Briana Anderson - Cornell University

CHAPTER TWO
BACKGROUND & PURPOSE OF STUDY
Credibility
Current literature on public relations indicates that the communication between
an organization and its publics ought to be conceptualized as a relationship. This
conceptualization uses aspects from interpersonal relationship research and applies
them to the relationship an organization has with its stakeholders (Ledingham &
Brunig, 2000). One such aspect of relationships is the concept of credibility, defined in
Merriam-Webster dictionary as ‘the quality or power of inspiring belief’ (http://www.m-
w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary). Credibility is essential if an organization seeks to build a strong
relationship with its stakeholders (e.g. targeted consumers, shareholders, and
employees), with the end result of increased market share, higher stock prices, or
attracting quality employees. Moreover, a credible source can influence beliefs,
opinions, attitudes based on a process termed internalization (Kelman, 1961), which
states that a person accepts a source influence in terms of their personal attitude and
value structure.
Research on source credibility has produced different definitions and
conceptions, but this study defines credibility in terms of the amount of perceived
expertise and trustworthiness (Hovland & Weiss, 1951; Dholakia and Sternthal, 1977)
of the source. Expertise is defined as the extent to which a source is perceived to
make valid claims, whereas trustworthiness is defined as the degree of perceived
honesty, integrity, and believability of a source (Erdogan, 1999). Advertising, public
relations, and marketing researchers have used this conception of source credibility in
studies related to both endorser credibility (Ohanian, 1990; Ohanian, 1991), and
organizational credibility (Goldsmith et al., 2000).
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