Familiarity

Familiarity refers to the overall knowledge that someone has about a specific organization. Over the years, scholars studying organizational reputation have focused significant attention on the relationship between familiarity and organizational reputation,[Page 311] making it a highly significant area of research. This entry starts by explaining the concept of familiarity and highlighting the differences between familiarity and similar concepts often used in reputation research. It then continues with a historical overview of the literature that has investigated the relationship between familiarity and reputation.

Familiarity with an organization can be acquired through direct experience of an organization (e.g., its products and services) or indirectly through media exposure and/or hearsay. In this sense, familiarity is a necessary condition for reputation to exist: If someone does not know anything ...