Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Media and Communication

The influence of media coverage on corporate reputation is an important research topic that attracts scholars from multiple disciplines. It was first investigated by scholars from the field of management. During the past ten years, media scholars have begun to engage in this research domain. The history of this research topic reflects its typical inter-disciplinary characteristics. Scholars have applied theories from mass communication, management, economics, and other disciplines in the exploration of this area. Such theoretical integration is necessary for the investigation of this research topic. However, the advancement of this scholarship is also dependent on empirical studies. The major problem existing in previous studies is that they reached inconsistent findings with regard to the relationship between media coverage and corporate reputation. These inconsistent findings are the result of multiple reasons and impede the further advancement of the scholarship in this area. One of the most important reasons is that previous studies developed different measurements of media coverage. To solve this problem, this dissertation focused on the measurements of media reputation, which was defined as the overall evaluation of media coverage of firms. Based on Agenda-Setting Theory, Priming Theory, Signaling Theory, and previous studies, this dissertation compared different measurements of media favorability applied in the previous studies, investigated the interaction effects between media visibility and media favorability, between recency and media favorability, and finally, developed a new measurement of media reputation which combines three factors: media favorability, media visibility, and recency. Content analysis is the primary research method of this dissertation. A total of 2817 news articles from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and local newspapers were humanly coded and analyzed. The content analysis data were compared w (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Louisa Ha Dr. (Advisor); Vipa Phuntumart Dr. (Committee Member); Sung-Yeon Park Dr. (Committee Member); Catherine Cassara Dr. (Committee Member); Mingsheng Li Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Administration; Management; Mass Communications; Mass Media

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2024, Communication

In October of 2022, an anonymous Twitter user under the pseudonym Emily Smith published a Tweet that contained a screenshot of a detailed statement which alleged that Ian Cole, a defensemen for the Tampa Bay Lightning, had groomed and sexually assaulted her. The last paragraph of the statement says that “the NHL [National Hockey League] fosters a culture of misogyny”, and because of this, players feel “emboldened” to commit these acts of violence towards their victims (Smith, 2022). The NHL conducted an investigation in which they determined Cole was innocent (Associated Press, 2022). There are multitudes of instances in which players commit acts of gender violence (rishcast, 2021). For organizations like the NHL, the communication they diffuse may impact how they are viewed by publics, groups of stakeholders that can impact how the organization is viewed. This study examined how such a response impacts league reputation, word-of-mouth, behavior intention, and attitude, using the lens of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). Results showed response strategy significantly impacts reputation, those who viewed women's rights more favorably reported a significantly lower perception of the NHL's reputation when exposed to the denial strategy, and those who perceive the NHL's reputation more favorably are more likely to engage in positive word-of-mouth practices and are more likely to alter their behavior (watch games, purchase merchandise, etc.). The results suggest that in order to maintain a positive reputation and to cultivate an individual's willingness and likelihood to engage in positive behaviors towards the NHL, the NHL should make informed and careful decisions when communicating about acts of gender violence at the hands of its players.

Committee: Alan Abitbol (Committee Chair); Jenn Freitag (Committee Member); Jen Ptacek (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Artium Baccalaureus (AB), Ohio University, 2023, History

This thesis examines the career of Ebroin, Frankish mayor of the palace from 664- 673 and 675-680 CE. His career as mayor was controversial: his enemies called him an unjust tyrant for acting against the interests of the Frankish aristocracy, and he became infamous for ordering the blinding and murder of Bishop Leudegar of Autun. After his assassination in 680, Ebroin's legacy fell into the hands of his enemies, who used it to further their own agendas. Although a study of Ebroin can make use of a multitude of sources, their accounts of the mayor are often contradictory and biased. This thesis seeks to uncover the successes of Ebroin's career hidden in contemporary sources and trace how his legacy changed soon after his death, during the Carolingian period, and beyond. A thorough investigation of the differing accounts of near-contemporary sources and later sources reveals that Ebroin's career was more successful than authors made it out to be and that the influence of his enemies transformed his legacy into a simplified and misunderstood shadow of itself centuries after his death.

Committee: Kevin Uhalde (Advisor) Subjects: History; Medieval History

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2023, Agricultural Communication, Education and Leadership

Chipotle Mexican Grill is one of the top fast casual restaurant chains in the United States. The brand is popular among a growing base of Gen Z consumers. One of Chipotle's defining characteristics throughout its marketing materials is an emphasis on sustainable ingredients and responsibly-raised meat. However, Chipotle has also drawn criticism from the agricultural community for its depictions of conventional agriculture. As a result, it is of interest to understand how Chipotle's use of visual storytelling may shape its corporate reputation among a Gen Z audience with both agricultural and non-agricultural backgrounds. The study focused on two examples of Chipotle's visual storytelling: the 2011 short film A Future Begins and the 2021 short film Back to the Start. A conceptual lens was implemented to illustrate the effect of visual storytelling on the three facets of corporate reputation—personality, identity, and image. Gen Z college students at The Ohio State University were recruited to participate in focus groups where they watched both short films and discussed their perceptions of Chipotle as a corporation. A total of 13 students participated in the focus groups, with two focus groups comprising agricultural majors and two focus groups comprising non-agricultural majors. Focus group transcripts were analyzed with the assistance of MAXQDA 2022, and emergent themes about participants' perceptions of both short film and impacts and Chipotle's corporate reputation were recorded. The study found that neither agricultural iii nor non-agricultural participants were particularly moved by Chipotle's visual storytelling in either short film. However, non-agricultural participants had more positive views of Chipotle sustainability and animal welfare messaging, while agricultural participants had negative views of Chipotle's depiction of conventional agriculture. All participants felt that the short films could have been improved by the use of real visuals/stories, st (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joy Rumble (Committee Member); Emily Buck (Advisor) Subjects: Agriculture; Communication

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2022, Communication

Stakeholder perceptions impact an organization's identity, image, and reputation. Utilizing stakeholder theory, identity theory, and social identity theory as framework, this study examined internal and external stakeholder perceptions of an organization and its identity, image, and reputation, specifically to evaluate whether the organization's identity, image, and reputation are consistent across stakeholder groups. Like for profit organizations, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) also rely on stakeholder perceptions of the organization's identity, image, and reputation. To examine how stakeholder perceptions of identity, image and reputation impact a nonprofit, a case study of a local Cincinnati nonprofit organization, The Calvary Academy (TCA), was conducted through eleven semi-structured interviews. The results showed that TCA's identity, image, and reputation are perceived by internal and external stakeholders in similar ways – what the organization says their identity is internally, is confirmed through perceptions of their external stakeholders. However, due to the nature of a smaller nonprofit organization and the connection between TCA being a ministry of a larger nonprofit organization, The Calvary Church, there is limited visibility within the local community of TCA and, as a result, TCA is not widely known in the community. The findings suggest that if TCA were to increase visibility within the local community, they would need to increase their use of branding, as well as, to utilize their network of current supporters to promote the school through word of mouth advertising.

Committee: Alan Abitbol (Committee Chair); Jennifer Ptacek (Committee Member); Chad Painter (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Political Science

Can an individual's personal goals impact a state's foreign policy? Grandiose narcissism provides a pathway to understanding how personality can impact a leader's preferences, decision-making, and foreign policy behavior. More narcissistic leaders will focus their efforts on maintaining their inflated self-image rather than on furthering their political survival prospects or state interests. I argue that to maintain their inflated self-image, narcissistic leaders will act-out opposite their political circle's reputation in foreign policy, behave dramatically during international conflicts, and engage in more Great Power conflict. This dissertation evaluates these claims by using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. Survey experiments with a general population sample are used to find micro-foundational support for hypotheses. Case studies and statistical analysis are used to investigate grandiose narcissism's impact on United States presidents' foreign policy decision-making and behavior from 1897-2008. Analysis finds that grandiose narcissism, a dispositional leader-level variable, is related to the frequency of international conflict, behavior during international conflict, and the targets of international conflict.

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Committee Chair); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member); Randall Schweller (Committee Member); Amy Brunell (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Personality; Personality Psychology; Political Science; Psychology; Social Psychology

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership Studies, Xavier University, 2021, Leadership Studies and Human Resource Development

Once a crisis has passed, organizations often are left to deal with consequences that can have severe effects on the organization that can potentially damage stakeholder relationships (Coombs, 2007). During the crisis management phase of a crisis, leaders choose various strategies and methods to manage the event, hoping that it causes stakeholders to have a favorable view of the organization despite the crisis. This mixed-methods single case study examined external stakeholder perceptions of an organization post-crisis by exploring how the perceptions of an organization can change or remain the same over time in regards to organizational legitimacy, trust, and reputation post-crisis based on the attribution of cause. This study found that four years after the incident there was both no effect of causal attributions and specific attributions of cause on long term perceptions of reputation, trust, and legitimacy and no difference between the two external stakeholder groups. This case study highlights that perceptions of an organization post-crisis do not have to be negative in terms of reputation, legitimacy, and trust. In the case of the organization studied, organizational tactics did not affect the positive perceptions of the organization.

Committee: Gail F. Latta Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Ashley L. Whiteley Ed.D (Committee Member); Shirley Curtis Ed.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Higher Education

The comprehensive internationalization of higher education has long been viewed as important for student development and institutional global research engagement. The reasons for internationalization have been studied in-depth, but few studies exist linking higher education internationalization and institutional reputation, often measured through ranking systems. Grounded in internationalization literature and reputation theories from the field of organizational management, this dissertation examines the relationship between the comprehensive internationalization of higher education and the U. S. News and World Report college rankings reputation scores and overall rankings. Using a sample of 259 institutions that both completed the American Council on Education's 2016 Mapping of Internationalization survey and were ranked in the USNWR college rankings in 2016, this study found that multiple significant correlations exist between internationalization and the USNWR college rankings and reputation scores. Additionally, comprehensive internationalization emerged as a predictor of both reputation scores, explaining 34% of the variance, and of ranking scores, explaining 26.4% of the variance.

Committee: Snejana Slantcheva-Durst PhD (Committee Chair); Tony Lingham PhD (Committee Member); Gilbert Merkx PhD (Committee Member); Ronald Opp PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2019, College of Education

This dissertation addressed the research question, what are the perceptions of African American male high school students in regard to racial disproportionality and disciplinary practices? This question was addressed through the perspective of African American male students in a school district in northeast Ohio. The topic and research question led to literature research topics such as, the discipline gap, zero tolerance policies, school to prison pipeline, and restorative justice. The study sought to address the gap in the literature with obtaining a student voice on the topics. Several themes emerged from the research. The themes are referrals and removals, equal treatment, and background and reputation. All participants agreed that they had been removed from a classroom by a classroom teacher for one reason or another. The participants also agreed that they believed that not all students in schools are treated equally. Along with this the participants believed that their background and reputation played a key role in the way they were disciplined compared to other students. Some participants even felt that situations that may have transpired as early as elementary and middle school have followed them to high school and still affect them negatively. The research led to implications for teachers, administrators, and students in connection to student discipline practices.

Committee: Judy Alston PhD (Committee Chair); Tanzeah Sharpe EdD (Committee Member); Terrance Menefee EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Education; Gender

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

The strains and aftermath of the Vietnam War prompted U.S. presidents of the 1970s to be the first ones to contemplate a complete withdrawal of U.S. ground forces from South Korea. The ensuing debate forced American civilian and military leaders to confront a long-held traditional mindset about the importance of U.S. credibility and reputation that had been forged in the early Cold War. Scholars have long noted that this identifiable Cold War mindset consisted of apparent lessons from World War II about appeasement and key assumptions about the nature of the Soviet enemy and the broader Cold War conflict that encouraged a "fixation" on U.S. credibility. The presence and influence of this traditional mindset's "credibility" imperative in the post-Vietnam Cold War, however, has largely been ignored or discounted. The debate over withdrawing U.S. ground forces from South Korea in the 1970s occurred in the context of a relatively static conflict between North Korea and South Korea, which provides a unique, relatively unchanging backdrop against which to evaluate this neglected period of U.S. Cold War credibility concerns. Diachronic analysis of the troop withdrawal debate and decision making reveals important continuities and discontinuities in U.S. Cold War thinking, and highlights the ebb and flow of the influence of a persistent early Cold War mindset as it competed with other values and imperatives, especially fiscal responsibility and disentanglement, in the shadow of the Vietnam War. Using the debate as barometer of U.S. Cold War discourse, one finds that the post-Vietnam recession in the prominence of credibility concerns was modest and temporary, and that a traditional Cold War mindset and credibility fixation still exerted considerable influence on U.S. policymakers. It overarched the withdrawal debate and defined much of the conceptual space in which the debate could take place. As in other debates over national security in previous decades, the concep (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mary Ann Heiss (Advisor); Steven Hook (Committee Member); Kevin Adams (Committee Member); Clarence Wunderin (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; International Relations; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History; Peace Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Arts Policy and Administration

The nation of Chile means different things to different people. As Chile progresses as one of Latin America's most stable emerging democracies, its reputation abroad is becoming all the more important in fostering further growth. How do the arts and culture contribute to this reputation formation, and what can Chile do with this continually in-flux perception? Through analysis of current research on the ingredients and applications of a national reputation utilizing arts and culture, this research poses a framework with which the nation of Chile is examined. Empirical observation is combined with data obtained from in-person interviews to gain multiple perspectives on an increasingly popular issue within the country. Findings indicate that Chile's international reputation not only comes from sending its artists abroad on official and unofficial visits and exchanges, but also includes a number of domestic undertakings that form the cultural base Chile may draw from in molding its name. However, these tasks are not without its own set of unique challenges pertinent to the country's distinctive geopolitical position and history. By operating within the established framework aimed at capturing the breadth of activity occurring within and outside of Chile, conclusions are surmised that may inform effective practices for governments, organizations, and artists in contributing to a nation's reputation through its most constant and identifiable asset -- its culture.

Committee: Margaret Wyszomirski (Advisor); Wayne Lawson (Committee Member) Subjects: Arts Management; International Relations; Public Policy

PHD, Kent State University, 2015, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Ambassador Crawford / Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship

Research has shown that new product development's (NPD) impact on firm performance is ever important to a firm's competitive position, as it enhances competitive differentiation, establishes entry barriers to markets, and increases revenues and profits (e.g. Cooper 2011; Chen et al. 2010). Technology in today's markets has provided customers with greater information and the ability to communicate with companies on a global scale. With the growing transparency between firms and customers, more firms are utilizing customer participation in the NPD process, a collaborative NPD activity in which customers and firms create new knowledge and value through mutual, ongoing interactions (Blazevic and Lievens 2008). Research has shown that firms that utilize customers in NPD are expected to be more innovative (Fang et al. 2008) and have greater financial performance (Coviello and Joseph 2012). While initial empirical studies seem promising, much work still remains. The majority of research has focused on specific contexts, user groups, and has relied on case studies. This dissertation seeks to expand the nomological net of customer participation in NPD by examining its antecedents, consequences, and boundary conditions of its effectiveness in a more generalized context. While gaining insight from customers may be advantageous to develop new products, firms must be able to internalize the information in order to capitalize on it and must possess the resources and capabilities to maximize its effectiveness. As such, organizational learning theory, the resource based view and its extension, the dynamic capabilities literature, help guide the arguments in this dissertation. This research suggests that not all firms may wish to integrate customers into the NPD process and customer participation's effectiveness may be contingent upon a firm's absorptive capacity -- the ability to acquire, transform, assimilate, and exploit external knowledge and apply it to commercial ends (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sergey Anokhin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Robert Jewell Ph.D. (Committee Member); Eric Johnson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joakim Wincent Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Marketing

Master of Applied Communication Theory and Methodology, Cleveland State University, 2014, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

This study examined the effects of channel richness, source credibility and organizational reputation on both the perceived efficacy of pre-crisis messages, as well as participants' intent to comply with prescribed behavior in a severe weather context. Using the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model as a foundation, channel richness, source credibility and organizational reputation were examined, as were the potential effects of prior experiences with severe weather, and the perceived severity of said experiences. An experimental design was run with 100 participants, and several factors emerged. The findings suggest that media richness has no effect, with organizational reputation and source credibility instead predicting message efficacy, and competence emerging as the most important factor in source credibility. The implications on both future crisis research and crisis management are discussed.

Committee: Robert Whitbred PhD (Committee Chair); Anup Kumar PhD (Committee Member); Gary Pettey PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2006, Psychology

The social reputations of children (ages 6-11) with Asperger's Disorder (AD) (n = 16) and classroom peers (n = 16) were examined using a modified version of the Revised Class Play (RCP), a measure of social behavior, completed by teachers. Teachers also completed a Behavioral Assessment Scale of Children - Teacher Report Scale (BASC-TRS) for each child, a measure of observed behavior. Relative to their peers, children with AD scored higher on the Sensitive-Isolated dimension and lower on the Sociability-Leadership dimension of the RCP, indicating less positive social reputations. They were observed to engage in more disruptive and fewer adaptive behaviors. The findings suggest that the behavior of children with AD negatively impacts their social reputations and acceptance by peers. The need for social skills interventions is discussed, and suggestions for further research are made.

Committee: Janet R. Schultz Ph.D., ABPP (Committee Chair); W. Michael Nelson III Ph.D., ABPP (Committee Member); Crighton Newsom Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Educational Psychology; Social Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Arts and Sciences : Psychology

The purpose of this study was to replicate previous differences between the five social status groups on a variety of behavioral and non-social attributes, and to determine whether these behaviors and attributes could be combined to accurately distinguish between the groups. Data on behavioral reputation and social acceptance was collected from children in 196 elementary schools about 2,381 classroom peers. Results from discriminant function analysis called into question the five group classification system widely used in sociometric research (Newcomb, Bukowski, and Patee, 1993). The combination of social withdrawal, and low peer perceptions of attractiveness, leadership, or prosocial behavior seem to engender consistent negative responses among peers, while children who are largely liked were viewed in a consistently positive manner across multiple behavioral and non-social attributes. Thus, there was robust support for distinctions between popular and rejected children, but there was very little evidence that controversial, average, and neglected children could be distinguished on the basis of the measured behavioral or non-social attributes. A notable exception to this conclusion was aggressive-disruptive behavior. It is suggested that aggression raises visibility within the peer system and may be the only meaningful difference between controversial and neglected children.

Committee: Dr. Kathryn Vannatta (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, EDU Policy and Leadership

This study used qualitative methodology including observations and interviews to attempt to discover how secondary students form impressions of their teachers and how those impressions are perpetuated among students, leading to teacher reputation. The study was conducted with students in grade 10 at a Midwestern suburban high school. The findings from the study indicate that students form impressions of their teachers by assessing certain immediate elements about the teacher and class including teacher demeanor, teacher enthusiasm, teacher self-disclosure, teacher academic press, teacher approach to discipline, and teacher discussion style. Students monitor and consider three additional elements when forming extended impressions, additionally contributing to teacher reputation: level of self-confidence, teacher academic support, and sense of classroom community.

Committee: Eric Anderman PhD (Advisor); Anna Soter PhD (Committee Member); Antoinette Errante PhD. (Committee Member); Heather A. Davis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Theory

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Labor and Human Resources

Research on reputation has taken a variety of disparate approaches that has created conceptual confusion. This dissertation attempts to disentangle and clarify the reputation construct by elucidating the definition, introducing a theoretical framing, establishing a new level of analysis and investigating interactive effects. A multilevel approach of studying reputation is introduced and serves as a guide for the dissertation in directing the focus on the three main purposes of this study. First, the theoretical foundations of similarity among multiple levels of reputation are established through the development of a “Reputation as Information” framework. Second, a new proximal contextual construct of unit level of reputation is introduced and explored. As such, this study describes the antecedents and outcomes associated with the more proximal level of unit reputation. Third, cross-level effects of the “big fish in the little pond” and the “little fish in the big pond” (personal and unit level reputation) on individual outcomes are investigated. The procedures used to study these issues included gathering organizational data in a field study using employee surveys, supervisor surveys, and obtaining archival information from the company. These data were analyzed using multiple regression, hierarchical linear modeling, and multiple mediation models. Results establish the unit level of reputation as a construct of interest for organizational studies because of its influences on important outcomes such as satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviors, and motivation. The results also indicate the cross-level effects of having a high or low personal reputation in a group with either a high or low unit reputation. In particular, the results demonstrate that the interaction of personal and unit reputation can influence how engaged employees are in their work role as well as the amount that employees identify with a group. Engagement and identity further relate to impo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steffanie Wilk (Advisor); David Greenberger (Committee Member); Roy Lewicki (Committee Member) Subjects: Business Education; Management; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics

In microfinance and similar relational lending situations, circumstances often make the external enforcement of contracts either unavailable or too costly. Instead, in maintaining loan repayment incentives, lenders depend on reputation. With competition, maintaining this reputation-based incentive structure becomes increasingly difficult. As more lenders enter the market, the incentive to maintain a sound reputation with any single lender declines. Borrowers increasingly engage in strategic behavior and renege on loan contracts. The dissertation explores how the introduction of credit bureaus and similar information sharing mechanisms constrain opportunistic behavior. Using experimental methods, two information regimes are compared: private reputation, as observed in relational lending, and public reputation, as exemplified by credit bureaus. Game theory is used to model lender behavior, given asymmetric information about borrower types (conditionally honest and strategic) and to derive predictions about market breakdown and the extent of credit rationing. The central determinants of willingness to lend are the beliefs about the expected proportion of honest borrowers in the pool and the variance of these expectations. Experiments are conducted to observe actual behavior. Results show a connection between information regime, lending frequency, loan size, and repayment. Public reputation leads to less credit rationing (larger loans), lower frequency of (exploratory) lending, and a smaller lender share in surpluses generated. Stronger relationships, measured by multiple repeated loans with the same lender, also lead to a higher likelihood of repayment.

Committee: Claudio Gonzalez-Vega PhD (Advisor); Steven Wu PhD (Committee Member); Abdoul Sam PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Agricultural Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Accounting and Management Information Systems

This dissertation consists of three essays that focus on the role of electronic reputation systems in anonymous two party transactions. The first two essays are laboratory experiments that explore how uncertainty impacts the functionality of the reputation system. The third essay investigates possible reasons why users of reputation systems do not always volunteer their private information and leave feedback about completed transactions. It reports on a pilot test of a survey designed to provide additional information about the provision of information to electronic reputation systems. Results of these essays show that the presence of an electronic reputation system improves cooperation between buyers and sellers, and increases buyer trust and seller trustworthiness. Introducing uncertainty into the environment also diminishes buyer investments when comparing the reputation treatments with and without interception. Differences are noted between aggregate feedback ratings and specific ratings, and findings indicate that interception alters the effects of specific feedback ratings. Without pre-play communication buyers and sellers were more cooperative, indicating that buyers are less likely to trust sellers when they believe their communication is non-binding. Finally, results of the survey show that time costs and uncertainty about the meaning of specific feedback ratings are predominant factors in feedback provision.

Committee: Richard Young (Advisor) Subjects: Business Administration, Accounting

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Political Science

Although alliances are the most studied phenomena in international relations, there are a number of unanswered questions. Numerous theories explain why alliances form and end, but we do not know how states choose their partners, or why they end when they do. In addition, despite the voluminous literature on alliances, almost no work explains the variation between alliance institutions. I suggest that a better understanding of reputation may help fill these gaps. If reputation matters, then we should see unreliable states (states that fail to honor their alliance commitments) being treated differently than reliable states (states that honor their commitments). Drawing from existing work in political science, as well as from anthropology, business, and game theory, I argue that reputation can affect a state's alliance autonomy. States that are perceived to be unreliable should have greater difficulty attracting new partners and preserving existing alliances than states with a reputation for being reliable. Furthermore, a state's reputation may explain some of the variation between alliances, such as the up-front costs incurred by the signatories, the explicitness of the language, and the level of military integration. To determine the effect of reputation on alliance choices, I test my argument against four cases prior to the First World War. I find that while a state's reputation has little influence on the duration of alliances, unreliable states do have more trouble forming partnerships, especially with reliable states. I also confirm that a state's reputation affects the institutional design of its alliances. Specifically, states with unreliable reputations have more autonomy in choosing their partners and in setting the terms of the alliance. I also discover that a reputation for reliability creates a moral hazard problem, whereby a state with reliable allies will be emboldened to challenge its adversaries. These findings have implications for theories of allianc (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Randall Schweller (Advisor) Subjects: