Reputation models, drivers and measurement

This chapter discusses the nature and forms of reputation, its drivers and measurement by considering four case studies and recent literatur

Carbons Into Bytes: Patented Chemical Compound Protection in the Virtual World

“Virtual” molecular compounds, created in molecular modeling software, are increasingly useful in the process of rational drug design. When a physical compound is patented, however, virtual use of the compound allows researchers to circumvent the protection granted to the patentee. To acquire protection from unauthorized use of compounds in their virtual form, patentees must directly claim the virtual compound. But Supreme Court decisions such as Bilski v. Kappos and Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. call into question whether virtual compound claims are patentable subject matter under § 101. Using the guidance offered by the Supreme Court and Federal Circuit, this Issue Brief argues that virtual compound claims are not abstract ideas and therefore, consistent with patent policy, qualify as patentable subject matter

Advertising value equivalence – PR’s illegitimate offspring.

Public relations measurement and evaluation have long been major practice subjects. From the late 1970s onwards they have been identified as an important issue for research and practice implementation (McElreath, 1980, 1989; Synnott & McKie, 1997, Watson & Noble 2007; Watson 2008). The evolution of public relations measurement starts much earlier, with some suggesting that media monitoring practices can be identified from the late 18th century onwards (Lamme & Miller, 2010). Although the academic approach to measurement and evaluation has mostly favoured social science methodologies (Broom & Dozier 1990, Michaelson & Stacks 2011), there has been persistent and widespread practice use of Advertising Value Equivalence (AVE) to express the value of public relations activity for decades. Recent data (Daniels & Gaunt, 2009) found that AVE was used by 35% of a large international sample of practitioners. Early significant US practitioners, including Lee and Page, instituted media monitoring of programme outputs and AT&T developed sophisticated opinion researching to guide and monitor its communication activity (Cutlip 1994). Literature in the 1930s and 1940s indicate that these practices were extant, especially basic monitoring of media coverage (Batchelor, 1938). However, there are indications that AVE was in use from the 1940s onward. Plackard and Blackmon (1947) refer to it in the US and provide an example of its calculation. In the UK, the first warning against AVE came in a 1949 edition of the IPR Journal (J. L’Etang, personal communication, January 10, 2011). Both sources thus indicate it was an established practice by mid-century, although it did not surface in professional or quasi-academic literature till the late 1960s. AVE was further operationalized by the emergence of computer based analysis, such as offered by PR Data, in the mid-1960s (Tirone, 1977). From that decade onwards, its use became widespread, as indicated by industry coverage of awards and case studies and by award case studies. Latterly, AVE has been directly challenged by the Barcelona Declaration’s Principle 5 which stated that “AVEs are Not the Value of Public Relations” (AMEC, 2010). It added that AVEs “do not measure the value of public relations and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space and are rejected as a concept to value public relations.” Time will tell whether AVE is replaced by other, valid metrics. This paper investigates the evolution of AVE, which has long been damned as illegitimate, and postulates whether it arose from clippings agencies, advertising planning practices or from other influences on public relations

Reputation and ethical behaviour in a crisis: predicting survival

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the interrelation of reputation with corporate performance in a crisis and consider the factors that make up the balance between strong recovery, bare survival and failure. The emphasis is on corporate communication and corporate governance. Design/methodology/approach – The current debate on reputation and the validity of the term reputation management is reviewed and cases studies from Australia and the UK are examined. Findings – The paper finds that, in the case studies, poor management, unethical practices, a lack of engagement with customers and other stakeholders, indifferent or aggressive performances by CEOs and lack of preparedness for crisis communication severely or terminally affected the organisations. It identifies a new reputational factor of predictability and considers why some organisations survive a crisis that has strong negative ethical dimensions while others fail. Originality/value – This paper scrutinises existing concepts of reputation and reputation management and finds that they are not able to predict recovery, survival or failure of organisations. A new definition of reputation is put forward and the factor of predictability is emphasised in proposals for new applied theory

An initial investigation on the use of ‘Return on Investment” in public relations practice

‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) is usually defined in management literature as a measure of financial effectiveness that is concerned with the returns on capital employed in business (profit-making) activities. In public relations practitioner parlance, however, ROI appears to be used in a much looser form to indicate the results of activity. This mixed method research using an online survey instrument investigated practitioner understanding of the term, primarily in the UK. These findings resulted: 1) Two-thirds of PR practitioners use the term ROI when planning and evaluating communication activity; 2) ROIs related to communication objectives (66.7%) are more widely used than financial-related ROIs (12.8%); 3) There is a clear difference in ROI practices between consultants/freelances and in-house colleagues. Nearly three-quarters of consultants and freelances (73.1%) offer an ROI formula to clients but only 26.3% of in-house practitioners have one; and 4) On the oft-discussed question of an industry-wide ROI formula, only 35.6% supported the proposition with 64.4% opposed. However, the survey also found that practitioner concepts of ROI are very narrowly expressed, mainly in relation to media outputs

The evolution of evaluation – the accelerating march towards the measurement of public relations effectiveness

The measurement and evaluation of public relations effectiveness has long been a major professional and research issue (White and Blamphin 1994; Synnott and McKie 1997). Recently Watson (2008) found that it still ranked third in an international study of public relations research priorities. In the first half of the last century, there was little reference to it. The first major scholarly reference came in Cutlip and Center’s first edition of Effective Public Relations (1952) which implies there was some prior discussion but there is little evidence. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that the first US conference and professional publications on the topic were evidenced. The first scholarly journal special issue devoted to it, ‘Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Relations’ was published as the Winter 1977 edition of Public Relations Review. There was a burgeoning of academic and professional discussion from the mid-1980s onwards. Also the major consultancy groups started to introduce proprietary media measurement systems (e.g. Hill and Knowlton, 1979; Ketchum, 1982; CARMA, 1984). By the end of the decade there was a growing body of knowledge from academic and professional sources which led into a wide, international expansion of publications and services in the 1990s. Professional bodies in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United States, as well as the International Public Relations Association, all formed task forces and prepared publications. Measurement and evaluation had at last arrived as a central professional issue. Document analysis will be the main research method to prepare the timeline of the development of public relations measurement evaluation through. This paper will also explore the theoretical and professional themes that have characterised the development of theory and methodology in this important public relations practice

PR's early response to the "information superhighway": The IPRA narrative

Before the Internet, social media and search engine optimisation, there was the “information superhighway” and the “Megachip age” in the 1980s. This paper, drawing on the archive of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), reviews early discussion and adoption of innovative technology by practitioners through the application of historical method. It finds they were slow to appreciate the benefits of technical advances in communication and held doggedly to print-based models of mediated communication. Practitioners and thought leaders did not foresee that information would be available to more people through ICT developments. Practice responses, developed by reference to Rogers’ Diffusion Theory, were in three categories (in descending order of frequency) of Ignorers, Cautious/Sense-makers and Modernists/Adopters