimensions ‘ management and corporate
•
•
•
•
•
•
strategy ’ ( M = 4.79, SD = 1.35) and ‘ fi nancial
performance
’ ( M = 4.74, SD = 1.45).
Information search behavior
We asked, how little (1) to how much (7)
respondents used different sources to gather
information on the focal company. The
third-party information sources prompted
were: advertising, reports on TV, articles in
the daily press, articles in printed magazines,
online news, personal private contacts and
personal business contacts. Respondents fur-
thermore indicated their print media usage
by listing those titles (dailies and weeklies)
they used frequently to gather information
on business corporations and business topics.
Respondents reported to have gathered most
information about the focal company through
advertising ( M = 5.21, SD = 1.56), reports
on TV ( M = 4.85, SD = 1.57), the daily
press ( M = 4.66, SD = 1.67) and magazines
( M = 4.63, SD = 1.71). Of less importance
are personal private contacts ( M = 4.16,
SD = 2.17), online news ( M = 3.27, SD =
1.91) and personal business contacts ( M = 2.65,
SD = 2.10). This data on respondents ’ print
media usage later allowed us to match the
analysis from the newspaper or magazine
used most frequently by stakeholders with
their respective evaluations of reputation
attributes.
Behavioral intentions
Furthermore, two forms of behavioral inten-
tions were measured: purchasing one of the
fi rm ’ s products and applying for a job at
the fi rm. Each intention was measured by
assessing the likelihood to conduct the
respective behavior oneself and to recom-
mend it to a close friend (1 ‘ very unlikely ’
to 7 ‘ very likely ’ ).
Survey respondents and procedure
This study used a volunteer, convenience
sample of 295 university students taken from
Media and Reputation
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306
seven major regional and geographically
distributed German universities. The uni-
versities were selected because they were
regionally dispersed, covering six major eco-
nomic regions of the country and fi ve of the
seven Nielsen areas. The market research
fi rm ACNielsen breaks up the country of
Germany into seven areas that share a
similar economic structure, culture and con-
sumer behavior. University students are
an important stakeholder group for the focal
company, not just as current or potential
customers but also as potential employees
and future opinion leaders. There was an
even distribution of gender (51 percent
male, 49 percent female) and fi elds of
study (29 percent social sciences and human-
ities, 26 percent economics and business,
18 percent engineering, 29 percent natural
sciences and 5 percent other). The vast
majority (96 percent) was younger than 30
years old.
For H2 , we excluded 72 of the 295
respondents who either did not frequently
use any print medium at all or frequently
used a print medium for which no coding
had been conducted. This was to make
sure that only those respondents who used
the print titles analyzed were included in
the analysis. Furthermore, 49 respondents
who claimed to have gathered little informa-
tion about the focal company from the
daily press or magazines (scale points 1 – 4 on
the scale from 1 ‘ very little ’ to 7 ‘ very much ’ )
were also excluded from the analyses.
Students were approached in university
restaurants or cafeterias at the different loca-
tions to participate in a survey on the repu-
tation of business corporations. Interviews
were conducted in person by means of a
standardized questionnaire. After the inter-
view, the respondents were given a choco-
late bar of about $ 1 value and debriefed
about the study. Respondents were told that
the study was about the reputation of auto-
mobile fi rms with attention to one focal
company.
Secondary Media Analysis of
News Reports
For H2 , examining the relationship between
organizations ’ news coverage and corporate
reputation, we drew on the content analysis
about the focal company ’ s newspaper and
magazine coverage conducted by the com-
munication research fi rm PRIME Research.
The news stories were in German. We used
print media because they were readily avail-
able, but also because about 73 percent of
the German population over the age of
14 regularly read a newspaper. In the age
group 20 – 29 years, 59 percent claim to do
so ( Pasquay, 2007 ). Furthermore, newspaper
readers have been shown to possess a great-
er capacity for recall than those listening
to radio or watching television ( DeFleur
et al. , 1992 ).
The print media data covered a time span
of 11 months just before the survey. In
agenda-setting research, scholars have found
effects from a few days ( Zucker, 1978 ), over
fi ve months ( Kiousis and McCombs, 2004 ),
to up to one year of coverage before the
survey ( Meijer and Kleinnijenhuis, 2006 ).
As corporate reputation does not develop
ad hoc but over a longer period of time
(eg, Bromley, 1993 ; Fombrun, 1996 ), we
used news reports covering a period of
11 months preceding the survey. Choosing
this rather long time span corresponds to
Meijer and Kleinnijenhuis ’ s (2006) design in
which the dependent variable was, as in our
research, corporate reputation.
Newspapers and magazines
For the analyses, we focused on the data for
those newspapers and magazines survey
respondents claimed to use most frequently
to gather information on business corpora-
tions and business topics (question asked in
the survey; see above). This resulted in a list
of 20 print media titles, 13 daily newspapers,
three weekly / Sunday newspapers and four
weekly magazines. Of the 20 titles, eight
were national, seven regional and fi ve were
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 307
considered supra-regional publications (see
Table 2 ).
Cognitive reputation dimensions
For each cognitive reputation dimension,
coders were provided with a list of possible
content subsumed under the dimension.
These content lists contained all of the
aspects covered by the indicators used to
measure the reputation dimensions in the
survey. Over the 11-month coding period,
a total of 13,586 units were coded on one
of the fi ve cognitive reputation dimensions.
Hereof, most coverage referred to ‘ products
and services ’ (47 percent), followed by
‘ management and corporate strategy ’ (31
percent), ‘ fi nancial performance ’ (14 per-
cent) and ‘ social and environmental respon-
sibility ’ (7 percent). Only 1 percent of the
fi rm ’ s news coverage referred to the fi rm ’ s
‘ innovativeness ’ .
Tone for cognitive reputation
dimension
The tone for each dimension was rated on
a scale from − 3 (very negative) to + 3 (very
positive). Zero was ambivalent; and nine
was coded as neutral, but it was excluded
from the analyses.
RESULTS
H1: Relations between importance of cognitive
reputation dimensions, emotions and be-
havioral intention.
In order to test H1 , we used partial
least squares (PLS) analysis, one type of
Table 2 : Print Media Used by Respondents (fi rst mention) Listed by Number of
Respondents
Title Type of medium Number of
respondents
Number of fi rm-attribute
codings on focal company
Der Spiegel Weekly magazine 41 220
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Daily newspaper 33 1,146
S ü ddeutsche Zeitung Daily newspaper 31 785
Handelsblatt Daily newspaper 17 1,519
Financial Times Deutschland Daily newspaper 15 1,068
Die Zeit Weekly newspaper 14 180
Wirtschaftswoche Weekly magazine 12 234
Stuttgarter Zeitung Daily newspaper 11 1,429
Leipziger Volkszeitung Daily newspaper 9 466
Focus Weekly magazine 8 177
Stern Weekly newspaper 7 142
Tagesspiegel Daily newspaper 6 746
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Daily newspaper 5 316
Stuttgarter Nachrichten Daily newspaper 3 1,493
Berliner Zeitung Daily newspaper 3 739
Die Welt Daily newspaper 3 1,079
Frankfurter Rundschau Daily newspaper 2 562
Tageszeitung Daily newspaper 1 76
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung Weekly newspaper 1 1,146
Capital Weekly magazine 1 63
Total 223 13,586
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308
variance-based structural equation modeling
(SEM). SEM is used extensively particularly
in marketing research to analyze the inter-
relationships between latent constructs (eg,
Bagozzi, 1980 ). Data were analyzed using
the software package SmartPLS 2.0 ( Ringle
et al. , 2005 ). In a fi rst step, the measurement
models for each of the constructs (reputa-
tion dimensions and behavioral intentions)
were assessed for reliability and validity (see
Table 3 ).
The measured constructs rendered satis-
factory results on all aspects. The indicator
loadings are above the recommended thresh-
old of 0.60 (eg, Bagozzi and Baumgartner,
1994 ) and signifi cant. Signifi cance was esti-
mated using the bootstrapping procedure
( Efron and Tibshirani, 1993 ). All t -values
were greater than 1.96 indicating that all
indicator-construct-relations are signifi cant
at p < 0.01. For all constructs, the composite
reliability exceeds 0.8, Cronbach ’ s alpha is
larger than 0.7, and the average variance
extracted (AVE) is greater than 0.50 (eg,
Hair et al. , 1992 ). Furthermore, the AVE
measures for any two constructs that are
related in the model exceed their squared
correlations indicating discriminant validity
( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ).
In a next step, we tested the structural
model. Signifi cance of the regression coef-
fi cients was again assessed using the boot-
strapping procedure. In line with H1 , the
reputation dimensions ‘ products and serv-
ices ’ and ‘ social and environmental respon-
sibility ’ , which are considered particularly
important by the respondents exert a sig-
nifi cant infl uence on ‘ emotional appeal ’ ,
which is in turn strongly related to ‘ intention
to purchase ’ and ‘ intention to apply ’ . The
paths connecting the less important dimen-
sions ‘ management and corporate strategy ’
and ‘ emotional appeal ’ is only marginally
signifi cant and the effect of ‘ fi nancial
performance ’ , which is considered least
important, on ‘ emotional appeal ’ is non-
signifi cant.
Contrary to our hypothesis, ‘ innovativeness ’
that is the second most important dimen-
sion, had no direct effect on ‘ emotional
appeal ’ . An explanation can be found in
innovation literature (eg, Tidd, Bessant, and
Pavitt, 2005), where innovativeness is con-
sidered a prerequisite for manufacturing
innovative products. We modifi ed the struc-
tural model respectively and modeled a
path from ‘ innovativeness ’ to ‘ products and
services ’ instead of to emotional appeal di-
rectly. The relationship registered highly
signifi cant and so did the indirect effect of
‘ innovativeness ’ on ‘ emotional appeal ’ . All
direct and indirect effects of the structural
model are depicted in Table 4 .
A central criterion for evaluating the
structural model is the rate of reliability R
2
of the endogenous constructs ‘ job applica-
tion intention ’ and ‘ purchase intention ’ .
2
The results of R
2 indicate that 31 percent
of the variance of ‘ job application intention ’
and 39 percent of the variance of ‘ purchase
intention ’ is explained by the preceding
exogenous variables. Furthermore, 61 per-
cent of the variance of ‘ emotional appeal ’
is explained by the cognitive reputation di-
mensions and ‘ innovativeness ’ explains 45
percent of ‘ products and services ’ . All of
those values are above the recommended
threshold of 0.3 ( Huber et al. , 2007 ).
H2: Contingent conditions of the news media.
H2 asserted that the news media ’ s infl u-
ence on stakeholders ’ perceptions is more
pronounced when the news coverage is
about reputation dimensions that stakehold-
ers deem important to their evaluations of
reputation and these same dimensions are
diffi cult to personally inspect or experience.
To analyze H2 , we linked the news reports
and the survey data. Because the print me-
dia usage of each respondent was known,
we were able to match the news reports
with the survey responses according to
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 309
Table 3 : Measurement Models for Reputation Dimensions and Behavioral Intentions;
N = 295
Latent construct Indicator Indicator
loading
t-value Average
variance
extracted
Composite
reliability
Cronbach’s
alpha
Products and
services
Quality products 0.68 12.02 0.51 0.84 0.76
Reliable products 0.74 18.26
Satisfying customers 0.71 18.14
Strong brands 0.77 22.28
Fascinating products 0.68 15.31
Innovativeness Leader in R & D 0.73 15.77 0.58 0.87 0.82
Best innovation for
customers
0.72 18.80
Promising product pipeline 0.79 30.10
Seminal technologies 0.83 34.07
Innovative potential 0.72 18.29
Social and
environmental
responsibility
Commitment for
environment
0.69 14.88 0.54 0.88 0.83
Environmental production 0.84 36.93
Environmental products 0.80 28.83
Social responsibility 0.73 20.93
Ethical standards 0.73 19.99
Care for employees 0.62 12.57
Management
and corporate
strategy
Competent top
management
0.76 22.61 0.52 0.84 0.77
Clear vision for future 0.67 11.71
Leveraging opportunities 0.69 13.15
Path breaking 0.74 22.69
Convincing strategy 0.74 23.81
Financial
performance
Good fi nancial performance 0.75 14.96 0.62 0.87 0.79
Financially strong 0.85 36.31
Financially sound 0.82 34.79
Leading role 0.72 18.45
Emotional
appeal
Like fi rm 0.84 34.85 0.60 0.86 0.78
Respect fi rm 0.76 27.97
Enthusiastic about fi rm 0.75 22.10
Trust fi rm 0.76 26.84
Purchase
intention
Would purchase product 0.96 118.63 0.93 0.97 0.93
Would recommend purchase 0.97 138.95
Job application
intention
Would apply for job 0.89 55.59 0.83 0.91 0.80
Would recommend to apply 0.93 92.42
Media and Reputation
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310
respondents ’ individual media usage. Spe-
cifi cally, for each respondent, we inserted
the coding of the fi rm ’ s media favorability
( Deephouse, 2000 ) from the print medium
he or she had stated to use most frequently
into his or her individual datasets. Thereby,
we took individual differences among
res pondents ’ actual media usage into
account ( Atwood et al. , 1978 ; Meijer and
Kleinnijenhuis, 2006 ).
In a fi rst step, we ran correlations between
the tone of the organization ’ s news coverage
on the cognitive reputation dimensions and
the respondents ’ evaluations of the fi rm on
the different dimensions.
3 The news media
hardly covered the fi rm concerning its
‘ innovativeness ’ ; some of the print media
did not cover that dimension at all in the
11-month period. Thus, the tone of cover-
age on the fi rm ’ s innovativeness could not
be used as a variable in the analyses. Apart
from correlations, we conducted multiple
regression analyses with the tone of the
organization ’ s news coverage on the cognitive
reputation dimensions (except for ‘ innova-
tiveness ’ ) as predictors and survey responses
on the different dimensions as criterion
variables.
The only signifi cant effects that emerged
from correlation analyses were between
the tone of the organization ’ s news coverage
on the fi rm ’ s ‘ social and environmental
responsibility ’ and students ’ evaluations of the
fi rm on ‘ social and environmental responsi-
bility ’ , ‘ products and services ’ , ‘ management
and corporate strategy ’ , and ‘ emotional
appeal ’ (see Table 5 ). There were no signifi -
cant correlations between the tone of the
organization ’ s news coverage on any of
the other dimensions and students ’ evalua-
tions of the fi rm on the reputation dimen-
sions. Regression analyses backed the
fi nding that only the tone of the organiza-
tion ’ s news coverage on the fi rm ’ s ‘ social
and environmental responsibility ’ is able
to predict some of the variance in the
dependent variables. Using the stepwise
method, a signifi cant model emerged for three
criteria: ‘ products and services ’ ( F (1,172)
= 3.95, p < 0.048, Adjusted R
2 = 0.02), ‘ social
and environmental responsibility ’ ( F (1,172)
= 4.45, p < 0.035, Adjusted R
2 = 0.02) and
‘ emotional appeal ’ ( F (1,172) = 5.42, p < 0.021,
Adjusted R
2 = 0.03). In all three models, the
tone of the organization ’ s coverage on the
fi rm ’ s ‘ social and environmental responsibil-
ity ’ and none of the other predictors emerged
signifi cant. The results of the regression
analyses are displayed in Table 6 .
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Our research shows that stakeholders attach
different levels of importance to the different
Table 4 : Structural Model Results, Direct and Indirect effects; N =295
Exogenous variables Endogenous variables
Products and
services
Emotional
appeal
Purchase
intention
Application
intention
Products and services 0.47*** 0.29***(i) 0.26***(i)
Innovativeness 0.67*** 0.31***(i) 0.19***(i) 0.17***(i)
Social and environmental responsibility 0.32*** 0.20***(i) 0.18***(i)
Management and corporate strategy 0.12 0.07 (i) 0.07 (i)
Financial performance 0.01 0.01 (i) 0.01 (i)
Emotional appeal 0.63*** 0.56***
*** p < 0.001, (i) indirect effect
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 311
dimensions of the fi rm ’ s reputation. More
importantly, we show that those dimensions
that our student respondents considered
most important (eg, products and services
and social and environmental responsibility)
had a signifi cant direct or indirect effect on
their emotions and behavioral intentions.
The emotional appeal of the fi rm in turn,
which was also considered important by the
students, had a strong impact on their inten-
tion to buy a product or to apply for a job
at the car manufacturer. In contrast, dimen-
sions that were regarded not very important
(eg, management and corporate strategy,
fi nancial performance) did neither directly
nor indirectly impact on emotions and
intentions to apply or purchase.
As argued in the theoretical section above,
individuals ’ goals and their need to learn
about certain aspects of a fi rm drive media
dependency. In our case, the media depend-
ency of our student respondents to learn
about the fi rm ’ s ‘ management and corporate
strategy ’ and ‘ fi nancial performance ’ is rath-
er low because of limited interest. In con-
trast, learning about the dimensions that
are of interest (eg, products and services or
social and environmental responsibility) can
be considered a declared goal of the student
stakeholders. So, how great is an individual ’ s
dependency on the news media to learn
about these important dimensions?
As cars can be inspected every day on the
streets and tested before purchase (ie, a typ-
ical search good), media dependency to
learn about a car manufacturer ’ s products
should be rather low. As a fi rm ’ s innovative-
ness is at least in part refl ected in their
Table 5 : Correlations (Spearman’s Rho) Between Media Tone and Corporate Reputation; N =174
Reputation (survey results) Media tone
Social and
environmental
responsibility
Products and
services
Management and
corporate strategy
Financial
performance
Social and environmental
responsibility
0.20** 0.01 0.03 0.01
Products and services 0.18* − 0.02 − 0.01 − 0.11
Management and corporate strategy 0.17* − 0.04 − 0.04 − 0.10
Financial performance 0.12 0.02 0.03 − 0.07
Innovativeness 0.15 − 0.04 0.04 0.03
Emotional appeal 0.24** − 0.02 − 0.01 − 0.14
Two-tailed signifi cance: ** p < 0.01, * p < 0.05
Table 6 : Unstandardized and Standardized Regression Coeffi cients for the Variables
Included in the Models
Criterion (survey results) Predictor (media tone) B SE B Beta
Products and services Social and environmental responsibility 0.20 0.10 0.15*
Social and environmental
responsibility
Social and environmental responsibility 0.28 0.13 0.16*
Emotional appeal Social and environmental responsibility 0.35 0.15 0.18*
* p < 0.05
Media and Reputation
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312
products, media dependency to learn about
a car company ’ s innovativeness should also
be limited. How the car manufacturer acts
with respect to its social and environmental
responsibility, however, is more diffi cult
to observe in everyday life, it is rather
unobtrusive. Firms might claim responsible
behavior in their advertising or annual
reports, but learning about it by independent
third parties, like the news media, is much
more credible ( Dawkins, 2005 ).
Our fi ndings show that only the media
salience on the dimension of the fi rm ’ s
‘ social and environmental responsibility ’ had
a signifi cant relationship with the respond-
ents ’ evaluation of the fi rm on this very same
dimension. Moreover, media salience on
this dimension was related to respondents ’
evaluation of the fi rm ’ s products and serv-
ices and their affective reaction. We con-
clude that these correlations result from
the student stakeholders ’ media dependency,
their need for orientation, and consequent-
ly media awareness concerning information
on the fi rm ’ s social responsibility. This
media dependency enhanced the likelihood
that information on the fi rm ’ s responsible
behavior altered stakeholders ’ cognitions,
feelings and behavior.
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION
With the research presented here, we
unveiled one important caveat overlooked
in previous research: the role of differenti-
ated dependency of stakeholders on the
different dimensions of corporate reputation.
Only information about a fi rm for which
individuals depend on the news media
to learn about has an infl uence on stakehold-
ers ’ evaluations of the fi rm. An important
element in revealing those differentiated
effects was the development of an integrat-
ed and novel method for measuring the
tone of fi rms ’ news coverage along the same
dimensions as the fi rm ’ s reputation and
gathering information on stakeholders ’
individual media usage.
We interpret the fi ndings as evidence
supportive of media system dependency
theory and need for orientation: Whereas
individuals are not dependent on the news
media to gather information on automobile
products (because individuals see them on
the streets everyday), they are dependent
thereon to learn about fi rms ’ social and
environmental responsibility. Consequently,
the way in which the news media covered
the focal fi rm on this dimension related to
stakeholders ’ evaluations of the fi rm on this
dimension.
The results bear important implications
for corporate reputation management: Firms
are advised to be aware of and systemati-
cally analyze their stakeholders ’ need for
orientation and media dependencies. Which
reputation dimensions are important to
stakeholders and for which dimensions do
they need the news media to learn about
them? This knowledge is essential in devel-
oping fi rms ’ media strategies for enhancing
corporate reputation. It shows communica-
tion managers which dimensions they
should place emphasis for enhancing evalu-
ative perceptions of specifi c stakeholder
groups, thereby rendering media relations
more effective. For the fi rm serving as our
research case, we found that media salience
was highest for those dimensions where
the student respondents ’ dependency was
lowest (products and services, management
and corporate strategy and fi nancial per-
formance). Only seven percent of the
total coverage referred to the fi rm ’ s social
and environmental responsibility. Practical
impli cations are obvious in that efforts
should be enhanced to attain more news
coverage by strengthening the news value
of the fi rm ’ s accomplishments in social
and environmental responsibility. Also, our
results suggest that the makers of printed
newspapers and magazines could increase
the attractiveness of their products for a
Einwiller, Carroll and Korn
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-3589 Vol. 12, 4, 299–315 Corporate Reputation Review 313
younger audience by covering more content
which is of interest to this younger audience,
thereby preventing the churn rate from
increasing.
It is important to repeat that media de-
pendency varies between stakeholder groups.
Although the student respondents participat-
ing in the survey were not dependent on
the news media to learn about the manage-
ment and corporate strategy of the fi rm,
other stakeholders like investors or politi-
cians might well be. Also, media depend-
ency is contingent upon the current situation
a person is in. A student who is just about
to buy a new car will have a greater need
for orientation and thus be more dependent
on the media to learn about the products
of a car company than the student who is
not about to buy a car. Media relations
and media planning have to take those con-
ditions into account in order to be most
effective.
With the research presented, we extend
the knowledge on the infl uence of media
coverage on corporate reputation by exam-
ining some of the contingent conditions
affecting the news media ’ s infl uence on
corporate reputation. Moreover, our inte-
grated measurement approach gauging
media coverage and stakeholder evaluations
on the same dimensions of reputation fur-
thered the methodological approach to
this research area. However, the need for
more research remains. One of the caveats
in existing research is the cross-sectional
approach to our data collection that inhibits
clearly drawn causal inferences. Experimen-
tal research can prove useful to analyze
specifi c questions on the directional infl u-
ence media coverage has on stakeholder at-
titudes. Also, the results of the study ought
to be replicated with different fi rms, indus-
tries and stakeholders. Finally, the role of
different types of media over and above
printed newspapers and magazines used
in the present study is an important area to
explore.
NOTES
1 http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Navigation/Service/
suche,did=195926.html [Accessed 31 March, 2009]
2 Other than in covariance-based methods of SEM,
PLS does not generate measures for the global fi t
of the model. While covariance-based SEM aims
for the best fi t of the empirical with the hypo-
thetical model, PLS seeks to minimize the vari-
ances of the dependent variables, similar to
regression analysis ( Wold, 1989 ). Therefore, in PLS
the measure for goodness of fi t of the model is the
degree of explained variance, the rate of
reliability R
2 , of the dependent variables.
3 The value of the different reputation dimension
was created by calculating an additive index
from all attributes belonging to the respective di-
mension.
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