Corporate image vacuum: Nature, characteristics and implications for the organization

• Main Authors: ZAINAL ABIDIN, Noraizah, PANG, Augustine
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Business and Corporate Communications; Organizational Communication; Public Relations and Advertising
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6094; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7093/viewcontent/Corporate_Image_Vacuum_2012.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

A good corporate image is important to organizations (Benoit & Pang, 2008). Even then, some organizations do not have one (Bernstein, 1984/1989; Walker, 2010). Arguably the first study to explicate the notion of corporate image vacuum through the development of the Corporate Image Grid Framework, this study examines how an image vacuum is generated and what organizations can do to fill it. The framework offers a systematic way of assessing an organization’s image to heighten practitioners’ awareness of image management of their organizations. Four organizations drawn from Fortune 2011 list of 50 most admired organizations are studied: Singapore Airlines, Google, Nike and Toyota. Findings suggest that corporate image formation constitutes the interplay of organization-constructed and audience-interpreted image. These determine the locus of image control and image valence. When the image valence is weak and the locus of control is external, an image vacuum is generated.