Organizational reputation: In search of lost time

Organizational reputation has been an important concept in management research for more than 30 years. In this essay, we elaborate on the relationship between the notion of time and organizational reputation. We first review research on reputation in strategic management, highlighting the importance of the construct and how time has traditionally been conceptualized. We then build on existing organizational research on time as a way to advance the understanding of reputation as a more processual and socially constructed phenomenon; we argue that reputation formation, maintenance, and repair could be understood as a form of socio-symbolic work. Based on this foundation, we set out a research agenda providing a path for the investigation of the temporal features of reputation and reputation work.