Employees or Consumers? The role of competing identities in individuals’ evaluations of corporate reputation

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the manners in which the employee and consumer identities interact to shape individuals perceptions of corporate reputations in well-established market economies (Australia and Italy) and transition countries (Bulgaria and Russia). Design/methodology/approach: The study utilises a within-subjects repeated measures design. The data were collected from 892 subjects in Australia, Italy, Bulgaria and Russia. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. Findings: In established market economies, individuals tend to have very distinct identities as employees or consumers, and make different evaluations of corporate reputations..