Agency Reputation Research Articles

USGS Seeks to Contain Damage from Scientific Misconduct at Lab

Although damage from the specific incident "is relatively well contained," the issue threatens the agency's reputation for high-quality science and goes counter to its standards, according to a USGS official.

Telling Global Public Health Stories

In consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Center for Global Health (CDC CGH), this study compared narrative and non-narrative message designs for global public health initiative issues management. A multiple-message experimental design prompted participants ( N = 669) to read a message about a CDC CGH initiative, and measured perceptions of agency reputation, support for a global public health mission, and intentions to share information. Narrative message design had direct effects on intentions to share the message interpersonally and through social media and indirect effects on the outcomes through perceptions of message features and mediating states (i.e., story structure, understanding, personal relevance, information overload) and transportation. The study contributes to theory and practice by confirming the mediating role of transportation, building on a message features approach to the study of narrative persuasion, and speaking to the challenges of issues management in global public health.

Call of duty: an exploration of the factors influencing NHS professionals to report adult protection concerns

Purpose – The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 places a duty on Councils to investigate the circumstances of adults who, because of a disability, health condition or illness are unable to safeguard themselves from harm. Public partner agencies, including the NHS have a statutory obligation to bring to the attention of the Council those individuals who may be at risk of harm. Health professionals cooperate with adult protection investigations and participate in the development of adult support and protection plans, yet do not appear to be initiating adult protection referrals with the Council. Low reporting by health has also been recognised as a national issue. The purpose of this paper is to explore what promotes and what prohibits the identification and reporting of situations of abuse within the Scottish Legislative Framework. Understanding the decision-making processes of prospective reporters would potentially allow the barriers to be reduced and the supports to be strengthened. Design/methodology/approach – The research strategy is based on a literature review, a web-based survey and semi-structured interviews with health professionals within community learning and community mental health teams. Findings – The findings point to a number of inter-related factors which impinge upon the professional’s confidence to initiate adult protection referrals. Workers must first recognise harm as conduct which needs to be reported and addressed. They need to be familiar with referral procedures and be assured that their concerns will be dealt with appropriately. Health professionals are more likely to report if they are based in an environment which supports honest and open discussion regarding harm, without over-concern about agency reputation or resources. Access to multi-disciplinary consultation and support, particularly in relation to more ambiguous protection situations, was viewed as fundamental to reporting. Originality/value – This small scale study adds to a developing bank of literature providing a Scottish perspective on protecting adults. It offers some insight into reporting decisions from the viewpoint of community health professionals.

Accounting Quality and Credit Ratingss Ability to Measure Default Risk

This study examines whether the quality of borrowers’ accounting information affects the accuracy and timeliness of credit ratings issued by rating agencies. I consider two possible effects. The news effect posits that higher quality accounting provides better information to credit rating agencies, enabling them to develop better ratings. The discipline effect describes how the timely public disclosure of bad news can limit rating agencies’ ability and incentive to issue inflated ratings. I utilize rating data from two major agencies: Standard & Poor’s (SP and Egan-Jones Ratings Company (EJR), an investor-paid agency that relies solely on public information to develop its ratings. The differences between these agencies make EJR an effective control group for the identification of the two accounting quality effects. I find that debt issuers with earnings that exhibit more timely loss recognition have credit ratings that predict default more accurately and are downgraded more promptly. I also find that issuers with upward-managed earnings have less timely rating downgrades. In most settings, these results are comparable for both rating agencies, consistent with the news effect. However, the results are more pronounced for EJR ratings relative to S&P ratings for firms near default and firms issuing restatements, when agency reputation costs are high and conflicts of interest are low. These findings provide evidence in support of the discipline effect of accounting quality.

How travel agency reputation creates recommendation behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of travel agency’s reputation on customer recommendation behavior by examining the mediating effects of customer-perceived functional and emotional value as well as the moderating effects of tour leader performance and customer flow experience in the travel agency sector. Design/methodology/approach – A statistical analysis of the collected questionnaires was computed based on the 463 usable responses from Taiwan tourists who joining the group package tours traveling to China. Structural equation modeling is the essential analysis methodology used to examine the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Findings – The analysis results confirm that reputation has positive effects on customers recommendation behaviors in which perceived functional and emotional value work as necessary mediating roles. Nevertheless, the effect of reputation through emotional value on customer recommendation behavior provides a much better explanation than through functional value in the model. In addition, regarding the variables of tour leader performance and customer flow experience in the model, only the tour leader performance is confirmed that moderates the relationships among reputation, perceived value, and customer recommendation behavior. According to the findings, managerial implications are discussed as well. Originality/value – This study develops a conceptual stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model that, reflecting the mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of tour leader performance, indicates the effect of reputation on customer recommendation behavior.

“The Politics of Political Advertising” in Australia and Britain, 1970–1989

The role of advertising in the production of political campaigns deserves more consideration than it has previously received. My study examines advertising agencies associated with election campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s, investigating their decisions to accept or reject political accounts. Focusing on Britain and Australia, and using a range of primary sources including the industry press, interviews and memoirs, I demonstrate that an agency's decision to accept a political account is always complex, contested and highly contingent. Accepting a political account may alienate clients and agency staff who support another party. Campaigns are labour‐intensive and may detract from an agency's core business. Involvement in a losing campaign can damage an agency's reputation, just as association with a successful one may attract clients. Agencies are often unsure how to approach political advertising where traditional techniques may not be suitable. Such concerns about accepting a political account will likely be put aside where an agency principal has close personal ties to a party or leader.

Fine-Tuning the Signal: Image and Identity at the Federal Reserve

ABSTRACT This article develops a conceptual model of fine-tuning by elite policymakers. Fine-tuning is a set of strategic practices employed by policy elites to construct the signals sent to stakeholders outside the organization. Such signals are used to influence immediate stakeholder behavior as well as maintain longer-term agency reputation. The clarity of the signal varies strategically from transparency to opacity according to political and economic circumstances. We identify two fine-tuning practices, expectation modulation and credibility filtering, which are part of the toolkit of the signalers. These practices are grounded in an agency's sense of its image and identity. Using verbatim transcripts of meetings at the Federal Reserve, this article explores the fine-tuning practices that are employed by policymakers to store up trust, anticipate threats, and rationalize failure to stakeholders.

From Bureau to Trade Commission: Agency Reputation in the Statebuilding Enterprise

When studying the formation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 1914, scholars have usually focused on interest groups and electoral politics. This essay, by contrast, suggests that the reputation and network influences of an existing federal agency, the Bureau of Corporations, also shaped the creation of its successor, the FTC. Building on the concept of bureaucratic autonomy, the essay examines the structure of the bureau, its connections, and its preferences. The bureau's leaders favored a clear separation from the Department of Justice and argued for a quasi-judicial process for antitrust, which they felt would be more effective than the courts. They advocated discretion in covering small firms and mandatory annual reports, while seeking to avoid being assigned authority to clear business agreements in advance. Well before the 1914 debates, leaders at the bureau directed substantial funds toward influencing trust legislation. They contacted academics and civic leaders, tracked existing legislative proposals, and analyzed key legal terms. Internal studies examined major questions, such as how to define and regulate unfair trade practices. Bureau officials came to argue Congress could never define these in legislation. Instead a bureaucracy with appropriate authority could adapt definitions of unfair practices to changes in business. When the bureau became the nucleus of the FTC, it received much of the discretionary power it sought.

Rating Agency Reputation, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Cost of Debt

Why do foreign firms obtain credit ratings by global rating agencies rather than from their home country's rating agencies even though global raters typically assign lower credit ratings when these foreign firms issue bonds in their home currencies? We find that bonds rated by a global agency decreased yields 11‐14 basis points (bps) when compared to those rated by Japanese rating agencies but, during the 2007‐2009 financial crisis, the yields on these Japanese bonds increased 12‐17 bps, thus fully negating the advantage of obtaining a bond rating from a global rater. This suggests that the reputation of global rating agencies declined during the 2007‐2009 crisis period.

Ethics in providing tourism services by travel agents in Serbia

This paper attempts to answer the usually neglected ethical questions of the interaction between tourism workers and participants in tourism movements and users of tourism services in general. Contact with numerous people in the work place, dynamic work with customers, continuous phone calls and stress due to constant responsibility, are just some of the conditions which tourism workers encounter on the daily basis and which sometimes make them ask themselves: Am I really able to do this job? Will their behavior with each customer be ethical? Will they be able to hide from the customers their stress, nervousness and mental fatigue? Have all the employees in travel agencies attended the training courses in communication with customers, or does everything depend on their own decisions and home upbringing? Is it worth taking risk and putting agency's reputation at stake? Which moral dilemmas do the tour guides encounter on the journeys? These are just some of the questions which will be put in the spotlight in this paper. The aim of this paper is to indicate the necessity to establish the codes of conduct for all professionals who are in direct contact with tourists. .

Donating Blood: A Meta-Analytic Review of Self-Reported Motivators and Deterrents

Although research on blood donor motivation abounds, most studies have typically focused on small sets of variables, used different terminology to label equivalent constructs, and have not attempted to generalize findings beyond their individual settings. The current study sought to synthesize past findings into a unified taxonomy of blood donation drivers and deterrents and to estimate the prevalence of each factor across the worldwide population of donors and eligible nondonors. Primary studies were collected, and cross-validated categories of donation motivators and deterrents were developed. Proportions of first-time, repeat, lapsed, apheresis, and eligible nondonors endorsing each category were calculated. In terms of motivators, first-time and repeat donors most frequently cited convenience, prosocial motivation, and personal values; apheresis donors similarly cited the latter 2 motivators and money. Conversely, lapsed donors more often cited collection agency reputation, perceived need for donation, and marketing communication as motivators. In terms of deterrents, both donors and nondonors most frequently referred to low self-efficacy to donate, low involvement, inconvenience, absence of marketing communication, ineffective incentives, lack of knowledge about donating, negative service experiences, and fear. The integration of past findings has yielded a comprehensive taxonomy of factors influencing blood donation and has provided insight into the prevalence of each factor across multiple stages of donors' careers. Implications for collection agencies are discussed.

Rating Agency Reputation, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Cost of Debt

It has been a puzzle why foreign firms obtain credit ratings by global rating agencies such as S&P or Moody’s rather than from their home country’s rating agencies even though the global raters typically assign lower credit ratings when these foreign firms issue bonds in their home currencies. In addition, unlike firms in the U.S., foreign firms are not required to obtain ratings from the SEC-sanctioned Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Agencies (NRSROs). We investigate this puzzle with new 3,525 yen-denominated plain vanilla bonds issued in Japan during 1998-2009 and find that bonds rated by at least one global agency can, on average, result in yields that are 11-14 bps lower than those rated by only Japanese rating agencies. However, during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, Japanese issuers which used S&P and Moody’s actually faced yields that were 14-19 bps higher, thus negating the prior advantage of obtaining a bond rating from a global rating firm, after controlling for other factors. This suggests that the credibility and reputation of the global rating agencies such as S&P and Moody’s have declined following public disclosure of these firms’ problems associated with the subprime mortgage securitization process. In addition to the greater size and longer maturity of the bond issue, we find that Japanese firms with more financial leverage, greater information asymmetry, higher levels of equity ownership by foreigners, poor financial performance, and greater systematic risk are more likely to seek ratings from Moody’s or S&P rather than Japanese rating agencies.

Promoting Agency Reputation through Public Advice: Advisory Committee Use in the FDA

When do government agencies invite public review for their policy decisions, and when do they maintain secrecy? Scholarship has long focused on procedures elected officials impose on bureaucrats to induce transparency and to encourage democratic participation in agency work. Yet, models of elected officials’ decisions largely overlook bureaucrats’ preferences and choices for public participation. Building on theories of bureaucratic reputation, I argue bureaucrats actively pursue publicity and public participation for tasks that risk implementation failure. I test these claims through models of FDA advisory committee agenda setting and subsequent policy implementation from 1985 to 2006. Consistent with bureaucratic reputation hypotheses, the FDA seeks public advice for its riskiest tasks. Such advice is associated with a lower probability of subsequent Congressional oversight and with a greater probability of subsequent agency information campaigns. Publicity, this suggests, complements secrecy as a sourc...

Agency Problems and Reputation in Expert Services: Evidence from Auto Repair

Agency Problems and Reputation in Expert Services: Evidence from Auto Repair

Effects of tour leader's service quality on agency's reputation and customers' word-of-mouth

This article reports the findings of a study on tour leaders' service quality and their impact on a travel agency's reputation and word-of-mouth publicity. A survey was conducted with 431 tourists who joined package tours with a large travel agency in Hong Kong. Four factors with 16 attributes were identified. These factors were `Professional attitude and ability', `Presentation and communication ability', `Professional knowledge' and `Personal integrity'. Positive relationships were found between the tour leader's service quality factors and reputation, tour leader's service factors and word-of-mouth publicity. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are included.

Credit Rating Agencies and the 'Worldwide Credit Crisis': The Limits of Reputation, the Insufficiency of Reform, and a Proposal for Improvement

The worldwide credit crisis has thrust credit rating agencies into the spotlight, with attention focused on their ratings of novel structured finance products. Policymakers have undertaken a number of initiatives intended to address perceived problems with such ratings - enhancing competition, promoting transparency, reducing conflicts of interest, and reducing ratings-dependent regulation. These approaches are all broadly consistent with the dominant academic theory of rating agencies, the reputational capital model, which is taken to imply that under the right circumstances a well-functioning reputation mechanism will deter low-quality ratings. The policy initiatives currently under consideration can be seen as efforts to fix discrete problems with the rating market so that the reputation mechanism can work properly. This Article argues that these efforts are fundamentally incomplete, because even a well-functioning reputation mechanism does not generate optimum rating quality on new products: When a new product is introduced, agencies do not have a reputation for high quality in that product so they have nothing to lose from issuing the rating. Even if low quality for a specific product type harms the agency's reputation for rating other product types, the agency still will be induced to issue low-quality ratings if the new product type in question is large enough in volume. And as long as rating quality across new product types is high enough on average, it is rational for investors to rely on new-product ratings even if they know that some are of low quality. The incentive problem can be corrected by requiring an agency to disgorge profits on ratings that are revealed to be of low quality by the performance of the product type over time, unless the agency discloses that the ratings are of low quality. Such a system would be superior both to the current regime, which relies on market forces backed by antifraud rules, and to other alternatives, such as the recent proposal to forbid new-product ratings absent prior SEC approval of the products.

Attorney Views on the Use of Private Agencies for Probation Supervision and Treatment

The exponential rise in probation caseloads has necessitated that some jurisdictions contract with private probation agencies and community-based private treatment providers. Regulations that monitor private providers are ill defined or absent, leaving standards open to broad interpretation. Attorneys in one jurisdiction that used private providers were surveyed to measure their beliefs about private treatment providers for people sentenced to probation. The research found that attorneys supported private provider representatives being present in court to contact defendants and to provide evidence to strengthen probation violations. Private agency reputation and standardized criteria were important to establish qualifications in offering supervision and treatment services.

The Impact of Rating Agency Reputation on Local Government Bond Yields

This study examines a sample of 12,562 dual-rated local government bond issues including 6,104 split-rated issues to determine which rating agency has the greatest impact on yields. Using a database of municipal bond issues from 1986 to 2002, we show that Moody’s rated significantly more issues than S&P, and that Moody’s ratings were more conservative. However, from 1993 to 1997, there was a reduction in ratings disagreements and in Moody’s market share. Beginning in 1995, Moody’s received negative publicity related to a Department of Justice anti-trust investigation. Moody’s appears to have responded by sharply increasing their relative conservatism in 1997. From 1986 to 1994, Moody’s ratings had a greater impact on bond yields than S&P ratings, but their dominant influence on yields disappears in the recent sample period from 1995 to 2002.

Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice in Community Behavioral Health: Agency Director Perspectives

Despite a growing supply of evidence-based mental health treatments, we have little evidence about how to implement them in real-world care. This qualitative pilot study captured the perspectives of agency directors on the challenge of implementing evidence-based practices in community mental health agencies. Directors identified challenges as limited access to research, provider resistance, and training costs. Director leadership, support to providers, and partnerships with universities were leverage points to implement evidenced-based treatments. Directors' mental models of EBP invoked such concepts as agency reputation, financial solvency, and market niche. Findings have potential to shape implementation interventions.

Factors Affecting Choice of a Travel Agency for Domestic Tourism

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the important factors affecting Shanghai residents' selection of a travel agency for domestic tours. Through a survey of 493 Shanghai residents, the study identified “Tour security and safety” as the most important attribute in the selection of a travel agency, followed by “Credibility of the travel agency” and “Agency reputation.” Six factors of travel agency selection were derived: Interactive ability, guest satisfaction, service quality, tour facility estimation, travel agency image and service characteristics. The relationships among demographics and the six factors were examined. Results reveal that the six travel agency selection factors are found to have significant differences in relation to five demographic characteristics: gender, marital status, age, occupation and general household income level. It is suggested that travel agencies in China can make use of this information to formulate appropriate marketing strategies to cater for their customers and succeed in an increasingly competitive environment.