Category: Reputation

In the book, Who Owns the Ice House? authors Clifton Taulbert and Gary Schoeniger discuss eight powerful life lessons derived from an unknown entrepreneur named Cleve Mormon. Growing up in the 1950’s, Taulbert had the opportunity to work for his Uncle Cleve at the Ice House. In doing so, Taulbert acquired more than just a paycheck each week but valuable insight, stories, and experiences that impacted his outlook on life and his own entrepreneurial development. In each chapter, Taulbert introduces a different life lesson and how we can apply Uncle Cleve’s key messages into our daily lives to achieve success and make our lives count. One chapter that I found to be persuasive and inspiring was chapter 6, “Brand”. This chapter focused on the growth mindset and belief that building a strong brand or reputation on trust and reliability will give you the power to overcome challenges and gain exposure to new and exciting opportunities that lead to real world success. “Your brand is your reputation. It is the message you send to the world about who you are and what you stand for” (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010, p. 135). Being a student and a member of the USF Track and Field team, I found myself inspired by how this simple life lesson on building your brand or reputation could benefit me as a student athlete and lead me to a successful career in Sports Management. Whether a student in school or a professional in the working world, the value in a reputation empowers anyone to find success, achieve their goals, and make their brand known.

Connections to Personal, Business, and Military Life

Over the course of being a student athlete and employee, I have rarely missed classes, work, practices,or submitted late assignments. Because of my notable pattern of attendance and discipline, I gained the reputation of being responsible and reliable by my instructors, coaches, and employers. Recently when completing applications for employment and financial assistance, I was asked to provide two letters of recommendation from non-relatives. In response to the request, I obtained three letters of recommendation from my coach, instructor, and neighbor all validating my trustworthiness, work ethic, dependability, and praising me for “earning a first-rate reputation” at my high school. It was at this time that I experienced the value in a reputation that empowered me to secure employment and awarded a monetary scholarship. “Your brand is the reputation you acquire as the result of what you do” (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010, p. 136).

Throughout the chapter “Brand”, Taulbert reflects on his Ice House memories of Uncle Cleve stressing the importance of building a reputation on reliability. According to Taulbert, “Reliability is a basic concept that can expose a world of unlimited opportunities, regardless of where you are right now” (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010, p.136). One connection he made to Uncle Cleve’s key message on the lesson of building a reputation or brand was when he started his own marketing business. After selling his first machine, he quickly learned the value in a reputation and the role he had in every sales transaction. He understood that his customers were not only buying his products, but they were buying his reputation too (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010). A brand that he controlled and developed based upon reliability, integrity, trust, and a promise made to his customers. A reputation that empowered him to become an award-winning author and a successful entrepreneur (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010).

Another connection made to the value in a reputation was during the time Taulbert served in the military. His reputation of exhibiting a strong worth ethic and respect towards his peers and command superiors followed him throughout his military career and empowered him to quickly advance in the ranks landing a permanent assignment in the commander’s office (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010). An assignment that required a top-secret security clearance where his friends, relatives, and employers were asked to define the characteristics of his reputation (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010). “Your brand is the result of your actions, and your actions stem from your beliefs” (Taulbert & Schoeniger, 2010, p. 135).

What the Experts Say

In a recent article entitled “How Your Reputation Affects Email Marketing and How to Improve It”, it reflected on the impact a company’s reputation or brand has in the email market. A company’s market reputation is critical to whether its product or service gets sent to its target audience as normal delivery or spam (Roesler, 2017). In a recent study conducted by Return Path, it examined over 4 trillion email messages to determine and measure the impact a company’s reputation has on email market and inbox placement (Roesler, 2017). The study confirmed the value in a reputation indicating that highly reputable email marketers were more likely to reach their intended target market on a consistent basis compared to other marketers (Roesler, 2017).

In an article entitled, “Should Entrepreneurs start with a Reputation or Idea?” it compared the different approaches that leads an entrepreneur to success. One idea was to build a reputation with a personal brand while the other referred to creating the perfect idea and allowing the reputation to form itself (DeMers, 2018). Research conducted by Kauffman Foundation examined the different approaches and supported the concept that building a reputation first may be better than starting with an idea (DeMers, 2018). In addition, the research confirmed the value in a reputation indicating that founders with a pre-established reputation had more access to resources and a larger target market to release their ideas and find success (DeMers, 2018).

Another article supporting the value in a reputation was found in Psychology Today where it discussed the importance of building a good reputation and how it is one of the most important assets a person has (Lickerman, 2010). It listed the benefits of a good reputation indicating that it serves as a great marketing strategy, inspiration to others, and a motivation to continually improve yourself (Lickerman, 2010).

Conclusion

In reviewing the different life lessons illustrated in Who Owns the Ice House? I found the common concept behind Uncle Cleve’s key messages was the importance of developing an entrepreneur mindset. When you apply the life lessons on choice, opportunity, action, knowledge, wealth, brand, community and persistence to our daily lives, you are sure to recognize opportunities, overcome adversity, and experience real world success. Whether a student in school or a professional in the working world, the value in a reputation and developing an entrepreneur mindset empowers anyone to find success, achieve their goals, and make their brand known in the world today.

People worry about their reputation all time. People worry that their reputation is in jeopardy. There were so many people that were worrying about their reputation not the act “The Crucible”. There are many examples of this. There was John Proctor when he was accused of being a witch. Then there is Reverend Parris who was so worried about what people thought about the church and what he was doing with it all. And finally there was Abigail he was saying “She’s blackening my name around the town”.

First is the point I made about John Proctor. When he was charged with witchcraft Reverend Parris wanted to post the signed confession on the door of the church. John obviously didn’t want him to do that because it was embarrassing that he would have confessed to witchcraft. He was saying “It is my name! I cannot have another in my life!” and “ How my I live without my name? I have given you my soul, leave me my name!” John was charged with witchcraft by Mary Warren. Mary charged him because she was scared of what the girls might have done to her because of her confessing that they were all faking. So she said “You’re the Devil’s man!” Basically saying that he has worked with the devil and that she has seen him with the devil and that she accepts God and confesses herself even though she didn’t do anything. John Proctor wanted to just sign the confessing and just the important people see it so that it didn’t have to be posted on the church door because it’s embarrassing. This affected how he acted because when they wanted to post the signed confessing on the church door he hesitated because he didn’t want his name posted like that. So when they said that they wanted to put his name up on the church door he got really mad because that’s embarrassing and he didn’t want that signed confession there for everyone to see. He just didn’t understand what the court officials seeing him sign it wasn’t enough.

Now I brought up how Parris was really concerned with the way that John was defying everything else that everyone said. So Parris got scared that John was going to try to overthrow the court or even try to take his spot or just blackening his name. For example “Excellency, since I came to Salem this man is blackening my name. He…”. So Parris has thought that John ha sheen spreading rumors about him. He is so worried that John is trying to get rid of him he doesn’t even see the stupidity going on around him in the village of people just blaming people to get revenge on each other. Parris was so worried that people were talking about him and it’s just sad to see him so self centered because he is so worried about what people think about him. When Parris realized what was actually on he was so worried that people would be mad because of “witchcraft” going on in his house or all of the corruption that was going on. So he got so scared that the people would think that he doesn’t see the things going on so he lies to keep his reputation up. This defined who he was because he is someone who obviously cares what people think about him so he’ll do everything to make sure that people think he’s a good person. He tried to take the blame off of him and put the attention upon someone else. This is relatable to Johns situation because it was both of them worrying about how people saw them. Parris was worried that there was a faction in the village going against him and John was worried that his name would be shamed along with his future relatives. But they differ because Parris was worried that he was going to be viewed as a corrupt man because of the lies coming from Abigail. John was worried about his family in the future not just himself and was genuinely worried for his family.

Lastly, Abigail. She lied, was corrupt, selfish, vengeful, the list goes on. She wasn’t really worried about her reputation but had brought it up before. She said “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!” She was referring to John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. She is saying this because she wants to be with John and literally has an obsession with him. She is doing anything to get what she wants by lying and blackening other peoples name. This is relatively close to the situation with Parris because they are scared that secrets will get out and that there will people mad at them. It not really relatable with John because John was worried about his family and Abigail was worried about being exposed as a liar; that’s why she ran from the village. She ran away because she was scared of being seen as the liar that she is.

In conclusion, people preserving their reputation throughout The Crucible is very prevalent. We had John worried about the way that the people would view his family after he confessed to witchcraft that he was never involved in. But he definitely had a good reason to worry about his reputation and his name because he was falsely accused and didn’t deserve to be hanged. Then there is Parris who was so selfish and worried about how people saw him. He was just so worried about being the perfect preacher and the “holy man”. And then there was Abigail who was just trying to get what she wanted out of the “relationship” she had with John.

According to Forbes Magazine, a reputation economy is a marketplace where brands or professionals are treated like products and are rated, commented on, and judged based on reputation. (Schawbel, Dan). If a brand creates positive interactions, it will open opportunities, whereas a negative brand will diminish its reputation in the marketplace.

With the development of Internet evolution, more and more people search for brands and products based on their personalities before approaching to providers and make the decisions. Facebook and Youtube are the most common reviews that bring opportunities to analyze a product before turning into the final result.

Part of the reputation economy is about how you gain professional in front of your colleagues. Based on my performances and understanding about my fields, people can see whether I am good enough to continue my work in the future. I love listening to music, and in my social media such as Facebook and Instagram, I usually share and post the contents of songs and singers that I like. I am passionate and compassionate to learn and inspire people and dedicated to healing my beloved through music. Websites that have digital music and video streaming services such as Spotify or Youtube allow me to access to millions of songs as well as contents from artists without any charge. Whenever I find a catchy tune, I download it and keep in my playlist so I can easily play again while driving or studying. I also can share song titles or meaningful lyrics to share with my friends and family. In music and other relating fields like lyrics, composers, artists, I can establish my credibilities to my beloved. They can also access my blogs to find new playlists that I shared. Then, they will make comments or share my posts to spread my influences to more people. As my social content influences a lot of people, my reputation economy also increases.

Moreover, I usually play guitar in my free time since I had learned to play when I was young. And it is a great feeling as I listen to a song and cover it again in my style. It cannot be better than playing my song and sing it in front of my friends when I go camping. We can share memories and make everyone get close together around firewood with these beautiful melodies.

The two things that work for me is social media and my guitar skill. I am not an Internet celebrity over time. I start with a small following, mostly come from my connection on social media. However, I am consistent. Like everything else, it takes time and occasionally lucks to become successful, but we cannot get lucky if we are not consistent. The reputation economy opens up with opportunities associated with digital personas. Thanks to the Internet, people are getting easier to approach social media and interaction between others.

People who do not want quick, at least they have a chance to succeed. So don’t hesitate to work, because you deserve to become successful when you put in the effort.

In the book “Speak,” by Laurie Anderson, main character Melinda enters highschool with her reputation ruined. Reputation, image and impression is used in everyday situations affecting social status, self esteem, and professional freedom. How an individual presents themselves through past or present actions is reflected by interactions with others. Why is reputation an important part of success, and how a bad reputation can damage a future.

“Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something,” Oxford dictionary. The combination of every one of our actions that is generally reflected by the individuals around us in the manner they treat us or associate with us. The consequence of everything without exception that we do. Individuals who are thriving may constantly worry on keeping up their image, as it is an essential piece to progress. It is known that reputation, similar to every single beneficial thing, needs constant effort. Main character Melinda is forced to learn the importance of image and the effect it has on her life.

The primitive thought behind image and reputation, is to some degree like reward and discipline. In addition to accomplishing profitable things, keeping your word, having good character, will, and moral compass, will ensure a decent impression to the people around. Strong credibility is an undeniable and swift approach to recognize what sort of an individual you are talking to. Humans, business associations, social organizations, governments and nations themselves have a self image. The essence of reputation is how many decided who to communicate to. Although Melinda’s intentions were not to hurt anyone, her peers took it as an act of distrust, ruining her credibility.

Most social or business collaboration is built up based on the apparent reputation of both contributors. Any business company would abstain from managing another partnership which has fluctuating reputation in the market. An individual would consider not to go out with someone else who is known to have a weak reputation in the social circles. Many are conscious that reputation is critical and individual who choose to neglect it are doing so at their own risk. In Melinda’s case, she started rebuilding her reputation slowly and did not have expectations for the outcomes. She considered what she thought about herself first. By doing so, it actually benefited her reputation and it helped her character development.

Reputation decides the social standing of an individual in society. It is a part of their impact. An individual getting a charge out of good impression is certainly favored for better jobs and for taking up leading positions. Furthermore, great reputation has never harmed anybody. It requires consistency of attempts of character and elegance. Reputation shouldn’t be connected with popularity. An individual can be very relevant, however it may be for all the wrong reasons. Along these lines, the reputation of an individual isolates them and makes them unique. Melinda is seen as a different person when she focused on her creativity, other than faking a change for others to like her.

Reputation is likewise significant for business associations. A well known and credible organization unquestionably appreciates an upper hand over different organizations. It guarantees that the clients and customers remain faithful to the organization. It likewise pulls in new clients who judge an organization dependent on its remaining in the business. A good reputation encourages better marketing situations. It likewise encourages better relations with every one of the partners of the organization. An organization can utilize their image to further their potential benefit by changing over it into a top notch which they can add to the cost of their item and which the clients will pay.

Alongside of the discussion of the different types of reputation, one would wonder how their image is being perceived. In a business viewpoint, managing others opinions is very important for the growth of the company. A measure of reputation can not be quantifiable, there is no rule book to follow, so one can not judge one way.

In the book Speak by Laurie Anderson, Melinda’s reputation ruined. Reputation, image, and impression are used in everyday situations affecting social status, self-esteem, and professional freedom. In the book, she loses her social position because of her past and present actions. Reputation is a social process that is an essential part of success, and a bad reputation can damage a future. People learn reputation, study others, and use it to make their own decisions. Melinda’s friends, therefore, consider her and make a decision not to associate with her due to her ruined reputation as quoted by Melinda in the book Speak ‘I don’t have anyone to sit with, I am an outcast” (Anderson 4).

Nonetheless, the Oxford dictionary’s definition of reputation is ‘the opinion that people have about what someone or something is like, based on what has happened in the past.” One’s reputation is created by every action and reaction. Their actions are generally reflected by the reactions of a collective group, not only one. Individuals who are thriving may always worry about keeping up their image, as it is an essential piece to progress in the social hierarchy. Reputation, similar to every single beneficial thing, needs constant effort. Many characters in the book Speak, focus on what the mass majority think of them, instead of focusing on personal relationships. This mindset leaves the characters blindsided to Melinda’s reality.

The primitive thought behind image and reputation is, to some degree, like reward and punishment. ‘A social dilemma is characterized by a conflict of interest between the welfare of the community and the performance of an individual” (Hauert, Christoph). In the fourth chapter of the Speak, Melinda is seen by the other girls as a trader for her past actions; in turn, Melinda gets bullied. The girls in the book choose to bully Melinda, because it was in their best interest to not associate with her. The girl’s bully and Andy’s rape make her feel uncomfortable and boycott her classes with the exception of the art class, which she finds enjoyable, and she cannot miss Mr. Freeman’s class. Based on her freshman experience and her former friend’s judgment, she finds a hideout at the old janitor’s room ‘I haven’t stumbled into the classroom. It is an old janitor’s closet’ (Anderson 25). The janitor’s old dusty place becomes her sanctuary, which serves her with the best peaceful environment at Merryweather High School.

Cooperation in a community seems to be fueled by its benefit. ‘Subjects direct their cooperative efforts preferentially towards defectors they have punished and away from those they haven’t punished; they avoid expending punitive effort on reforming defectors who only pose a risk to others” (Krasnow, Max M., et al.). That is to say, Melinda’s peers stop trying to help her because she is seen punished by her respected ex-friends. Their decision was based on status and the effect of Melinda’s reputation.

‘Speak,’ written by Laurie Anderson, gives excellent examples of the effects of reputation on someone’s mental health and social life. Melinda was cast away, no good reputation salvaged. Her peers and mentors treated her different due to the effect it had on their status. Lack of a good reputation hindered her ability to create many relationships with people in higher places because they would not give her a chance. Individuals tend to judge through status and credibility.

She gains her new reputation from creating a vibrant tree for art class, as observed in Mr. Freeman’s speech compliments. ‘You get an A+. You worked hard at this’ (Anderson 298). Additionally, she tells Rachel her former friend what happened to her and takes hobbies like yard walk. She reconnects to her old friend Ivy to whom they share a distant relationship and Andy’s experience, and through doing so she feels relieved and gains back her lost glory. The protagonist, Melinda, who is also the main character of the book, speaks spirals into a dark depression and only expresses her pain through snails and lips bites. However, Melinda’s dedication and introspection to her artwork lead to her growth and eventually defines her different self-reflection as a survivor rather than a victim of the circumstance. She, therefore, gathers courage and speaks the truth about the monster Andy’s rape. In Anderson’s book Speak She quotes, “Guys to stay away from Andy Evans, he is a creep he should be locked up” (Anderson 185).

The book Speak portrays how Melinda gains back her reputation from the post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD). Through three categories of the symptoms, hyper arousal is represented through her wariness of potential danger, hence made her skip going to David’s house after the game. Melinda is also attacked by constriction as depicted from her silence and withdrawal from the society, well as intrusion painted from her consciousness. After the rape case, memories of the events keep on resurfacing in her mind. Her sense of shattered identity and trauma is presented through disruptive temporality and nonlinear. Melinda finds Merryweather High School with easily categorized characters like a shape-shifting best friends, a witchy mother, and beastly rapist, which intern reflect her fragment identity. Melinda tells her story to her art teacher Mr. Freeman. And fights back Andy not to attack her at the closet and finally reveals the secrets to Rachel her friend who has befriended Andy for the sake of her safety, she wins the battle and crowns as a heroine. Her friends who dumped and observed her as an outcast, the likes of Heather, and “Marthas” join hands in celebration of her victory over monster Andy. Thus she represses the memory of the events through her simultaneous speech.

Mr. Freeman, Melinda’s art teacher, taught her how art could be used to express feelings and deals with painful emotions. David Petrakis helps Melinda in the library gain her soiled reputation through speaking ill of Mr. Neck’s behavior. The reputations for characters like the principal, Melinda’s Dad, and Mr. Neck are not all that good, based on their behavior and incapability to handle their job with respect. However, since an individual’s reputation is a tangible asset whose nature depends on this, she does defend it (Davies). Melinda stands strong amidst troubles and worries caused by her friends and victoriously wins back her reputation as she explains that tears of joy dissolved the last block of ice in her throat (Anderson 297). The Book Speak by Anderson, therefore, depicts how girl children through the character, Melinda struggled to gain her ruined reputation, which she finally gained at her end year of studies in Merryweather High School.

Works Cited

1. ‘Reputation Noun – Definition, Pictures, Pronunciation, and Usage Notes: Oxford Advanced American Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com.’ (2019): Retrieved from 04 November 2019.OxfordAdvancedAmericancom/us/definition/american_english/reputation.
2. Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. (1999): retrieved from 4th, November 2019 https://www.academia.edu › Anderson_Laurie_Halse_SPEAK_novel_1999.
3. Davies, Gary. Reputation Management: Theory Versus Practice. Manchester: The University of Manchester,(2019): Retrivedfrom,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233665443_Reputation_Management_Theory_Versus_Practice.
4. Emler, Nicholas. ‘A Social Psychology of Reputation.’ European Review of Social Psychology (1990): 171. DOI: 10.1080/14792779108401861.
5. Hauert, Christoph. ‘“Reward and Punishment.”.’ Reward & Punishment, (2005) Retrieved from 4th , November 2019, http//www.univie.ac.at/virtuallabs/RewardAndPunishment/.
6. Krasnow, Max M., et al. “What Are Punishment and Reputation for?” ‘PLOS ONE.’ (2012). PublicLibraryof Science retrieved from 4th, November 2019 http//www.journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0045662.

Introduction to Reputation in The Crucible

Most people have developed a reputation for themselves in one way or another during their lives. The desire to protect one’s reputation is an extremely prominent theme in The Crucible. This play takes place in a Puritan society in Salem, where the moral code and beliefs learned from the Bible stress the importance of bearing a good name. The protagonist, John Proctor, is extremely concerned with how the townspeople view him and does not want to tarnish his name in the town. Since reputation is quintessential to the townspeople of Salem, they use deception, slander, and even go against their religious beliefs to save their good name. Arthur Miller successfully blends shifting diction, figurative language, and allusion to emphasize the resounding theme of the importance of maintaining one’s reputation in this passage of The Crucible.

John Proctor’s Struggle with Reputation

Arthur Miller’s use of shifting diction highlights the theme of maintaining one’s reputation in this passage. Miller incorporates the use of grim diction when Proctor exclaims, ‘I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!'(Miller 132) Danforth tries to convince Proctor to sign the confession and when Proctor finally does, he does not want it hung on the church. Proctor does not want his reputation smeared with this confession of witchcraft. He feels that he will no longer be a good person one his reputation is damaged and he wishes to save his and his family’s reputation. The grimness of the word “blacken” makes the reader feel the dreariness and darkness of lies against the purity of the truth. It Miller uses accusatory diction when Danforth questions Proctor and asks,”Is that document a lie?”(133) The word “lie” accentuates that the townspeople use deception and lies to save their false reputations in society. Also, since the word “lie” is directed at Proctor, it accuses him of another lie in addition to his having deceived Elizabeth by keeping the secret of his adultery to secure his false reputation. Danforth’s words underscore that deception and lies are used to achieve the desirability of a good reputation in Salem. He wants to hang Proctor’s confession on the church door to show his authority and maintain his reputation in the town. John Proctor tells Danforth the reason he does not want his confession nailed to the church when he emphatically proclaims, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies”(133). Miller’s use of Proctor’s impassioned diction demonstrates how determined the character to preserve his honor. Although he is ashamed of committing adultery, he does not want any other accusation to tarnish his good name. Proctor’s use of the word “lie” leaves the reader with a negative connotation about lying. He stresses that he is not lying, nor will he lie to save his life. He condemns it, refuses to do it, and would rather die than falsely confess and have himself remembered as a man of sin. He emphasizes the word “name” to show his desperation to keep his good reputation. Additionally, the writer uses hopeful diction when John Proctor comments, “You have made your magic now, for now I do think that I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor”(133). Proctor uses the words “shred of goodness” to show that he is extremely pleased with his decision to be truthful. This stresses his concern with his reputation because it demonstrates that Proctor is hopeful and at peace, finally seeing some good qualities in himself again after having sinned by committing adultery. Finally, John again uses impassioned diction when he pleads with Elizabeth to “Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it!”(133) John does not want Elizabeth to cry for him because he realizes he is doing the right thing. He is aware that his refusal to sign the confession means he will hang for the false crime of witchcraft, but it is worth it in John’s opinion because he has confessed everything and is able to die without shame and without dishonoring his family.

Figurative Language and Reputation

Similarly, Arthur Miller’s use of figurative language highlights the theme of maintaining one’s reputation in this passage. This is clear when Proctor tells Hale, “You have made your magic now…”(133) and describes how he sees some goodness in himself, though “[n]ot enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs”(133). The symbolic use of the words “white’ and “banner” symbolize how Proctor has saved his name by signing the confession. He, like a person carrying or waving a white flag, or banner, cannot be fired upon, or, in Proctor’s case, found guilty of another wrongful act. Miller also uses symbolism to stress the importance of reputation when Proctor calls the townspeople “dogs” for trying to convince him to confess to lies. He chooses this word because it shows that he feels they are immoral men who want him to go against his principles and confess to witchcraft. The “dogs” want to perform “magic” by intimidating Proctor into falsely confessing and ruining his reputation. Proctor states, ‘ I have three children—how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?'(132) This simile illustrates Proctor’s sense of social responsibility and concern with his good name. He is offered a way out of hanging, but it would mean condemning other innocent townspeople. He believes that he cannot be a man his children would be proud of and look up to if his reputation is soiled by betraying his friends. Proctor urges, “Tell them I confessed myself; say Proctor broke his knees and wept like a woman”(132). By using this simile, Miller asserts the importance Proctor places upon his good name and reputation. He wants Danforth to say he cried as a “woman” would because during this time period in Salem, if Proctor weeps like an inferior woman who lacks power, his reputation is saved because he has confessed and lowered himself to crying like a lowly woman.

Biblical Allusions and the Quest for a Good Name

In addition, Arthur Miller’s use of allusion highlights the theme of maintaining one’s reputation in this passage. Proctor asserts, “It is no part of salvation that you should use me!”(132) This allusion to the Bible and “salvation” from sin shows John Proctor’s wish to save his name even though he will definitely be put to death. His reputation and dignity mean everything to him, so he wants to die with a good name. Also, Proctor’s comment that he is ‘…not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang[]”(133) brings forth the concept of ashes to ashes, dust to dust from the Bible. He solidifies his desire to die with the townspeople that hung because they stood for the truth rather than live knowing that he died for nothing and disgraced himself. This shows his unending concern with his reputation. When Proctor declares, ”I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”(133) the word “soul” once again shows an allusion to the Bible. By using this term, Proctor shows his preoccupation with leaving his good name intact. He realizes that having a good reputation means telling the truth rather than lying to save his life, but he also knows he has already sold his “soul” by signing a false confession. Rebecca Nurse announces, “Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all!”(133) She uses the word “judgment” as an allusion to the Bible and judgment by God that occurs after death. Although Rebecca Nurse is imprisoned and sentenced to hang, she holds strong to her beliefs and will not tarnish her name by lying. She addresses Proctor and tells him this to assure him there is nothing to fear from men like Danforth because they have been truthful and good, so God will judge them fairly. This emphasizes the fact that Rebecca believes a good reputation and honesty will be rewarded.

Conclusion: The Crucible’s Commentary on Reputation

Undoubtedly, Arthur Miller’s use of shifting diction, figurative language, and allusion successfully emphasizes the resounding theme of the importance of maintaining one’s reputation in this passage of The Crucible since he shows the townspeople’s struggle to protect their good name by either discrediting others, praising deception, or risking their lives by telling the truth. Proctor’s use of grim diction indicates that he cannot bear to have his reputation tarnished by having his confession of witchcraft hung on the church because he believes that if his reputation is damaged, he will no longer be seen as an upstanding citizen. Danforth’s accusations toward Proctor underscore the fact that Danforth sees deception is a means of achieving what is desirable, which is a good reputation. Proctor’s hopeful and impassioned words stress his concern with his reputation because they demonstrate that at last Proctor sees some good qualities in himself after having sinned by committing adultery. Although he is aware that standing by his principles by telling the truth will cause him to be hung for the crime of witchcraft, it is worth it for Proctor because he has confessed and is able to die without dishonoring his family and save his reputation. Miller’s use of figurative language in the form of symbolism when Proctor mentions a “white banner” and “dogs” reveals Proctor’s belief that he has maintained some level of purity or goodness even though he was intimidated into falsely signing a confession to witchcraft and ruining his reputation. Miller effectively uses the technique of simile to emphasize the importance of reputation when he states that Proctor cried like a woman would not walk like a man would. Proctor believes that he cannot be a man his children would be proud of and look up to if his reputation is soiled by betraying his friends. He feels that his reputation will be salvaged if the townspeople know he has confessed and lowered himself to crying like a lowly woman. Miller uses several biblical allusions in this passage to emphasize the importance of reputation. Proctor mentions “salvation” and wants to die with a good name like the townspeople that hung because they stood for the truth. He also knows he has already sold his “soul” by signing a false confession. Rebecca Nurse reassures Proctor that there is nothing to fear because God will judge them fairly and that a good reputation and honesty will be rewarded in the end. Quite often, reputation is held above all else, but it is no substitute for good character.

Reputations is crucial when it comes to businesses. Not only does it determine how others perceives a company, it also decides of its future. A bad, or damaged reputation can be fatal and lead to the downfall of a company. Reputation is important and essential among all stakeholders of a company, from the employees, consumers and current and prospective investors, to the press. The press plays a key role in reputation and should not be underestimated.

However, the reputation of a business is no longer just made of judgements and opinions, because it is exposed to a new considerable danger: the internet, and more particularly, social media networks. In today’s world, it is important to maintain a positive and authentic online reputation, since opinions emerge more quickly virtually, and are more affluent.

Reputation are a brand’s shadow, and whenever light will shine on them, it will show. So when a consumer goes and research or discuss a brand, its reputation will show, and it will be a strong influencer factor in the purchase decision.

According to Greyser, reputation is controlled by six key drivers, being competitive effectiveness, market leadership, customer focus, familiarity and favourability, corporate culture and communications (Greyser, 1999).

By maintaining a good reputation, a company can also maintain and sustainably grow its market share, volume of sales, penetration as well as profit. So, reputation has also a financial and economical aspect.

Moreover, by a positive reputation can have magnetic effect among the public through its corporate identity. It can attract consumers to make a purchase, leave a positive review due to the positive experience and therefore generate word of mouth. It also has the possibility to be appealing for both current and prospective employees.

Primark is an example that demonstrates how can have the opposite effect and have a direct impact on reputation. The fast fashion brand has suffered from bad reputation due to their unethical behaviour towards its under-paid employees contributing to the supply chain. Even though the brand remains one of the remaining leaders on the high-street, its PR department is constantly trying to save and ameliorate its reputation. This has an impact on the way a brand is perceived by the public, as well as on consumers purchase behaviours when it comes to fast-fashion.

This cause-effect has been demonstrated by Gray and Balmer through their ‘operational-model for managing corporate reputation and image’. According to their model, corporate identity is managed through corporate communications which leads to corporate image and reputation. All of this leads to a competitive advantage (Balmer and Gray, 1999).

This competitive advantage can translate into loyalty and preferences. It is obvious that a consumer will turn to a company with a stronger reputation. Therefore, by maintain a strong reputation, the mirror effects are that a company can builds and increase its brand equity.

However, corporate identity is not everything when it comes to achieving a strong reputation. In fact, management is necessary when it comes to corporate reputation due to its influence.

The ultimate goal that companies should aim for when it comes to reputation is to maximize their reputation capital. A brand’s reputation adequate at how it is perceived and where it resides in a consumer’s mind.

The way one can measure reputation risk is through changing behaviours. This can be examined through reviews of products or services, decrease in demand or negative share of voice. This creates a ‘reputation-reality gap’ meaning that expectations have not been met. Many companies suffer from this phenomenon and still trying to recover from it. A great example to illustrate this is Facebook. Although it remains one of the most popular social media networks among users and is still widely use, the corporate has lost trust in its consumers since the debate around privacy and cyber-bullying. Not matter how hard the corporation is trying to restore its image the reputation-reality gap continues to grow.

To conclude, a reputation follows a corporate throughout its journey, therefore it is crucial to take care of it. Therefore, managing reputation helps to improve financial performances, as well as consolidate trust in stakeholders. Online medias have made the job of reputation management manager harder, since all of the info, whether they are good or bad, true or false are visible and within the reach of all. This heavily affects how the brand is perceived as well as its trustworthiness and credibility.

This can be painful to see your professional integrity compromised. You may not even be at risk sometimes because that may be down to a common error at times. Irrespective of the cause it’s important to keep in mind that you will restore your image with time, maturity, and integrity. Considering the reputation point of view respectively, reputation is fragile and has to be protected, however, you can handle the perception of your company with a little rational thinking and determination. In terms of online business, the Web has improved the way credibility is viewed and treated. Although developing a respectable brand takes millions of dollars and years, establishing a Twitter account takes just 45 seconds and instantly destroys an organization’s image online. Within the world of today, nothing is more important to the success of a company than maintaining the image of the name.

What are some of the items you could do to defend for an assault on your brand? How are you taking action to repair and improve the poor reputation of your brand? What protection have you against subjective assaults, allegations from customers, and misleading statements? To examine and understand all these quires one should prepare a smart market strategy to pull up the reputation once again with an even greater boost.

‘Building a brand takes 20 years and it takes only 5 minutes to ruin it. You’re going to see something better if you think about it.’

To comprehend the solutions and strategies for the existent issues you may need to analyze the issues and their intensity first. Some of the very common issues in this regard are likely to be; bad experience, take on much more than one can grab, the previous reputation, and last but not the least incoming of the potential rivals or competitors in the target market. All these issues are similar in the case of the subjective market as well as the online business, the only difference between them is how you cater to certain problems.

It is among the most common causes of risk to a brand for the company. That is how both businesses work with customers to make profits. Perhaps one or more of these clients is likely to see the company from a derogatory angle due to a misconception, bad treatment or simply being a dissatisfied consumer. Through expressing their experiences on social media, some of the consumers will take it further, expanding the message to thousands, if not millions. This mechanism which normally ends up essentially humiliating the company on social media.

On the other hand, many company owners aim to achieve visibility and expand at a quicker rate than they can produce. So they do so by aggressively investing in promotions and advertising. It was noted that being unable to produce as planned was a catastrophe formula that often ends up with many businesses getting bad reputations. In this context, the owner of a web designing agency once stated that;

‘We were indeed a small web design firm that had spent extensively in advertising and promotions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t remain profitable, and our desire to produce innovative prototypes outstripped our sales power. Many buyers have been over-sold and their programs under-supplied. And that has led some customers to post negative comments online about our business.’

Similarly, past managers of a business can have a negative name, provided the product, by their behavior and job ethics. Often they cannot restore the image of the companies and they want to sell it to someone else. That is why it is often important to do the analysis and thorough research before acquiring an established product. That is that most businesses should be selling their firms because they were unable to cover up the poor name of the company, which may have impacted the company’s income.

There are many ways to rebuild your business tumbledown reputation online, as this is the world`s largest platform today has millions of users.

1. Begin by looking for your company on major search engines such as Google and Bing to find what negative media coverage it may receive.
2. Must own blunder whether that’s your failure or not. Be fast in apologizing to the clients. Note that a pleased customer tells five fans, and a frustrated customer says 10. A follower who has fixed issues says 20. That’s a perfect way to expand mega followers.
3. Seek and rank on Google’s one-page positive messages about your product, moving other negative reviews away from page one. To assist with this, you can recruit experts on several freelancer websites such as Fiver. This can also be achieved by setting up all one’s social accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram because they have the ranking power to help drive the derogatory feedback away from the website. Publish attractive content as well.
4. Connect to pleased clients, influencers, vendors, and even local news to make Google receive more good coverage. Many nice news releases can also be found.
5. To clarify the issue, using the same tool that was used to tarnish your credibility. Confess your error again, and mention the actions you have adopted to correct it. Be certain you should not push the obligation over to the customer.
6. Rebuild the company from a consumer viewpoint. Place yourself in consumer shoes and imagine how consumers would respond if any action were initiated. This strategy has been proven to reduce costs of customer care, inspire staff and, most significantly, preserve the trust of the public.
7. Take improvement suggestions online from the persistent customers via different surveys, this may help you to grab the customer`s preferences.
8. Reward the committed clients. Benevolence and charitable generosity will go a long way towards repairing a negative name because it will help the new and existing clients view you in a trust worthier and more optimistic light. Learn to refund any faulty company or commodity without asking any questions. E.g.; Daraz app immediately refund the money if the customer is not satisfied.
9. Learn from mistakes and fix as many of the issues that lead to the cause of poor credibility as you can. Use some suggestions or suggestions to create a smarter and more productive organized process and contraption for client acquisition.
10. Be diligent and cautious because it does not function immediately to create a positive name, so it takes time to restore a negative one.

Online marketing professionals have invested time educating small companies on handling web ratings and comments, but credibility may have a much wider effect than the feedback in Google. There is not a company out there that has no ongoing issue that emerges with a customer. Preferably, when it comes to a point where a client believes they can only get satisfied in a public forum, you should fix issues or like they can notify users against your business. The internet has created it such that the gaps between one consumer and another could now be moved at the maximum speed almost practically eliminated rumor! Nevertheless, if you’ve trained and organized how to manage your company’s online feedback, the influence of one or two reviews will be minimized significantly, and you will be best likely to react easily and efficiently to lessen financial effects.

Artur Miller writes the play, The Crucible, which describes the events of the 1960’s Salem witch hunt. However, he writes theses events as an allegory to the 1950’s ‘witch hunt’ in America against the communist party. The characters in the play portray different types of people during the 1950s. In this play, Salam, the town is under terror from supernatural acts, however, the town fears more of being accused of witchcraft. In the period of accusations of witchcraft over 150 town people were accused of leading twenty people to their deaths, nineteen women and one man. The characters of the play are all seen breaking moral codes in hopes to keep a strong reputation in the puratantism town. John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Reverend Parris are only three of the vast majority of people in the town who had done so much wrong to save themselves while in some cases throwing others under the metaphorical bus. These characters acted in such cunning ways and sometimes with such thought to their actions that it would ensure their safety and guarantee a good reputation in the long run. Miller utilizes these characters to portray the message that it is difficult to preserve one’s reputation no matter how hard a person tries, asking whether or not a good name is more important than the truth. John, Abigail, and Parris all share in characteristics around their egotistical tendencies, their traits and the way they act all give the audience an insight into the corruption and devastation in that day and age.

John Proctor, the main protagonist of the play, is a hard-working, passionate, and determined character. He has made some wrong decisions, mainly deciding to do wrong by his sick wife by committing an affair with his housemaid, Abigail Williams. These decisions led him to decide whether his name holds more importance over his life. Proctor reveals his selfish desire to preserve his image in the final act of the play. He believes that his legacy was of greater importance than the only life he was given. In The Crucible, after Proctor signs his confession he says, “I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough!” (Miller, 132). Proctor believes that his spoken confession will be enough of a confession in the eyes of the town and does not want the proof to be shown to the public. When his plea to have his confession kept hidden does not go his way, Proctor further explains why he believes the town will accept a vocal pleas when he exclaims, “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lied and signed myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller, 133). Proctor exemplifies his view of legacy versus death through these quotes as he admits to lying in his confession to keep his name and reputation as flawless as possible, even if it means it leads to his conviction and death sentence by the sunrise. Proctor takes action to destroy the written statement that was just made by tearing his confession in half forcing Danforth to send him to his death. With this, it is evident that Proctor prioritizes his self-image and how others view him more than himself and his children who will become orphaned from the decision to not lie in his statement. In Proctor’s defense, he shows the truth to be the most important, however, his truth can be seen as a selfish act in the long run.

Abigail Williams is one of the two first women to accuse others of witchcraft, after being caught for committing witchcraft herself. After her affair with John Proctor, she had fallen in love with him, however, because of his wife their relationship could never be. She decided to take matters into her own hands by performing a ritual in the woods with other females to cast a spell on Elizabeth Proctor. This led her cousin Betty to become ill and their secrets of witchcraft to be revealed. After seeing how forgiving Reverend Hale was to their maid, Tituba, after she had confessed, Abigail thought it is smart to do that as well. To save herself she confessed her sins in the lord’s name, she said, “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand” (Miller, 45). She did not stop there, she decided to continue by calling out other girls whom she said she saw fraternizing with the Devil, when in fact she never did. She continued to say, “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil” (Miller, 45). These were only three out of the tens of town people she had ‘seen with the Devil’. Abigail was smart with her lies, she ensured that every lie she told would be one step closer to keeping a perfect reputation. Her skill to lie is so amazing that when others try to out her for her compulsive lying, it would turn around to work in her favor convicting the other person. She shows the audience her true egotistical nature with every act she commits, she forcefully wants to be seen as good in the town and will not allow any man or woman to ‘black’ her name. In Act four when Abigail was close to being seen as the lying fraud that she is, she pretends to see the Devil, and because only her and the other girls can see Him they make it extremely dramatic saying she sees the Devil with John Proctor. This leads Proctor to lie and say that he is working with the Devil resulting in him being taken to the cellars, this gives Abigail enough time to flee the town before her reputation can be tarnished anymore. To this day the whereabouts of Abigail Williams is unknown.

Reverend Parris, Abigail’s uncle, is an egotistical man who shows his selfish characteristics throughout the entire play. In the first act Betty, his daughter was ill and because he is the town’s Reverend he was more focused on ensuring that his daughter’s sickness was not being broadcasted as witchcraft. This was to ensure that the town would continuously follow him without believing he allowed sorcery under his roof. While Mr. and Mrs. Putman accused Betty of witchcraft, he quickly said, “I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you–you least of all, Thomas would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house” (Miller, 13). It is evident that rather then caring if his daughter will wake up or not, he prefers to ensure his position in the town. He continuously acts in such selfish ways throughout the play, his actions, and words were all according to what he believes will make him look good to the town. In act four he continues to care for others for the sole purpose of helping himself out. The night before Proctor, Rebecca and others are set to hang, Parris pleads with the judge to not sentence them to death, however, he does this for himself as the town is mad at him for the soon to be deaths and want to see him dead instead. To Danforth, he fearfully says, “Tonight, when I open my door to leave my house–a dagger clattered to the ground. You cannot hang this sort. There is danger for me. I dare not step outside at night” (Miller, 119). If Parris was not being threatened he would ironically not have cared about the deaths as much as he is shown to care. He would have allowed innocent people to suffer as long as he survives and is able to continue to have a high status in his town. From start to finish, Parris’s selfishness and lack of empathy for others is shown as a prominent factor in who he is.

The characters in this play all present a different aspect to the thematic topics of pride and the importance of a person’s reputation. John, Abigail, and Parris present it in the most obvious egotistical ways through most if not all of the play. John Proctor represents it through his self battle between whether his dignity or life was of higher importance to him. Abigail Williams exemplifies it through her need to be seen with a good name in her town, doing all that she could to tarnish others in hopes of bringing more respect and admiration for her name. While Reverend Parris shows it through his prideful choices in words, and actions to ensure his form of status in Salam. Their views on how important a superior reputation is to them is what led them to create horrible situations for themselves and others, in some way tarnishing their reputation in the town on a larger scale.

Reputation is an important issue for business in the 21st century. Reputation is considered much more important nowadays when compared to any given point of time in human business history. In this essay, first, I will start by defining the business reputation. Second, try to theoretically explain that reputation is important to the business. Third, I will review the business environment in the 21st century. Fourth, discuss the reasons that reputation is important in this era by using the vehicles manufacturing industry in the US as an example. Fifth, identify the United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) associated with my example. Sixth, evaluate the reputation of different vehicle manufacturers by comparing four different reputation dimensions. Finally, complete the essay by a conclusion to the importance of business reputation in the 21st century.

First, understand the nature of business reputation will help us to evaluate further on why it is important. This essay mainly considered the concept of the “Multiple Prospective” of the reputation and “Multidimensional Conceptualization of Reputation” characteristic suggested by Rindova and Martins (2012). The scholars suggested that business reputation is formed by many impressions of different stakeholders to that company’s “signals, prominence, and standing (Rindova & Martins 2012)”. These impressions about the company can be further examined with four dimensions. They are, respectively, “specificity, accumulation, breadth of appeal and codification (Rindova & Martins 2012).” Once the reputation is formed, it becomes the strategic intangible asset of the company. The example of the vehicle manufacturing industry in the US will be used to evaluate further on the four dimensions of business reputation. Before that, let us understand the importance of reputation to a business.

Second, according to Barnett and Pollock (2012), reputation is important because it provides alternative regulations to the business other than the Governmental or formal authority. A business can either be rewarded or punished according to their reputation by their relevant stakeholders. It depends on whether the business is behaving according to the stakeholder’s expectations. If a business invested in maintaining a good reputation, then, many stakeholders of the business, such as the owner, managers, employees, shareholders, suppliers, and customers will be benefited. These benefits extend on many aspects, for example, economic, social, and psychological (Barnett & Pollock, 2012). Nowadays, it is common that many corporate companies heavily invest in a department for marketing and public relationship to maintain a good reputation. However, with the intangible nature of the business reputation, it is not so straight forward to maintain a positive reputation, especially in the complicated business environment of the 21st century.

Third, the business environment in the 21st century is different from the old era in many ways. Even the most sophisticated businessperson from the past would be surprised by the high complexity, large scale, and fast-paced nature of the modern world. The business must pay attention to not only their product and service quality, but also consider the effects of political and ethical issues due to the effects of globalization, internationalization, and a long list of environmental issues in this century (Morey & Morey1992). There are many other modern characteristics worth mentioning here, which have either direct or indirect impacts to a business’s reputation, for example, advanced telecommunication, the popularity of the Internet, rise of online Key Opinion Leaders, and the popularity of handheld devices. As a result, the business must carefully interact with their stakeholders to keep up with their expectations.

Fourth, the importance of business reputation will be examined by the vehicles manufacturing industry in the US. It is because motorized vehicles are an important part of modern life. Fine et al. (1996) summarized many issues that a modern vehicle manufacturer is encountering, to name a few from the list, high product complexity, high level of globalization, a high degree of authority involvement, complicated union or labour relationship management, and last but not least, the environmental impacts. The development of the automotive industry in the US is a very good example to demonstrate the relationship between corporate reputation and the stakeholders, as well as to evaluate the business impacts on the environment.

To start the explanation on this situation, I would like to give an example of a typical American car, which is the Ford Mustang with a 5.0 Litre V8 engine. You may agree with me that the attributes of powerful and relatively large are the general impression of the US made cars. The specific term, muscle car, is widely accepted as a term for this typical American car. This impression was formed for a long time through movies, media, and customer experience. McKinney (2009) concluded that Muscle Car is one of the most iconic cars in American car manufacturing history. This phenomenon matches perfectly to the theory of Rindova and Martins (2012) that ‘Firms have reputations about specific attributes with particular stakeholder groups, based on past actions of a given type.’ This can be easily translated into ‘Ford has a powerful muscular Mustang that is highly regarded to the car enthusiast, based on their past user (driving) experience.” While there are some positive reputations, there could be some negative reputations.

Having said that, some other opinions regarding US cars can be found. A lot of people believe that US cars are generally with low fuel efficiency and low reliability when compared to their main competitors from Japan. Barber and Darrough (1996) compared the data of product recalls between 1973 – 1992 to measure the reliability of the vehicles made by US Big Three (Chrysler, Ford, General Motor) and Japanese Big Three (Honda, Nissan, Toyota). The report concluded that Japanese cars were significantly more reliable than US cars. In addition, Barber and Darrough (1996) pointed out that each recall announcement came with an effect of the share price drop of that recalling manufacture, which directly impacted the shareholder’s benefit. Furthermore, many negative effects of product recall were identified by Barber and Darrough (1996), for example, the company was suffered from the administration cost induced by the recall, labour cost of fixing the target model, and sometimes the compensation to the customers. The customer, though, suffered from the inconvenience and potential loss on the vehicle’s resell value. Clearly, the quality and reliability directly impacted on a company’s reputation and leaving a negative result on the scoreboard of many stakeholders.

Alternatively, by providing higher quality and more reliable products on the market, Japanese car manufactures increased their market share, as a result, benefited to their business owners, shareholders, and consumers. Train and Winston (2007) in their article indicated that the US market share of Japanese branded vehicles increased from 3% in 1970 to 32% in 2005.

To further explore on this topic, it is not difficult to find that the US car manufactures shares the similar reputation of “fuel inefficient and unreliable” when compared to the Japanese car makers of “fuel efficient and reliable” impression. The research completed by Yue and Ingram (2012) supported this idea that the common reputation of a company can be shared among the same industry and nations.

In addition to product reliability, environmental awareness is believed to be another factor that contributed to the increase in the market share of Japanese cars in the US. The positive reputation of smaller and more fuel-efficient Japanese cars became more popular to commuters and domestic users, suggested by Barber and Darrough (1996). Ramey and Vine (2011) suggested that after permanent gasoline prices increase, in the short run, US households tend to reduce vehicle travel. In the long run, however, consumers start to replace their car with better fuel-efficiency design. This is an interesting point to note and worth to discuss further regarding the triggering point for this situation. The change in purchasing preference matched the increase in the popularity of Japanese cars in the US market. However, what exactly triggered the fuel-efficiency awareness in the US?

The “Oil Crisis”, which was defined as a sharp rise in the cruel oil price that will trigger a global economic recession (Oil Crisis 2014). The crisis greatly impacted the vehicle manufacturing industry and the public of the US in the late 20th century. McKinney (2009) suggested a few reasons to the loss of popularity of the US muscle car. One of the main reason was the sudden increase in the gasoline price in 70’s. Shinnar (1974) that clearly summarized in an article that, during the 70’s, the US Big Three vehicle manufactures, and the US consumers were not interested in an energy efficient and a smaller sized vehicle. Not until the dramatic increase in gasoline price. After that, many stakeholders of the car business began to think differently. Shinnar (1974) promoted the idea of energy efficient and smaller sized vehicles as a solution to the “Oil Crisis” in his research. However, Shinnar (1974) also expressed his concern that the reason was not because US Big Three were incapable of producing fuel efficient and smaller vehicle, it was because they believe that the US public would not interest in such vehicles.

Although the direct impact of a sharp increase in the gasoline prices towards the consumers’ tastes and choices on car purchasing is still subject to debate, it was observed that an eco-friendly lifestyle is increasingly popular in the 21st Century. Chen and Chai (2010) in an article concluded that consumers feel that it is their responsibility to protect the environment and to protect the environment and natural resources from being used up. Their research also pointed out that consumers are generally feeling more positive when choosing the green product because the environmental issues are very important to them.

A powerful muscular Ford Mustang is still a very admirable product to the car enthusiast, though, many family consumers may prefer a 2.5 Litre Toyota Camry for their daily use. Furthermore, a greenish reputation is increasingly important to a business, especially to the car industry. It is because the use of fossil fuel is the main reason for environmental issues, such as global warming, climate change and ocean acidification. Take the US as an example, the use of fossil fuel engine vehicles responsible for 30% of total carbon dioxide emission in the country (DeLuchi, 1991). It seems to me that the Japanese were doing very good in winning this fossil fuel vehicle battle, however, I also wonder how true it is.

Fifth, environmental awareness is getting more and more important to the human being. United Nation (UN) is promoting the concept of SDGs to the world. The SDG 13, “Climate Action (un.org 2020)”, is closely related to the vehicle manufacturing industry. The Greenhouse emission from fossil fuel vehicles contributes largely to the climate change. Most of the big car manufactures are either developing or developed a hybrid version car or pure electric car in response to environmental issues. This is not only to create an environmental friendly reputation from the marketing point of view but also to meet the requirement of low carbon emission regulations. A lot of opinions indicated that pure electric vehicles would become the mainstream of personal transportation. Horn and Docksai (2010) suggested that in around the year 2050, the gasoline vehicles may completely replace by electric vehicles. Another research from Brown (2013) expected to see a 200% growth in 10 years in the US electric vehicle market.

In addition, SDG 8, “Decent Work and Economic Growth (un.org 2020)”, is also related to the vehicle manufacturing industry in some level. The car industry is one of the major employers in many countries. Labour relationship is a controversial topic that needs extra effort to liaise. The car industry should work on providing a good working environment, equal opportunity to different gender and ages group employee, provide training and education to help the employee to develop their career, all these will help to promote a positive reputation to the business and would be rewarded accordingly if done properly.

In a similar way, SDG 9, “Industries, Innovation, and Infrastructure (un.org 2020)”, is also related to the vehicle manufacturing industry. Fine et al. (1996) quoted that car production is “the industry of the industries” because of its complexity, scale, and impact to the modern economy. According to SDG 9, the vehicle manufacturing industry should consider refining their production process, the use of natural resource efficiently to produce low environment friendly products. However, is this easier said than done?

Sixth, Tesla Motors Inc. (Tesla) might have found an answer. The US based electric car manufacture is one of the leading companies in producing electric vehicles. The mission of Tesla is clearly stated on their website as: ‘Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy (Tesla Inc., 2020)”. This environment friendly reputation seems to be well accepted by the public. Tesla raised over USD 225 million in 2010 in their initial public offering at USD 17 per share suggested by Hoffman (2011). As of 18th Sep 2020, it was priced at USD 423 per share (Yahoo! Finance, 2020). It seems that Tesla had found a success formula by combining the good quality product with eco-friendly features.

A lot of information and discussion regarding reputation had been shared above. A closer examination on the reputation of the US and Japanese vehicle manufacturing business is necessary to clarify the importance of reputation on different stakeholders. To simplify the process, I mainly focus on evaluating the reputation of the four dimensions suggested by Rindova and Martins (2012). The four dimensions are, first “asset specificity”, second “asset accumulation”, third “asset breadth of the appeal”, fourth “asset codification”. The US Big Three, Japanese Big Three, and Tesla were evaluated per below, respectively.

To begin with the US Big Three. First, US cars have a specific reputation of a powerful engine, muscular, and high-performance design. On the other hand, low fuel efficiency and low reliability. Second, US cars are widely covered by media, advertisement, and are popular between car enthusiasts and general consumers. There is a strong foundation for the US car in the US market. Third, all US Big Three have their flagship model that were highly appreciated. Fourth, the US Big Three dominated the US market for many years and directly created the US car culture. The measurements from different dimensions indicated that the product of US Big Three received both good and bad reputation among different stakeholders, for example, consumers, media, and environmentalist.

The following is the same analysis of the Japanese Big Three. First, Japanese Big Three vehicles are reasonable in size and performance, better fuel efficiency, and more reliable. Second, Japanese cars are also widely covered by media, advertisement and increasingly popular between car enthusiasts and consumers. Third, after the great success of models such as Toyota Corolla, Camry, its more efficient to promote Japanese cars in the US. Fourth, Japanese cars had been well accepted to the commuters and US family. All the measurements from different dimensions indicated that Japanese cars received some good reputations and some reputations that are good to a specific group of consumers, such and commuters and family users.

Apparently, Tesla is very different from the traditional vehicle manufacturing industry. Tesla created a different reputation for the company. It is worth to separately examine the reputation of Tesla by the same reputation dimensions from Rindova and Martins (2012). First, Tesla is strong in producing innovative, zero on-road emission, good quality, and with a reasonable range per charge electric vehicles. Second, Tesla’s product, company image, and even the story of the CEO (Elon Musk) are widely covered by media, or by word-of-mouth between car enthusiasts and consumers. Third, after the great success of Model S, Tesla’s Model 3 is leading the sales of electric vehicles followed by its recent release (Pontes 2020). Fourth, according to Tesla.com (2020), the company won multiple awards, such as Model S as the Motor Trend 2013 “Car of the Year”. And the company itself collected three Stevie Awards in the 9th Annual American Business Awards. All the measurements from different dimensions indicated that Tesla Motors received a good reputation among different stakeholders, for example, shareholders, consumers, and media. With regards to the above overall positive reputation, it is not difficult to predict that Tesla’s product will continue to be popular, not only in the US but very likely, on a worldwide level.

Of course, this essay is not intended to judge on the up and down of US car industry. Instead, by briefly walking through the vehicle manufacturing development history, that is, the US powerful performance car leaded the market for many years but gave way to the economic and reliable Japanese cars. Similarly, the fossil fuel vehicles are predicted to be replaced by zero-emission electrical vehicles. I realized that a successful business will certainly acquire some strong attributes that were preferred by most customers. However, as time has gone by if the business were settling too well in this fixed reputation and did not try to improve and catch up with times. Eventually, the good reputation of the business would fade away and the business might fail in the competition.

Finally, this essay concluded three major findings. First, reputation is very important to a business in the 21st century. Second, the reputation as an intangible asset of a business that good reputation will reward the business. In contrast, a bad reputation will punish the business. A business reputation can be measured in multiple aspects and dimensions. Therefore, the business needs to carefully manage the reputation. Third, in the 21st century, the business provides product or service should maintain a positive reputation on not only basic attributes of quality and price, but also considering political, ethical, and environmental attributes.