Prominence

Public prominence refers to the extent to which an organization naturally comes to mind and occupies an important “mental space” in people’s minds. In other words, prominence captures the extent to which an organization receives attention and is central to people’s thoughts. This entry starts by explaining the concept of prominence and highlighting the differences between prominence and similar concepts often used in reputation research. It then continues with an overview of the literature investigating the antecedents and consequences of prominence as well as its relationship to organizational reputation.

Prominence is similar to terms such as salience, relevance, and top-of-mind awareness. However, it is often used as a synonym with other terms including familiarity and (media) visibility, which—although related—have different meanings. In this sense, familiarity refers ...