Hi, Simona:

I think it is! In recent years, consumer bloggers in some cases helping reduce food waste and enhancing the role of social media as a place for consumers to discuss and share their consumption practices and perhaps in the process helping build corporate reputation! Moreover in this day and age of social media, corporate reputation has become one of the most important intangible assets for maintaining and enhancing firms’ competitiveness in the global marketplace. 

While there is widespread support for the notion that organizations with better reputations outperform their rivals, there is uncertainty about how to create such a reputation (foodblogger's role!!!)  especially among the managers responsible for this task. For example, organizations often give money to worthy causes or create social responsibility programs in the hope that this will appeal to their stakeholders. When approaches such as these are only loosely coupled to the strategy of the organization they appear to be "bolted on" rather than "built in." Thus, they are likely to foster a reputation that is less consistent with the principal actions of the organization and be less credible. They are also easy for competitors to imitate. Because of this, a reputation grounded in the strategy of the organization has a better chance of providing a sustainable competitive advantage.  The authors (Dowling & Moran, 2012) present a normative framework that illustrates a strategy-led approach to reputation building!

• Dowling, G., & Moran, P. (2012). Corporate Reputations: BUILT IN OR BOLTED ON?. California Management Review, 54(2), 25-42.

Hope this helps!

Nadeem

Such impact can be investigated in experiment/test, similarly to experiments about how celebrities influence product brand image. Theoretical background: K.L. Keller: "image leveraging".  R.Kleczek

Thank you!!!!!