Test of an Impression Formation Model: An Illustration with Two Well-Known Companies

Despite the importance of corporate reputation, little is known about how it develops. The main purpose of the current study was to begin to understand the formation of corporate reputation by investigating the antecedents of general evaluations of corporations. Specifically, we tested the viability of a corporate impression formation model that was recently proposed in the literature. Electronic survey responses were obtained from a sample of business professionals, who were randomly assigned to one of two well-known companies that belong to different industry sectors: Microsoft and Disney. Results showed that relations among corporate images and general evaluations of corporations were either fully or partially mediated by impressions of company respectability and impressiveness. These findings suggest that there could be moderators relating to the characteristics of the company being evaluated (eg, type of industry) that might have to be included in this model to fully understand how general evaluations develop. Findings also highlighted the importance of different corporate images in the development of respectability and impressiveness impressions. Specifically, market image was significantly related to impressiveness and respectability for both companies, suggesting that companies should spend resources on enhancing their market images. Moreover, both employer and social images were related to respectability, indicating that companies should pay more attention to these two images. This study, therefore, provided a first step in understanding how general evaluations of corporations develop, thus shedding light on how consensus judgments of corporate reputation develop. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.