Purpose - Reputational capital is part of a company's intellectual capital. Communications has been defined as main vehicle for managing reputational capital. The term communications can mean part of managerial work, referring to the communicational capacity an organization has as a whole, whereas communications conducted by a professional function forms a set of clearly distinguishable practices which can be studied. The purpose of the research is to 1) look into the communications processes and practices through which the best performing publicly listed companies strive to manage their reputational capital and 2) test whether this correlates with better reputation, performance and better financial result The link between performance and financial result has been proven many times, and so has the link between reputation and financial result. The impact of communication practices on reputation or performance has been harder to prove and is therefore the focus of this work. Design/Methodology/Approach - The project will start with a quantitative analysis of appr. 100 public Finnish companies, comparing their long-time ( 10 years or less) data on financial performance with semantic analysis on the content of the publicity they have gained during the same period. In measuring organizational performance one or several of these measures will be used: market value vs. book-keeping value, revenue growth, share price, ROA. Some 10-15 firms that show the best positive correlation are identified and approached with a survey exploring in their corporate communications processes and practices. The survey is complemented with individual interviews and collection of communication documents from the companies. Performance measures for the companies are set by external and internal standards. Originality/Value - Present IC research is strongly rooted in either management consultancy or accounting. The issue of reputation or brand management in a dynamic sense seldom appears in IC literature. Communications and marketing research again has focused on the correlation of brand image on consumer behavior or corporate value. There is strong evidence on these correlations, but what is missing is a genuine integration of IC management and communications research. However, now that we have moved into the knowledge-intensive business era of ours and gone through the explosive development of the internet, the concept of external reputation has gained a relevancenever seen before, and reputational capital has to be taken seriously due to its huge impact on corporate performance and monetary outcomes, such as share price and market value. Practical implications - The aim is to produce a work that combines academic intellectual capital research and communications research, and at the same time offers new tools for business executives and for the communications industry to manage reputation and be able to measure its monetary impact. The study should produce knowledge that allows practitioners to make better decisions and improve the effectiveness of their work. The aim is to hold a dynamic perspective, approaching the issue from a reputational capital management perspective. The author will try to seek best practices and solutions to business executives' everyday problems - namely how to manage your reputation as far as it is possible.
