**With the usual apologies for any cross-posting, please note that we have come to the realization that academic time and calendar time are not the same, and so we have extended the deadline for contributions to our special issue on reputational interdependence until Dec. 1, 2006.  Intended contributors should send a brief abstract outlining their full submission as soon as possible.***

CALL FOR PAPERS

Corporate Reputation Review

Special Issue:

BEYOND CORPORATE REPUTATION:

MANAGING REPUTATIONAL INTERDEPENDENCE

Deadline for full-paper submissions: December 1, 2006

Guest Editors:

Michael L. Barnett, University of South Florida (mbarnett@coba.usf.edu)

Andrew J. Hoffman, University of Michigan (ajhoff@bus.umich.edu)

As may seem obvious or even tautological, corporate reputation research has overwhelmingly concerned itself with the efforts of managers to influence perceptions of the unique characteristics of their corporations. In bounding reputation research in this way, though, we actually overlook important determinants of corporate reputation. A corporation's reputation is a function of perceptions of its unique attributes, but it is also a function of perceptions of the common attributes of the industry or other groups of which it is a part. For example, all chemical firms suffered reputational (and market) losses following the 1984 poison gas leak at the facilities of a single chemical plant owned by Union Carbide.

The notion that a firm's performance is dependent upon the characteristics of a larger collective to which it belongs is not new. The roots of strategic management are in industrial-organization economics, which notes that industry characteristics are a substantial determinant of the financial performance of all members of the industry. Ecological perspectives in organizational theory have long noted that environmental selection mechanisms act on populations, not individual firms. The widespread use of trade associations in industry would seem to indicate that managers have long been aware of the need to manage the attributes of their collectives. It is time for reputation research to catch up.    

In this special issue, we seek papers that demonstrate the existence of reputation at the collective level, illustrate its dynamics, outline specific instances of how it is managed, and link its management to the performance and survival of both corporations and collectives.  We encourage submissions from both academics and practitioners.  Papers may build or test theory.  Preference will be given to those papers that contain rich qualitative or quantitative data.

Manuscripts should comply with Corporation Reputation Review's style and format guide (http://www.palgrave-journals.com/crr/instructions.html) and be submitted electronically as a Word or rich text format attachment to mbarnett@coba.usf.edu.  We encourage contributors to discuss ideas with either guest editor prior to submission.  We request a brief abstract that outlines any intended contributions as soon as possible.  All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.  All submitting authors will be placed in a pool of potential reviewers; others who wish to volunteer as reviewers, please send an e-mail to mbarnett@coba.usf.edu.