Online Reputation Management: Peter Markovič Frantisek Pollak

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Online Reputation Management
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Peter Markovič
Peter Dorčák
František Pollák
Online reputation
management
Professional Publishing
Online reputation management
Peter Markovič
Peter Dorčák
František Pollák
Professional Publishing, Prague

Authors: prof. Ing. Peter Markovič, PhD.
University of Economics in Bratislava
Faculty of Business Management
doc. PhDr. Peter Dorčák, PhD.

University of Economics in Bratislava
Faculty of Business Management
doc. PhDr. František Pollák, PhD.

University of Presov in Presov
Faculty of Management
Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Daniel Zorn

Nuertingen-Geislingen University
Faculty of Business and Law
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beug

University of Applied Science
Hochschule 21
This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development

Agency based on the contract no. APVV-15-0511.
First edition
Publisher: Professional Publishing, s.r.o., 2019
© Peter Markovič, Peter Dorčák, František Pollák, 2019
This work nor any portion thereof may not be reproduced without the
consent of the rightholder.
ISBN: 978-80-88260-35-6
Content
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM ................................................... 11

1 CURRENT STATE OF THE SOLVED PROBLEM ................................... 15
1.1 Definition of basic terms ............................................................ 15
1.1.1 Image................................................................................... 15
1.1.2 Trust .................................................................................... 26
1.1.3 Reputation........................................................................... 40
1.2 Definition of the term online reputation .................................... 59
2 DETERMINANTS OF REPUTATION .................................................. 67
2.1 Determinants of reputation of the brick-and-mortar world ...... 69
2.1.1 Traditional media ................................................................ 69
2.1.2 Virtual world........................................................................ 74
2.2 Marketing communication in the Internet environment ........... 77
2 OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY OF OUR RESEARCH..................... 83
2.1 Research task and work objectives............................................. 83
2.2 Methods of work ........................................................................ 83
2.2.1 Reputation mechanisms ...................................................... 84
2.2.2 Systems based on counting and averaging ......................... 85
2.2.3 Bayesian method ................................................................. 86
2.2.4 Fuzzy concept ...................................................................... 87
2.2.5 ReGreT model...................................................................... 87
2.2.6 Flow Model.......................................................................... 88
2.2.7 Recommendation systems .................................................. 89
2.2.8 Reputation algorithms for peer-to-peer ............................. 91
2.2.9 Dissemination of trust and distrust ..................................... 91
2.2.10 Sentiment analysis ............................................................ 94
2.2.11 Net promoter score ........................................................... 99
3 RESULTS OF THE REALIZED RESEARCH ......................................... 103
3.1 Analytical view of the Slovak internet market and its key players
........................................................................................................ 103
3.1.1 Results and discussion ....................................................... 103
3.1.2 Assessment........................................................................ 109
3.2 Analysis of reputation of chosen entities on Slovak virtual market
........................................................................................................ 110
5
3.2.2 Assessment........................................................................ 112
3.3 Analysis of options to survey the online reputation of universities
and colleges on the Slovak virtual market ...................................... 113
3.3.2 Assessment........................................................................ 115
3.4 Analysis of possibilities to improve online reputation of public
institutions...................................................................................... 117
3.4.2 Assessment........................................................................ 122
3.5 Online reputation of healthcare providers on the Slovak market
........................................................................................................ 123
3.5.2 Assessment........................................................................ 126
3.6 Analysis of online reputation of chosen e-commerce entities
operating in the Central European market..................................... 127
3.6.2 Assessment........................................................................ 132
3.7 Multifactorial analysis of online reputation as a tool for improving
the competitiveness of chosen tourism operators......................... 133
3.7.2 Assessment........................................................................ 140
3.8 Sustainable e-marketing of chosen tourism operators in the
Mediterranean by means of active online reputational management
........................................................................................................ 141
3.8.2 Assessment........................................................................ 145
3.9 Analytical view on the issue of effective use of selected tools of e-
marketing communication on the social network Facebook by SMEs
operating on the Central European market ................................... 147
3.9.2 Assessment........................................................................ 152
3.10 Online reputation of selected entities operating in the
automotive sector .......................................................................... 153
3.10.1 Results and discussion ..................................................... 155
3.10.2 Assessment...................................................................... 159
6
3.11 Selected approaches to Sustainable Development of Corporate
Reputation ...................................................................................... 161
3.11.1 Results and discussion ..................................................... 163
3.11.2 Assessment...................................................................... 171
3.12 Discussion, recommendations and conclusions ..................... 175
3.12.1 Discussion - findings of the performed research ............ 175
3.12.2 Recommendations and conclusions ................................ 177
4 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ......................... 179
4.1 Knowledge for further development of science (theoretical
contributions) ................................................................................. 179
4.2 Knowledge for practice (practical contributions) ..................... 181
CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 183
SUMMARY ..................................................................................... 185
REFERENCES................................................................................... 187
REGISTRY ....................................................................................... 201
7
List of illustrations, tables and graphs
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Diagram of interactions within the creation of a
corporate image
Figure 2: Organization's image from a reference audience
perspective
Figure 3: The interaction between corporate image and corporate
identity
Figure 4: Matrix of the inclination to trust
Figure 5: Classes of trust
Figure 6: Trust and its waves
Figure 7: The process of creating trust
Figure 8: Reputation glacier
Figure 9: Net promoter score
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: The issue of trust - reality versus myths
Table 2: Differences between traditional and modern marketing
Table 3: Sentiment analysis
Table 4: The number of users of Azet and the comparison with
competitors for the month September 2013
Table 5: Facebook users according to age
Table 6: 10 business brands on Slovak Facebook
Table 7: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the
twenty largest Slovak towns
Table 8: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of
twenty Slovak universities / public colleges
Table 9: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the
top twenty Slovak healthcare providers
Table 10: Net Promoter Score of the chosen e-commerce entities
Table 11: Total online reputation
Table 12: Correlation between ASA and Booking
Table 13: Correlation between ASA and Facebook
Table 14: Correlation between ASA and Trip Advisor
Table 15: Correlation between ASA and Google index
8
Table 17: Basic observed parameters
Table 18: Overall online reputation
Table 20: Offline vs. Online ratings
Table 21: Reputation by TOR vs. Number of Google indexed pages
LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: Market share of TV (7/2017)
Chart 2: Market share of Radio (1-7 / 2017)
Chart 3: Market share of Press (7/2017)
Chart 4: Market share of Internet (7/2017)
Chart 5: Top 10 Slovak webpages
Chart 6: The increase of users of the portal Azet.sk during the
years 2007 - 2013 according to AIM
Chart 7: Facebook users according to age
Chart 8: Ranking of faculties based on the perception of
reputation in the physical world
Chart 9: Ranking of faculties based on sentiment analysis
Chart 10: Comparison of results from the physical and the virtual
world
Chart 11: Choosing an e-commerce
Chart 12: Decision-making process on purchasing on the internet
Chart 13: Chart of correlations
Chart 15: User interaction during a normal day
Chart 16: User interaction during a normal week
Chart 17: Market share versus overall reputation
Chart 18: The activity on the virtual social networks
Chart 19: Offline vs. Online ratings
Chart 20: ASA vs. Telegraph rating
Chart 21: Chart of dependencies
LIST OF SCHEMES
Scheme 1: History of the Internet
Scheme 2: Model for Sustainable development
9
List of abbreviations and signs
α- alfa level of significance

etc. et cetera, and so on
et al. et alia, and others
e.g. exempli gratia, for example
NLP natural language processing
NPS net promoter system
ORM online reputation management
No. number
PDF probability density functions
i.e. id est, it is
TOR total online reputation
vs. versus
10
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM
"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad
one to lose it."
Benjamin Franklin
The problem of building and subsequent maintenance of a good

reputation is hundreds of years old. In the eighteenth century, Benjamin
Franklin, a wise man, nowadays mostly known only as the face of the
one-hundred-dollar bill, or an inventor of the lightning rod, described
the process of building of a reputation as an extremely fragile system.
He used to say that it takes many good deeds to build a good reputation,
but only one bad one and the good reputation is immediately lost.
Today, his words are more up to date than ever before.
As already mentioned, the problem of building of a reputation in the

traditional “brick and mortar” world has been known for centuries, we
know how to build a good reputation, or more precisely how to help in
building of a good reputation. Even if we are a target of various half-
truths and slander, we are aware that if that are only spoken words, their
durability over time is quickly fleeting. However, written text is different
from spoken words, its life durability over time is much longer. In our
work, we bring the overview of what happens if we must suddenly face
the problem of building and maintaining of a good reputation in the
virtual world of the internet.
We and our colleagues, we asked ourselves this question some time ago,
when we were thinking about where our following research should go
at the time, when e-marketing assumes proportions, which make
comprehensive research of the problem impossible. Various works of
foreign as well as domestic academicians provide several methodologies
for direct examination and analysis of a reputation, some of them are
based more on hard data, other rather on data of softer character. In
our research, which is gradually presented in the following chapters, we
used both mentioned approaches. Hard data were taken from both
11
major databases and relevant analyses, soft data from own investigation
and surveys. As marketers practitioners, we naturally tended to use the
methods that are as close as possible to the end consumer. In the
process of searching for the baseline methodology for our research, we
chose the so-called “analysis of sentiment” as the baseline, this simple
and transparent methodology served us as a springboard for deeper
future research. It is necessary to mention the fact that the methodology
in question came directly from the environment of real business, what
naturally impressed us even more. At the beginning of our research
efforts we considered important to find out how the given methodology
could be used for academic purposes. The methodology assumes that a
reputation of a certain subject on the internet is dominantly determined
by first ten results of searching by the search engine Google, as a search
name there is used a common conventional name of a subject. Firstly,
we naturally started to google our names, this phase of the research
could be described as the funny one. However, after the initial euphoria
there was slight “sobering” in the form of difficult searching of a relevant
group of subjects for the research of the academic character. Given the
purpose and character of the research project, which emerged from the
initial idea to examine the problem of reputation management in the
internet world, we tried to identify a research sample among subjects
from the environment of small and middle-sized enterprises. However,
we found out very quickly that the virtual presence of subjects in this
area is generally insufficient. We identified two possible expected
scenarios, the first one – we did not find any relevant information, the
second one – we found several results with dominantly negative
character. Based on these findings, it was nearly impossible to postulate
general conclusions, especially if the intention was to compare the
physical and virtual world. With the aim to develop the chosen
methodology, we focused on more significant subjects in the further
research. During the initial phase of our research, we focused on
subjects such as regional governments, universities, public institutions,
etc. We identified the most interesting findings, which represented a
significant milestone for our research, only in subjects among health
care providers. In human life, there are only few things (if any), which
we care about more than health, especially if we are not in good health
12
at the moment. If we have health problems, we are specifically looking
for a subject, which will provide us the best possible health care. In the
physical world, there is a wide range of official as well as unofficial
evaluations and rankings. The factors that influence the order of subjects
are well known for a long time. The best players in the market learned a
long time ago how to set up processes to bring a desired outcome.
However, market conditions change, we live in the world where the
internet has become the main information source. Thus, at the
beginning of our more than two-years long research effort, we searched
for an answer to the fundamental question – how the major players in
the market cope with management of their virtual reputation. We
identified essential information (for our further research). Based on their
statistical processing it was possible to identify primary characteristics
of the virtual reputation management model. Subsequently, there were
tested the subjects of the widest possible scope with the use of a wide
range of methodologies with the aim to accumulate necessary
information and compare strengths and weaknesses of the procedures
formulated by domestic and foreign academicians. Based on the
findings, there was prepared the methodology “TOR” in the final phase
of our research, which enabled the calculation of the overall complex
virtual reputation of any subject. The virtual reputation management
model, which was set up based on the TOR calculation, was tested on
subjects among small and middle-sized enterprises, national and
multinational subjects as well as subjects having a geographical nature.
For each of these groups, there were identified key determinants
influencing a virtual reputation and there were postulated general
recommendations for effective reputation management over time.
Thus, the objective of this monography is to summarize and presenting

results of the comprehensive research project aimed at examining of the
problem of the importance of online reputation. The project is realized
with the main aim to extend theoretical knowledge about the
researched problem. There are used especially qualitative and
quantitative methods of processing and those then serve as a basis for
developing of the methodology of comprehensive and effective
13
measures for the purposes of improving of the ORM platform in
domestic conditions.
The monography is divided into three parts. The first analytical part
(Chapter 1) consists of the definition of basic terminology and offers the
well-arranged theoretical determination of the problem of reputation in
both the traditional “brick and mortar” and virtual world. Foreign
literature created the basis for development of this part. In the initial
phase of the project solving, there was involved a team of solvers led by
a leader of the research project, who cooperated on defining of the
theoretical conceptual apparatus by the form of literature search. The
second part of the work (Chapter 2) is focused on the methodological
side of the presented research. In this part, we specified and thoroughly
described the used methodologies with the aim to summarize
knowledge necessary for subsequent own research. The third part of the
work (Chapter 3 and 4) is devoted to the chronological summary of
partial results of the research, published mainly by the project leader in
co-operation with domestic as well as foreign experts involved in the
implementation of the research (bibliographical references to the full
original works can be found in the Bibliography). At the end of this part
of work, there are holistically presented the most important findings of
the comprehensive research. Based on these findings, there are
postulated recommendations and benefits for science and practice.
At this point, the authors of monography would like to thank to co-

solvers as well as domestic and foreign experts, who, by their efforts,
contributed to the successful fulfilment of the project objectives, which
are included in this publication.
This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development

Agency based on the contract no. APVV-15-0511
14
1 CURRENT STATE OF THE SOLVED
PROBLEM
1.1 Definition of basic terms
In order to be able to describe the changes, which the process

of reputation management undergone from the traditional physical
world to the virtual internet environment, we firstly have to describe
and define basic fundamentals of the problem. In the following
subchapter, we will define the fundamental concepts of the submitted
work, particularly an image, trust and reputation.
1.1.1 Image
Firstly, it is necessary to define the difference between a

corporate identity and image. These two basic concepts are often
confused, but their meaning is not the same.
There are often mistakes in its understanding and perception, it is

usually confused with the corporate design and with the image in
general, but as a terminological concept it is not new (Vysekalová, Mikeš
2009). In our opinion, the corporate identity is one of its basic pillars. A
company without forming of its “self” is soulless, basically it does not
exist, it is not able to fully carry out its activities. The corporate identity
is an essential part of corporate strategy, and simply said, it represents
a way how a company presents itself through individual elements, which
then create a single, comprehensive picture of the whole functioning. It
represents uniqueness, similarly as every person carries his/her own
characteristics and specific features. It includes a corporate history,
philosophy and vision, people who belong to a company, its ethic values,
visual style, which is a sort of virtual – real package of all activities of a
company. It is a picture of what is a company like or what it wants to be,
while the image is a public projection of this identity (Vysekalová, Mikeš
15
2009). According to Nový and Surynek (2006), the corporate identity
means a purposeful formation of strategic concepts of the internal
structure, functioning and external presentation of a specific enterprise
in the market. The elements, which create it and are a part of it,
generally include corporate communication, the above mentioned
corporate design and acting.
In literature, there is a countless number of ways of explaining,

perceiving and understanding of the word image. We will try to briefly
summarize their content.
The definition of Image can appear unambiguous and simple. In spite of

this assumption, let's look at how this term is understood in the
literature.
Kotler (1998) understands image as a set of factors, literally a

comprehensive complex of impressions, perceptions, opinions and
attitudes of individuals towards the enterprise itself.
The American Marketing Association (2017) defines image as the

customer perception of products, institutions, organizations or even
individuals that do not necessarily correspond with reality or with the
current state.
From the point of view of foreign literature (Fillis 2008), we meet again
with considerable illustrative homogeneity. Image is often defined as the
way in which the management wants to present the organization
externally. As a rule, however, it is not about how the company perceives
itself, but rather about how the general public perceives it through its
feelings.
Foster (2002) notes that image cannot be purchased. An organization

has to earn it or deserve it and, of course, that takes some time. It is
often perceived by customers as good will, trustworthiness coupled with
the brand itself. From the nature of the actual definition, it is possible to
deduce a considerable degree of non-measurability of this value or
16
assets owned by an enterprise. Image itself then has a relatively high
value even despite the fact that the financial statement of this value is
complex.
From the point of view of domestic authors (Lieskovska 2000), image is

understood to be one of the basic psychographic marketing objectives
operating on the market at all levels of strategic management. It is
therefore possible to look at it as an economic goal in marketing.
Another interesting point of view is the broader approach of perceiving

the concept itself, namely the presentation of the knowledge that image
is the result of an exchange of views between organizations and
individuals, mostly produced through conflicts. Furthermore, we
encounter the claim that despite the fact that image passes through
development stages whose parts are identifiable, it is essentially
composed of simple parts dominant in their details.
Based on the abovementioned definitions, it is possible in my opinion to

fully agree with the view of the team of authors (Čihovská, Čihovský
2011) , who make a statement about the complexity of the phenomenon
called image, which involves a number of objective as well as subjective
factors.
The most important factors include factors with a material nature and
factors that are predominantly non-material in nature.
Non-material factors are represented here by a predominantly

intangible presentation of the enterprise to the public (this includes, in
particular, the appearance of business representatives on the outside,
the style and tools of marketing communication policy and the
marketing communication mix, reverse logistics, customer service, the
level of written and oral communication level, etc.).
Material factors are above all represented by their own level of product
quality, the design of these products, the sales premises in terms of their
equipment and facilities, the buildings, the design and the facilities of
17
meeting rooms, and last but not least the means of transport used by
the company or the clothing of the company's representatives.
All of these views are predominantly universal in terms of space (the

brick-and-mortar world versus the virtual world represented by the
Internet environment). However, we believe that the Internet
environment creates a set of specific factors, to some extent, that will
be dealt with in the following chapters. Before that, we considering
important ro sumarize issue of Image from its basic perspectives.
Semantic content
According to the authors who developed a professional

composite book on the company’s image and the current approaches to
it, the semantic content of the word captured in the professional
dictionaries is best described by the synonyms such as picture, form,
imagination, idea, overall presentation, external influences on the
environment and the overall influence on the public (Lukášová, Urbánek,
2000). The first usually cited work on the image in connection to
marketing is the publication by Gardner and Levy, The product and the
brand, dated to the year 1955, which addresses, among other things, the
fact that the brand and overall image of a given product may be a buying
motive number one, more important than actual technological and
technical properties of a product or service. It is worth to mention other
publications, The image – the work written in English from the year 1956
and the contribution of McCann Erickson created in New York in the year
1959. The breakthrough years for European contributions and
publications are 1961, 1962, 1968, and 1971. From the more recent, we
may mention the work Strategic Marketing For Non-profit Organisations
from the year 1991, and others (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009).
Image from a perspective of marketing
The priority of a customer is a directly dependent decision based

on the “overall personality of a product”, which principally consists of
more parameters. It is usually seen as a holistic concept, a complex and
18
multi-dimensional system, which is, despite some signs of stability and
permanency, suggestible (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009). The associated
understanding of the company’s image is usually defined as a result of
the interaction of all knowledge, opinions, impressions and experience,
which the public has in relation to a given firm, company or organization
(Lukášová, Urbánek 2000). Thus, based on the facts stated above we can
simply assume why an abstract concept, such as the image of a
company, is so important for organizations. It is because it influences our
behaviour. The public is attuned to a subject in a certain way based on
information it spreads about itself. A positive image forces or leads
people to positive behaviour demonstrated by positive signs, on the
other hand, a negative one causes that target groups are not attuned to
a desired acceptable impression (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009). It can be
generally stated, that building of a positive image is not an easy task, but
when a company already has it, it is extremely easy to be thwarted by
one deed, act or step and thus a company may reverse its corporate
image by 180 degrees. And correcting is then very, very difficult.
Image as a psychological term
The use of the image problem for the purposes of marketing is

not a strictly philosophical, literary or marketing approach, but it is, for
example, also an empirical term of social psychology with measurable
dimensions. Thus, analysis of mental processes and responses to stimuli,
which enable and support the formation of an image, is necessary for
the most complex understanding of an image (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009).
The issue of examining and analysis of the human psyche, his/her way of
perceiving of and looking at the external world belong to those, by
solving of which the social psychology and psychology of trading
significantly contributed to the development of marketing in a right,
contemporary and modern direction, because a human in his/her psyche
transforms the reality and processes it in his/her mind. Nevertheless,
possibilities of people in today’s information explosion, which surrounds
them, unfortunately, are not infinite. A human replaces deficiency or an
excess of information by a complex of attitudes, assumptions and
feelings (Szarkova 1995). It is related to the fact, that if we see the image
19
as a set of ideas, attitudes, opinions or experience towards a certain
object, but also as a consumer’s perception of an institution, product,
brand, shop or human, which, however, may but may not be based on
the reality, we are not wrong. This claim is also essentially adequate,
accurate and it considerably enriches the terminology, with which we
can perfectly work (Lukášová, Urbánek 2000). The image may also have,
based on examining of the psychological level, the nature of a
generalized, simplified symbol. It is associated with ideas, opinions,
personal experience and quality. And it is not strange or unprecedented.
In practice, it is caused by objects entering our mind, where they are
given some “qualitative codes”, what actually goes hand in hand with
the history of Homo sapiens, firstly almost unawares, later more
deliberately and at present maximally purposefully with the use of the
most diverse knowledge (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009). To complement the
light of the foregoing, it is also possible to conclud, that questions related
to the image may be discussed in terms of cognitive psychology,
particularly in connection with the elements of representation or
decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, which possibly could
be perspective approaches for the psychological as well as marketing
direction in the coming years (Lukášová, Urbánek 2000).
Types and properties of the image
For fast and easy orientation in the individual types of image, we

will briefly present a short classification of the given issue based on the
view of the authors Vysekalová and Mikeš (2009). They mentioned the
most basic division of image into two main groups, namely, a universal
image, valid without major differences in the whole world, and a specific
image, highlighting local specifics and peculiarities of individual target
groups.
However, according to the same authors, it is possible to state also other

types of image for a more detailed division, which include:
• Internal image – which is characterized by the fact, that an

object creates it about itself.
20
• External image – an effort of an object to raise certain ideas
among the public, which, however, do not have to correspond
with self-perception.
• Real image – formed in minds of the public, exactly this one is

crucial and decisive.
Based on the way how it influences the market, there are most
commonly distinguished the following three categories of image:
• Class image – characteristic for a range, group or class of

products, which can be closely divided into a wider and narrower
class image. It is necessary to note, that this type of image helps
to create a position of a product of a certain category in the
market.
• Product or brand image – is characteristic for a product known

under a certain brand (e.g. Apple). It plays an important role in
orientation of a consumer in the overall offer.
• Corporate image – also referred as the company image, is

defined by quality of a certain company and by communication
of this quality in relation to the public (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009).
A set of properties of image is based on its nature and a simple definition

of the concept as such with its content. The emphasis is put on its
integrity, structuring, multi-dimensionality, stability and, last but not
least, on suggestibility. For illustration, the brand image can be analysed
in relation to the company’s image in the dimensions such as quality,
prestige, tradition, awareness, modernity, reasonable price, interesting
packaging, which will attract the attention of a consumer at the first
sight and many other factors. Properties or characteristics of a certain
object are not, in most cases, understood explicitly as good, bad or
unsuitable, but they are evaluated complexly in relation to some norm
or another subject, which may be, for example, the company’s image in
the past compared to the image of competitors, or compared to signs of
21
the “ideal”, i.e. desired image (Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009). As stated by
Szarková (1995), the image, as well as any other symbolic picture, is
characteristic by certain generally known and valid characteristics or
properties. Based on materials from various authors, Szarková included
particularly the following among the properties of the image:
• Internal integrity,
• a one-way, either positive or negative relationship to an object,
• stability but also formability,
• personalization and individualization,
• determination to a social aspect,
• relative independence from reality,
• presence of emotional and psychological elements.
Image and corporate identity - graphic interpretations
After defining different perspectives on corporate identity and

the image of an enterprise, We consider it necessary to proceed with
graphical interpretations of the concepts, the context and finally their
interconnection. From the synthesis of the knowledge base presented in
the previous subchapter, we have formulated the statement that image
is composed of a set of material and non-material factors. The
professional literature offers several insights, while the synthesis of
corporate identity, corporate culture, and corporate communication
seems to us at first glance to be an appropriate combination illustrating
this simple matter. The following diagram discusses the interconnection
of the above-mentioned factors and their interactions towards creating
the image of the organization itself.
22
Corporate
identity
How does the
enterprise look
outwardly?
Corporate
communication Corporate culture
What does people How does the
say about the enterprise carry out
enterprise? its activities?
Figure 1: Diagram of interactions within the creation of a corporate

image
Source: Foret (2011)
Through the intersection of imaginative circles, we reach the core of the

problem; in this case, the core of the problem is the image of the
organization itself, nothing other than the above-mentioned synthesis
of corporate identity, corporate culture, and corporate communication.
However, the diagram of the corporate image interactions reflects only

the basic determinants that make up the overall image of the
organization. For the purposes of this work, I will proceed to a more
detailed decomposition of the issue. We find a more detailed diagram in
a relatively older but still relevant document (Gunes, Bergh, Pelsmacker
2003). This concerns a view of corporate image at different levels with
respect to the reference public, namely:
23
Figure 2: Organization's image from a reference audience perspective
Source: Gunes, Bergh, Pelsmacker (2003)
As can be seen from the picture, from the point of view of corporate
image management, the organization's management must deal with
heterogeneous audiences. This, of course, creates greater demands on
the processes themselves that govern the management of this intangible
asset.
For the comprehensiveness of the perspective, I attach a diagram that

presents a summary of factors that affect corporate identity as well as
the company's own image, the diagram is supplemented by corporate
communication subjects and, in my point of view, most comprehensively
describes the overall issues in terms of processes and the direction of
interactions between entities.
24
Figure 3: The interaction between corporate image and corporate
identity
Source: Vysekalová, Mikeš (2009)
After defining the basic concepts, namely corporate identity and

corporate image, and their subsequent graphic interpretation from the
point of view of mutual relations, we can proceed to the other of the
supporting areas in the review of theoretical sources, namely the issue
of trust and consequently reputation itself.
25
1.1.2 Trust
With the aim to maintain a logical flow of ideas, it is suitable to

clarify the supporting concepts of the research problem from the
terminological point of view, which is, in broad terms, trust that results
in a reputation.
Basic definition of the term trust
The issue of reputation is closely related to the issue of trust; in

the context of both domestic and foreign literature these concepts often
overlap. There is no doubt that trust determines reputation, but how
should we actually define something at first glance as trivial as trust?
From the very essence of the concept, the verbal basis - the belief - is
obvious right away. In an effort to avoid a theological treatise on faith
and thus to remain within the economic and managerial disciplines, we
find a rather bizarre definition, namely, the description of trust as a
concept linked with the unknown (Desteno 2014). At first glance, the
murky definition surprisingly reveals its point, wherein trust is compared
to a bet, in which the specific problem is perceived in the context of
balance, among often opposing desires. The process could be likened to
a parent-child relationship. If, for example, the child asks the parent
about the colour of the water, whether the parent's response is trusted
by the child is affected by the goodwill of the parent as well as the need
for the parent to appear wise in the eyes of their child. Even if they do
not know the right answer.
Specialized dictionaries offer a more detailed definition (Nixon, Terzis

2003); they generally state that trust is a kind of reliance on the ability,
power, character, or truth of "someone" or "something."
Despite the fact that trust is of a non-material nature, in literature one

relatively often encounters the approaches of the indirect measurement
of this phenomenon. We choose one (Covey, Merrill 2008), the basis of
which is the knowledge of the reality we are trying to describe. From the
economist's point of view, we come across the concept of "cost", while
26
from a physicist’s the concept of "speed". How is trust related to these
variables? When trust increases, the speed of the implementation of a
particular process rises, while the cost of securing this process
decreases. In case of bankruptcy, the process is the opposite.
In the theory of trust management, it is represented by the belief of the

personnel in the organization itself, the belief in achieving the goals of
the enterprise. Management believes that the results of their work -
process management, will be beneficial to the organization's personnel.
Personnel and management sharing knowledge believe that
management will appreciate this behaviour positively. They expect that
their behaviour to increase group performance will be properly
rewarded (Kim, Mauborgne 1997).
Trust can also be called a force that can bring individuals together into
groups, creating a homogeneous society from an environment full of
confusion and anarchy (Luknič 1994).
Trust can also be called a state of mind, an expectation of one business

partner to another, behaviour or a response of a predictable and
mutually acceptable nature (Hittmar 2010).
Different authors offer different interpretations (Podrey In: Grudzowski

2008); trust means much more than just relying on the "other" side.
Trust can come from good will, a common interest, but force can also be
used to achieve it. It takes place under different conditions, it covers
various areas of public and private life and includes a wide range of
activities. In the context of the definition of the term, I again return to
the concept that presents trust as a sort of a bet. The concept includes
the notion of risk (Desteno 2014), a factor that entities usually attempt
to avoid in all circumstances. The concept of risk in itself already
indicates a state of a possible threat or a possible loss. However, the
benefits of trust between entities often have a higher value in the long
run than the potential losses. The bet "on trust" therefore expresses a
certain degree of probability with which one entity determines that
27
another entity or group of entities will perform a certain action or
reaction (Gambetta 2000).
By discussing the meaning and definition of the concept, I find a

relatively interesting view (Giddens 2003), namely a description of the
situation in which one of the subjects fills the good result of the
manifestation of the effort of another entity, from the point of view of
the first subject, in this case it is a belief that the other of the subjects
within the framework of the implemented activity. The author concludes
that belief is "a sort of" stronger expression of an attitude as
"hopefulness," a situation where belief enters into the issue of the
perception of trust in a dominant way. In common understanding, trust
is associated with the positive manifestations of individuals or groups to
persons, businesses, brands, products, and the like. The question is
whether its opposite expresses an equally great negative emotion. The
literature offers us a wide range of possible answers, a synthesis of
different opinions, and we find that mistrust creates much more
cognitive and emotional impulses than is the case with its opposite. In
the following table, we compare the realities with the myths, namely:
Myth Reality
Trust is a soft factor Trust is a hard quantifiable factor
Trust is risky Mistrust is riskier
Trust cannot be acquired Trust is effectively acquirable
Trust is created slowly Trust is created quickly
Gaining the trust of society Gaining the trust of society means
means getting the trust of the getting the trust of a group of
individual individuals
Lost trust cannot be restored Trust is renewable
Trust is or is not Trust can be created or destroyed
Trust is a function of an integrity Trust is a function of character
and competence
Table 1: The issue of trust - reality versus myths
Source: Covey, Merrill (2008)
28
The table synthesizes the views of the author. In any case it is possible
to give consent to the submitted claims based on the studied materials.
The following subchapter provides a clear overview of the selected
aspects of trust, developed through diagrams for the best possible
interpretation of the analysed contexts.
Trust as a concept
Trust is a type of reliance, a degree of certainty or assumption,

that development with the existence of several influencing
circumstances and possible alternatives of behaviour will have the
positive, or more specifically expected development, eventually it covers
certain fulfilment of an expectation by a person or organization in the
sense that their future behaviour will be upholding certain social values
or moral rules (Whitty, Joinson 2009). Trust is one of the main supporting
pillars of business activities and operation of organizations. Its essence
is not significantly different in the real and virtual world, because many
factors that encourage its formation are available also online. However,
it does not mean that it is not necessary to examine the nature of trust
in the online environment. It is gained as laboriously as in the real
environment (Daignault et al. 2002). Building of trust in the online
environment, however, hides certain pitfalls and differences resulting
from the nature of the internet as a communication medium and
information channel. There is still the problem of low credibility and
irrelevancy of certain information, freely available and publishable
substantially without any restrictions, which may, in the end, act
significantly counterproductively (Novy, Surynek et al. 2006).
The concept of trust, its basic features and conditions for development
Trust has many dimensions and it is a part of interpersonal as

well as business relationships almost at every turn. In 1974, the laurate
of Nobel prize for Economics, Keneth Arrow, stated that trust is an
irreplaceable accept in every economic exchange and its presence is an
assumption of the effectiveness and mutual gainfulness of any
transaction (Servátka, Vadovič 2009). Many authors, however, agree on
29
claims that it is not easy to express a clear definition of this “elusive”
concept. It is necessary to perceive it as a holistic concept. There have
been conducted various studies, which were aimed at the description of
the concept of trust through the form of stage procedure of trust within
a certain relationship. They also agree on the identification of basic
features of trust – a reputation, brand, strengthening of trust and on the
conditions, the existence of which is necessary for strengthening and
building of trust, for which they determined the willingness to take risk
and the feeling of interdependence. If there is not a certain degree of
risk in relationships, activities would be carried out with an absolute
certainty and obviosity and it would not be justified to build any trust
(Einwiller 2001).
Trust as an important prerequisite of building of a reputation
Trust fulfils every successful company in millions of different

ways. No institutions could operate without it. Trust is a firm belief that
we can rely on a certain person (Shore 2005). An alternative definition is
offered by Shaw (In: Armstrong 2007), according to him, trust is a belief
that those who we are dependent on will fulfil our expectations
connected to them. These expectations depend on our critical
evaluation of responsibility of another human being to satisfy our needs.
Tavakolifard (2012) claims that the generally accepted definition of trust
is still missing, despite extensive studies of philosophers, sociologists
and psychologists. It is easier to determine features of trust than to
determine what it means. We incline to the definition of Gambetta
(2000), where he claims that trust (analogically distrust) is a specific level
of subjective probability, by which an agent estimates execution of a
certain action of another agent or group of agents before this action is
noticed (or independently of his/her abilities to notice it anytime) and in
its context, he/she executes own action. Generally, an agent is an
individual or thing (entity) that influences the environment of other
agents, and it has own features and objective, which it tries to reach. The
context of trust means that trust of an entity “A” in relation to an entity
“B” is always dependent on some context “C”. We would like to point
out an important article “Can We Manage Trust?” by Jøsang et al. (2005),
30
who deals with the “trust issue” (in terms of creating of trust,
determination of trustworthiness and decision-making based on
trustworthiness). Jøsang et al. states that trust is the oriented
relationship between two participants called a subject and object. The
term oriented is used with the meaning of clear differentiation of
sources (subject) and objectives (object) of the relationship. The authors
further define two types of trust:
• Contextually independent (reliability trust) – where trust is a

subjective probability and an individual “A” expects a certain
action from another individual “B”, on whom his/her well-being
is dependant.
• Contextually dependent (decision trust) – trust is given by a

range, where one side is willing to be dependent on something
or someone in a certain situation with a feeling of relative
security, although there may arise negative consequences.
Furthermore, we illustrate understating of the difference between trust

and a reputation on two very simple sentences according to Jøsanga et
al. (2005):
1. I trust you based on your good reputation.
2. I trust you despite your bad reputation.
The first sentence demonstrates a state where mutual trust of two

subjects is determined based on a reputation of one of them. The second
sentence then demonstrates a state when there is some confidential
knowledge between subjects and it is determined, for example, based
on a direct experience that supresses weight of a positive or negative
reputation, which is known about the other subject.
31
Classification of models based on trust and a reputation
Jordi Sabater and Carles Sierra (2003) in their work Review on

computational trust and reputation models, specified classifications that
focus on significant models and try to find mutual features, according to
which individual methods and their categories are designed. The basic
classification criterion is a so-called model type. By the model type we
understand the fact, whether a model works with trust or with a
reputation.
The categories according to the model type are following:
• models of trust – work only with trust,
• models of reputation – work only with a reputation,
• hybrid models – work with trust and a reputation.
According to the authors, we can classify models based on the

determination of the origin of information (knowledge), which serve to
evaluate a reputation but also trust. They include (Sabater, Sierra 2003):
1. direct experience – this source is undoubtedly the most

important and reliable source of information,
2. hearsay information – often referred as recommendations, it is

information that we get from other entities in a system. These
kinds of information may be based on direct experience, but
they may be acquired from other entities,
3. sociological knowledge – these kinds of information are based

on a social relationship between entities and on their social roles
in a system. In the real world, individuals who belong to a society
(social group) create various types of relationships between
each other. There exist very few models using these sources,
32
4. prejudice – the use of prejudice is another option how to
determine a reputation. The term prejudice is in the real world
understood mainly as a negative attitude to a social group. The
transfer of this negative meaning into the virtual environment,
however, is not necessary and thus it may be an effective source
of information for building of trust or a reputation.
Trust - graphical interpretations
After defining the basic concepts, we will proceed to the

graphical interpretation of selected contexts within the issue of trust. In
the introduction, we follow up on the work of the author synthesizing
his views within the above table. In his book, the author states that the
ability to learn the habits of trust is closely linked to the need to deal
with two factors, namely the tendency to rationally analyse and the
tendency to trust without limitation.
Based on the factors mentioned above, it is possible to create a matrix

with four quadrants, thus defining four basic zones:
• Blind trust
• Reasonable trust,
• Indecision,
• Suspiciousness.
The matrix provides an interesting diagnostic tool to discuss variables

such as:
• Opportunity,
• The risk associated with it,
• The trustworthiness of partial factors (such as staff).

33
The matrix in question has the following graphical representation:
Figure 4: Matrix of the inclination to trust

Source: Covey, Marrill (2008)
Another interesting point of view on trust is distinguishing trust

according to the class or classes of trust. For more, see the following
diagram:
34
Figure 5: Classes of trust
Source: Grandison, Sloman (2000)
Let's look at the various classes of trustworthiness. Grandison and

Sloman (2000) describes five classes in total, namely:
• Provision (trust) - Trust associated with the provision of services,

the recipient seeks protection from untrustworthy providers. In
the literature, this is the point where we encounter “business
trust”, it is nothing other than the status between two business
entities modified on the basis of commercial contracts. This
state has the nature of "provided trust".
• Access (trust) - trust in the principles allowing access to
resources in the ownership of the counterparty.
• Delegation (trust) - Trust in the intermediary, applied in acting
on behalf of an agent.
• Identity (trust) - trust in the area of information technology.
• Context (trust) - trust based on institutional guarantee
(insurance, law enforcement, infrastructure in general).
Last but not least, We consider it essential to outline the issue of waves
of trust through the presented work. This interesting concept was
introduced quite recently (Covey, Marrill 2008). One could simply
35
compare it to dominoes, where seemingly insignificant partial factors
(from the point of view of the whole) can disturb the overall harmony of
the system during incorrect handling.
Figure 6: Trust and its waves

Source: Covey, Marrill (2008)
When we come to the relationship of trust and reputation, we look into

the processes of building trust. Professional literature provides a lot of
insights, from which we carefully choose the process of trust-building
based on the decision-making process from the point of view of a normal
consumer of ordinary consumption products (Kanel 2013).
Confidence building is built in three phases in the decision-making

process, namely:
• building of trust,
• creation of trust,
• loss of trust.
The decisive moment, or stage, in the process is the actual building of

trust. From the point of view of the partial factors, it is the most complex,
while from the point of view of time it is the most important part of the
process. After this stage comes the moment of the creation of trust, but
not necessarily, in the case of negative experience it is replaced by the
36
state of the loss of trust. However, that is already described in more
detail in the following diagram:
Figure 7: The process of creating trust

Source: Kanel (2013)
37
The issue of trust and its relation to reputation issues
Without trust, we would hardly know how to ensure any co-

operation. Enterprises or even doing business itself would be almost
impossible without the presumption of elementary trust. In foreign
literature (JØSANG et al. 2007), we often encounter the claim that trust
is an oriented relationship between two subjects engaging in mutual
interaction. In this case, orientation is an expression of the relationship
of the subjects in terms of their resources and objectives. In this way, we
come to describe two basic types of trust, contextually independent
(trust in this case is given by the subjective probability of the expected
action) and contextually dependent (trust is determined in this case by
the extent of dependence on relative safety, despite the risk of negative
consequences).
In practical terms, these states could be described through two simple

statements:
• We trust you based on your good reputation,
• We trust you despite your bad reputation.
The first of the arguments illustrates the situation where the trust of the
subjects is determined by the reputation of one of the parties. The
second of the statements illustrates the situation where, despite the
existence of a negative reputation, there is "some" knowledge, for
example, based on direct experience, this will subsequently change the
weight of the negative assumptions.
Several authors discuss the classification of models based on trust and

reputation, the basic criterion for classification is the typology of models.
Acording Sabater and Sierra (2003), interpretation is as follows: Does the
model work with reputation, confidence, or both parameters at the
same time?
38
Through simple decomposition we get three basic categories, namely:
• Models based solely on trust - they only work with a factor of

trust,
• Models based solely on reputation - they only work with the
factor of reputation,
• Hybrid models - using both of these parameters.
Based on the origin of the information, when classifying models, We

consider parameters such as: origin and source of information,
authenticity, irrational factors (for example prejudices or ignorance of
the social roles of subjects) and the like.
Through the theoretical development of the issue of trust and

consequently its relation to the reputation issue, we can proceed with
the definition of reputation itself.
39
1.1.3 Reputation
„In reputation questions, it is necessary to connect with people,

whose natural parts are visibly shown high qualities in a positive way, in
case we appreciate our own good reputation. Otherwise, it is better to
go your own way than to be surrounded by bad company.” (Alsop 2004)
After defining concepts in previous subchapters, it is possible to

conceptually define the key issue, thus, in the logical continuity of our
text we may start to focus on the term reputation and reputation in the
virtual internet environment, i.e. online reputation. A reputation is one
of the most important parts of an image of enterprise, company or
corporation as a whole. In the current modern world of business, when
it is necessary to impress and responsibly approach to the building of a
positive image of a company, a reputation is one of the key terms and
factors influencing how the public looks at the company, how they
perceive it and accept its operation and activities carried out.
(Vaculčiaková 2003). Its importance is significantly increasing especially
recently, when it is not enough to have an attractive product, know-how,
business spirit, ability to improvise and flexibility in the field of business
environment to achieve the desired success. There is a little bit more. A
positive reputation is truly becoming one of the most effective weapons
that might be highly effective in a hard competitive fight and at the same
time, it determines the market value of company. According to the
survey carried out abroad, 89% of consumers decides based on a
reputation of a company or popularity of a brand when it is necessary to
choose between two comparable products. Moreover, 72% of
respondents adds that a reputation of a company significantly influences
their business and investment decisions. (Vaculčiaková 2003).
The basic definition of reputation
In terms of reputation, the professional literature offers a wide

range of views, from interpretational formalized views to views of an
almost informal nature. In general, all of these views agree that
reputation as a business asset is an extremely fragile element. At the
40
same time, we are confronted with the claim that reputation is an
element that every organization has to offer without distinction. Unlike
trust, often described as an oriented state, reputation is a more complex
term, but we also encounter the claim (in our opinion not quite accurate)
that it can be seen as a synonym for trust and reputation. Let's look at
how reputation is defined within the scope of the available literature.
Reputation is perceived as the overall quality, the optics, how the

organization is perceived or judged by individuals (Griffin 2008). The
definition is a fairly simple interpretation; on the other hand, the purely
formal encyclopaedic definition (Brittanica 2017) deals with reputation,
again as a general quality, this time however it extends this quality to
the very nature of the organization, which is clear and known to the
target audience, with emphasis being placed on how these audiences
perceive the attitudes, actions and opinions of the organization.
From the point of view of management, it can be argued that, in the past,
reputation was the domain of marketing, while currently it is integrated
into the company strategy itself (Cooper et al. 2012).
An interesting management view of the issue of reputation is the claim

that reputation can also affect activities directly unrelated to the
fulfilment of corporate goals (Bendigová 2003). It may be informal
expressions of personnel, insufficient or unsatisfactory responses to
customer complaints, or ill-considered statements of representatives of
organizations for the media.
From the point of view of history, it is possible to believe that reputation

or reputation management evolved from public relations (Burke,
Graeme, Cooper 2012).
As mentioned above, reputation is considered by many authors to be an

asset of an organization (Helm, Liehr-Gobbers, Storck 2011). We also
encounter the claim that it is the most comprehensive business asset.
Despite the challenge in the form of organized corporate reputation
41
management and the use of comprehensive measurement approaches,
reputation is still a relatively unexplored area.
After defining the term, we will come to the decomposition of the issue
from the point of view of its partial attributes, namely, we will focus on
components of reputation.
Based on professional literature(Svoboda 2009), reputation can be seen

in three dimensions:
• Primary dimension - Reputation is created based on the

organization's personal contacts and its target audiences. Such
a reputation has an immediate and personal character. From a
psychological point of view, we encounter an increased
possibility of occurrence of the phenomenon of first contact.
With this first contact, target groups only perceive the
organization's distinctive attributes and form their initial
attitudes based on these attributes.
• Secondary dimension – Also called indirect reputation in the

literature. Such a reputation, unlike the previous dimension,
does not have a direct personal nature. It is formed through the
sharing of messages through media or reference groups.
Because of the impersonal and mediated nature of the
messages, we encounter an increased incidence of prejudices
and stereotypes within this dimension. These animosities often
have a negative impact on the formation of reputation as they
create the premise for superficial judgment.
• Cyclical dimension - also referred to as the third way. It is an

approach within which organizations adapt the character and
nature of communication to the perceptions of their target
audiences. As far as positive attitudes are concerned,
organizations typically do not need to correct the form and
content of shared messages. If negative attitudes are noted,
42
organizations will operatively change, or adapt their
communication, behaviour, or even products.
As part of the study of literature, we also see (Harrison 2013) that

organizations are generally not able to manage their reputation, so the
notion of "reputational management" is purely misleading. The fact that
direct management is not possible is put forward as an argument, as only
action can be taken to strengthen the position in areas of importance in
relation to the organization's own reputation. We do not identify with
the given claim.
From the point of view of the basic criteria for the actual measuring of
reputation, it is possible to deduce six basic areas that determine
reputation (Svoboda 2009):
• The first area is the factor of emotion, which is associated with

basic questions such as: Is the organization popular with its
target audience? Does it have the trust of these groups? Does it
have a certain degree of respect?
• The second area is the product factor, which is associated with
basic questions such as: What kind of product quality is the
organization characterized by? Are the products sufficiently
innovative? Are they believable or credible?
• The third area is corporate finance, which is determined by the

following questions: Are growth and business profits sufficient?
Are the financial results acceptable?
• The fourth area is vision and leadership, and this area is

particularly important for high-innovation enterprises.
Questions related to this area are as follows: Is the organization
capable of management? What is the vision espoused by this
management? Is it sufficiently able to recognize threats and
market opportunities?
43
• The fifth area is the work environment, and related issues such
as: What is the quality of the personnel? Is management at a
sufficient level? Is the business able to recruit the best in terms
of human resources on the market?
• The last, sixth area is social responsibility. This area is given more
and more weight as time goes by. We encounter questions such
as: How much does the enterprise engage in social affairs? How
does the enterprise behave externally to its surroundings?
From the stated theoretical overview, it is possible to extract the essence

of reputation management, namely four fundamental determinants of
reputation management, comprised of responsibility, trustworthiness,
reliability and credibility. Each of these issues has a significant and
irreplaceable role in the reputation management process.
Reputation as a concept
Renown, a name, seriousness, repute, that is only few of many

synonyms offered by the synonymic dictionary of Slovak language
enabling different expression of the word reputation. Every one of us
has already heard about a certain type of reputation. Every company has
a reputation or online reputation, whether they want or not, the
presence of a reputation exists. Some companies just wave their hand
about it or do not track it at all, these stay “at the mercy” for those that
do the opposite, i.e. track it. Disregarding various circumstances, every
enterprise should have one great asset, which is wort a “great deal”, and
it is a reputation. Therefore, enterprises should pay particularly special
attention to this area (Marsden 2013). Our reputation is one of the most
valuable properties for every one of us. This can be said also about
companies and other organizations. If you run your own business, you
should not leave a reputation to chance. It is your ultimate responsibility.
Finally, everything, especially sale and profit, depends on the fact, what
your surroundings consider you to be. A corporate reputation is
considered to be a very valuable asset. George Washington also
declared: “With a reputation you can do anything – without one, nothing
44
(Haywood 2002). We can easily define a reputation as the overall quality
or character, how subjects are seen and assessed by other subjects,
celebrity fame, recognition of certain abilities or characteristics by other
people. The given terms are apparently clear for us. But if we talk about
a corporate reputation, its definition is slightly complicated (Griffin
2008). Balmer and Greyser (2003) characterized the corporate
reputation as the one, which is formed over time based on what the
organization has done and how it has behaved. Thus, the company or
corporate reputation according to Bromleyho (In: Helm et al. 2011)
reflects a position of a given company, internally with employees and
externally with other stakeholders, in its competitive and institutional
environment.
Different views of the issue of reputation
A reputation can be defined as a set of existing information

about actual trustworthiness of a subject. Basically, it is an indicator that
identifies past experience of third parties in relation to a potential
business partner or participant in any immediate relationship (Einwiller
2001). A reputation may be, in some cases equated to goodwill. It is not
considered as a mistake at all. The term is semantically related to a
position or rank acquired in opinions of others, similarly as an image, for
which a reputation is a complementary and integrated part (Doorley,
Garcia 2007). Naturally, similarly to trust, a reputation does not carry
only one dimension. It is a diverse issue with many different, mutually
connected levels, disciplines and theoretical perspectives, from which a
coherent picture is subsequently created. However, for the purposes of
our work it is not necessary to analyse it so deeply (Barnett, Pollock
2012). In this work, we will follow the definitions by Highhouse et al.,
who described the whole corporate reputation as a global, evaluating
judgement about an enterprise, which is stable over time and shared by
several supporters (In: Helm et al. 2011). It is a pure reaction of
customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders. It is a
collective judgement of individual impressions (Gottschalk 2011). As
mentioned by Svoboda (2009), a reputation is best formed, when a
picture of an organization is provided by people who know it best. The
45
formation of a reputation follows the creation of knowledge, orientation
and trust of an organization in certain parts of the public with the aim to
maintain this value among them. A strong reputation is considered as
strategically important because of the following four reasons (Fill 2009):
• It primarily means a certain differentiation if there are only

minor differences between products,
• It is a certain support in turbulent times but also during

measuring of goodwill,
• It affects a share price of a company,
• the higher the quality of relationships with customers, the

higher the reputation assigned to an organization.
Mainly in the USA, but in recent years only in Western Europe, a

reputation is considered as a more sophisticated synonym for an image,
even though forms and means of its formation are not very different
from an image. The basis for understanding of the phenomenon of
reputation consists of four main attributes, namely (Svoboda 2009):
• credibility,
• reliability,
• trustworthiness,
• responsibility.
These attributes mutually influence the corporate reputation. Walker

further specifies 5 basic characteristics or attributes for better
understanding (In: Gottschalk 2011):
• the reputation is based on a perception,
46
• it is a sum of perceptions of all participants,
• it serves for the comparison with competitors,
• it may be negative or positive,
• it is stable and permanent.
Svoboda (2009) detailed effects that are related to the benefits of

reputation:
• higher prices for own products,
• lower marketing costs,
• lower purchase prices,
• easier access to the market with new products,
• possibility to have an influence on other public groups,
• fewer crises or better managing of crises ever.
The reputation can create competitive advantages, which differ

enterprises from each other. This added value is reflected as capital into
the structure of an enterprise, as claimed by Svoboda (2009). Balmer and
Greyser (2003) identified the drivers of an enterprises: competitive
effectiveness, market leaderships, customer orientation, popularity,
corporate culture and communication. The combination of these
elements drives the corporate reputation. However, they claim that the
relationship between expectations and actions is the most important for
the reputation.
47
Reputation as a part of a corporate identity
A corporate identity is very important and it is related to a

reputation. It is necessary to answer the question “why”. When defining
it, we may build on various knowledge related to a personal or group
identity and on its application in an enterprise. According to Bernová and
Nový, a corporate identity is the conscious creation of a strategical
concept of structure, operation and external presentation of a specific
enterprise in the market environment (In: Vysekalová, Mikeš 2009). The
French sociologists, Larcon and Reitter added another dimension of a
corporate identity, where they argued that a corporate identity does not
include only the external presentation of a company, but it also includes
a set of internal features and properties, which give a company
specificity, stability and cohesion. According to their opinion, a
corporate identity is not only a projected picture in the form of virtual
design and communication, it essentially deals with “what is an
organization” – its core and how it is stated in own strategy and culture
(In: Cornelissen 2011). Carroll (2013) in The handbook of communication
and corporate reputation states that the discipline of reputation has
gained greater recognition in the last decade. He claims, that an
organization may indirectly manage its reputation by direct
management of its identity, which includes monitoring of direct or
indirect experience and information or symbols, which influence the
public. Helm et al. (2011) drew attention to the fact, that organizational
behaviourists perceive strong ties between three main concepts, which
are an identity, image and goodwill.
Reputation and image
A company sent its message through traditional mass shared

resources to a target group, members of which were put in the role of
passive receivers of information. Customers rarely personally met with
a representative of the company. Companies in the world of one-way
communication needed to recreate feeling, which people have when
they are buying from someone they know and trust. Products cannot
have personality traits. It was only an illusion. As a result of this
48
approach, the image became the essential element in traditional
marketing. Companies invested large amounts of financial resources and
hired agencies and marketing professionals to prepare communication
campaigns, which would create the image for a brand in order to drive
customers’ motive to buy (Leboff 2011). Thus, how is an image linked to
a reputation? As it was already mentioned, a reputation is not new in
the academic world or practice. The term reputation is often used in
personal life, politics, entrepreneurship, etc. It is not known why, but a
reputation was often put to the second place. Companies rather focused
on their corporate image and undeservedly left the reputation behind
(Smaiziene, Jucevicius 2009). In the past, the corporate reputation and
image were considered as a synonym in the professional literature.
Nowadays, the situation is different and opinions of various authors
differ. Most researchers working in the area of reputation management
face the problem of division of these two concepts and discuss about
relational differences between them (Smaiziene, Jucevicius 2009). Grant
Leboff (2011) mentions that an image cannot assure positive comments
and recommendations. Those can be gained only thanks to a good
reputation. In other words, an image, which a company tries to create,
is not the basis of modern marketing anymore, but it is a reputation,
which a company really reaches. Bennet and Kottasz in the questions
about an image and reputation, point out the time dimension (time of
creation) as the main characteristics that differentiates these two
concepts. In other words, a corporate image can be created in a short
period of time. A reputation is generated in a longer time period;
therefore, it cannot be changed or redirected as quickly as an image (In:
Smaiziene, Jucevicius 2009). This approach is also supported by Jackson
(2004) and Cornelissen (2004), who present that the time of creation or
formation is considered as one of the main characteristics that
differentiate an image (a short period of creation) and a reputation (a
long period of creation). Fill (2009) perceives a reputation as a wider set
of images. He also maintains the similar opinion that it is more time
consuming and difficult to change a reputation, while an image can be
influenced much faster. In this case we can claim, that a reputation and
image are not synonyms according to some authors, even though they
are closely related and interdependent elements.
49
Creation of a reputation
According to Svoboda (2009), a reputation of every organization

consists of these three forms:
1. primary reputation – is based on the contacts that we personally

have with an organization, so-called face to face contacts. The
perception is direct and especially personal. Psychologists in this
case talk about the phenomenon of first impression, where
during the first contact we perceive significant attributes of an
organization and we form our initial attitudes;
2. secondary reputation – we can call it the reputation in indirect

way and it is based on communication with media, friends and
acquaintances. However, a contact is often very impersonal,
mediated and highly influenced by stereotypes and prejudices
that are usually related to behaviour of various groups of
individuals;
3. cyclic reputation – it is the third way. People or organizations

behave to it according to social attitudes set up towards them.
If they are good, they do not feel the need to change their
behaviour. Although, if they are bad, they try to change their
behaviour, products or services through suitable tools.
Harris and Fombrun considered a reputation as collective evaluation of

the company’s ability to provide a valuable product, service or another
value to a group of customers. They developed the scale for measuring
of the corporate reputation, which they called the corporate reputation
quotient (RQ). The RQ is a complex method of measuring of the
corporate reputation (In: Walsh, Beatty 2007).
50
The given scale consists of six criteria, about which we can ask the
following questions (Svoboda 2009):
1. Emotional appeal: Is the company popular? Is it admired and

respected?
2. Products and services: What is the quality of products and

services of the company? Is the company active in innovations
and credible?
3. Financial representation: How can we evaluate the growth

opportunities and risk of the company? Does it stand on a sound
financial basis?
4. Vision and leadership: Is there a strong leadership in the

company? What visions do the leaders follow? Is it able to
recognize opportunities and threats in the market?
5. Working environment: How successfully is the company led and

what is the quality of co-workers?
6. Social responsibility: How significant is the social engagement of

the company and how responsibly does it behave towards its
environment?
The stated criteria are the results of work of Harris and Fombrun, who
cooperated on the creation of a standardized tool that could be used to
measure the perception of reputation of various companies in all sectors
with more segments with multiple stakeholders. They found 20
attributes by the extensive analysis, which they subsequently grouped
into the already mentioned 6 dimensions or criteria (Fombrun, Foss
2001). The work related to the corporate reputation was assigned
especially to the area of marketing and communication. Burke et al.
(2011) states that the corporate reputation is nowadays integrated also
into human resources management and especially to the corporate
strategy. A reputation is mediated to the public by managers of an
51
organization. It is generally recognized, that a reputation starts from
inside to outside. Fombrun and Foss (2011) noted that an organization
is doing well if it takes care about own reputation, and they based the
following factors on this emphasis:
1. the principle of characteristic signs – a strong reputation is the

result of a significant position of the company in minds of
customers,
2. the principle of focus – companies can contribute to a strong

reputation is they focus on their activities and communication
around one central topic,
3. the principle of strength – a strong reputation is the result of

company’s consistency in its activities and communication with
the internal as well as external environment,
4. the principle of identity – a strong reputation is the result when

companies act in the way that is in accordance with the principle
of identity. The main task for a company is to be perceived real
by its customers and the public,
5. the principle of transparency – a strong reputation is the result

when companies are transparent in managing own affairs. The
main aim for companies is to be perceived as open and honest
in their business activity. Transparency requires good
communication, a lot of good communication.
A company can be differentiated from its competitors through the

corporate reputation. The reputation gives a significant advantage in
industries with intangible assets such as innovations, creativity,
intellectual capital and the high level of customer services (Burke et al.
2011).
52
Chosen aspects within the issue of reputation
Gossips and slander – as it was already stated, trust but also a

reputation by its nature belong not only to the issues solved by
marketing, but they can be undoubtedly assigned to the spectrum of
social environment and elements of recognition of psychological
contexts. Trust gained in a relationship and a built reputation are easily
influenceable elements, they are difficult to obtain and they are easily
lost or undermined in case of failure. In the end, the stability of a
company also shows outside how it will behave in critical situations.
Nevertheless, in the online environment it is even easier to lose prestige
due to the spread of unsubstantiated information, and therefore it is
more fragile (Žáry 1997 – 2014). “Top leaders are obliged to
communicate with media and face the public, when their organizations
make crucial decision or if they end up in crisis, which impacts the
surrounding organizations. This responsibility is valid for heads of
enterprises, non-profit organizations, healthcare, educational
institutions, government and all other organizations, which take care
about their relationships with the public.” It can happen anytime, that
an organization, despite the years of efforts, will be suddenly forced to
face adverse guesswork, falsehoods, public slender or gossips, whether
it contributed to it or not (Cultip, Center, Broom 2000, p. 334 In: Žáry
1997 - 2014). Gossip is information of a certain, usually negative
character about an object or subject, which, along potential true
elements, contains also falsehood and it is usually aimed at reduction or
affection of the social prestige in direct relevance. The process of
distribution can be realized, for example, through informal sources such
as oral speculations or tabloid press. They are the trigger for emergence
of rumours, and in the end, this impact is contained in four dimensions:
emotional, cognitive, cultural and social. However, the final attitude,
which the public takes, is crucial. It can be a critical attitude – when a
receiver verifies the given information, uncritical – when a receiver does
not use the abilities to verify, and transmitting – when critical abilities
during the spread are irrelevant (Blaho, Bratská 2010).
53
A “good” and “bad” reputation – the formation of reputation of a
company or organization is the matter of sequence. We can state, that
it is represented by the process of transformation of perception by the
public in its surrounding or inside an organization, which may move
between two extremes, positive and negative. It is generally valid, that
it is always closer to one of them. There is nothing in between. If people
have a vague or indifferent opinion about an organization, it is rather
negative than positive. Thus, what can a “good” or “bad” reputation do?
How can it participate in the formation of value or, or vice-versa, destroy
it? How can it be transformed or influenced? Nowadays, the necessity
to know the answers to the given questions is gaining the momentum
and esteem, and, among other things, it is necessary to understand the
phrases such as creation, management and the role of reputation in the
social and business life (Barnett, Pollock 2012).
Selected views on the issue of reputation measurement
Reputation is created by a set of partial factors; the previous

subchapter was devoted to a discussion about them. Indeed, reputation
measurement, given the assumed ambiguity of the determinants and
the associated problem of precise quantification, may at first glance
predict the vagueness of measurement alone, or the quantification of
reputation.
The professional literature convincingly refutes this assumption. Foreign

literature (Doorley Doorley, Garcia 2015) describes the quantification of
reputation itself by factors closely related to trust-based financial
indicators, such as stock value. Emphasis is placed on empirics based on
corporate practice as a priority. In the process of reputation analysis,
multiple sub-economic indicators are used, such as the value of profit
before interest, taxation and depreciation, earnings per share, indicators
such as return on assets, dividend yield or the size of liabilities. We can
include factors such as the degree of innovation, product quality, degree
of competitiveness, and so on, to non-financial indicators entering into
the calculation formulas.
54
From the perspective of access, reputation measurement methods can
be divided into qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods of
measuring corporate reputation are mostly used for prevention, which
is used predominantly to minimize the risk associated with the
management of corporate reputation itself.
A good example of a qualitative reputation measurement method is, for

example, the magazine Fortune system (Trotta, Cavallaro 2012), which
assesses the reputation of companies under nine criteria, namely:
• the degree of innovation,
• management of the organization and its quality,
• investment value over the long term,
• social responsibility of the enterprise,
• the quality of human capital and its management,
• product quality,
• financial health of the enterprise,
• use of assets,
• competitiveness from a global perspective.
The total score then represents the arithmetic mean of the evaluation of
the individual attributes.
Other methods include, for example, a measurement system through a

reputation quotient or through the RepTrak index. In both cases, it is a
system built on criteria similar to the Fortune model. Only the
methodology of the quantification of partial determinants is different.
55
From the point of view of quantitative methods and models, we
encounter a similarly diverse range of approaches to measuring
corporate reputation in the literature. Authors of quantitative models
are generally attempting to overcome shortcomings in qualitative
methods. The increased rate of the reporting value was assessed mainly
in the area of banking. Basic models include, for example, the accounting
approach (Charchiello 2011) used for the analysis of intangible assets
where so-called net reputation is calculated as the difference between
asset reputation and liability reputation.
Other models include the Bayesian model based on the likelihood

principle, or the ReGreT model based on the willingness of conceived
agents to systemically establish access to agreement based on direct and
general trust (Sabater, Sierra 2003). By direct trust, we understand trust
based on personal experience (through observations, interactions, etc.).
Through general trust, we are replacing direct experience in the event of

its absence. As a rule, I encounter three types of general trust, namely:
• Witnessed trust - this is based on information from a third party.
• Surroundings trust - takes the relations between the involved

parties (agents) into account.
• System Trust - considers the position of one of the agents.
The last of the approaches to the quantification of reputation takes the

form of a graph. It is a so-called reputation glacier. The contents of the
glacier present a sum of the determinants, from the most distinct to the
most latent:
56
Figure 8: Reputation glacier
Source: Hannington (2012)
57

58
1.2 Definition of the term online reputation
The internet changed the thinking about a reputation. What was

private in the past, it is public now. What was at the local level in the
past, it is global now. What was fleeting in the past, it is permanent now.
And what was trustworthy in the past, it is unreliable now. The changes
can be explained by the fact that the internet technology directed
human interactions with it. Understanding of the unique relationship
between technology and online culture is the key to understanding of
how to manage own online reputation. The failure is certain for those
users who apply offline techniques on the internet reputation or use
offline assumptions to solve online problems. Instead of this, a proficient
user must understand cultural and technical differences between the
internet and offline world in order to effectively protect and improve
his/her online reputation (Fertik, Thomson 2010). Walter (2013) claims
that a reputation in life and business is everything. It means that a
reputation is very fragile and one mistake can sometimes make
irreparable damages. This is especially valid in the digital world, where
radical transparency and high demands of customers have the greatest
power. Companies must be able to learn to communicate in the age of
social networks, listen to the social “chatter” and effectively react to it
in order to not harm their reputation and be in accordance with
expectations of customers. According to Chernatony et al., if the internet
enables consumers to use the new way of sharing of content about
companies and brands, then it also enables companies to control
information about them. Consumers can obtain information about
potential suppliers and products but they can also create new content
on the internet, which influences the perception of other consumers and
stakeholders of a given enterprise. Negative comments on the internet
may quickly and seriously harm an image and reputation of a brand (In:
Siano et al. 2011).
Basic definition of the concept of online reputation
As mentioned in the above, innovative technologies have

fundamentally changed the established principles of corporate practice
59
in many areas. Prior to the arrival of the Internet, the reputation of
business entities, or even individuals, was hard to dig up, but also well-
guarded. Years of proven and effective reputation building tools have
almost seamlessly managed to offer solutions in difficult situations. But
times have changed, the flow of information has accelerated and the
nature of the information has been adapted to fit the time. As I have
already mentioned, what was once private today is public. The
availability of information in combination with the interactivity of the
environment offers innumerable possibilities for influencing reputation;
of course, it is not just about influencing it in a positive sense. Proven
approaches have lost their effectiveness, in my opinion it was largely due
to the use of "analogue" tools in the "digital" environment. The
incompatibility of traditional approaches derived from the brick-and-
mortar environment was particularly pronounced at the turn of the
1990s and 2000s when solving the problems created in the virtual
environment of the Internet, and subsequently (and more particularly)
at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. We mention just one
for all of the examples, Dell Hell, a blog of a dissatisfied customer of the
technology giant Dell, which has resulted in a series of unpleasant events
resulting in not an insignificant decrease in the value of the shares and
thus the overall market capitalization of one of the largest players in the
field of information technology. But, let's go back to the very essence of
the concept of Online Reputation, often referred to as On-line
reputation or virtual reputation. It is nothing other than reputational
issues in the Internet environment, at the same time we could also call
this statement the simplest definition of the term. The fact that it
concerns a neologism from the point of view of terminology, also
suggests a rather austere interpretation of the concept of business
vocabulary (Businessdictionary 2015), which describes this term as
obscure without a specific definition referring to the individual, society
or industry.
Many domestic and foreign authors (Janouch, 2010, Jones, Temperley,

Lima 2009) describe online reputation as the overall presence of a
particular subject on the Internet. At present, from a layman’s point of
view, presence on the Internet is equal to presence on social media, and
60
from a professional point of view, this view is to a large extent limited.
Reputation is not only the domain of social platforms, it is created
primarily by users sharing their attitudes and following their interactions
through a wide range of tools (Weber 2007) such as search engines,
catalogues, forums, blogs, and so on. Due to the instrumental variety of
marketing in the Internet environment, it is recommended that the
subjects use the largest possible number of these sub-tools as part of
their marketing communications. There is pressure on active marketing
communication to eliminate potential threats caused by content
moderation or the complete passivity of the subject. The contrast of
"one" negative mention in the context of dozens of positive messages
will greatly reduce the risk of long-term damage to the reputation of the
subject.
Another author (Kanika 2016) notes that the concept of online

reputation covers a wide range of aspects of the business presentation
in the Internet environment. Online reputation is therefore a direct
consequence of the enterprise's action on the Internet. It includes the
actual performance of the company, but also the interaction of the
company with potential as well as actual customers. Submitting a
question about the importance of online reputation for business itself
has long been inappropriate. It is more than desirable for businesses to
actively manage their virtual reputation without delay. The author also
presents three essential points in which he unambiguously and clearly
describes the circumstances underlying the need to actively seek to
manage corporate reputation on the Internet environment, namely:
• the continuous increase in Internet users, the perception of the

advantages of the Internet in the process of making decisions
about purchasing or purchase itself by users,
• perceptions of the Internet, as a sort of "lightning rod" of

business activities, a high degree of secondary transparency,
• the need to not lose control of your own brand.
61
The very structure of the Internet multiplies the necessary effort
necessary for the active management of a company's reputation.
Technologies with user-driven content of a varying nature, caused by
various motivators, are not able to "judge" this content themselves.
From the viewpoint of the tools, these are simple data, numerical series
of ones and zeros. The technology itself distinguishes the character of
the message, distinguishes true information from false and separates
private information from public. Based on its principle, technology is
already beyond generally accepted moral principles; the cool logic of
machine code allows users to disclose whatever they deem appropriate.
(Fertik, Thompson 2010).
Once a message is published, it is generally accessible via the Internet

without geographical or time limitations. Enterprises must be aware of
the fact that any interaction between them and the users is public and
official at every turn, so it is necessary to approach it with the
appropriate weight. Otherwise, the effort spent to remedy the
undesirable situation may be highly counterproductive (Spišák 2016).
It is possible to conclude that the Internet has radically affected the

dynamics of corporate reputation management. With the growing
consumer and media focus, businesses are finding it increasingly difficult
to reach target markets in a way that generates the desired interactions.
In a decentralized Internet environment, the voice of an individual can
be the power of a large organisation, the user is given the opportunity
to present his / her opinion or attitudes. At any time, they can present
their attitudes in the form of reviews, blogs, discussion posts, and so on,
from the position of a "journalist" of “their own media”. They thus have
the ability to judge the brand or the company itself. New communication
channels have greatly affected the balance of power. As a result, the
reputation of businesses is often no longer defined by their behaviour
and performance, but by how they are perceived by the internet
community and its reactions and interactions towards the organization.
Classical approaches to public relations are far too inefficient in the
Internet environment as well as top-down communication (Bunting,
Lipski 2000).
62
Therefore, we are going to define reputation management in the
Internet environment, i.e. online reputation management.
Online reputation as a concept
Nowadays, the term online reputation is growing in significance

more than ever before. Despite it, understanding of how the online
reputation is created, developed and spread is far from the word “easy”.
And in this era of enormous focus on social media, we may witness how
individual information spread not within days but within hours and
seconds (Schiller 2010). Additionally, people use tools of social media for
various purposes. One of them is investigation of who they can trust and
who they can rely on in the decision-making process. In the end, they
more incline to people or organizations with the best reputation and
trustworthiness, and do not take the wealth or nominal power into
consideration too much. It is logical, because for normal decisions we
often turn to those who we trust (Tovey, Masum 2011). Thus, what does
a reputation mean in the online community? From the content side, it is
in the spirit of reputation as such, but it additionally takes into account
the elements related to the web, social networks, relationships in them,
boom of information technology and it contains ways how to survive in
this world and maintain a reputation stable at the desired level (Farmer,
Glass 2010). The internet, as we all know it from own experience, is
inundated by a quantity of words, pictures, photos, blogs and articles,
which unfortunately or fortunately, have the power to influence the
reputation in the positive as well as negative sense, and the contest of
such information can say a lot about a company. We cannot neglect the
fact, that even specialized interest groups may either strengthen or
completely destroy a company’s reputation, its brand or individual
products (Beal, Strauss 2009). It is obvious, how the internet changed
the dynamics of creation and management of corporate reputation. In
the growing trend orientated on a customer and individual media,
companies are gradually finding out, that it is increasingly difficult to
make their voice, or more specifically, opinion to be heard, because in
the online community every user can anytime change into a journalist
63
by writing of reviews, blogs or simple publishing of own experience with
a product, he/she can judge a company as well as a brand. Thus, the
internet switched the balance of powers by the creation of new
communication channels. The result is that reputations of companies
are not defined by what companies do or how they present themselves
but also by the fact, how others perceive them, react to their activities
and expressions. Therefore, except for PR and promotion, companies
must take into account effective management of online reputation and
development of new online relationships and their systems, which are
nowadays far away from the initial “top down” model (Bunting, Lipski
1996).
Domestic literature discusses the issue only marginally, but from

the point of view of corporate practice, we encounter a relevant and
highly current level of development as such. Practitioners (Sasko 2014)
define the term "online reputation management" simply as "ORM" as a
process of managing user perception on the Internet, or as a systematic
monitoring of corporate reputation in as wide a range of online media
as possible, and potentially influencing this reputation in the positive
direction (Laurenčík 2010). The goal of ORM is therefore to actively
prevent damage to the image of an enterprise in the Internet
environment. In the literature, one can also meet the term "Reputation
Management in the Search Engine Environment," which includes active
Internet monitoring through dominant search engines such as Google,
communication with target audiences, evaluation and interpretation of
monitoring results, crisis management reputation management and
crisis communication.
Many enterprises still do not know how to effectively build their

online reputation. Online reputation management offers an effective
tool to deal with a number of business-related activities in a turbulent,
often unclear, social networking environment, portals, search engines,
and opinion-forming media.
64
The ever-increasing number of Internet users is logically
reflected in the continuous year-on-year growth of social network users,
discussion forums, website and portal visitors, blog readers, bloggers
themselves, and audio-visual content contributors. With the growth of
these user groups, the need, importance and justification of monitoring
this virtual mass media are growing. Internet monitoring does not
necessarily mean hours spent in front of the monitor, there is a wide
variety of automated tools to index sites, their comparison with
monitored phrases in the form of product names, companies, or any
relevant context in the form of keywords (Sasko 2014).
At the conclusion of this subchapter, as well as the whole

theoretical discourse, it is necessary to be aware of the key facts based
on empiricism and the continuous study of online reputation
management by domestic and foreign authors (Ross 2015):
• ORM is not a one-time activity that needs to be done from time

to time, it is a continuous and never-ending process.
• Since an honest attitude is the best approach, justification is the
best response to legitimate customer reservations about the
products offered by the company.
• The processes of the brick-and-mortar world, although in the
virtual world, may not produce the desired results, of course
that does not mean that the brick-and-mortar world can be
neglected in the virtual reputation management process.
• Recognition of errors is appropriate as it is impossible to hide in
a virtual environment. Concealing or denying reality is a direct
way to inevitably damage reputation.
• Ignoring negative reactions is dangerous, deleting reactions is
unacceptable.
As we mentioned above, the term online reputation

management is relatively unknown in our country despite the fact, that
most companies should be interested in building and protection of their
brand. Online reputation management (abbreviated ORM) should be
simply defined as a set of tools and measures realized for the purposes
65
of active management of a virtual reputation of a subject over time. The
internet is an independent world with own rules. Information spreads
very rapidly and if a company does not pay enough attention to
communication with its clients or if it underestimates complaints, it can
very quickly suffer. Reputation management in the internet
environment is often referred as Search Engine Reputation
Management or SERM and it includes several main activities (Sasko
2014):
• online monitoring of the internet and users,
• communication with the public and clients,
• evaluation of results,
• crisis reputation management.
With the growing number of internet users and the related growth of
users of social networks, blogs and pages, where content is generated
by users themselves, there is the increase of importance of internet
monitoring. With the aim to monitor the internet, there can be used
many tools, which continuously index new pages on the internet and
compare them with monitored phrases such as a name of a product,
company, competitors or another key word (Sasko 2014).
66
2 DETERMINANTS OF REPUTATION
The rapid onset of mass-media communication in the second
half of the 20th century has fundamentally changed the established
principles of corporate practice in many areas. Prior to the advent of the
"media era", the reputation of business entities, or even individuals, was
hard to build, but also well-guarded.
Procedures on how to build a good reputation have been honed for

hundreds of years. Years of proven and effective reputation building
tools have almost seamlessly managed to offer solutions in difficult
situations.
However, times have changed, and the flow of information has

accelerated. The nature of information has been adapted to fit the
times. What was once private is now public. The availability of
information in combination with the interactivity of the environment
offers innumerable possibilities for influencing the reputation; of course,
it is not just about influencing it in a positive sense.
It may seem that the way to achieving a positive result is the effort to
maximize transparency, maximum correctness and a positive approach
to entrepreneurship.
If we lived in an ideal and rational world, it would surely be a guaranteed

step towards the desired goal. Businesses as well as individuals would
be able to plan a sequence of steps to building the dreamed-of target.
However, we live in a real world full of real people. Warren Buffett, the
man whose quote I opened this paper with, would certainly be able to
talk about that. Mr. Buffett came face-to-face with the limits of the real
world in 1987, when his company Berkshire Hathaway made its biggest
acquisition up until that time, buying Solomon Inc. for 9 billion dollars.
Despite the famous Oracle of Omaha building up an excellent reputation
over dozens of years, it was soon necessary to tangle with an existential
67
threat in the form of negative publicity associated with the activities of
Solomon. Mr. Buffett had it easier in the period before the onset of the
Internet. The audiences that he and his team had to manage in the
process of fixing their reputation were largely clearly defined.
With the advent of the Internet, the flow of information has accelerated
tremendously, one could say that a few mouse clicks are enough to
destroy a good reputation today. There are many entities who are
deliberately attempting to destroy corporate reputation, whether they
are fierce competitors or dissatisfied employees or clients. It is enough
to mention the name of Jeff Jarvis and his blog Dell Hell from the year
2005. The Internet gives users the ability to permanently interfere with
the online reputation of a business in real-time. Google has become the
ideal tool to build or destroy a reputation. The unregulated nature of the
site provided a platform for the unregulated dissemination of
information. The positive side is, of course, access to up-to-date and
uncensored information, while the downside is a severe lack of
authenticity and false or modified information.
Let us look at the differences in the determinants of reputation across

the traditional and virtual worlds.
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2.1 Determinants of reputation of the brick-and-
mortar world
In the following section, I will describe the determinants of

reputation of the brick-and-mortar world. The reputation of enterprises
from the first half of the 20th century was predominantly shaped by
means of traditional mass media. While we meet up with different terms
in the literature, I will use the term "traditional media" or "brick-and-
mortar media" (brick-and-mortar in the material sense, the opposite of
this term is then the media of the "virtual", i.e. the non-material world)
for the purposes of this paper.
According to Horňák and Vopálenská (2009), we can divide media into

print, auditory, audiovisual, spatial and combined. Print media can be
found in the form of periodicals and non-periodicals, mostly intended
for promotional purposes (posters, flyers). Auditory media is expressed
by sound and acts on the hearing (e.g. radio). Audiovisual media impacts
the visual and auditory organs. Spatial media is presented in the form of
three-dimensional carriers, most commonly in the form of outdoor
advertisement.
2.1.1 Traditional media
Sound and print were among the first formats that businesses
used (and controlled) for marketing communication (and thus for
monitoring and managing their own reputation). The first radio receivers
started being experimentally used in the 19th century, with their onset
marking a major breakthrough on the media market. Radio receivers
were available to a relatively broad population, and the boom of radio
was not hindered by any lower level of literacy, as in the case of printed
materials. Radio was already a modern media during its origin, as its first
broadcasts were associated with promotion. Thanks to lower technical
demands, it was able to develop both in terms of quantity (the quantity
and variety of radio stations) and quality (both technical and content).
Radio has contributed to the extraordinary increase in the
69
popularization of culture (music, for example), but also to awareness
and education. Soon, radio became involved in politics, and became an
influential media which influenced historical developments. Last but not
least, radio has also made an extraordinary contribution to the
development of marketing communications (Horňák, Vopálenská 2009).
Another form of media that we will take a look at is print. This media has
travelled a long and complicated road since the time of its inventor,
Johann Guttenberg. From the first books to the first pamphlets (the
precursor of today's newspapers, it was a piece of paper with news
printed on it), gazettes (a four-fold piece of paper with news printed on
it) to the first journals that appeared in 1960, followed by periodicals,
magazines and newspapers, which evolved to the way we know them
today.
As Cézar (2007) mentions, the Western world was possessed by news

and needed a tool to deliver these tidings as quickly as possible to their
recipients. So, in 1838, Samuel Morse came up with the invention of a
telegraph. This nowadays old and outdated medium was extremely
popular at the time.
We can consider the beginning of television history to be 6 January 1884,

when thirty-year-old Berlin student Paul Gottlieb Nipkow filed a patent
application for an electric telescope. Its core was the famous Nipkow
disk, which was the core part of every television or television camera
until 1920s. This brings on the era of television broadcasting.
Film imagery in TV ad spots had a significant impact on brand perception.

The very fact that the product was promoted on television forced the
viewer to automatically rank the brand among the top brands without
realizing it. In this case, TV was a hard to replace medium. Television
broadcasts were able to provide any form of promotion with a sole
exception, namely information (understood in the meaning of a detailed
description) that was more suited to an advertisement or leaflet.
Television has a unique feature compared to other media. By means of
its convincing ability and memorability, it is capable of displaying
excitement, tension and beauty, as well as larger than life items (giant
70
strawberries falling into yoghurt), or even illustrative demonstrations of
how products work. All of this can be exploited by businesses and, in
most cases, they have been utilized (Cézar 2007).
According to Cézar (2007), television and press have begun to lose the
ability to make a name for organization or product. Advertisers whose
brands grew up with television began to worry that they would be
forgotten if they could not solve the question of how to engage the
consumer.
The following graphs present the main players in the selected media
market, in terms of their market share and reach. It can be said that the
authors' concern about the ability of traditional media to maintain their
reach on target audiences is justified.
Chart 1: Market share of TV (7/2017)

Source: medialne.etrend.sk (2017)
As can be seen from the graph, except for two cases, none of the entities
managed to record year-on-year growth, the station Plus, belonging to
the TV Joj portfolio, recorded zero growth, or a decrease. Television is
considered to be the basic pillar of marketing communication of
71
reputable companies; it is also easy to control from the point of view of
the form and format of the presented message. However, evolutionary
development in the mass media does not forecast a bright future.
Rádio Lumen
Rádio_FM (SRo 4)
Rádio Anténa Rock
Rádio Vlna
Rádio Regina (SRo 2)
Rádio Europa 2
Jemné
Fun rádio
Rádio Slovensko (SRo 1)
Rádio Expres
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25
Medziročný pohyb (%) Trhový podiel (%)
Chart 2: Market share of Radio (1-7 / 2017)

From the diagram it is clear that the trend of zero growth from the
perspective of the market share of television is noticeable even at the
level of listeners of radio stations operating in the selected market.
Relatively well-established players in the market experience mostly zero
growth or a slight decrease. However, this trend has been visible for
several years.
The most striking is the apparent situation of the decline of traditional

media in formats requiring financial participation; from the point of view
of the saleability of printed material, the trend of the massive drop in
year-to-year sales is as follows:
72
Korzár
Hospodárske noviny
Új Szó
Sme
Plus Jeden Deň
Nový Čas
-20 000 0 20 000 40 000 60 000 80 000 100 000
Medziročný pohyb (ks) Predajnosť (ks)
Chart 3: Market share of Press (7/2017)

From the point of view of the absolute numbers, the market leader in
marketability has experienced a drop of more than 5,500 pieces a year.
This slump is visible throughout the segment. From the perspective of
two years, the market leader's collapse is quantifiable by an almost
20,000 pieces loss in marketability, while from the perspective of a
decade, it is a loss of more than half of marketability.
Traditional media was the backbone of marketing communications for

decades. Print as a medium relied on historical tradition, creating and
further determining the reputation of organizations that could afford to
use its portfolio of services. Public-address systems and later radio were
a successful addition to print media until the massive expansion of
television. Television dominated the main flow of the dissemination of
messages and ideas. The end of the 20th century, compared to present
day, was characterized by a relatively simple set of reputation
determinants as such. In addition, the determinants were relatively
easily controllable and their change predictable.
73
2.1.2 Virtual world
In the following section, I will describe the basic determinants of

reputation of the virtual world. The reputation of enterprises has been
dominantly shaped by the "virtual", thus immaterial world, since the
time of the first decade of the 21st century. The new rules of marketing,
in my opinion, are best described in the identically named publication by
David Meerman Scott.
According to Scott (2010), it is necessary to shift attention from

mainstream marketing for the masses to the system of addressing a high
number of unsatisfied groups through the network. Scott further notes
that many things have changed in marketing management, and there is
a need to distinguish between old and new approaches. It is necessary
to quickly adapt to them, if a company wishes to succeed. The following
table synthesizes and sums up Scott's ideas:
The old rules The new rules

the only way to get heard of was marketing is more than just an
through the media advertising
companies communicated with PR is not only for readers and
journalists through press mainstream media viewers
releases
these press releases were you are what you publish
intended exclusively for a small
group of journalists and editors
companies only issued press people want authenticity, not
releases when they had purpose-built semi-products
important information
the expert jargon was people want participation, not
acceptable, because all propaganda
journalists understood it
74
press releases had to contain PR does not mean that you
quotes from third parties, such show your boss a TV spot about
as customers, analysts, and the company on television. It is
experts to ensure that people interested
in your product can see your
company on the web
buyers could only get after years of an almost
acquainted with the content of exclusive focus on the media,
a press release if the media the internet has made real
published it in the form of an public relations from PR
article
the only way to measure the blogs, online video, e-books,
effectiveness of press releases press releases and other forms
was the clippings books that of online content allow
included all clippings of organizations to communicate
newspaper articles or recordings directly with buyers as they
in which the media deigned to need it
mention the press release of the
company
PR and marketing were separate dividing lines between
disciplines, each of them was marketing and PR are unclear on
dealt with by different people the web
and had different goals,
strategies, and success criteria
Table 2: Differences between traditional and modern marketing

Source: Scott (2010)
75

76
2.2 Marketing communication in the Internet
environment
The Internet is not a homogeneous medium, it is made up of an

incredible number of parts, from hardware itself in the form of huge
server farms to intelligent refrigerators. This hardware then enables the
very essence of the Internet, services and tools, which have a
predominantly intangible form of endless lines of code. Before I describe
the determinants, I find it necessary, through a chronological tree
diagram, to outline the most important stages in the history of the
Internet:
77
Scheme 1: History of the Internet
Source: Malone media group in: Kochan (2015)
78
In less than fifty years, the Internet has undergone a massive evolution,
from the time of ARPANET, when the idea of today's Internet was a
project of soldiers and academics, until the time of the first web site. This
"project" did not pose any challenge or threat to marketing
management as such. Development has greatly accelerated during the
last decade of the 20th century. While the first twenty years in the
history of the Internet represented the joining of a limited number of
professional public entities, the next decade had a hyper evolutionary
character. From the time of the first Mosaic browser, to the founding of
PayPal and Google, not even half a decade has passed. The first decade
of the 20th century accelerated this development even more. Not even
a decade after its founding, the number of registered users of the
Facebook social network has exceeded one billion. However,
development has not stopped. With the arrival of a new generation of
social networks, such as Snapchat or Instagram, the demands of
marketing communications have been pushed to a whole new level. In
his publication, Hit Makers, Derek Thompson states that while marketing
professionals are learning the necessary practices based on current
trends, at the time of their application they are already losing their
authenticity and give off an obsolete or even embarrassing impression
(Thompson 2017). At a time when the number of Internet users is about
to reach the threshold of four billion, full reputation management is
impossible in the Internet environment. There are no more
"gatekeepers" and the flow of information is uncontrollable (Thompson
2017).
Based on my own research (Pollák 2015), the most important

determinants influencing the reputation of subjects in the Internet
environment can be divided into two dominant groups from the
perspective of active management:
• partially controllable
• uncontrollable
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For controllable determinants, one can mention the websites of subjects
and their presence in the catalogues of dominant portals. Furthermore,
their profiles on social networks, blogging platforms, and last but not
least, paid links in search results as well as paid reports in electronic
editions of the influential brick-and-mortar media (print, television).
Uncontrollable determinants include various forums and discussions,

review and referral sites and portals, out-of-control social network
profiles, and the scope of their own organization, as well as others
(considering the dynamic nature of the Internet, the set of
uncontrollable determinants is unquantifiable in my opinion).
As We approach the model of reputation analysis in the Internet

environment, We consider it indispensable to point to a graph depicting
the user base of major players in the domestic internet market (as
opposed to the graphs presented in the previous chapter).
Chart 4: Market share of Internet (7/2017)

The number of real users of market leading portal, Azet, has exceeded
2.5 million, although it can be said that, given the regional nature of the
80
content (from the point of view of language mutations), this number has
become quite saturated. From a decade perspective, the number of real
users has more than doubled. In comparison to the almost fifty percent
loss of the print media leader in the brick-and-mortar world within the
same decade, the trend of the transition from "traditional" to "modern"
is clearly identifiable.
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82
2 OBJECTIVE AND METHODOLOGY OF OUR
RESEARCH
This part of the monograph is focused on the definition of the
main objective of our research and its following decomposition into a set
of partial objectives. Subsequently, in this chapter we focus on the
methodological side of the presented research, there are specified and
thoroughly described available methodologies of determination of the
online reputation with the aim to summarize knowledge necessary for
the following own inquiry.
2.1 Research task and work objectives
The objective of this monograph is to summarize and present

partial results of the complex research project focused on the
investigation of the importance of the online reputation issue of subjects
operating in the automotive sector.
The submitted project is realized with the main aim to extend

theoretical knowledge about the researched issue. There were used
quantitative and qualitative methods of processing and they
subsequently served as the basis for processing of the methodology and
comprehensive and effective measure for the purposes of improvement
of the Online Reputation Management (ORM) platform in domestic
conditions.
2.2 Methods of work
As it was already mentioned, the objective of the work is to

summarize and present results of the comprehensive research of the
online reputation issue. Prior to the realization phase, it was necessary
to summarize available methodologies of measuring of this
phenomenon. In the following subchapters, we present knowledge
83
about the systems of online reputation used at home but also in the
world in a comprehensive and transparent way from secondary data.
2.2.1 Reputation mechanisms
Before we will fully dedicate to the systems of creation of

reputation, it is necessary to state criteria, which are presented by Yao
Wang and Julita Vassileva (2007). The stated criteria are a part of
reputation systems (Yao Wang and Julita Vassileva 2007):
1. centralized vs. decentralized – whether the reputation systems

are centralized or decentralized, they determine the feasibility
and complexity of reputation mechanism. In the centralized
system, the central node accepts all responsibility for
management of reputation of all members. In the decentralized
system, there is no central node. Members of the system must
cooperate and share responsibility for management of
reputation. Generally speaking, the mechanisms in the
centralized systems are less complex and easier for
implementation in the decentralized systems. Nevertheless,
they still need strong and reliable central servers and large
bandwidth for calculation, data storage and communication,
2. person/agent vs. resources – reputation systems may be

classified by people/agents or resources. In the system of
people/agents, the emphasis is put on the building of reputation
through people and their acting on behalf of other people. In the
system of resources, we focus on the modelling of reputation
through resources, which could be products or services,
3. global vs. personal – in the global reputation systems, the

reputation of people/agents/products/services is based on
opinions of the general population, which are public and visible
for all members of the system. While in the personal reputation
systems, the reputation of people/agents/products/services is
based on the opinion of a group of individual people, which may
84
be different in eyes of various members and they are influenced
by many factors such as members of various social networks or
uncertainty of the environment. It is much more difficult to
create a global reputation mechanism in the decentralized
system than in the centralized system.
2.2.2 Systems based on counting and averaging
If we talk about the reputation systems, the easiest solution is

to count all positive and negative evaluations. The overall result related
to a certain user is the difference between all positive and negative
evaluations. The given principle is used mainly on the server eBay, which
is one of the largest online markets and the community with more than
50 million of registered users. After every transaction, a seller or buyer
can give each other positive and negative, or neutral ratings, which add
them plus or minus points in the reputation (1, -1, 0). Users can also
leave comments. Especially, when people give negative evaluation, they
definitely leave a comment that explains it. Despite the fact that the
reputation mechanism on eBay is very simple, empirical results show,
that it supports transactions between sellers and buyers. It is caused
mainly by the fact, that in case of sellers with a better reputation it is
more probable that they will sell more. This mechanism can also prevent
the conspiracy of people to artificially increase their reputation for each
other (Resnick, Zeckhauser 2002).
As any other mechanism, also eBay has certain drawbacks. They include
(Resnick, Zeckhauser 2002):
• People are usually reluctant to leave negative rating. The main

reason is the fear of revenge from others. Only 1% of ratings at
eBay is negative and less than 0.5% is neutral. The neutral rating
is usually for delay or poor communication,
• People can change their identity. If they get bad evaluation of

their reputation, they choose the easier way and they create a
new identity,
85
• The system calculates the value of reputation of all evaluations
in the same way, whether it is a buyer or seller without
considering the reputation of those who are giving the
evaluation. Thus, for example the evaluation from dishonest
users is still counted.
The second solution is averaging of all evaluations (this is used for

example by Amazon and Epinions). The given solution is more effective
than in case of eBay, but the most accurate results are used only through
the use of weighted arithmetic averages, i.e. by old evaluation or
reputation of its resources. All these models take into consideration the
reputation that is not dependent on context..
2.2.3 Bayesian method
Jøsang et al. (2006) and Mui et al. (2001) dealt with the Bayesian
method in their scientific work for the evaluation of reputation. The
Bayesian systems use binary evaluation as an input (i.e. positive or
negative) and they are based on the calculation of the so-called
reputation score according to the statistical adjustment or actualization
of beta probability of the function of density of the selected distribution.
This method is based on the statistical adjustment of the probability
density functions (PDF) of a selected distribution. The “a posteriori” (i.e.
actualized) reputation score is calculated by the combination of the a
priori (i.e. last) reputation score with the new evaluation. The group of
beta distribution is a continual group of distribution functions indexed
into parameters α and β. The beta PDF denoted as beta (p|α, β) may be
expressed using the gama function as:
"($% ')
Beta(p|α, β) = px-1 (1 – p)β-1 where 0≤p≤1, α, β>0
"($)"(')
The advantage of this system is that fact that it provides a theoretically

solid basis for the calculation of the reputation score. The disadvantage
is that there cannot be set up weights of individual evaluations in it.
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2.2.4 Fuzzy concept
A reputation together with trust can be represented as a

linguistically unclear (fuzzy) concept, where functions of membership
describe the extent to which an agent may be described as trustworthy
or untrustworthy, based on what the agent subsequently gains a
reputation. Manchala (In: Jøsang et al. 2006) describes the given system
in his study Trust metrics, models and protocols for electronic commerce
transactions and also Sabater and Sierra (2003) in their study Review on
computational trust and reputation models. Sabater and Sierra in their
scheme talk about an individual reputation, which is derived from
private information about a given agent. They mentioned also the social
reputation, which is derived from information, which is provided by the
public about an agent. And what they called the contextually dependent
reputation is derived from context information.
2.2.5 ReGreT model
Another important model of the online reputation is the ReGreT

model, presented by Sabater and Sierra (2003). The ReGreT model is a
standard system of trust and reputation, focused on the complex small
and middle-sized e-commerce environment, where social relationships
between individuals play an important role. The system takes into
consideration three different sources of information, which are direct
experience, information from third parties and social structures. The
ReGreT model of reputation is based on three specialized types of
reputation:
1. Attested reputation – is calculated from information coming

from witnesses,
2. Reputation surroundings – a reputation is calculated by

information gained based on social relationships between
partners,
87
3. System reputation – it is a value of reputation based on roles and
general properties.
Another element of this system is the ontological structure. The authors

believe that a reputation and trust are not separate and abstract
concepts, but rather versatile aspects. The ontological structure
provides necessary information for the combination of values of a
reputation and trust, in order to make the calculation and combination
from more complex attributes.
For example, the reputation of an airline company includes:
• the reputation that it uses good aircrafts,
• the reputation that it never loses baggage,
• the reputation that it offers good refreshments.
On the other hand, an airline company may have the reputation that
includes:
• the reputation that it takes care of its aircraft depot,
• the reputation that it takes care of maintenance of aircrafts.
Every person may have different ontological structure, which combines

values of trust and a reputation differently and adds different weights at
the combination of these values.
2.2.6 Flow Model
The Flow Model calculates the reputation through transitive

interactions above the combination of individual users. Some of them
allocate a certain amount of reputation to the whole community (user
network) and it is further redistributed into all users. It means, that the
reputation may be increased only at the expense of other users. The
88
most famous example of this algorithm is PageRank by Google. Google
has become the most powerful and especially popular internet search
engine. The mechanism of PageRank evaluates pages on the scale of 0 –
10. Every page starts from zero. If a particular page has the evaluation 5
or 6 it is a very good score for PageRank. If the evaluation is higher than
7, it belongs to very big players. It is better to get one link from a page,
the PageRank score of which is 5 or 6, in comparison to 20 links from
pages, the PageRank score of which is only 1 or 2 (Wang, Vassileva 2007).
Juraj Sasko (2011) draws attention to the fact, that news sites mostly
have very high trust if we talk about Google. It is necessary to state about
this mechanism, that Google has the rule, where all the links must be
contextually relevant. For example, a page about cars should be “linked”
to other web pages about cars or blogs about cars, because they are
mutually contextually relevant, thus similar in content. Another rule is
that Google does not like duplicated context. For example, critics
evaluate a certain kind of dress from some designer, which increases the
reputation of the designer and it will sound credible. If the critic would
be still talking only about the same type of dress, his credibility would
decline and it works the same for PageRank. Page et al. (1998) state that
in contrast to other reputation systems, Google does not need the
participation of users. Despite the fact that Google is very successful in
the use of the algorithm on a large scale, it requires lots of calculations
and thus also strong servers.
2.2.7 Recommendation systems
Recommendation systems are similar to systems based on

counting and averaging, especially because both of them collect
evaluation from various communities. Nevertheless, they have also
significant differences. These systems assume that different people have
different tastes and therefore their evaluation differs from others,
because they give it based on their subjective tastes. The main objective
of the recommendation systems, which were described by Tavakolifard
(2012) in his study, is to decrease information overload and retain
customers through the selection of subsets of products from the
universal set based on user preferences. In the most basic form, the
89
recommendation problem is a problem of estimation of evaluation for
products that have not been identified by another user yet. After we can
estimate evaluation of items that have not been evaluated yet, we can
recommend users the items with the highest estimated evaluation. New
evaluations of items that have not been evaluated yet may be estimated
by the use of various methods, such the machine learning method,
approximation theory and various heuristics. Recommendation systems
are usually classified according to their approach to the estimation of
evaluation and they were traditionally studied for content filtering
versus collaborative filtering.
Additionally, recommendation systems are usually divided into the

following three categories, which are based on how recommendations
are formed (Tavakolifard 2012):
1. Recommendations based on content – a user recommends

products similar to those that he/she preferred in the past,
2. Collaborative recommendations – a user recommends products,

which people with similar tastes and preferences liked in the
past,
3. Hybrid approach – combines the methods of recommendation

based on content and collaborative recommendations.
Current recommendation systems use various types of data

representation, which usually capture three basic elements:
• User data (sex, age),
• Data items (product and price category) and
• Transaction data (user evaluation, time and place of

transaction).
90
Despite the recommendation systems show certain differences from the
reputation systems, we consider it appropriate to mention them in this
part.
2.2.8 Reputation algorithms for peer-to-peer
There was created a group of algorithms, which are focused on

the calculation of reputation on Peer-to-Peer networks. EigenTrust is
one of the most popular algorithms and it serves for the calculation of
global reputation for every user based on the history of his/her
transactions. The main representative of this model is Kamvar et al.
(2003), who thoroughly discusses it in his study The EigenTrust
Algorithm for Reputation Management in P2P Networks. The calculation
of global reputation of every user consists of local evaluation of a given
user weighted by the global reputation of an evaluator. The algorithm
depends on the group of “confidential” users, from whom verified
evaluations can be gained. This model uses the transitivity of trust and
aggregates of trust. It performs the distributed calculation in order to
derive the vector of the trust matrix. The one who trusts, “a trustor”,
seeks for opinion of his/her trusted agents – friends about the overall
trustworthiness of an agent. Every opinion of a friend has the weight
with the global reputation of a friend. The objective is to gain the
necessary broad view on performance of a target agent, “a trustor” will
continue to seek for opinions of friends of his/her friends. This will
constantly continue until it reaches the point, where the difference of
two values of trust in the interactions following each other is smaller
than a pre-defined threshold.
2.2.9 Dissemination of trust and distrust
The main idea of this method is the fact, that we will rather trust
the opinion of our friend than of many unknown people. Therefore, trust
(or distrust) should be spread only between friends (neighbours in the
social graph). The approach of straightforward and effective
dissemination of trust and distrust is described by Guha et al. (2004) in
his scientific article Propagation of trust and distrust. In the calculation,
91
there are included both sides of evaluation, positive (trust) and negative
(distrust). A reputation is disseminated through exponentiating of
matrices. The output of the calculation is a trust matrix (T) and distrust
matrix (D), where Tij (Dij) means the value of trust (distrust) from the user
i to the user j. The given value is in the interval <0,1>. The matrix of trust
and distrust is by a selected method combined into the matrix of
opinions (B). The matrix (B) = (T), or (B) = (T) - (D). The objective of the
algorithm is to correctly predict the most values of mutual reputation
between all users.
This method uses four basic ways of dissemination and each of them has
an operator assigned. The given methods of dissemination are as follows
(Guha et al. 2004):
1. Direct dissemination - direct transfer of trust between users,
2. operator: B
3. Transposed trust - promotion of trust in the opposite direction,
4. operator: BT
5. Cross calculation - takeover of trust from users, who trust the

same user (the same view of the world), it is calculated as a step
backward and a step forward, operator: BTB
6. Connection of trust - users who trust the same users will trust
each other, operator: BBT
Each operator is assigned a certain weight (α) and they are all combined
into one matrix C, which captures all atomic ways of dissemination of
reputation:
Cβ,α = α1B +α2BTB +α3BT+α4BBT
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Guha et al. (2004) in his contribution states a number of methods of
calculation. We will describe individual parameters, which must be
selected in advance:
1. The weight of individual methods of dissemination (α =

(α1,...,α4))
2. The number of steps of interactive dissemination of reputation

(K)
3. The process of defining B - three options are available (P(k)

denotes the matrix, in which the value at the position i, j
represents the disseminated value of reputation from the user i
to the user j after k atomic steps:
a) Only trust: B = T, P(k) = CkB,α
b) One-step distrust: B = T, P(k) = CkB,α . (T – D)
c) Promoted distrust: B = T – D, P(k) = CkB,α
4. Types of interactive dissemination of reputation (F denotes the

resulting matrix after k steps, which represents the reputation
between all users):
a) Promotion using own numbers (EIG): F = P(k). During the

promotion, there occurs exponentiation of matrix. For
exponentiation of the matrix C, there is used the equality C = V .
D . V-1, where columns V are eigenvectors of the matrix C and D
is a diagonal matrix with eigen values C. Then Ck =V. Dk . V-1,
which can be effectively calculated.
b) Weighted linear combinations: F = ∑Kk=1 γk.P(k)
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Guta et al. (2004) claim that the best results are reached through
parameters, which are one-step distrust and EIG interactions with
weights α = (0.4,0.4,0.1,0.1). In the implemented system, the real results
of reputation must be transferred into the interval <-1,1>.
2.2.10 Sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis (or Opinion mining) can be defined as the

automatic quantification of subjective content expressed in the text
form with the aim to determine attitudes of a commentator or writer in
respect to a given subject. It belongs to one of the oldest and often used
methods of measuring of reputation. We can generally say, that the
sentiment analysis is aimed at the determination of attitude of a speaker
or writer with focus on a certain topic or overall conceptual polarity of a
document. The attitude may be a judgement or evaluation of a particular
person, emotional state of the author or intended emotional
communication (it represents an emotional effect, which an author
wishes to create towards a recipient) (Liu 2012). It has a wide range of
application areas such as services, film industry, consumer goods,
measurability of the impact of online evaluations, monitoring of social
media, monitoring of evaluation of products, services or brands, forecast
of stock price development based on online evaluations, identification
of cyberbullying, etc. Its priority tasks include identification of
subjectivity, orientation, power and sentiment carrier, classification of
emotions, detection of sarcasm or various comparisons (Koncz 2013).
The sequence of the reputation measuring process starts by defining of
representative of the investigated segment and its competitors in the
industry. Within the sentiment analysis, there are 10 first results in the
search engine taken into consideration. In order to limit distortion of
offered results through the search engine, which tends to personalize
searching of an activity on the internet through history, preventing the
impact of cookies and another factors, there is used the so-called “proxy
server”, which can be, for example, the web page anonymouse.org and
others (Sasko 2011). As the searched phrase, there is always used a
generally known and customary name of the research subject, the object
of analysis. One of the main factors in the process of evaluation is
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sentiment of results displayed after inserting the searched name to the
search engine. Sentiment can be freely defined as the nature of found
result after inserting of key words. In the results, there may appear
positive, neutral as well as negative responses. These sentiments as well
as the position where they appeared, will provide the picture of the
researched subject and thus, they ultimately determine its online
reputation (Dorčák, Pollák 2013). There is recorded evaluation of the
first 10 results after searching on Google. After counting the points of
sentiment, we reach the final amount. It subsequently represents the
starting factor for evaluation of success or failure of a company in a
specific segment. The following Table 1 shows values that we assign by
the sentiment analysis:
Sentiment/Position of the
result 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Positive sentiment
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Web owned by the
company 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Neutral sentiment
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Negative sentiment
-20 -19 -18 -17 -16 -15 -14 -13 -12 -11
Table 3: Sentiment analysis
Source: Sasko 2013
Positive, negative and neutral sentiment
Determining of the overall direction of polarity or sentiment of

a specific text, is a part of the comprehensive theory processed in the
work of Bing Liu from the year 2010 and two years later in his book
Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining from the year 2012, which
seriously deals with this issue, determines theses, describes and justifies
them together with specific examples. This is the Theory of opinion
mining used more or less for evaluation of the polarity of a certain
95
subjective published opinion, related to a certain object, product or
subject. The related definition of character of text, reference or searched
key word, may be based on a highly subjective undertone on the side of
a publisher or writer (evaluator). In order to avoid it, it is necessary to
define the overall text polarity, which may be determined based on the
polarity of individual words in the text. It was proven that the most
suitable words for determination of text orientation are adjectives and
adverbs. Adjectives in the third grade - superlative - in the positive (the
oldest, the best, etc.) or negative sense (the worst, the weakest) may
quite reliably help to determine sentiment of a reference or text, as well
as verbs identifying some activity developed toward something positive,
they may be a positive signal, on the contrary, a negative signal may be
for example a mention about an accident, potential danger,
uncontrollable, unexpected change, which cannot be reversed.
However, in such cases it is necessary to bear in mind the object, to
which the given word is bound. During the determination of polarity, the
same adjective, noun or verb may have different polarity with respect to
different objects. During the classification, it is therefore necessary to
decide to what object is the evaluation related and subsequently there
is assigned a numerical value to words and phrases determined as key
words in the determination of the overall sentiment. Consequently,
there is needed the list of evaluated words and the fact why it was on
their basis decided to give the positive, negative or neutral direction of
sentiment. However, such numerical values may be assigned even to ten
web pages offered by the search engine after inserting of the searched
name depending on whether it is own website of the organization and
so on. The problem may occur in ambiguity of the mentioned word
classes or phrases in various domains. For example, the adjective
unpredictable is positive if it is related to a film story, but in the
evaluation of car, appliance or another equipment is it a negative feature
(Bing 2012).
Automated sentiment analysis
The automated sentiment analysis refers to the use of the so-

called NLP (natural language processing), analysis of text and
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computational linguistic for the identification and extraction of
subjective information from a source material (Pang, Lee 2008). It can
be generally said, that the sentiment analysis is aimed at the
determination of the approach of a speaker or writer with focus on a
certain topic of the overall conceptual polarity of a document. The
approach can be a judgement or evaluation of a specific person,
emotional state of the author or intended emotional communication (it
represents an emotional flow, which the author wishes to create
towards a receiver) (Liu 2012). In order to understand the sentiment
analysis, it is necessary to understand the above-mentioned term NLP
(natural language processing). NLP is an area of computer science,
artificial intelligence and linguistics dealing with the interaction between
computers and human language. It can be said that NLP is focused on
the interaction between a human and computer. This computer system,
which is designed to work with human language in the written or spoken
form, has different areas of application, from the creation of self-
learning computer systems through the recognition of human voice to
the translation software. In the sentiment analysis, it is used for the
extraction of subjective information, usually from a set of documents,
often using online review with the aim to determine polarity in a specific
subject. That is the reason why NLP is used in the sentiment analysis,
because the task of the sentiment analysis in marketing is to find out
what the attitude of customers to a product or service is like, thus what
its reputation is between customers. (Pang, Lee 2008).
Extended sentiment analysis
The comprehensive analysis requires the comprehensive approach.

Recently there appeared a new approach among companies that deal
with this quantification method of reputation. Specifically, it is the
multifactor sentiment analysis (Sasko 2013), which is designed for more
precise measuring of the overall virtual reputation of subjects. The
methodology of this research used 4 factors in the index, which show
online reputation of specific subjects.
97
• The first factor is sentiment of first 10 results in searching on
Google. Key words are inserted to the search engine according
to the following matrix:
1. Group: Name of the subject.
2. Group: Name of the subject + the first most searched key

word in the area of operation of the subject.
3. Group: Name of the subject + the second most searched key

word in the area of operation of the subject.
The final score is obtained as the sum of sentiments of

search results of the three above stated groups.
• The second factor is the size of audience on social networks: the

number of fans was monitored on the social networks Facebook,
Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn and Google+. The number of fans is
usually determined manually or by SocialBakers.
• The third factor is mentioning of the subject on the Slovak

portals sme.sk, Aktuality.sk, Pravda.sk. The number of mentions
about a company is detected based on the occurrence of the
subject name in search results on the relevant portals.
• The fourth factor is the number of indexed pages on the search

engine Google. The number of indexed pages on Google is
detected based on inserting of the subject name into the search
and setting of a particular geographic location..
98
2.2.11 Net promoter score
The net promoter score or net promoter system (NPS)

represents a system of measuring of a reputation, which is based on a
fundamental perspective that customers of every company can be
divided into three categories according to the level of their willingness
to recommend products or services of a given company to their
acquaintances or family. (Reichheld 2011). This system of evaluation of
a reputation uses the direct questioning while it relies on a so-called
ultimate question: “How much are you willing to recommend a product
to your friends?” The asking of this question enables companies to trace
three fundamental groups of customers, while this system produces net
measuring of organizational performance from the perspective of
customers of this company.
As it was already mentioned, the NPS uses the direct questioning while
the process itself may be illustrated on an example of already stated
questions: “How much are you willing to recommend a product to your
friends?”
A respondent chooses an answer to this question on a ten-degree scale,

where 10 represents the extreme willingness to recommend a product,
company or service to friends and 1 represents the absolute
unwillingness to further recommend a product.
The scale is divided into three parts, where every part represents one
groups of customers:
• Promoters (10-9) – this group of customers represents a loyal

and enthusiastic group that will still buy products of a specific
company and it will recommend qualities of this company to
friends.
• Passives (8-7) – the group of customers that is satisfied with

products of a given company but it is not so enthusiastic as the
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previous group, its disadvantage is vulnerability to a competitive
offer.
• Detractors (6-0) represent dissatisfied customers, who may

damage a brand of a company and it is possible that they will
spread negative references about products of a given company
(Reichheld 2011).
Figure 9: Net promoter score

Source: Reichheld (2011)
How do companies cope with this method of measuring of a reputation?

The effectiveness of the NPS system of an average company is between
5 to 10 percent. In practice, promoters of this company only hardly
exceed detractors. It can be said that many companies, even whole
sectors of business, have significantly more detractors than promoters.
This abysmal NPS score explains, why many companies are not able to
make profit and maintain a continual growth. Even companies like
Amazon are in the range between 50 to 80 percent, which means that
these large companies still have a space to improve relationships with
customers (Shevlin 2008).
The system itself includes eight basic processes:
1. Reliable metrics – a highly qualitative process of sorting of

customers into the three above stated groups and
understanding of the competitive position of a company are key
processes for the qualitative quantification of NPS.
2. Economics of loyalty – represents a calculation and analysis of

what is provided by true understanding of a price and benefits
100
of investing in various segments of a customer base for gaining
of their increased loyalty.
3. Closed loop- one of the most important parts of NPS. This

element represents the immediate sharing of customer
feedback with employees, while an answer should be given
directly to an individual customer in order to satisfy his/her
needs.
4. Learning – is related to the previous point. The immediate

feedback of employees to customer needs gives a company an
opportunity to understand the impact of organizational
activities on customer, what enables faster learning of a
company. However, learning requires more than a feedback. It
also requires processes that should help employees to
experiment and provide them the leadership they need.
5. Main cause – the process of getting a feedback from customers

and other sources of data and their analysis in a deeper view of
what a company is able to create, makes more promoters and
decreases a number of detractors.
6. Actions – follows the collection of feedback, calculation of score

and learning. Companies using the NPS system actively search
for ways how to change daily behaviour of an organization and
they tend to be active in decreasing of a number of detractors.
7. Robust operation infrastructure – supporting of the high

qualitative closed loop system and subsequent actions requires
formation of robust operation processes, policies and
information flows. The NPS requires an operational supporter in
order to become a part of daily work of a company.
8. Leadership and communication – companies using the NPS

require a leader to give values to an organization and support
them through actions, decisions and words. By this, it
101
demonstrates own effort to get customers and achieve
employee loyalty (Reichheld 2011).
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3 RESULTS OF THE REALIZED RESEARCH
This part of work is devoted to the chronological summary of
partial results of the research published by the project team in
cooperation with domestic as well as foreign experts involved in the
realization of the research. At the end of this section, there are
holistically presented the most important findings of the complex
research. Based on these findings there are postulated
recommendations for science and practice.
3.1 Analytical view of the Slovak internet market

and its key players
The study called Analytical view of the Slovak internet market

and its key players, represented a first contact with the problem of
management of virtual reputation within our research. Given the fact
that the key market players and their characteristics do not change
significantly over time, the data are in order to maintain authenticity left
in the condition in which they were collected at the very beginning of
our research. Research was primarily focused on the analysis and
subsequent presentation of the holistic view of the actual state of Slovak
virtual market, specifically of its key players. At that time, the analysis of
user base consisting of key players from the perspective of traffic, as well
as chosen demographic characteristics presented the actual situation in
the market. In order to process the analysis, there were used relevant
secondary information sources in the form of statistical databases,
specifically the systems socialbakers.com and AIM monitor of the
association of internet media.
3.1.1 Results and discussion
Within the subchapter, there are presented results of the

extensive analysis process on a basis of secondary information sources.
103
The internet market, specifically its key players were divided into the
groups:
• web pages and portals,
• web communities.
Key players in the Slovak internet market - web pages and portals
In the Slovak internet market, there operate several big players

- portals, which provide a number of information, divided into various
sections and subsections. Internet users who search for information on
the internet through web portals have the possibility of easier and
clearer choice of information.
Azet.sk has the first place with the highest number of visitors. The portal
azet defines its activity as covering of various services, there operates,
for example, the catalogue of companies and web pages, e-mail or the
online chat Pokec.
The second place belongs to zoznam.sk, which is in the group of

searching services or lists.
The third in a row is the portal sme.sk, the activity of which is focused on
gaining and providing of all types of news and information from home
and abroad.
The fourth portal is atlas.sk that, similarly as zoznam.sk, belongs to the

group of searching services.
The fifth is the portal actuality.sk, sixth toptky.sk, seventh čas.sk and
eighth pravda.sk. All these portals belong to news portals. The ninth
place belongs to the web shop heureka.sk. The top ten is closed by the
news portal tvnoviny.sk All these web pages are of the Slovak origin.
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tvnoviny.sk
heureka.sk
pravda.sk
cas.sk
topky.sk
aktuality.sk
atlas.sk
sme.sk
zoznam.sk
azet.sk
0 10 000 000 20 000 000 30 000 000 40 000 000 50 000 000
Chart 5: Top 10 Slovak webpages

Source: aimmonitor.sk, 2013, In: Pollák, Dorčák, 2014
The internet portal www.azet.sk (Azet) is the biggest internet portal in

Slovakia regarding the number of users, as it is shown in Table 2. The
number of users in the month September 2013 reached the of 2 418 326
and almost 615 million of view. The portal Azet was visited more than 42
million times, which means that a user visited this portal on average 24
times a month. The overall time spent in the month September 2013 was
1,149 years, 317 days, 16 hours, which means on average 4 hours 9
minutes and 54 seconds per one user. The average length of a visit on
Azet was 14 minutes and 06 seconds per user.
Table 4: The number of users of Azet and the comparison with

competitors for the month September 2013
Portal Users Views Visits
Azet 2 418 326 614 594 044 42 813 253
Zoznam 2 261 000 116 471 632 25 013 137
Sme 2 004 692 100 396 437 23 291 221
Atlas 1 887 829 60 006 988 11 934 611
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In the following chart, we can see the development of users of the portal
azet.sk as the biggest player in the Slovak market during individual years.
During seven years, the portal improved by more than 1,197,422 of
users, by which it almost doubled its user base.
3 000 000
1 742 961 2 211 181
1 294 699
2 418 326
2 000 000 1 791 791
1 220 884 1 518 960
1 000 000
0
2007 2008
2009 2010
2011 2012
2013
Chart 6: The increase of users of the portal Azet.sk during the years 2007
- 2013 according to AIM
Key players in the Slovak internet market – web communities
In our market, there currently operate (are used) various virtual

social media. Whether they are professional or educational portals,
small community portals or large global players, the idea is basically the
same. To create a space for various activities and functions such as
building of relationships, promotion and sharing of content, evaluation
of this content, and naturally, fun. For the purposes of this analysis, we
will work with the largest virtual network in the world, Facebook. With
more than a billion users, Facebook holds the position of the world
leader. In the following tables and charts, we will point out the real state
of using of this social networking in the Slovak market. From the gender
representation, the ratio of registered men and women from Slovakia is
almost equal according to the page socialbakers.com, specifically 52% of
women and 48% of men. It is more interesting from the perspective of
age differentiation. In the following table and chart, we processed the
overview of users according to age:
106
Table 5: Facebook users according to age
Age Percentage share
13-15 years 6%
16-17 years 8%
18-24 years 27%
25-34 years 29%
35-44 years 17%
45-54 years 8%
55+ years 6%
Source: Socialbakers.com, 2014, In: Pollák, Dorčák, 2014
Firstly, it is necessary to note, that more than two million of Slovaks have
their profile on Facebook, which is almost 2/3 of the overall internet
population in Slovakia. More than a half of the mentioned two million
users belongs to the age range of 18-34 years. Thus, it is the
economically active part of the population, which is relatively attractive
from the perspective of activity and preferences.
30
25
20
15
Percentage representation
10
0
7 s
4 s
-3 ars
4 s
4 s
55 ars
s
r
ar
16 yea
18 ea
35 yea
45 ea
e
ye
ye
y
y
5
+
-1
-1
-2
-4
-5
13
25
Chart 7: Facebook users according to age

107
This argument could be sufficient in relation to the decision about the
virtual presence of Slovak organizations (whether in the form of paid
advertisement, business page, fan page or group). For completeness, we
also provide the overview of top 10 business brands on Slovak Facebook
(data are from May 2013) according to the leader in statistics of social
networks, the portal socialbakers.com (specific brands and products are
replaced by a description presenting their focus considering the nature
of publication).
Table 6: 10 business brands on Slovak Facebook

Business brand Number of fans
E-shop with branded clothes 208 570
Energy drink 157 561
Milk chocolate 148 044
Energy drink 143 374
Non-alcoholic sugary drink 129 720
Brand of sportswear 123 659
Brand of passenger cars 117 108
Clothing brand 106 946
Salty snacks 104 121
Sweet snacks 102 847
As it can be seen in the table, the first place with more than 200,000 fans
occupied the e-shop with branded clothes. The next places belong to
energy or non-alcoholic drinks. It is necessary to realize the fact, that it
is possible to regularly provide ad content with almost zero costs
through a fan page. The amount of total costs spent on such promotion
is often created only by the amount which must be allocated for
providing a promotion message. From the perspective of costs, it is then
extremely low cost promotion, this promotion is especially suitable for
products with a higher value added.
108
3.1.2 Assessment
The Slovak market is specific, organizations operating in the

market must cope with a relatively low purchasing power on the side of
potential customer, on the other hand, on the supply side (represented
by potential competitors), organizations appear in the hypercompetitive
environment. The analysed market is characteristic by a high
representation of small enterprises on the supply side. These
enterprises, considering their limits caused mainly by limited resources
(personal, financial, time…) must operate as effectively as possible if
they want to remain in the turbulent and hypercompetitive market.
Organizations only gradually begin to use the internet and benefit from
opportunities offered to them. Perfect knowledge of the market is
undoubtedly one of the main factors of the effective use of available
resources, as well as a source of potential identification of market
opportunities for business.
109
3.2 Analysis of reputation of chosen entities on
Slovak virtual market
The study called Analysis of reputation of chosen entities on

Slovak virtual market focused on initial testing of the methodology called
Sentiment analysis (its simple version). In order to test the applicability
of this analysis in academic research, the methodology was used for
determining the online reputation of the twenty largest Slovak towns as
the best representatives of entities that officially present themselves
directly to target customers, internet users, in the specific area of virtual
market. The sequence of the reputation measurement process begins by
defining representatives of the segment that is being investigated, in this
case we chose specific Slovak towns. Then, virtual identities of these
entities are examined by means of the Google search engine. The first
10 search results are taken into account in the sentiment analysis. To
ensure the objectivity of the results, which may be biased due to the
tendency of search engines to personalize searches by using the history
of internet activity, proxy anonymizers were used in order to provide the
greatest possible relevance of findings. Only organic results were
counted into the survey. Generally known and usual names of the towns,
with no regard to their home sites, were used as search phrases. One of
the main factors in the assessment process is the sentiment of the
results. It can be loosely defined as the nature of the result found after
entering keywords. Positive, neutral, but also negative feedback may
appear in the results. These sentiments, as well as the position they are
on, give an idea about the research subjects and thus, ultimately,
determine their online reputation. Sentiment of the results of the Top10
is clearly shown in next Table with a brief commentary. At the same time,
each position has an allocated score based on the sentiment of search
results. The table shows the chronological sequence of allocating score
to the analysed entities. Positive feedback, sentiment, causes an
increase of the score. The higher the position of this sentiment in the
search results, the higher the allocated score. It works similarly when
identifying negative sentiment, but with the opposite effect. The score
decreases, the higher the position it is displayed on, the bigger the
110
deduction from the score which rapidly deteriorates reputation. The
individual sentiments are then counted in the overall assessment and
the resulting amount indicates the strength of sentiment of all ten
search engine results for a given town / entity. The resulting amount of
sentiments represents the overall level (strength) of online reputation.
The entities are then listed in ascending order of their overall level of
online reputation in the virtual environment of the Slovak internet for
comparison.
The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the twenty

largest Slovak towns (and therefore the overall level of their online
reputation) is as follows:
Table 7: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the twenty

largest Slovak towns
Town / Result
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Score
sentiment
Komárno x x ± + ± + ± x ± + 73
Bardejov x ± + + ± x ± + ± x 72
Nitra x ± ± + + + ± ± ± ± 70
Michalovce x x x ± ± ± + + ± ± 64
Košice x + ± ± ± + + ± ± ± 60
Martin x ± ± ± + + ± ± ± ± 55
Trenčín x ± ± ± + ± + ± ± ± 54
Poprad x ± + ± ± ± ± ± + ± 54
Prievidza x ± ± ± + ± ± ± ± ± 42
Spišská Nová Ves x ± ± ± + ± ± ± ± ± 42
Zvolen x ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± ± 41
Bratislava x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40
Prešov x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40
Levice x x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 35
Nové Zámky x ± ± ± x ± ± ± ± ± 32
Humenné x ± ± ± x ± ± ± ± ± 32
111
Žilina x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Banská Bystrica x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Trnava x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Považská Bystrica x ± - ± ± ± ± - ± ± -7
Source: Dorčák, Pollák et al., 2014
Based on the analysis, it is clear that within the virtual identity of

research subjects - the twenty largest Slovak towns, the first places in
the searches are occupied by sites belonging directly to the towns or
managed by the towns. The dominant group of sentiments consisted of
search results with neutral nature of sentiment. Occurrence of a
negative sentiment was recorded only for one subject, twice, on the
third and eighth position in the search (town Považská Bystrica had a
negative assessment, particularly in relation to the town's transport
infrastructure). Those entities occupying the leading positions have in
terms of virtual reputation among the internet users an unquestionable
advantage in the form of a more positive perception of their complex
virtual identity. In case that a user is seeking information about a
particular town and they encounter negative references, ultimately it
can affect their overall perception of the destination. Especially if it is a
tourist who has not yet visited the town or location personally and their
judgement can be drawn up only on the basis of the information
contained in the virtual environment. The same applies in the case of
potential investors.
3.2.2 Assessment
Town should see to it that the necessary information is made

available to potential visitors as clearly as possible. It is in their interest
to ensure the elimination of negative publicity (and vice versa to
strengthen positive publicity), for at least the first ten positions in search
engines.
112
3.3 Analysis of options to survey the online
reputation of universities and colleges on the
Slovak virtual market
The study called Analysis of options to survey the online

reputation of universities and colleges on the Slovak virtual market build
on previous research, with the aim to test the usability of the chosen
methodology of a simple sentiment analysis for the purposes of
academic research. For purposes of the study, the chosen subjects are
Slovak universities or colleges, particularly their virtual presentation. The
target group is then narrowed to twenty Slovak universities or public
colleges operating on our chosen market.
The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of twenty

Slovak universities / public colleges (and therefore the overall level of
their online reputation) is as follows:
Table 8: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of twenty

Slovak universities / public colleges
University or public 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Score
college / Result
sentiment
J. Selye University in x ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± ± 41
Komárno
Comenius University in x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40
Bratislava
Technical University in x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40
Zvolen
Matej Bel University in x ± ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± 39
Banská Bystrica
University of Veterinary x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + ± 38
Medicine and Pharmacy
in Košice
Pavol Jozef Šafárik x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + 37
University in Košice
113
University of Prešov in x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + 37
Prešov
University of Ss. Cyril x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + 37
and Methodius in
Trnava
Technical University of x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + 37
Košice
Constantine the x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Philosopher University
in Nitra
Trnava University in x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Trnava
University of Žilina in x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Žilina
Alexander Dubček x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
University of Trenčín in
Trenčín
University of Economics x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
in Bratislava
Slovak University of x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Agriculture in Nitra
Academy of Performing x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Arts
Academy of Fine Arts x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
and Design
Academy of Arts in x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Banská Bystrica
Catholic University in x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28
Ružomberok
Slovak University of x ± ± ± ± ± ± - ± ± 25
Technology in Bratislava
Zdroj: Dorčák, Pollák, Štrach, 2014
When testing the samples, a shift towards a better optimization of the

chosen methodology was observed. The number of positive reviews on
social networks was not taken into account when determining the
sentiment, only the very fact that an institution has its own profile on
any of the virtual social networks was considered. Similarly, the nature
or description of the institution on the Wikipedia portal was not taken
into account, only the very fact that Wikipedia mentions that institution
was considered. In both these cases, the results were assigned a neutral
114
sentiment. If the search engine found sites of the institution´s faculties
on other positions in addition to its official website or sites of affiliated
entities, such results were assigned neutral sentiments.
Based on the analysis, it is clear that, within the virtual identity of the
surveyed entities - twenty Slovak universities or public colleges, the first
places in searches are occupied by sites that belong directly to the
universities / colleges or by sites that are managed by the institutions.
The dominant group of sentiments consisted of search results with
neutral nature of sentiment. Occurrence of a negative sentiment was
recorded only with one subject; on the eighth position in the search
(Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava had a negative assessment
in relation to a fire in a chemical laboratory of STU).
3.3.2 Assessment
Universities and colleges should see to it that the necessary

information is made available to the internet users as clearly as possible.
It is in their interest to ensure the elimination of negative publicity (and
vice versa to strengthen positive publicity), for at least the first ten
positions in search engines. This can be achieved by active internet
communication policy in the form of spreading positive information in
the leading internet portals such as the electronic editions of the biggest
Slovak dailies or through virtual social networks. The best way to
eliminate negative or neutral publicity in the first ten search engine
results is a literal displacement of such publicity by active work (in the
form of a thought-out marketing communication policy) on the internet.
115

116
3.4 Analysis of possibilities to improve online
reputation of public institutions
The study called Analysis of possibilities to improve the online

reputation of public institutions aimed to point to the complexities of
surveying reputation in the physical and in the virtual world, as well as
to identify the various determinants of positive (and negative)
reputation. Through meticulous examination of the object of research
in both environments, a comparison of selected entity with its potential
competitors on the Slovak market of educational institutions was made
for greater explanatory value. A partial objective was to specify the so-
called "best practice" tools that can help to increase competitiveness
within the market.
Concerning the methods and procedures, the analysis was

divided into two parts, the first part analysed the factors affecting
reputation in the physical world by means of an extensive questionnaire.
The questionnaire, with the objective to determine the perceived
reputation of a selected body among public institutions - Faculty of
Management, University of Prešov, as well as of its competitors, was
given to the entire sample of students of the chosen faculty within one
class. These students represent the model customers choosing from a
range of educational institutions (in particular) on the Slovak market.
The next step was to carry out an extensive sentiment analysis (in its
simple, basic form). The analysis compared, in the virtual world, the
virtual reputation of all economically oriented faculties of public colleges
on the Slovak market. Subsequently, factors affecting the reputation in
the virtual and in the physical world were identified.
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Reputation in the physical world
A ranking was compiled and the customers' perception of these

entities was identified by analysing how students perceive the physical
reputation of twenty economically oriented faculties of Slovak
universities. The analysis also identified the factors that affect students'
perception of the physical reputation. For better clarity and authenticity,
we leave the usual abbreviations for designation of the faculties, as they
were tested in the analysis. The virtual reputation of Faculty of
Management of University of Prešov is highlighted in the chart.
Depending on the perceived reputation measured on a Likert scale 1-5,
the following ranking of the entities was compiled based on the
arithmetic mean:
3,5
3
2,5
2
1,5
1
0,5
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Chart 8: Ranking of faculties based on the perception of reputation in

the physical world
Source: Dorčák, Pollák, Szabo, 2014
The line indicating the average limit separates based on the results of
students' perception the faculties located above the average and the
faculties with assessment not sufficient to reach the average. Students
allocated scores based on their perception of quality which represented
a kind of a cumulative quantity of positive or negative factors of the
physical world.
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Reputation in the virtual world of the internet (online reputation)
The virtual reputation of twenty economically oriented faculties

of Slovak universities was tested by means of sentiment analysis; their
virtual presence was carefully recorded and graded. The chart
graphically summarizes the ranking and the score earned by individual
faculties based on the sentiment analysis.
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
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Chart 9: Ranking of faculties based on sentiment analysis
The chart also shows which faculties scored above the average and
which scored the average, which was 39.95 points. For better clarity and
authenticity, we leave the usual abbreviations for designation of the
faculties, as they were tested in the analysis. The virtual reputation of
Faculty of Management of University of Prešov is highlighted in the
chart. The analysis revealed that most search results / virtual presence
have a neutral character, strongly positive or significantly negative
mentions on the top positions in the search engines could therefore
mean the difference between the first and the last place. In case of the
school that occupied the first place in the ranking of faculties that offer
study programmes in economics, namely the Faculty of Commerce,
University of Economics in Bratislava, it was carried out as follows: The
positive sentiment of the search result on the third place was a reference
of the page Portál vysokých škôl which gave brief information the
119
faculty, saying that its purpose is in accordance with its statute to
provide quality economic education. The positive sentiment on the
seventh position was a catalogue of the company azet.sk, which also
portrayed the Faculty of Commerce, University of Economics in
Bratislava as an institution that provides high-quality economic
education and prepares highly qualified professionals. On the other
hand, the faculty which occupied the last twentieth position in the
ranking: Faculty of Public Administration, University of Pavol Jozef
Šafárik in Košice. Given the nature of the significantly negative sentiment
on the sixth and seventh position of the search results, it achieved only
2 plus points in the overall assessment of the sentiment analysis. This
unfavourable situation resulting from the sentiment analysis was
affected by two negative references. The first one of these was the
portal www.birdz.sk where there was a statement that the given faculty
"is nothing special". The second reference was found on the site
www.pluska.sk where the key guiding factor was the sentence with a
significantly negative impact on the sentiment, namely the claim that
the Faculty of Public Administration, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik in
Košice generates the most unemployed graduates. It was the nature of
the search results, the sentiment of the words used in the reference that
had a significant impact on the overall perception of the image of the
institution.
Comparison of results from the physical and the virtual world
Based on the analysis, we can conclude that the virtual and the
physical reputation are determined by different factors. A comparison
of perception of reputation in the physical and the virtual world was
carried out in a transparent manner using a radar chart. The comparison
is based on different values in the results of sentiment analysis of the
virtual world and the respondents' answers in the questionnaire survey
of the physical world. A scale for elaborating the chart was defined
based on the assessment score when carrying out the sentiment
analysis. For the preparation of university rankings according to the
opinion of students, the arithmetic means of the individual answers
were the guiding values. The following chart is a visual graphical
120
representation of the data from the physical and the virtual world. By
default, it is true that the further from the centre of the chart the score
of a faculty is, the more positive phenomenon this fact is for an
educational institution and, logically, its reputation is better. The
arithmetic averages of the entities in the physical world were multiplied
ten times for a better interpretation of the relations and to better
illustrate the different perceptions of reputations in different
environments with two different measurement methodologies.
2.UK:FM
20.UPJŠ:FVS 70 3.UK:FSaEV
19. TUAD:FSEV 60 4.EUBA:FMV
50
18.TUKE:EF 40 5.SPU:FEaM
30
17.STU:MTF 20 6.ŽU:FRaI
10
0
16.ŽU:FPaEDS 7.UMB:EF
15.UKF:FPV 8.EUBA:NF
14.PU:FM 9.UJS:EF
13.EUBA:FPM 10.UCM:FSV
12.EUBA: PHF KE 11.EUBA:FHI
Curve of the score in the analysis of the virtual environment

Curve of the median values from the analysis of the physical world
c multiplied by ten
Chart 10: Comparison of results from the physical and the virtual world
Based on the chart we can conclude that there is no direct relation

between the reputation in virtual environment and in the physical world,
given the differences that are obvious in the graphic representations of
the facts.
121
3.4.2 Assessment
The fundamentals for creating a positive reputation in the

physical world are such factors as the quality of educational process,
innovation, methods and tools used during teaching, expertise and
relevance of knowledge provided and subsequent extent of utilization in
practice. These factors are ultimately reflected in the perception of
students as one cumulative variable "perceived quality". In contrast, the
issue of building positive reputation in the virtual environment of the
internet has a much more dynamic character. Building a positive image
of an entity and the purposeful few-year-long effort to establish a
positive reputation may be devastated in a moment, for example by
spreading alarming, false or intentionally harmful information; the
whole issue of building reputation is very fragile. Already a reference of
a slightly negative nature or undertone can simply and easily damage the
name of a company, its brand, level of products and services it provides.
The factors affecting reputation, its direction, development and level on
the internet are various references on the websites offered by search
engines, their character and strength of sentiment relating to particular
entity. Entities that also in our ranking occupy the leading positions have
a competitive advantage over the other rated entities in terms of
reputation on the internet. The force of sentiments of individual search
results was decisive, but also the order in which the pages were
displayed. As with the faculties located on the first positions the
significant factors were those bearing positive sentiment, so an
established history of years on the Slovak market evokes a kind of
stability of the educational institution. Another significantly positive fact
was also clear pointing to the quality of the educational process,
achievements of the educational institution generally known to the
public, innovative methods and tools used in teaching, but also expertise
and excellent employment rate of graduates of the faculty and their
potential employment on the labour market. Rating agencies and
various markings on relevant web sites that can significantly enhance the
reputation of an entity towards a positive, desirable development, to the
most positive state possible, should also be taken into account.
122
3.5 Online reputation of healthcare providers on
the Slovak market
The study called Online reputation of healthcare providers on

the Slovak market was an important point in the process of our research.
For this analysis, the methodology used was a simple sentiment analysis
to survey the online reputation of the twenty best Slovak healthcare
providers (according to a survey of VšZP from 2013). The methodology
was extended for the first time by the overall percentage score in
relation to the maximum possible number of points obtained in the
sentiment analysis (the maximum number of points = 155, 1 point =
0.645%), thereby contributing to a better interpretation of the
measured data with respect to the target entities. Similarly to the
previous study, the concept of comparing the virtual reputation to the
reputation in the physical world was used. We used the official ranking
of selected entities carried out nationally by a renowned institution as
an indicator of the physical reputation.
The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the top

twenty Slovak healthcare providers (and therefore the overall level of
their online reputation) is as follows:
Table 9: The table of the overall assessment of sentiments of the top

twenty Slovak healthcare providers
N Provider of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Score Score
o. healthcare/ Result 0 (online) (VšZP)
sentiment in points / in %*
%
1 Nemocnica Košice - x ± ± ± ± ± + ± + ± 50 / 78.02
Šaca a.s. 32.26
1. private hospital
2 KARDIOCENTER x + ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 45 / 80.94
NITRA s.r.o. 29.03
3 OFTAL, eye clinic, x + ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 45 / 80.83
Zvolen 29.03
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4 The National x ± ± ± + ± ± ± ± ± 42 / 81.14
Institute of 27.10
Cardiovascular
Diseases, a.s.
5 Eastern Slovakia x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40 / 75.30
Cancer Institute, a.s. 25.81
6 St. Michal´s x ± ± ± ± ± + ± ± ± 40 / 72.43
Hospital, a.s. 25.81
7 St. Elizabeth Cancer x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± + ± 38 / 82.01
Institute, s.r.o. 24.52
8 National Institute x ± ± ± ± ± + + - ± 37 / 80.3
of Tuberculosis, 23.87
Pulmonary Diseases
and
Thoracic
Surgery, Vyšné Hágy
9 East Slovakia x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 81.96
Institute of 18.06
Cardiovascular
Diseases, a.s.
10 National Cancer x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 81.43
Institute 18.06
11 University Hospital x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 80.98
and Healthcare 18.06
Center of Merciful
Brothers, s.r.o.
12 National Institute of x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 80.82
Endocrinology and 18.06
Diabetes, n.o.
13 Central Slovakia x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 79.03
Institute of 18.06
Cardiovascular
Diseases
14 Central Military x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 76.15
Hospital 18.06
Ružomberok-
Teaching Hospital
15 National Institute of x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 74.22
Rheumatic Disease, 18.06
Piešťany
16 Railway healthcare, x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 70.61
s. r. o. Košice 18.06
17 FNsP F.D. Roosevelt x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 69.92
Banská Bystrica 18.06
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18 Ľubovna Hospital, n. x ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± 28 / 69.65
o. 18.06
19 Mammacenter of St. x ± ± ± ± - ± ± ± ± 25 / 81.09
Agata, Banská 16.13
Bystrica
20 Regional Hospital x ± ± - ± + ± ± ± ± 22 / 74.05
Sobrance, n.o. 14.19
* Index of satisfaction of patients by VšZP, 2013 In: Dorčák, Breza,
Pollák, 2014
Source: Dorčák, Breza, Pollák, 2014
The number of positive reviews on social networks was not taken into
account when determining the sentiment, given the fact that a simple
sentiment analysis was carried out, only the very fact that an institution
has its own profile on any of the virtual social networks was considered.
Similarly, the nature or description of the institution on the Wikipedia
portal was not taken into account, only the very fact that Wikipedia
mentions that institution was considered. In both cases, such results
were assigned neutral sentiments. If the search engine found sites of the
institution´s departments on other positions in the search in addition to
its official website or sites of affiliated entities, such results were
assigned neutral sentiments. In the case that the institution's website
appeared on various positions in the search, only the first occurrence
was considered, other occurrences of the website were assigned a
neutral sentiment.
Based on the analysis, it is clear that in the virtual reality of the

researched entities - the twenty best healthcare providers in Slovakia
according to VšZP, the first positions in searches are dominated by
websites that belong directly to the providers. The dominant group of
sentiments consisted of search results
with neutral nature of sentiment. Only with few entities there was an
occurrence of a negative sentiment, e.g. on the third, the fourth or the
ninth position in the search (one occurrence was a negative assessment
in the catalogue Azet.sk, others were negative references in a blog or in
electronic media). Those entities occupying the leading positions have in
125
terms of virtual reputation among the internet users an unquestionable
advantage in the form of a more positive perception of their complex
virtual identity.
3.5.2 Assessment
The most interesting contribution to overall research of the issue

was certainly the demonstration of the relatively low percentage of
achieved reputation in the online environment in relation to the high
percentage of reputation achieved in the traditional physical world
(given the high satisfaction index of patients). This points to the fact that
the very best providers of health care, over time, managed to optimize
the factors and processes that significantly contributed to increasing
their physical reputation (and hence an increase in the patients'
satisfaction index), but in the virtual environment there is still a lot to be
done. The notional value of 100% or 155 points achieved in the
sentiment analysis is in this case "only" kind of imaginary. In the real
world it is an almost unattainable state, in any case, with the today
achieved average values of 21.42% of the total potential power of virtual
reputation, any proactive activity of an entity focused on optimising
reputation in the virtual environment is more than desirable. With such
small differences between the analysed entities it is also possible to
achieve a significant shift towards leading positions in relation to the
competition by exerting fewer resources (financial, time, human).
126
3.6 Analysis of online reputation of chosen e-
commerce entities operating in the Central
European market
The study called Analysis of online reputation of chosen e-

commerce entities operating in the Central European market was, in
contrast to the previous study, aimed at investigating the local market
of electronic commerce. First, it was designed to identify the major
players among the wide range of e-commerce on the Slovak market, to
carry out the primary analysis of reputation of such entities by using the
Net Promoter Score (NPS) method, to identify key factors for success in
terms of customers' preferences and to review the extent to which
changes in customers' preferences are significant in relation to the
reference studies carried out on the market in the past. By using
different methodology with regards to the previous partial analyses, the
authors in the second year of their research project wanted to examine
the different approaches to the issue and reveal previously not
described features and context. The object of the investigation are
selected entities of e-commerce, e-shops, operating on the Slovak
internet market. The analysis processed the secondary data, as well as
the primary data. The secondary data are the results of the reference
survey "Internet a nakupovanie 2009" (Internet and shopping 2009)
carried out by TNS SK (TNS SK In: Rohošková 2012, In: Pollák, Dorčák,
2015) on a sample of 1171 respondents. The key market players are
identified based on the results of the competition ShopRoku (2014),
namely the category "Price of the Internet users" organized by the
companies Heureka and Naspres. In the contest, more than 50,000 real
unique customers select their favorite e-shops of the current year
(2014). The primary data represent the results of our own questionnaire
survey on a sample of 634 respondents. The respondents were
approached non-randomly via 60 evangelists. The evangelists had the
task to inquire respondents of different ages, from different territories
or economic status. The questionnaire consisted of 28 questions, the
introduction contained general questions which helped with the basic
division of the sample, then the questionnaire included questions
127
necessary to calculate the NPS and then it continued with questions
aimed at identifying the customers' preferences with focus on the
electronic shopping. The accumulated data were then subjected to a
thorough analysis and a statistical testing. For better authenticity and
clearness, the main findings were graphically represented using radar
charts.
The subchapter describes in a transparent manner the results of

the primary research, as well as its comparison with respect to the
reference survey from 2009. 634 respondents, out of which 44% were
men and 56% were women, were interviewed in the primary
questionnaire investigation. In terms of age, respondents aged between
17 and 24 years accounted for the largest group, more than 77% of
respondents fell within this group.
Net Promoter Score of the chosen e-commerce entities
As mentioned, this reputation ranking system uses direct

questioning, relying on the so-called ultimate question: "How much are
you willing to recommend the product to your friends?" Asking this
question allows companies to track down three fundamental groups of
customers: promoters, passive customers, detractors.
Table 10: Net Promoter Score of the chosen e-commerce entities

Ranking E-shop Promoters Passives Detractors NPS Ranking
according N/% N/% N/% (%) according
to NPS to
ShopRoku
1. Martinus.sk 196/30.91 141/22.24 297/46.85 -15.93 4.
2. Alza.sk 100/15.77 155/24.45 379/59.78 -44.01 2.
3. Mall.sk 55/8.68 136/21.45 443/69.87 -61.20 1.
4. Hej.sk 59/9.31 127/20.03 448/70.66 -61.36 3.
* Adjusted ranking - Only e-shops located in Slovakia that offer mainstream products
were considered in the ranking for the subsequent comparison. The following e-shops
were excluded from the original ranking: nejlevnejsi-knihy.cz (originally 3rd place)
and programingshop.sk (originally 5th place). Zdroj: Dorčák, Pollák, 2015
128
From the specialized literature we learn that the NPS of an average
company should be at between 5 to 10 percent. In practice, this means
for the company that the promoters of the company barely outnumber
the detractors. It can be said that for many companies and even whole
sectors of business there are significantly more detractors than
promoters. Even companies like Amazon are in the range between 50 to
80 percent, which means that even such large companies still have place
to improve relationships with customers (Reichheld 2011). However, in
the investigated market, we have recorded an interesting phenomenon,
not one of the four finalists of the category "Price of the Internet users"
of the competition ShopRoku 2014 has a positive NPS. Therefore, in
terms of literature, none of the analysed e-shops achieves the level of
an "average company". The entire ranking is also interesting, except for
the online store Alza, which maintained the second place in the two final
rankings, all of its competitors experienced significant changes in
customer perception. The best in terms of the level of the total NPS was
the online bookseller Martinus.sk which moved in the overall ranking
from the last place to the first. At the same time, the number of its
promoters is almost double compared to the second placed Alza. It can
be seen that in terms of real customers, the analysed companies have a
long way to go to even get closer to the parameters that achieve their
competitors on the reference markets of Western Europe or North
America.
Key factors of success of the chosen e-commerce entities
Based on the survey of 2009, we analysed two key determinants

of electronic shopping on the chosen market on a sample of 634
respondents. These were the factors that directly influence the choice
of an e-shop by the consumer, as well as the factors influencing the
decision for making the purchase itself. Then we searched for
statistically significant differences between the analysed factors over
time by means of testing.
129
Choosing an e-commerce
In both our study and the reference case study, the most
decisive factor for the selection of an e-commerce was the length of the
delivery time and it considered to be important and, based on the
findings, also key by more than 72% of respondents. Good reviews of
the shop are essential for more than 70% of respondents. Providing a
sufficient amount of relevant information about the products is a
decisive factor for the selection of an e-shop for more than 60% of
respondents. In this category, we also recorded an increase compared
to the reference survey from 2009 by more than 15%. The largest decline
compared to the reference survey from 2009 was recorded for the factor
of several payment options. This is due to a more often focus on direct
benefits, instead of focusing on the process of the expected
phenomenon. After testing the measured values we can also say that at
our chosen significance level α = 0.01 there is no statistically significant
correlation between the current preferences when choosing an e-
commerce and between the customers' preferences in 2009.
Graphically, the measured values are represented in the following chart:
Length of of
delivery time
100% 2009 2015
80%
60%
40% Multiple payment
Good Reviews
20% options
0%
Providing a Wealth
of Information Customer Service
about products
Chart 11: Choosing an e-commerce

Source: Pollák, Dorčák, 2015
130
Decision-making process on purchasing on the internet
The most significant factor in deciding about purchasing via the

internet is still the convenience of the price. It is , it is considered to be
important and, based on the findings, also key by more than 80% of
respondents. The convenience and speed of purchase came in second
place in terms of customers' preferences; compared to the reference
survey in 2009 no significant differences were observed. A wide range of
offered products was evaluated as important by more than a half of
respondents, compared with 2009 there is an increase by more than
15%; this can be caused by various factors, with the ever-increasing offer
of online shops certainly being one of them. We consider to be of
importance that compared to 2009 the importance of the reputation of
a shop has increased by nearly a half, while this parameter is directly
related to studied issue and reaffirms the need to implement similar
surveys over time. After testing the measured values we can also say
that at our chosen significance level α = 0.01 there is a statistically
significant correlation between the current preferences when choosing
an e-commerce and between the customers' preferences in 2009. The
advantages of e-shops compared to their physical competitors are clear
and change in time clearly only very slowly. Graphically, the measured
values are represented in the following chart:
2009 2015
Good prices
100%
Recommendation 80%
of the search… 60% Convenience and…
40%
20%
0%
I do not use e-shops Wide assortment
Good reputation of Uniqueness of

the shop products
Chart 12: Decision-making process on purchasing on the internet

131
3.6.2 Assessment
The study presented partial results of a comprehensive research

of online reputation of small and medium-sized enterprises operating on
specific market in Central Europe, specifically, it dealt with the issue of
online reputation of e-commerce entities operating on the relevant
market. The objective of our analyses presented within this paper was
to identify the major players among the wide range of e-commerce on
the Slovak market, to carry out the primary analysis of reputation of such
entities by using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method, to identify key
factors for success in terms of customers' preferences and to review the
extent to which changes in customers' preferences are significant in
relation to the reference studies carried out on the market in the past.
We verified changes in customers' preferences by means of testing. It
can be concluded that the factors influencing decision-making on
purchasing via the Internet are almost constant over time. On the other
hand, there was quite a significant shift in the factors that influence the
choice of an online store, multiple offered payment options are no
longer the key, whereas good reviews of the store have gained
importance. E-shop owners should put greater emphasis on factors such
as reputation and good reviews, as well as a wide assortment and
uniqueness of the offered products. The largest amount of information
about products and in the clearest way possible should be available to
the customers. A positive finding is also the fact that more than a third
of respondents regularly (at least on a monthly basis) purchase goods
and services using an online store.
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3.7 Multifactorial analysis of online reputation as
a tool for improving the competitiveness of chosen
tourism operators
The study called Multifactorial analysis of online reputation as a

tool for improving the competitiveness of chosen tourism operators was
one of the first where the authors applied by them amended and
adjusted methodology of an advanced sentiment analysis and for the
first time presented their own model for analysing and managing virtual
reputation by means of a comprehensive indicator of total online
reputation "TOR". The methodology was extended again by the overall
percentage score in relation to the maximum possible number of points
obtained in the advanced sentiment analysis (the maximum number of
points = 465, 1 point = 0.215%), thereby contributing to a better
interpretation of the measured data with respect to the target entities.
On a specific sample of subjects (a relatively closed ecosystem) - hotels
operating in selected local tourist destination, a thorough multifactorial
analysis of their reputation in the virtual world of the internet was
performed. Taking into account all the relevant factors - assessment of
the entities from the perspective of the major internet players such as
Booking, TripAdvisor and Facebook, these assessments were normalized
and then compared with the advanced sentiment analysis that provides
a relevant view on the selected entity of the model customer - an
internet user. For the purpose of better understanding the correlations
affecting the reputation of the selected entities on the internet in terms
of their potential and real customers, the methodology of the advanced
sentiment analysis is presented as the starting point. Basically, it is a
thorough analysis of the position and nature of each of the search results
of the entity in question according to its conventional name provided by
the Google Web Search. Based on a predetermined matrix, these results
are attributed score based on the position in the search (Table 1, p. 47).
A summary of all the results and positions represents the score of online
reputation. In the advanced sentiment analysis, the same methodology
is used to test the conventional name of an entity completed with the
first most important keyword, in this case, that is the word
133
"accommodation" and then the second keyword; in this case, this word
is the word "services". The acquired scores are then summed. Compared
to the highest theoretically achievable score, the overall strength of the
online reputation of the entity is then calculated and indicated as a
percentage. The correlations between factors (the online reputation
score according to the enhanced sentiment analysis compared to the
index of reputation provided by the main internet players such as
Booking, TripAdvisor and Facebook) are then examined by means of a
thorough statistical testing using non-parametric methods, such as
Kendall rank coefficient or Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance,
in order to identify and describe the basic facts affecting the online
reputation of the chosen subjects in the hyper-competitive market
environment of the internet.
Each of the selected entities, in this case hotels located in the

area of Low Tatras - the Demänovská dolina Valley, tries to shape its
reputation both in the physical and in the virtual world through its
management. For the purposes of our research, we focused on the
virtual world of the internet.
Overview table of the partial score
By using the advanced sentiment analysis (ASA), we calculated the

partial score that represents the power of online reputation of the
entities based on the nature of the first 10 Google search results. Google
and its search results, however, are just one of the many ways how
potential customers can access relevant information. Due to previous
research in the field of tourism, we identified the following as other
determinants of online reputation ("reputators") of tourism operators:
• reviews on booking.com,
• reviews on the virtual social network Facebook,
134
• Google reviews,
• and reviews on the portal Trip Advisor.
Each of these "reputators" have their own system how the total score is
determined. Booking evaluates subjects on a scale of 1 to 10, Google,
Facebook and Trip Advisor on a scale of 1 to 5. For the purpose of further
analysis, the partial score by "reputators" were unified and converted to
a percentage. Before we can proceed to the results of the statistical
analysis based on which we compiled the formula to calculate the total
online reputation of tourism operators (TOR), it is necessary to point out
the specific values and partial scores of the analysed entities in form of
an overview table. The following table shows the partial results -
measured values of individual determinants / partial score of online
reputation by "reputators".

Trip
Conven- ASA Booking Facebook Google Advisor Number of TOR
tional name score score score score score. pages indexed **
No. of an entity (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) by Google* (%)
Hotel
Mikulášska 56. 83.
1. chata 76 90 96 96 90 9010 19
Wellness
Hotel 51. 65.
2. Repiská 82 70 82 80 60 8990 96
Hotel
GRAND 48. 75.
3. Jasná 81 84 90 82 80 9250 70
Hotel Junior 48. 70.
4. Jasná 59 77 98 68 60 11000 90
Hotel FIS 48. 76.
5. Jasná 38 80 88 84 90 11600 60
Hotel Ski &
Wellness
Residence 45. 72.
6. Družba 80 0 92 0 80 5290 60
Hotel 44. 73.
7. BYSTRINA 94 84 86 0 80 23000 74
Hotel 44. 70.
8. OSTREDOK 51 81 88 0 70 45500 88
135
Hotel TRI 43. 79.
9. STUDNIČKY 65 91 92 0 90 29400 16
Chalets 41. 81.
10. Jasná Delux 93 91 98 0 96 8680 73
Wellness
Hotel 41. 80.
11. CHOPOK 07 94 96 0 90 54600 27
40. 74.
12. Hotel Liptov 64 83 86 82 90 14100 91
Hotel SNP 36. 68.
13. Jasná 55 76 80 0 80 750 14
Hotel 33. 74.
14. POĽOVNÍK 97 86 100 0 80 3910 99
Hotel SKI & 30. 63.
15. FUN Jasná 75 80 0 0 80 550 58
Relax hotel 30. 61.
16. FIM 10 0 94 0 60 2980 37
Hotel Sorea
J. Šverma 28. 30.
17. Jasná 38 0 0 0 60 141 00
*Absolute number of Google indexed pages containing as keywords the commonly used
name of the entity; for greater relevance, we tagged the name with quotation marks
before searching.
** Total online reputation - calculation methodology is presented in the following
subchapter
Source: own work
The methodology of calculating the total online reputation score
The partial scores of the individual entities from the "reputators"

were statistically tested to establish whether there is a statistically
significant correlation between the scores achieved from the
"reputators" and the scores achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis
at the chosen significance level. Finally, also variables such as the score
achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis and the absolute number
of pages indexed by Google containing as keywords the commonly used
name of the entity in question were subject to statistical testing.
Regarding the correlation between the scores achieved from the
"reputators" and the score achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis,
the statistical testing did not confirm a dependence between the
variables at the chosen level of significance in either case.
136
Table 12: Correlation between ASA and Booking
Variables Kendall tau, significance level: p < 0.05
No. Kendall tau Z p-value
ASA & Booking 14 -0.111748 -0.556702 0.577731
Source: own work
Table 13: Correlation between ASA and Facebook

ASA & facebook 15 -0.078072 -0.405674 0.684982
Source: own work
Table 14: Correlation between ASA and Trip Advisor

ASA & Trip 17 0.108788 0.609449 0.542227
Source: own work
As to the relation between the score achieved in the advanced

sentiment analysis and the absolute number of pages indexed by
Google, the statistical testing did not confirm a correlation between the
variables at the chosen level of significance in this case either.
Table 15: Correlation between ASA and Google index

ASA & google 17 0.264706 1.482935 0.138092
index
Source: own work
137
At the chosen level of significance of 5%, the value of p is sharply bigger
than 0.05. A statistically significant correlation between the number of
pages indexed by Google and the ASA score was not confirmed. For a
better interpretation, we used the non-parametric analysis of variance
Kruskal-Wallis for further testing. By using this test we actually test the
impact of the selected factor levels on variability of the analysed
variable. In our case, we tested the effect of the score ASA on the partial
score from the "reputators" Booking, Facebook, Trip Advisor. Since p is
less than 0.05, there is no statistically significant correlation between
ASA and other "reputators". Graphic representation of the tested
variables is as follows:

Source: own work
On the x-axis there is scale of the assessment of individual entities

according to the ASA score, on the y-axis the percentage assessment of
the entities. Since we have not confirmed a link between the variables,
138
we can proceed to the actual calculation of the total online reputation
of a particular entity.
We will proceed from the basic correlation we drew up:

𝑊-.- × 𝑅-.- + ∑5367[𝑊3 × 𝑅3 ]
𝑇𝑂𝑅 =
𝑊-.- + ∑5367 𝑊3
TOR- Total online reputation in %
Ri- Reputator (% score according to the specific i determinant of
online reputation)
RASA- Reputator ASA (% score according to the advanced sentiment
analysis)
WASA- Weight of the ASA Reputator
Wi- Weight of the i Reputator
The specific determinants of online reputation act as variables in the

equation, we named them "reputators", and, of course, their weight.
The basic reputator is the percentage score ASA; the equation allows to
take any number of other reputators into account in the calculation. Any
determinant that can objectively affect the perceived online reputation
of an entity can be a reputator, as well as its value can be quantified as
a percentage. In our case, the score by Booking.com, score by Facebook,
Google reviews score and score by Trip Advisor reviews, all converted
into a percentage, were taken into account as determinants. For the
calculation itself it is still necessary to determine the weights of
individual reputators; these are normally determined depending on the
subject and target market. In our case, based on selected subjects and
previous research conducted in the field of tourism, each of the weights
for the reputators was assigned a value of 1. In this case, it is possible to
simplify the formula to calculate the total online reputation we drew up
as follows:
𝑅-.- + ∑5367 𝑅3
𝑇𝑂𝑅 =
𝑛+1
TOR- Total online reputation in %
Ri- Reputator (% score according to the specific i determinant of
online reputation)
139
RASA- Reputator ASA (% score according to the advanced sentiment
analysis)
n- Number of indicators
In this case, the value of the total online reputation of an entity is an

arithmetic mean of individual indicators (partial scores by individual
reputators).
3.7.2 Assessment
The main findings of the completed analyses can be considered

to be the found independent status of the online reputation index based
on sentiment analysis which represents the user's view of the model
internet user seeking information using the Google search engine
compared to the index of reputation provided in the assessment made
by the main internet players, such as Booking, TripAdvisor and Facebook.
It only confirms the need for continuous efforts towards building online
reputation, not only on the pages of the main players working directly in
the tourism industry, but also towards such major players as online
editions of mainstream newspapers, Wikipedia, catalogues, internet
chats and prominent bloggers. It is these players who will help to
eliminate the neutral or even negative reputation on the Internet and
thus directly contribute to increasing the competitiveness of active
entities in contrast to their passive competitors. Last but not least, the
paper point to the fact that the absolute number of pages indexed by
Google containing as a keyword the conventional name of an entity does
not have a statistically significant impact on the achieved score of online
reputation of a given entity. The proven assertion of the necessity of the
supremacy of quality over quantity holds true. The findings identified
within the analysis conducted on the chosen local market (in this case
used as a model example) can be effectively used to increase the
competitiveness of selected tourism operators within any market. The
patterns and variables affecting the virtual reputation of these entities
are across the global internet market relatively constant.
140
3.8 Sustainable e-marketing of chosen tourism
operators in the Mediterranean by means of active
online reputational management
The study called Sustainable e-marketing of chosen tourism

operators in the Mediterranean by means of active online reputational
management dealt with the issue of sustainable electronic marketing in
selected Mediterranean tourist destination.For the purpose of a
comprehensive analysis, the same methodology as in the previous case
was used. The sample, in this case all hotels located in Opatija
Mediterranean destination (located 10 km west from Rijeka, belonging
to Primorje-Gorski Kotar County), try to form their reputation both in the
physical and in the virtual world by means of their management. For the
purposes of our research, we focused on the virtual world of the
internet. Destination in question represented a complete ecosystem,
compared to the previous study, however, it was a more competitive
market, focused on international customers with higher incomes. At
the same time, the research carried out fully in English has international
character, with informative value of European importance. We
approached a foreign professional as a consultant in the preparation and
implementation of research, a member of the senior management of a
prestigious hotel chain, in order to achieve the best possible
understanding of the major factors affecting the management of virtual
reputation of specific subjects.
The following table shows the partial results - measured values

of individual determinants / partial score of online reputation by
"reputators".
141
ASA Bookin Googl Trip Number of
No. Conventional scor g Faceboo e Advisor pages
name of an e rating k rating rating indexed by TOR**
entity (%) (%) rating (%) (%) (%) Google* (%)
1. Hotel Navis 92.5 91 100 0 100 14 300 95.9
Hotel
2. 83.0 0 98 0 100 2 340 000 93.7
Miramar
3. Hotel Royal 82.8 94 100 0 90 13 500 000 91.7
Hotel Villa
4. 84.5 89 92 94 90 34 200 89.9
Kapetanovic
Hotel
5. 76.1 95 92 0 90 48 700 88.3
Bevanda
6. Hotel Bristol 89.2 88 90 92 80 5 870 000 87.8
Remisens
Premium
7. 84.9 91 92 88 80 69 200 87.2
Hotel
Ambasador
Design Hotel
8. 91.4 87 88 0 80 187 000 86.6
Astoria
Hotel W.A.
9. 93.5 82 0 90 80 19 800 86.4
Mozart
Hotel Villa
10. 80.6 88 0 0 90 60 200 86.2
Ariston
Remisens
Premium
11. 89.2 89 0 0 80 29 900 86.1
Villa
Ambasador
Remisens
12. Premium 82.8 91 100 0 70 47 200 86.0
Hotel Kvarner
13. Hotel Milenij 80.6 91 90 0 80 88 100 85.4
14. Hotel Agava 80.6 88 92 0 80 62 000 85.2
Hotel
15. 78.5 86 100 80 80 4 850 000 84.9
Continental
16. Hotel Savoy 89.2 88 82 0 80 2 780 000 84.8
Hotel Sveti
17. 78.5 90 80 0 90 13 100 84.6
Jakov
Grand Hotel
18. Opatijska 80.6 86 90 80 80 28 100 83.3
Cvijeta
19. Hotel Galeb 87.0 83 80 0 80 39 400 82.5
20. Villa Palme 82.8 82 84 0 80 36 900 82.2
Remisens
21. Premium 87.0 87 0 0 70 22 600 81.3
Villa Amalia
142
Remisens
22. Hotel 87.0 82 86 78 70 39 200 80.6
Admiral
Grand Hotel
23. 76.3 78 86 86 70 213 000 79.3
Adriatic
Smart
Selection
24. 89.0 78 80 0 70 10 700 79.3
Hotel
Imperial
Smart
Selection
25. Hotel 85.1 78 0 82 70 15 400 78.8
Palace
Bellevue
Remisens
26. 78.7 80 82 82 70 46 300 78.5
Hotel Kristal
Smart
Selection
27. 88.4 73 80 0 60 11 300 75.4
Hotel
Belvedere
28. Hotel Opatija 81.3 71 80 74 60 149 000 73.3
Smart
Selection
29. 82.1 71 0 0 60 4 830 71.0
Hotel
Residenz
Smart
30. Selection 77.2 68 0 72 60 13 100 69.3
Hotel Istra
31. Villa Dubrava 73.7 0 0 0 50 20 000 61.9
*Absolute number of Google indexed pages containing as keywords the commonly used
name of the entity; for greater relevance, we tagged the name with quotation marks
before searching.
**Total online reputation - calculation methodology is presented in the previous
subchapter
Source: own work
The partial scores of the individual entities from the "reputators" were
statistically tested again to establish whether there is a statistically
significant correlation between the scores achieved from the
"reputators" and the scores achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis
at the chosen significance level. Finally, also variables such as the score
achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis and the absolute number
of pages indexed by Google containing as keywords the commonly used
name of the entity
143
in question were subject to statistical testing. Regarding the correlation
between the scores achieved from the "reputators" and the score
achieved in the advanced sentiment analysis, the statistical testing did
not confirm a dependence between the variables at the chosen level of
significance in either case. For a better interpretation, we used the non-
parametric analysis of variance Kruskal-Wallis for further testing. In our
case, we tested the effect of the score ASA on the partial score from the
"reputators" Booking, Facebook, Trip Advisor. Since p is less than 0.05,
there is no statistically significant correlation between ASA and other
"reputators". Graphic representation of the tested variables is as
follows:

Source: own work
On the x-axis there is scale of the assessment of individual entities

according to the ASA score, on the y-axis the percentage assessment of
the entities. Since we have not confirmed a link between the variables,
144
we can proceed to the actual calculation of the total online reputation
of a particular entity.
3.8.2 Assessment
Globally, at the first sight it might seem that the best model of
the own e-marketing of a selected tourism entity consists mainly of
active management of their own profiles on two key platforms, namely:
Trip Advisor and Booking (of the first five subjects ordered based on the
TOR, only one used fully all four major platforms). In terms of spending
resources (especially in terms of time) the ability to manage a limited
number of profiles on selected platforms (and profiting from the
absence of existence of "other profiles" providing the opportunity to
rate an entity) appears to be optimal. In terms of the sustainability of
this form of e-marketing it would, however, be a very short-sighted
action. Due to the relatively open nature of the internet, it is only a
matter of time before the missing profiles on the remaining platforms
(especially Google and Facebook) are created by entities outside the
scope of the given subject. In this case, the entity in tourism loses direct
impact on the active management of the profile and authenticity of the
presented content, which puts them at increased risk of being under
unwanted pressure of competition on the increasingly escalating market
environment or under even more unwanted pressure of potential or real
customers seeking to secure additional profit from a position of power.
It is therefore essentially a necessity to approach the use of e-marketing
tools in a complex manner. Only by means of a responsible and
comprehensive approach it is possible to achieve sustainability of active
electronic marketing in the highly competitive markets of (not only)
tourism products.
145

146
3.9 Analytical view on the issue of effective use of
selected tools of e-marketing communication on
the social network Facebook by SMEs operating on
the Central European market
The study called Analytical view on the issue of effective use of

selected tools of e-marketing communication on the social network
Facebook by SMEs operating on the Central European market was one
of the first of the studies finalizing knowledge of the issue. Its aim was
to analyse and interpret the basic preconditions for the effective use of
selected tools of e-marketing communication on the social network
Facebook among small and medium enterprises operating
predominantly on the Central European market. As a part of the partial
goals, also correlations were analysed, such as the absolute number of
fans of a model fan page to the average number of likes, shares or
comments. The object of analysis were small and medium-sized
enterprises operating predominantly on the Central European market
which actively use the social network Facebook for the purpose of e-
marketing communication. In order to fulfil the main goal, as well as the
partial goals, the presented paper may be perceived as a summary of
two autonomous analyses. Based on the secondary data about hundreds
of company profiles (local SMEs) managed by a specific marketing
agency, the first one analysed the relations necessary to fulfil the main
goal of the paper. In the second analysis the data on activity of randomly
selected 15 local profiles / fan pages of companies among small and
medium-sized enterprises were selected from the database. Based on
the monitored parameters, the accumulated data was subsequently
subjected to a thorough statistical testing. The profiles in question
represent for the purpose of this paper a model entity in which the effect
of the absolute number of fans on the user base activity (average
number of likes, shares or comments) is examined.
147
Analysis of interactions based on appropriate timing
In the first analysis, based on the secondary data about the

hundreds of company profiles (local SMEs) managed by a specific
marketing agency the specific correlations related to the issue of
effective use of tools of e-marketing communication on the social
network Facebook were observed. In particular, we focused on the
problem of effective timing as the precondition to induce the greatest
possible interactions between the organization and the target user base
(in this case it can be interpreted as the target customer market). When
identifying effective timing, we do not limit ourselves only to description
of a particular period of time during the model day. The analysis mapped
the facts that helped to develop an overview of the expected user
interaction during normal / model week. In the analysis we normalized
the number of likes, shares and comments of selected entries by the
number of fans of the chosen fan pages. For sites with a bigger fan base
it could reasonably be expected that a post gets more responses than on
a site with a smaller base of its fans. The posts for which we observed
the day and hour of publication were compared with an average post
after normalization by the number of fans. This way we can know how
much a particular model post added on a specific day / at a specific hour
during the model day is more successful in percentage or less successful
compared to the average of all posts and all the days. The found
relations are shown in the following charts.
148
Chart 15: User interaction during a normal day
The analyses showed that the posts posted between 8:00 pm and 12
midnight were given the most likes by the fans. The least likes got the
posts posted between 12 noon and 4:00 pm, in numbers it was a 12.7%
decrease below the normalized average. In terms of shares, the
expectations that the posts published in the afternoon would have the
most shares and the ones posted between 12 midnight and 8:00 am the
least shares were confirmed.
Chart 16: User interaction during a normal week

149
When analysing the data in terms of the model week we found that the
posts posted over the weekend had approximately 20% more likes than
the ones posted during the working week. On Saturday, it was a 18%
increase compared to the average and on Sunday the increase was at
22%. The least likes had the posts published on Monday and Thursday.
The most shares had the posts published on Monday, Friday and Sunday.
The least shared had the one on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The enormous increase in Monday's shares compared to the rest of the
week is an interesting finding. We did not have enough empirical data
for a more thorough analysis of this phenomenon, in any case, the
increase in shares by over 60% compared to the average us not
negligible in terms of planning for future marketing efforts on Facebook.
Analysis of interactions based on the size of user base
In the second analysis the data on activity of randomly selected

15 local profiles / fan pages of companies among small and medium-
sized enterprises were selected from the database. Based on the
monitored parameters, the accumulated data was subsequently
subjected to a thorough statistical testing. The profiles in question
represent for the purpose of this paper a model entity in which the effect
of the absolute number of fans on the user base activity (average
number of likes, shares or comments) is examined.
Table 17: Basic observed parameters

Variable Arithmetic Median Minimum Maximum
mean
No. of posts 224.933 234 113 542
No. of fans 2 906.467 862 115 8 926
No. of likes 295.267 73 28 987
Average 80.2 39 10 459
No. of shares
Average No. of 3 351.2 625 283 9 807
comments
N valid 15
150
The collected data was subjected to statistical testing, the analysed
relations yielded interesting findings. In the first step, we investigated
whether there is a statistically significant correlation between the
number of fans and the average number of likes. Correlation analysis at
significance level α = 0.05 reported R2 at the level of 0.596 which means
a slightly close correlation. The fact can be interpreted as follows: The
organizations that actively publish posts on the social network Facebook
should constantly strive to grow their user base, since it is a crucial
precondition for effective e-marketing communication on Facebook. In
the next step, we investigated whether there is a statistically significant
correlation between the number of fans and the average number of
shares. Correlation analysis at significance level α = 0.05 reported R2 at
the level of 0.094. Based on the findings it can be said that there is
practically no correlation among the researched variables. The fact can
be interpreted as follows: The size of the user base does not
automatically mean that these fans participate on the marketing
activities of an organization. It is necessary that organizations actively
encourage their customer base to the desired activity, as appropriate, in
this case, seem to be tools such as competitions or other tools giving the
user additional benefits. Finally, the actual content of a particular
message can be considered to be an important factor. We investigated
whether there is a statistically significant correlation between the
number of fans and the average number of comments. Correlation
analysis at significance level α = 0.05 reported R2 at the level of 0.845
which means a slightly close correlation. We found out that the number
of fans has an important impact on the number of comments to chosen
posts. The fact can be interpreted as follows: The activity of the fans on
fan pages has for the selected companies considerable significance,
especially in terms of providing feedback. Commenting posts brings a
whole new kind of feedback, it is a direct view of the end user.
Monitoring and analysing the comments represents a significant
competitive advantage compared to the entities that do not have access
to this source of feedback. In this case, the customers do not perceive
commenting as marketing activity and due to the fact it is a way how the
original base spreads the message towards other potential customers
(friends, friends of friends and so on).
151
Finally, we considered important to investigate whether there is a
statistically significant correlation between the number of posts and the
average number of likes. Correlation analysis at significance level α =
0.05 reported R2 at the level of 0.069. Based on the findings it can be
said that there is practically no correlation among the researched
variables. Building on previous findings we conclude that not the
quantity is important, but the quality. If a post does not address a fan,
they are not amused or otherwise motivated, no additional efforts that
would contribute to increasing e-marketing activities of the entity on the
social network in question can be expected.
3.9.2 Assessment
From the theory and practice there are many known factors that
can influence the behaviour of target groups on the internet. In general,
it can be concluded that if an entity does not have sufficient human and
creative capital, it is better to turn to the services of an expert. The paper
described the basic recommendations for the effective use of selected
tools of e-marketing communication in the environment of the social
network Facebook in terms of improving the anticipated user
interactions. Findings presented in this paper may help to better
understand the context affecting the effective use of resources (time
and financial) by the entities using tools of e-marketing, particularly the
e-marketing in the environment of the social networking site Facebook
for the purpose of their own promotion and branding.
152
3.10 Online reputation of selected entities
operating in the automotive sector
The study called Online reputation of selected entities operating

in the automotive sector was among the last partial researches
regarding investigation of presented topic. Its aim was to present a
comprehensive methodology for measuring the online reputation of
selected entities operating in the automotive sector in order to increase
their competitiveness through a better understanding of the key
determinants of effective online story management. The methodology
used in the present analysis represents its evolutionally most developed
variant at that time. The basis is a thorough multifactor analysis of the
reputation that was performed on a particular sample of subjects - the
Top 10 Slovak brands of best-selling cars in 2016 according to market
share level (in the table it is in % as "MCS" or the MCS score). For the
purpose of our own research, the use of multifactor analysis of on-line
TOR reputation is used, which is basically a modified multifactor analysis
of sentiment. The methodology of multi-factor analysis of the force of
Total Online Reputation (TOR) presents, contrary to multifactor analysis,
a considerable degree of variability in its application to a broad spectrum
of subjects that can be analysed using this methodology, as well as a
comprehensive view of the reputation of the subject with respect to the
overall reputation expressed as a percentage. The TOR index
methodology uses n-factors.
The first step analyses the sentiment of the top 10 Google search results.
In terms of the number of groups, the standard is calculated by
considering at least two groups:
1. Group: The name of the entity.
2. Group: Name of the entity + the first most searched keyword

from the area of activity of the subject (in our case, the word
"Slovakia")
153
In any case, the number of groups is not limited. Quantification is
subsequently secured by the unification of the score obtained in
percentage. It is assumed that within one group an entity can obtain a
maximum score of 155 points, which represents the coefficient 1b =
0.645% in percentage terms. For analysis with 2 groups, the subject can
get a maximum score of 310 points - this represents a percentage factor
of 1b = 0.32%.
The second step is to identify the determinants of online reputation of

the so-called reputation creators. The reputation creators can be any
determinant that can objectively influence the perceived online
reputation of the subject, and whose value can be quantified as a
percentage. As a standard, it concerns portals, catalogues, or social
networks, which can significantly affect the reputation of the subject.
Given the scope of the subjects, specific reputation creators are not
clearly defined in advance. From the point of view of the quantification
of the power, it is possible to approach individual reputation creators
using two methods:
1. Method: Unification of partial rankings - Booking ranks subjects

on a scale of 1-10, Google, Facebook, and Trip Advisor on a scale
from 1-5. For the purposes of further analysis, the score of the
partial reputation creators should be unified by conversion to
percentages.
2. Method: Calculating the competitive strength of reputation

creators - Based on the size of the group of users (fan / collectors
/ followers) of a particular subject with respect to the sum of the
groups of all tested subjects, we calculate the percentage of
competition strength (CS) of the reputation creator of the
particular subject (Dorčák, Markovič, Pollák 2017). Due to the
nature of the subjects, this approach was selected.
In the third step, I proceed to the calculation of the total strength of the
particular subject's online reputation, due to its predefined competitors;
154
I start from the basic relationship for the calculation of the TOR index in
its simple variant that was introduced in the preceding sub-chapters.
Using Advanced Sentiment Analysis (ASA), I calculated partial

scores representing the strength of the online story of the subjects
based on the nature of the first 10 Google search results
(personalization of the results was removed using an online proxy
anonymizer). However, Google and its search results are just one of
many ways for potential customers to access relevant information.
Due to previous research in the automotive industry, we have

identified the following determinants of online reputation (reputation
creators) of automotive subjects, in particular:
• Facebook (the total number of official profile fans),
• YouTube (total number of official channel participants).
Each of these reputation creators has its own system that determines
the overall score. Basically, everyone works with a certain group of
customers (followers, fans, subscribers). For the purposes of further
analysis, the results of partial reputation creators were unified by the
parameter we called a competition score, hereinafter CS and converted
to percentages. Before submitting the results of the analysis to a
thorough statistical test, it was necessary to provide a summary of
specific values and partial scores for the analysed subjects through a
comprehensive table.
The following table shows the partial results - the measured values of
the individual determinants / the score of the partial reputation of the
online story / as well as the score of the overall online reputation:
155
No. Car brand ASA FCS YCS MCS Number TOR
score score score score of pages Score
(%) (%) (%) (%) indexed (%)
by
Google
(n)
1 Volkswagen 33.92 29.69 17.99 29.57 573 M 27.20
2 Hyundai 22.72 19.76 7.97 19.64 560 M 16.82

3 KIA 31.04 15.12 12.95 15.19 526 M 19.70
4 Škoda 23.36 11.75 25.42 11.84 62 M 20.18
5 Peugeot 21.76 10.56 16.56 10.60 473 M 16.32
6 Dacia 17.28 4.32 2.55 4.30 106 M 8.05
7 Opel 31.68 3.98 2.39 3.97 361 M 12.69
8 Mazda 12.16 2.77 7.21 2.80 464 M 7.38
9 Suzuki 23.04 1.10 2.26 1.10 630 M 8.80
10 Mitsubishi 41.28 0.96 4.59 0.99 553 M 15.61
Source: Dorčák, Markovič, Pollák (2017)
First of all, I focused on the analysis of the reputation of selected subjects

through extended sentiment analysis. For each analysed subject, I took
the top ten results in the Google search engine into consideration after
entering the keywords - the brand name. The first positions represented,
as expected, their own automobile brand websites followed by websites
with a predominantly neutral character. The link to the Wikipedia online
encyclopaedia, and links to virtual social network profiles were rated
positive for analysis purposes. An interesting finding was the fact that
only two brands showed negative sentiments in the search results.
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Subsequently, we added another keyword to the brand name -
"Slovakia". This keyword in search results significantly increased the
number of positive sentiments (and, in some cases, negative ones).
Apart from the Škoda brand, all subjects showed at least one positive
sentiment. Next, I analysed the dominant determinants of reputation,
focusing on the profiles of subjects on the most popular virtual social
networks/media. I found that each of the analysed entities actively used
localized channels on YouTube. Each of the analysed subjects also used
Facebook's social network to carry out its marketing activities (in any
case, this media is considered necessary from an e-marketing point of
view). Although the language and localization of content is sufficient, the
effort made is insufficiently assessed in the light of established trends.
In the third step of my analysis, I calculated the overall reputation. The
clear winners are Volkswagen, Škoda and KIA, showing the best results
among all the analysed entities. The following charts illustrate some
interesting facts from the analysis.
Hyundai
30
Škoda 25 KIA
20
15
Mazda 10 Suzuki
5 MCS
0 score
(%)
Volkswa
Peugeot
gen
TOR
Score in
Dacia Opel
%
Mitsubi
shi
Chart 17: Market share versus overall reputation
157
Above chart compares the market share of brands with the strength of
their overall virtual reputation.
Hyundai
30
Škoda 25 KIA
20
15
Mazda 10 Suzuki
5
0 FCS
score
(%)
Peugeot Volkswagen
YCS
score
(%)
Dacia Opel
Mitsubishi
Chart 18: The activity on the virtual social networks

Chart shows the strength of each brand on the social network Facebook
and YouTube from the viewpoint of fans/followers. In terms of overall
reputation and overall market share, the analysis clearly showed that
the duo within the Volkswagen Group is doing the best work among all
the brands under review. The results of the analysis were subjected to
thorough statistical testing. Concerning the correlation between market
share and total virtual reputation level, at the chosen level of
significance of 5% we find that the value p is higher than 0.05. Therefore,
we can reject the assumption of a statistically significant relationship
between the variables. From the perspective of the score through the
sentiment analysis and the total number of index pages for each of the
tested subjects, we find that at the chosen significance level of 0.5% the
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value p is less than 0.05. We have confirmed a statistically significant
relationship between analysed variables.
3.10.2 Assessment
From the point of view of the analysed entities, brands in lead

positions have a significant advantage in terms of their online reputation
among Internet users. In the event that a user looking for information
about a particular subject does not encounter a positive reputation
indicator, it may ultimately affect his/her overall perception of the
subject. Brands should try to limit negative publicity and, on the
contrary, improve and continually work on positive publicity. This can be
achieved, in particular, through an active online communication policy
such as the dissemination of positive information through renowned
online media or social networks. The best way to eliminate negative or
neutral publicity in the top ten search results is to literally displace
negative publicity through a sophisticated marketing communications
policy performed in the online environment. In general, it seems that the
most effective model of comprehensive online reputation management
is to focus on dominant determinants of reputation. Active online
reputation management can greatly facilitate communication with the
public, help get feedback, or accelerate the implementation of crisis
marketing communications. Without a strong user base, it is not
possible, not with a significant result. What can we say in conclusion? A
comprehensive analysis provided comprehensive results. Despite the
limitations (local market conditions), we would like to point out that the
resulting comparisons and formulated interpretations provide a realistic
and comprehensive view of the automotive local market focused on the
Top 10 car brands operating in this market. The off-line world
represented by traditional players such as newspapers or magazines
greatly affects the reputation of selected subjects, especially among
professionals. Given the specificity of the time (based on a number of
research and analysis), we would like to point out that the general
public, the X and Y generations, is influenced by these traditional players
in terms of forming reputation only to a limited extent. The centre of
their information world is the Internet. Another trend of the time, the
159
shift away from major sources of information to alternative media and
community portals, makes it increasingly difficult to control reputation.
Google search results in the form of links to fan sites, community forums,
catalogue portals, or local media can also reveal the smallest deficiencies
in marketing communications. Combined with Facebook and Google
ratings in the form of stars, a single person can also destroy or seriously
damage the reputation of a company. The power of this person's
marketing message is multiplied by the authenticity that their message
carries, which, of course, only adds to legitimacy. The presented analysis
synthesizes all relevant features and offers a clear comparison of the
reputation of the analysed subjects both online and off-line. At the same
time, it presents a comprehensive and compact methodology for
measuring online reputation and thus creates the basis for successful
and effective management of the virtual reputation of SMEs from the
SME environment.
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3.11 Selected approaches to Sustainable
Development of Corporate Reputation
The study called Selected approaches to Sustainable

Development of Corporate Reputation was the final partial research in
more than five year research effort of the authors. The primary aim of
our research presented in the given study was in the form of empirical
study point out to available possibilities of quantification and
subsequent measurement of reputation, but especially reputation in
online environment. The issue of managing online reputation as a new
phenomenon in the form of fragile intangible assets is gradually gaining
on importance and it is becoming one of the essential prerequisites for
responsible and sustainable reputation management. Selected methods
of quantification and subsequent measurement of reputation were
presented, for the purposes of this study, we approach to the
presentation of the issue using advanced multifactor analysis of online
reputation of selected subjects from the field of truism. The subjects
primarily operate at a stable and geographically limited market and this
creates ideal conditions for presenting selected methodology.
Considering competitive character created by the market itself, all
selected subjects approach actively to the management of its reputation
in a mortar as well as virtual world. Describing key connections and
determinants influencing the reputation of these subjects will certainly
help better understanding this, from our point of view, extremely
important issue. Describing the current state of knowledge, and last but
not least, our long-standing research effort, has accumulate the
knowledge necessary for the actual implementation of the empirical
research in question.
Using the multi-factor analysis of the reputation in the online

Internet environment, we tested specific subjects, namely 15 best
Adriatic Coast Hotels selected by experts of The Daily Telegraph (The
Daily Telegraph 2018 In: Pollak, Svetozarovova, Malinak 2018). Within
the testing, we considered the entire spectrum of perceiving their
reputation since we compared the whole spectre of relevant virtual
161
factors and connections measured by us against significant and relevant
ranking of the mortar world provided by British experts for The Daily
Telegraph. From the point of view of the subjects, these subjects as a
lighthouse of perceived quality guarantee the relevance for identified
connections, and findings and recommendations drawn from them
directed to the other players operating in the analysed market. As
already mentioned, within our research, we used the methodology of
multi-factor analysis of online reputation, namely its modified version
TOR which we presented in previous subchapters as a priority possibility
to measure the entire power of online reputation of a subject in the
Internet environment.
The measurement itself takes place in three steps, in first step,

it is necessary to analyse the sentiment of the first ten keyword search
results, namely own or established name of the particular subject
through Google search. To increase the validity of retrieved data, the
sentiment of the first ten search results of own name of specific subject
is parallelly tested by its own name in Google tab “News”. The number
of parameters is not limited; however, analysis normally does not work
with more than three parameters. Partial scores are subsequently
calculated, the sum of points is the starting point for subsequent
quantification. For one parameter, the subject can get a maximum of
155 points, one such point is then 0.645% in percentage terms. With
three parameters, a maximum score of 210 points can be obtained,
giving one point a value of 0.322%.
In the second step, we identify the determinants of online

reputation, for the purposes of our study, we will call them reputators.
As a reputator, we can identify any determinant which has the ability to
influence the perceived online reputation of a subject, at the same time,
it can be quantified, and it is possible to express its value in percentages.
Typically, this can be important web pages of a catalogue type providing
different ratings, subjects’ profiles on social nets or portals that can
significantly influence the perception of the reputation of a selected
subject. For this case, we used the evaluations of whole spectre of
162
relevant reputators. Ratings in the forms of stars were subsequently
converted into percentages.
In the third step, we can proceed to the actual calculation of the

overall power of online reputation of a specific TOR subject which then
serves as a starting point for complex comparison of overall power of
reputation across all analysed subjects.
All examined subjects are actively involved in their reputation

management both in traditional and virtual environments. For the
purposes of our study, we will predominantly refer to the virtual Internet
environment. Using Advanced Sentiment Analysis (ASA), we calculated
the power of subjects’ online reputation determined by the nature of
the top ten search results via Google. However, search engines are just
one of the ways by which users get what they want.
Based on previous research in the given issue (Pollák et al 2016,

Dorčák, Markovič, Pollák, 2017, Pollák et al. 2017), we identified other
determinants of reputation, that is in other words reputators for the
field of tourism, in particular:
• Facebook (reviews on the scale 1-5),
• Google (reviews on the scale 1-5),
• Trip Advisor (reviews on the scale 1-5),
• Booking (score 0-10, converted to percentage).
Three of four reputators has a 5-point system of quantification

of the perceived online reputation, namely the evaluations in the form
of stars. These were converted into percentages. Booking use its own
system, where providing score from 0 to 10, this score was converted to
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percentage. Before we present our own interpretations, we consider
necessary to present partial evaluations of the subjects as well as all
relevant indicators in one summary table. Table 1 presents both
individual ranking of the mortar world and a partial score obtained by
quantification of individual reputators and last but not least it shows the
overall level of online reputation represented by the TOR indicator:
Number
ASA FB Google Trip Booking TOR Reference
of pages
Subject/ score rating rating Advisor rating score expert
indexed
Result rating
by
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Google
Villa 11 500
73.42 94.00 96.00 100.00 95.00 91.68 90.00
Dubrovnik 00
Hotel Navis
92.09 96.00 92.00 90.00 91.00 36 100 92.22 90.00
Opatija
Hotel Monte
Mulini 73.74 92.00 96.00 100.00 95.00 160 000 91.35 90.00
Rovninj
Aman Sveti
93.38 96.00 88.00 90.00 - 202 000 91.85
Stefan 90.00
Regent Porto
88.55 98.00 94.00 100.00 95.00 540 00 95.11 90.00
Montenegro
Borgo
Egnazia 93.38 98.00 94.00 90.00 94.00 137 000 93.88 90.00
Fasano
Hotel
Excelsior 92.09 92.00 94.00 90.00 93.00 416 000 92.22 80.00
Dubrovnik
Sun Gardens
65.37 94.00 94.00 90.00 89.00 972 000 86.47 80.00
Dubrovnik
Little Green
56.99 100.00 96.00 80.00 92.00 496 000 85.00
Bay Hvar 80.00
Hotel Liburna
65.69 94.00 88.00 80.00 90.00 252 000 83.54 80.00
Korcula
Radisson Blu
75.35 88.00 90.00 80.00 85.00 635 00 83,67 80.00
Resort Split
Hotel
Splendid 85.97 96.00 94.00 90.00 90.00 204 000 91.19 80.00
Budva
Don Ferrante
88.87 94.00 94.00 90.00 92.00 97 500 91.77
Monopoli 80.00
164
Belmond
Hotel Cipriani 96.60 96.00 94.00 90.00 92.00 617 000 93.92 80.00
Venice
Kempinski
Palace 83.40 94.00 94.00 90.00 92.00 617 000 90.68 80.00
Portorož
Source: Pollák, Svetozarovová, Malinak (2018)
Firstly, we focused on analysing the virtual reputation of the

subjects using an Advanced Sentiment Analysis ASA. With regard to each
subject, we analysed the first 10 results of the Google search. Searching
by specifying the first parameter, the subject’s own name, we recorded
the subjects’ own sites predominantly at the first positions in searching.
This came out as not a surprising fact since the situation is almost the
same for all sectors of business. It was expected that the following nine
search results will be of a neutral character, however, this was not
confirmed in any cases. Neutral search results are mostly various sub-
pages of the homepage or various formal references found on pages
related to the subject. Although they do not damage the reputation of
the subject, they definitely do not add to its value with respect to the
virtual "attractiveness". Positive search results related to the searched
subject are from the point of view of Internet users more interesting,
especially if the users have no direct experience with any of those. The
perception of the subject is thus established on very subjective – virtual
experience. In this case, the positive sentiment regarding the studied
subject was generally associated with the presence of the subject on
Wikipedia or its profile on Facebook or other social media showing up in
the first ten search results. The reviews of the studied subject appearing
in the first ten search results after typing in the name of the studied
subject were also considered as positive sentiment. Then we repeated
the measurements using only one parameter, the full name of the
subject. This time, we focused on the results found in the tab "News".
Based on the results, we can state that the subjects are almost perfect
in mastering media communication. Except for few cases, the subject
has recorded positive sentiments almost on all position in their search
results. Especially Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik recorded (as one of four
hotels from sample) positive sentiment in all positions in google tab
News. This phenomenon was connected with another phenomenon,
165
namely Game of Thrones, referring to place when all mail stars were
accommodated. We need to mention, then newer before we recorded
full positive sentiment score in any field of our research. Superstar Hotel
was followed with trinity of top hotels, namely Hotel Navis in Opatija,
Aman Sveti Stefan and Borgo Egnazia Fasano. Those Hotels gained their
unbelievable score by their exclusive location or services (or both). Firs
from “normal” subjects were Hotel Splendid in Budva with approx. 92%
of possible positive sentiment score in google tab News, especially
because of reference on James Bond Movie called Casino Royal. The
analysis showed relatively close relations between offline and online
factors, based on previous researches, we consider this finding very
interesting.
In the second step, we analysed reputation of the analysed

subjects calculating their reputation using the following: reviews on
Facebook, Google, Trop Advisor and Booking. We appreciate the fact
that all of the analyzed subjects got such positive reviews. This shows
that they have penetrated into the market. Since these are the best
Hotels in their field, this is not surprising at all.
In the third step of the analysis, we calculated the overall

reputation. The clear winner in both brick and virtual world is the Regent
Porto Montenegro, the rating of which exceeded 95% of the total value
of positive online reputation. The Borgo Egnazia Fasano was followed by
the Belmond Hotel Cipriani Venice. Then we have the Hotel Liburna
Korcula Radisson Blu Resort Split with approx. 83 % rating. Interestingly
enough, that being in competition fight with the best, providing great
work is not enough, you need to be just perfect.
Interesting outcomes of the analysis
The following figures and Tables point out some interesting

outcomes of the analysis:
166
Hotel
Excelsior…
Kempinski 100,00 Sun
Palace… Gardens…
95,00
Belmond Villa
Hotel… 90,00 Dubrovnik
85,00
Borgo Little Green
80,00
Egnazia… Bay Hvar
75,00
70,00
Don Hotel
Ferrante… Liburna…
Regent Radisson
Porto… Blu Resort…
Hotel Hotel Navis

Splendid… Opatija
Aman Sveti Hotel
Stefan Monte…
TOR score (%) Telegraph expert rating (%)
Chart 19: Offline vs. Online ratings

In comparison with the results of the The Daily Telegraph, the

score of the analysed subjects with regard to their online reputation was
almost same. It points to fact, that both worlds are connected. As we can
see in next Table, regarding the correlation between Telegraph rating
and the level of overall virtual reputation, at the chosen significance
level of 5%, the p-value is sharply lower than 0.05. We have therefore
cannot refuse existence of statistically significant correlation between
brick and virtual ratings.
167
Table 20: Offline vs. Online ratings
No. Kendall tau Z p-level
TOR & 15 0.440 2.288 0.022
Telegraph
With regard to organic search results (first 10) on Google in the tab "All"
and "News" and Telegraph rating we can conclude the following:
Hotel Excelsior
Dubrovnik
Kempinski 100,00 Sun Gardens
Palace Portorož Dubrovnik
Belmond Hotel 80,00
Villa Dubrovnik
Cipriani Venice 60,00
Borgo Egnazia 40,00 Little Green Bay
Fasano Hvar
20,00
Don Ferrante 0,00 Hotel Liburna

Monopoli Korcula
Regent Porto Radisson Blu

Montenegro Resort Split
Hotel Splendid Hotel Navis
Budva Aman Sveti Opatija
Hotel Monte
Stefan Mulini Rovninj
ASA score (%) Telegraph expert rating (%)
Chart 20: ASA vs. Telegraph rating

168
As we can see in the Chart, values measured by offline approach and
values measured by analysing Goole search results (ASA) exhibit a high
degree of similarity.
As a final step, we analyzed the connection between the scores of broad

sentiment analysis TOR and the total number of Google index pages of
the subject, we can see the results in next Table.
Table 21: Reputation by TOR vs. Number of Google indexed pages

No. Kendall tau Z p-level
TOR & Google 15 0.2488 1.292 0.196
index
We can conclude that at the chosen significance level of 5 %, the p-value

was > 0.05. We did not confirm a statistically significant correlation
between variables. Once again, this only confirms the already known
facts about the importance of quality over quantity.
For the purpose of better interpretation of the findings, we tested the

dependencies between variables is shown in Chart, values obtained by
selected reputators and values measured by analysing Goole search
results (ASA) exhibit a high degree of similarity. In only one subject we
recorded deviation, namely Aman Sveti Stefan, who did not have an
profile on Booking, logically, no profile mean no booking rating. We can
see the graphic interpretation of the tested variables in next Chart.
169
120,00
100,00
80,00
60,00
40,00
20,00
0,00
lm Bo rran nte dva

nt Sp ti inj
Ho Gr Dub nik
on l Na ort a
Po ice
Lit Vil ub nik
M s O lit
ž
ns ip Fa i
di Lib Ba nik
Bl a K var
n to M id B n
Ke Ho Egn on ro
Re Hot an S i Ro ja
Pa ni no
pi C ia ol
ro
l M te es ul
Do Por nd tefa
ti
te vi Sp
M g
ge el ve vn
m tel az op
ki ria sa
ce n
s D ov
Ra tel een rov

tle la rov
te Ho u R orc
rto
Am uli pa
on urn y H
on rg te ne
o u
la V e
le S
en br
rd Du
n
Ga r
n lsio
Su xce
d o
Fe
ss
lE
te
Ho
Ho
Be
ASA score (%) FB rating (%) Google rating (%)
Trip Advisor (%) Booking (%)
Chart 21: Chart of dependencies

At the end, there were an important question to ask, is there any

connection between offline and online ratings? Based on findings
presented in Chart No. 19 and Table No. 20, we can state, Yes. There is
connection, strong connection between ratings indicate necessity of
combine online and offline approaches to obtain sustainable
development of reputation of tested subjects. Based on the findings we
have established a model of Sustainable development of Corporate
Reputation for subjects from tourism industry, this model looks as
follows:
170
Scheme 2: Model for Sustainable development
3.11.2 Assessment
Based on the findings, we can conclude, sustainable

development of reputation management combines offline and online
techniques, as the both worlds are connected. Even though different
environments require specific approaches, recorded different dynamics
and required specific tools, network between them is so strong. There is
almost impossible to be a star only in one world. However, by its nature,
online reputation is more fragile. What can responsible managers do to
enforce it? Combining activity with planning appear to be an effective
approach. Active management of reputation is from our point of view
the only responsible and sustainable approach to complex reputation
management. Involving virtual social networks into communication
portfolio of companies can significantly contribute to the increase of
interactivity and authenticity within communication provider –
consumer. Not speaking about invaluable source of relevant data in the
171
form of feedback in the real time. Especially in crisis marketing
communication, the integration of modern communication channels is
seen as key to master the so called first wave. Complex approach to
platforms requires complex understanding of their particularities,
character, and capacity from the point of view of messages. The
understanding of these particularities is necessary for effective usage of
these platforms. The key to the understanding lies in the identification
of significant factors, their quantification and standardization. Especially
this view is presented in our study, by showing the basic characteristics,
their quantification and integration into a complex system for its easier
application into practice or science.
From the point of view of the sustainable reputation

management of the examined subjects, the Hotels from the top places
of the ranking have undoubtedly a notable advantage from the point of
view of online reputation for general public from the ranks of the
Internet users. If a user is searching for relevant information and at the
same time does not have his/her own experience with a particular
subject, in the absence of positive reputators, his/her perceptions of the
particular subject can be significantly deformed despite the enormous
endeavor and physical demonstration of the perfection of the subject in
the traditional world. By eliminating negative publicity while maximizing
positive media outputs in opinion-forming Internet media, and the
displacement of neutral or negative search results to irrelevant positions
presented by the second to n-th side of Google search results.
Responsible and sustainable is the multiplatform approach to the
reputation management. Strategic alliances of major players will help to
more effective optimization of search engines, improving the availability
of preferred results on relevant positions in searching. However, Google
is not the only platform that needs to be considered. Integration of the
main platforms presented by virtual social networks and media will
ensure active feedback, as well as active content control. This largely
eliminates the possibility of spreading half-truths and incomplete or
untrue information. Finally, it is important to pay attention to the
construction of consumer tribes, without any developed and motivated
user base, it is not possible to predict any significant results for any of
172
the activities described. What can we state at the end? The
comprehensive analysis provided comprehensive results, however, it is
necessary to point out the limitations of our research, particularly data
availability at the time the research was conducted. We would like to
state that the resulting comparisons and formulated interpretations
provide a realistic, up to date and comprehensive view of the market
subject from Tourism industy. The offline world represented by
traditional players largely affects the reputation of selected entities,
especially among professionals. Given the specificities of the time (and
the number of other research and analyses), we would like to state that
the general public, generations X and Y, is affected by those traditional
players in terms of reputation shaping to a limited extent. The center of
their information world is the Internet. Another trend of the times, the
move away from mainstream information sources to alternative media
and community portals makes it harder to control one’s reputation.
Search results on Google in the form of links to fan pages, community
forums, catalog portals or local media can reveal even the smallest
imperfections in marketing communication. In combination with
Facebook and Google ratings in the form of stars, or traditional virtual
reviews by Booking ore Tri Advisor a single person can destroy
reputation of a company. The strength of that person’s "marketing"
message is enforced through authenticity that this message carries and
making it look legit. Our research synthesizes all mentioned viewpoints
and offers a clear comparison of reputations of the analyzed subjects
across both worlds (online and offline). The results (processed
graphically) bring interesting findings worthy of greater consideration.
From the point of view of future research, authors will aim their effort
to improving presented methodology by the completion of TOR in its
complex formula, with described and measured weights of individual
reputators for more accurate use in academic research and practice.
173
174
3.12 Discussion, recommendations and conclusions
In this subchapter we describe in a transparent way the most

important findings of the performed research. On the basis of these
findings, we make recommendations for entities operating in the motor
vehicle sector regarding the possible effective application of
management of virtual reputation in order to create a positive effect on
their competitiveness.
3.12.1 Discussion - findings of the performed research
The research confirmed that the Slovak market is special

whether it is in relation to external markets within Europe or within the
internal markets. From the west to the east of the country (not even 500
kilometres) we can encounter considerable regional differences. The
organizations that are active on the market must deal with a relatively
low purchasing power of potential customers, while on the supply side
(represented by potential competitors), organizations find themselves in
a hyper-competitive environment.
On the supply side, the analysed market is defined by a high

representation of small enterprises. These companies, given their limits
consisting mainly of limited resources (human, financial, time), must
operate as efficiently as possible if they want to stay in the game on the
turbulent and hyper-competitive market. The issue of using e-marketing
tools in business is relatively little explored within our geographical
borders.
Organizations or directly individuals only gradually begin to use

the internet and benefit from the opportunities it offers them. Since this
is a relatively little researched issue, we thought it would be important
to find answers to fundamental questions formulated in the context of
the performed comprehensive research, as one of the subsets of the
selected correlations related to the issue of virtual reputation and e-
marketing as a whole.
175
We consider it essential to summarize the preliminary elements
that are, based on our performed analyses, identified as dominant
determinants of influencing consumer perceptions of the chosen
entities in the physical world.
Fundamentals for creating a positive physical reputation in the

services sector can be considered to be e.g. the quality of the processes
themselves, innovation, methods and tools used during the process,
expertise and relevance of service providers. These factors are
ultimately reflected in the perception of customers as one cumulative
variable "perceived quality".
In contrast, the issue of building positive reputation in the virtual

environment of the internet has a much more dynamic character.
Building a positive image of an entity and the purposeful few-year-long
effort to establish a positive reputation may be devastated in a moment,
for example by spreading alarming, false or intentionally harmful
information. The whole issue of building reputation is very fragile.
Already a reference of a slightly negative nature or undertone can simply
and easily damage the name of a company, its brand, level of products
and services it provides.
The factors affecting reputation, its direction, development and

level on the internet are various references on the websites offered by
search engines, their character and strength of sentiment relating to
particular entity. Entities that based on the used methodologies occupy
the leading positions in the comparison have a competitive advantage
over the other rated entities in terms of reputation on the internet. The
force of sentiments of individual search results was decisive, but also the
order in which the pages were displayed. The relevant factors bearing
positive sentiment (for example, an established history of years active
on the Slovak market - evokes a kind of stability of entities) were
identified for the entities occupying the leading positions. A significantly
positive factor influencing consumers was the clear pointing to the
quality of process, generally known achievements of the entity,
innovative methods and tools used in the process of providing services,
176
but also the perceived level of added value. Rating agencies should also
be taken into consideration, as by appointing "the number of stars" or
other types of assessment on various other web pages they can
significantly enhance the reputation of an entity towards a desirable
development and thereby get it closer to the most positive state
possible.
3.12.2 Recommendations and conclusions
In terms of application of successful practices, the entities

should in the first place endeavour to provide on their websites relevant
information in the clearest way possible, to ensure the quality of their
own websites, their attractiveness and appeal. An important goal in their
own interest should be the purposeful attempt to eliminate negative
publicity and, vice versa, strengthen positive publicity and work on it.
This can be achieved by active internet communication policy in the form
of spreading positive information in the leading internet portals such as
the electronic editions of the biggest dailies or through virtual social
networks. The best way to eliminate negative or neutral publicity in the
first ten search engine results is a literal displacement of negative
publicity and perception of an entity by active work in the form of a
thought-out marketing communication policy on the internet. The
partial results of the comprehensive research of the issue of online
reputation, among other things, dealt with a broad range of partial
correlations and their impact on the analysed issue. The objective of the
analyses carried out within looking into the issue of online reputation of
e-commerce entities operating on the given market was to identify the
major players among the wide range of e-commerce on the Slovak
market, to carry out the primary analysis of reputation of such entities
by using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) method, to identify key factors
for success in terms of customers' preferences and to review the extent
to which changes in customers' preferences are significant in relation to
the reference studies carried out on the market in the past. We verified
changes in customers' preferences by means of testing. It can be
concluded that the factors influencing decision-making on purchasing
via the internet are almost constant over time. On the other hand, there
177
was quite a significant shift in the factors that influence the choice of an
online store, multiple offered payment options are no longer the key,
whereas good reviews of the store have gained importance. E-shop
owners should put greater emphasis on factors such as reputation and
good reviews, as well as a wide assortment and uniqueness of the
offered products. The largest amount of information about products and
in the clearest way possible should be available to the customers. A
positive finding is also the fact that more than a third of respondents
regularly (at least on a monthly basis) purchase goods and services using
an online store. We consider to be of importance that compared to the
past the importance of the reputation of a shop has increased by nearly
a half, while this parameter is directly related to studied issue and
reaffirms the need to implement similar surveys over time.
178
4 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
In this chapter, we specify the theoretical and practical benefits
of the publication.
4.1 Knowledge for further development of science

(theoretical contributions)
The issue of using e-marketing tools in business is relatively little

explored within our geographical borders. Organizations only gradually
begin to use the internet and benefit from the opportunities it offers
them. The geographical location of the implementation of this research
can, by means of its published results, significantly help to expand the
knowledge base in the context of the issue of using innovative marketing
tools to manage virtual reputation of entities in the automotive industry.
The research results presented in this publication are suitable for further
basic and applied research and open up opportunities in the areas of:
• deeper analysis of specific e-marketing tools and their impact on

virtual reputation of entities, by means of their deployment in
model situations and conditions,
• identification of specific strategies and mechanisms with regard
to the various customer markets (demographics, socio-
economic situation and so on.),
• design and development of software infrastructure to simplify
the use of e-marketing tools in order to manage virtual
reputation.
179

180
4.2 Knowledge for practice (practical
contributions)
The practical benefit of the research consists mainly in the

actual analysis of the current possibilities of using marketing tools, with
an emphasis on managing virtual reputation of individual subjects. The
research accumulated information by analysing which we have come to
conclusions that may ultimately contribute to increasing the
competitiveness of entities operating in the automotive sector on the
selected market. By using specific examples based on our own research
presented in the publication, recommendations are clearly and
transparently postulated to the broad spectrum of entities, especially
entities operating in the automotive industry, on how to use chosen e-
marketing tools in order to manage their online reputations in
omnifarious situations and for selected customer segments.
The traditional world in our research, also referred to as the

offline environment, has a dominant role in the process of building the
reputation of the subjects as such. Renowned institutions focusing on
the evaluation of different target groups developed effective
approaches to measure reputation bound to objective data and
objective factors, such as demonstrable outputs, technologies,
certifications, and so on. On the other hand, factors affecting reputation
in the virtual world are predominantly subjective. Therefore, a gap
between objective and subjective reality occurs. The problem of
objective reality is that it requires enormous resources in the form of
finances, time, effort, and so on. Subjective reality, on the other hand, is
based on the opinions of anonymous individuals. This results in the
immense fragility of reputation as an intangible asset, as on one side,
there is a tremendous effort, and on the other side, a disproportionate
variability and uncertainty. We share the opinion of the authors who
consider the effort not to give up the control over the brand as one of
the key preconditions when moving from offline to online reputation
management. Sustainability, as the final area of our exploration, in its
terms of building a corporate reputation is, in our opinion, continuation
181
of investing in a traditional environment while actively monitoring the
virtual environment. As we present in the proposed model ilustrated in
Scheme no.2, only by considering all variables, the organization can
minimize threats and maximize opportunities on the increasingly
turbulent 21st century market.
182
CONCLUSION
The aim of this publication was to summarize and presenting
results of the comprehensive research project aimed at examining the
issue of importance of online reputation on a specific market. The
present project is carried out with the main objective to extend the
theoretical knowledge about the researched issue. Qualitative and
quantitative methods of processing were used and subsequently, they
served as the basis for developing a methodology for comprehensive
and effective measures for the purpose of improving the ORM platform
in domestic conditions.
The publication was divided into three parts. The first analytical
part (Chapter no. 1) consisted of defining the basic terminology and
provided theoretical determination of the issue of reputation in the
traditional physical world as well as in the virtual world processed in a
transparent manner. The second part (Chapter no.2) focused on the
methodological aspect of the presented research. In this part we
specified and described thoroughly the available methodologies in order
to summarize the knowledge necessary for subsequent own research.
The third part of the work (Chapters no. 3 and 4) was then devoted to a
chronological summarization of the partial results of the research
published by the project team in authorship with domestic and foreign
experts involved in the implementation of the research. At the end of
this monograph we presented the most important findings of the
comprehensive research in a coherent way. Based on these findings,
recommendations have been postulated for entities from the
automotive industry, and what's more for almost any entities, actively
trying to manage their virtual reputation on the internet. At the end of
the monograph we also presented the benefits for science and practice.
Thus, we have successfully completed our predetermined goals of our
research. However, the issue itself is extremely interesting and suitable
for further investigation.
183
It is necessary to point out the limitations of our research,
particularly data availability at the time the research was conducted. We
would like to state that the resulting comparisons and formulated
interpretations provide a realistic, up to date and comprehensive view
of the inverstigated issue. From the point of view of future research, We
would like to aim our effort to improve presented methodology by the
completion of TOR in its complex formula, with described and measured
weights of individual reputators for more accurate use in academic
research and practice.
184
SUMMARY
Cieľom tejto publikácie bolo zhrnúť a prezentovať výsledky
komplexného výskumného projektu zameraného na skúmanie významu
online reputácie na vybranom trhu. Projekt jv rámci ktorého bola
vypracovaná predkladaná publikácia bol realizovaný s hlavným cieľom
rozšíriť teoretické poznatky o skúmanej problematike. Použili sa
kvalitatívne a kvantitatívne metódy spracovania a následne dáta poslúžili
ako podklad pre vypracovanie metodiky komplexných a efektívnych
opatrení na zlepšenie platformy ORM v domácich podmienkach.
Publikácia bola rozdelená do troch častí. Prvá analytická časť (kapitola č.

1) pozostávala z vymedzenia základnej terminológie a teoretického
vymedzenia problematiky reputácie v tradičnom fyzickom, ako aj vo
virtuálnom svete internetu. Druhá časť (kapitola č.2) bola zameraná na
metodologický aspekt prezentovaného výskumu. V tejto časti sme
podrobne špecifikovali a popísali dostupné metodiky s cieľom zhrnúť
poznatky potrebné pre následný vlastný výskum. Tretia časť práce
(kapitoly č. 3 a 4) bola potom venovaná chronologickému zhrnutiu
čiastkových výsledkov výskumu publikovaného projektovým tímom v
autorstve s domácimi a zahraničnými expertmi zapojenými do realizácie
výskumu. Na konci tejto monografie sme koherentným spôsobom
prezentovali najdôležitejšie zistenia komplexného výskumu. Na základe
týchto zistení boli postulované odporúčania pre subjekty z
automobilového priemyslu a čo viac pre takmer všetky subjekty, ktoré
sa aktívne snažia riadiť svoju virtuálnu reputáciu na internete. Na konci
monografie sme tiež prezentovali prínosy pre vedu a prax. Úspešne sme
tak naplnili vopred stanovené ciele nášho výskumu. Samotná téma je
však mimoriadne zaujímavá a vhodná na ďalšie skúmanie.
Je potrebné poukázať na obmedzenia nášho výskumu, najmä

dostupnosť údajov v čase, keď bol výskum realizovaný. Chceli by sme
konštatovať, že výsledné porovnania a formulované interpretácie
poskytujú realistický, aktuálny a komplexný pohľad na problematiku. Z
hľadiska budúceho výskumu by sme sa chceli zamerať na zlepšenie
185
prezentovanej metodiky doplnením TOR v jej komplexnom vzorci, s
opísanými a meranými váhami jednotlivých reputátorov pre presnejšie
využitie v akademickom výskume a praxi.
186
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200
REGISTRY
A
ARPANET 79
Azet 105
B
Benjamin Franklin 31
Basic terms 15
Brick-and-mortar world 68
Bayesian method 86
booking.com 134
C
Corporate identity 22
College 113
D
Development 161
E
E-shop 127
F
Fuzzy concept 87
Flow Model 88
Facebook 107
Faculty 118
G
Gossips and slander 53
H
Healthcare 123
201
I
Image 15
J
Jeff Jarvis 68
K
Kruskal-Wallis 138
Knowledge 179
L
Like 149
M
Martinus 128
Mediterranean 141
Model for Sustainable development 171
N
Net promoter score 99
O
Online reputation 63
Online reputation management 64
P
PageRank 88
Peer-to-peer 91
Q
Quality 20
R
Reputation 40
Reputation glacier 57
ReGreT model 87
202
S
Semantic content 18
Sentiment analysis 94
T
Trust 26
Traditional media 69
Trip Advisor 135
Total online reputation 135
Telegraph 161
U
University 113
V
Virtual world 74
W
Waves of trust 36
Wikipedia 140
Y
YouTube 155
Z
Zero growth 72
203
Title: Online Reputation Management
Authors: Peter Markovič
Peter Dorčák
František Pollák
Publisher: Professional Publishing s.r.o., Na Sídlišti I 152,
252 43 Průhonice, Prague, Czech Republic
Edition: First
Year of publication: 2019
Range: 204 pages
ISBN: 978-80-88260-35-6
204
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Online Reputation Management

Book · January 2019

Peter Markovič Frantisek Pollak

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Online reputation management

Professional Publishing, Prague

doc. PhDr. Peter Dorčák, PhD.

doc. PhDr. František Pollák, PhD.

Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Daniel Zorn

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Beug

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development

Publisher: Professional Publishing, s.r.o., 2019

© Peter Markovič, Peter Dorčák, František Pollák, 2019

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM ................................................... 11

α- alfa level of significance

The problem of building and subsequent maintenance of a good

As already mentioned, the problem of building of a reputation in the

Thus, the objective of this monography is to summarize and presenting

At this point, the authors of monography would like to thank to co-

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development

1.1 Definition of basic terms

In order to be able to describe the changes, which the process

Firstly, it is necessary to define the difference between a

There are often mistakes in its understanding and perception, it is

In literature, there is a countless number of ways of explaining,

The definition of Image can appear unambiguous and simple. In spite of

Kotler (1998) understands image as a set of factors, literally a

The American Marketing Association (2017) defines image as the

Foster (2002) notes that image cannot be purchased. An organization

From the point of view of domestic authors (Lieskovska 2000), image is

Another interesting point of view is the broader approach of perceiving

Based on the abovementioned definitions, it is possible in my opinion to

Non-material factors are represented here by a predominantly

All of these views are predominantly universal in terms of space (the

According to the authors who developed a professional

Image from a perspective of marketing

The priority of a customer is a directly dependent decision based

Image as a psychological term

The use of the image problem for the purposes of marketing is

Types and properties of the image

For fast and easy orientation in the individual types of image, we

However, according to the same authors, it is possible to state also other

• Internal image – which is characterized by the fact, that an

• Real image – formed in minds of the public, exactly this one is

• Class image – characteristic for a range, group or class of

• Product or brand image – is characteristic for a product known

• Corporate image – also referred as the company image, is

A set of properties of image is based on its nature and a simple definition

• a one-way, either positive or negative relationship to an object,

• stability but also formability,

• personalization and individualization,

• determination to a social aspect,

• relative independence from reality,

• presence of emotional and psychological elements.

Image and corporate identity - graphic interpretations

After defining different perspectives on corporate identity and

Figure 1: Diagram of interactions within the creation of a corporate

Through the intersection of imaginative circles, we reach the core of the

However, the diagram of the corporate image interactions reflects only

For the comprehensiveness of the perspective, I attach a diagram that

After defining the basic concepts, namely corporate identity and