An Integrated Model for Relational Outcomes, Reputation, and Their Antecedents from the Perspective of Publics.

When the concepts of organization-public relationships and organizational reputation are integrated in a model, the role of public relations in demonstrating its value can be captured more clearly than when there is a separate focus on each of the concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to integrate the concepts of relational outcomes and reputation in a single model. Survey research was used to collect data, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to empirically test the causal relations between variables of interest. In the causal model, relational outcomes are hypothesized to predict reputation, taking into account the exogenous influences of publics’ communication behaviors, personal experience, and familiarity with the organizations studied. The proposed structural equation model had tenable data-model fits across all organizations studied, supporting most of the hypotheses proposed in the study. More specifically, the research produced the following important results. First, this study found a significant, positive effect of relational outcomes on organizational reputation for all organizations studied. Second, the results of this study demonstrated the relevance of the proposed antecedents of relational outcomes and reputation. Third, the study found a stronger effect of communication behaviors on relational outcomes than the effect of familiarity. Limitations and suggestions for the future research were discussed. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]