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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether CEOs use multi‐stakeholder communications in their annual report letters and to describe any patterns observed in those communications.

Annual report letters of the ten largest US companies were examined using content and text analysis procedures.

CEOs made little use of multi‐stakeholder communications in their annual letters. Some variations were found among the sample companies' letters, including differences in word counts, reading ease scores, and number of word types.

A small sample of companies and one medium of communication were used in carrying out the study. Increasing the sample size, the array of industries represented, and the variety of media may yield more robust results.

Recommendations for communicating with a multi‐stakeholder audience are proposed.

The paper examines how stakeholders relate both to the organization and to one another, a focus not examined in great depth elsewhere in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description and overview of the middle market which, by sales volume, lies between the small business and large business sectors and also identifies the implications for corporate communication in that sector.

A review of the literature in corporate communication and related business and management topics formed the basis of the paper.

The middle market was found to be a collection of businesses vastly ranging in size and structure and spanning numerous industries. Regardless of size, firms need to behave as if they were large corporations and well-staffed organizations as they engage and manage stakeholders and implement corporate communication strategic plans.

The findings, which could form the basis for a more comprehensive study, were based solely on secondary sources.

Suggestions for addressing unique corporate communication issues in the middle market are highlighted.

The paper enhances understanding of the middle market which, while economically-successful, is often ignored.

The paper aims to increase the understanding of reputational-risk management by examining company responses to potentially reputation-damaging incidents.

Incidents with potential for damaging Starbucks Corporation’s reputation were described and summarized as were the company’s responses to those incidents.

It was observed that the complexity of resolving a reputation-damaging incident was inversely related to its closeness to the company’s core business. Also, the longevity of incidents suggests the persistent influence of past events.

Limitations are that findings are not generalizable beyond this case study and that the bulk of the information collected pertained to one of the five incidents examined. Potential hypotheses for future research are suggested.

Findings provide reference points and a context for managers responding to reputation-damaging incidents.

The paper illustrates how reputation-damaging incidents can be complex and difficult to resolve the more removed they are from the company’s core business.

The paper seeks to identify and map groups, organizations, and individuals chief executive officers refer to in annual report letters, and propose a method for identifying those appearing to be stakeholders. Identifying who those stakeholders are could provide clues to competitors' corporate strategies or other issues drawing the attention of executive managers.

Annual report letters of all 19 public restaurant franchisors on the 2007 Franchise Times top 200 list were analyzed with concordance software. Stakeholders were identified and mapped according to their linkages with franchisors.

Significant differences were found between international and domestic franchisors. An industry‐specific approach was used.

A small sample, focused on a single industry, was used. The study could be replicated using the procedures discussed.

Groups, organizations, and individuals referred to in annual reports are identified and mapped.

A method for determining which groups, organizations, and individuals are stakeholders is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the future of corporate communication professionals and researchers; to present the findings of the Corporate Communication International (CCI) Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009; and to introduce the issues presented in the papers from the CCI Conference on Corporate Communication 2009 published in this special issue.

The paper presents a discussion of the future of the corporate communication and the findings of the CCI Corporate Communication Practices and Trends Study 2009.

The paper implies strategic knowledge of business processes and practice for effective corporate communication.

The paper implies several areas for further research.

The paper articulates complex challenges facing corporate communicators.

This chapter provides a comprehensive survey of the contributions of the Austrian school of economics, with specific emphasis on post-WWII developments. We provide a brief history and overview of the original theorists of the Austrian school in order to set the stage for the subsequent development of their ideas by Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek. In discussing the main ideas of Mises and Hayek, we focus on how their work provided the foundations for the modern Austrian school, which included Ludwig Lachmann, Murray Rothbard and Israel Kirzner. These scholars contributed to the Austrian revival in the 1960s and 1970s, which, in turn, set the stage for the emergence of the contemporary Austrian school in the 1980s. We review the contemporary development of the Austrian school and, in doing so, discuss the tensions, alternative paths, and the promising future of Austrian economics.

UP to the present the war strain has not had a great effect upon the libraries of this country. Issues have naturally fallen in some departments—particularly in districts where there is a large floating population of aliens—but this has been counterbalanced by increased use in other directions. Many libraries have already been made the local headquarters of relief committees, special constabulary, the National Reserve, boy scouts' associations, etc., and as recruiting stations, and where there is sufficient accommodation, it is proper that the familiar library building should be so used for these emergency national affairs.

The willingness of negotiating parties to cooperate, communicate, and compromise ‐ prerequisites of the problem‐solving orientation ‐ often lead to successful outcomes. Consequently, problem‐solving oriented strategies are often employed by negotiators in order to achieve mutually acceptable outcomes. The results of a survey conducted among 98 exporters indicate that negotiators’ perceptions of their counterparts’ strategies seem to have the strongest influence on the extent of problem‐solving behaviors observed among negotiators. Prenegotiation experience, inherent conciliatory predisposition, and perceptions of the organization’s flexibility were also found to influence negotiators’ problem‐solving orientation.

Understanding the nature and distribution of influence within buying centres is of critical importance to researchers in organisational buying behaviour (Dawes, Lee, & Dowling, 1998). However, the effects of the Internet on organisational buying behaviour remain rather vague. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of the Internet on the distribution of influence within buying centres. In particular, the study aims to identify the changes in levels of influence among key players at each stage of the organisational buying process due to the introduction of the Internet as a means of gathering information. Two groups of companies, representing high-internet-usage and low-internet-usage companies are identified. Results show that there is a significant difference in the distribution of influence within buying centres between the two groups where the level of influence of general managers tend to decline while functional managers tend to enjoy increased levels of influence in high-internet-usage companies.