Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
7-2026
Abstract
The context within which social evaluations form has been fundamentally altered by contemporary forces, such as digital technologies, polarization, activism, politicization of business, and geopolitical tensions. While research on social evaluations has generated rich insights into the formation and development of constructs, such as legitimacy, status, reputation, stigma, trust, and celebrity, much of this work has been developed under the assumptions of relative stability, coherent audiences, and well-defined intermediary roles. These assumptions are increasingly challenged in this changing context, requiring us to rethink the formation and management of social evaluations. The articles in this special issue focus on these changes. Building on these contributions, this introductory article develops a research agenda across seven interconnected areas: the stability and fragility of social evaluations, audience fragmentation and convergence, the reshaping of the intermediary landscape, construct interrelationships, range and extension of constructs, the measurement of social evaluations, and their underlying foundations. We discuss how these transformations affect not only organizations and evaluative processes, but also the societal impact of social evaluations. Overall, this editorial provides a framework to guide future research in a field undergoing profound transition.
Keywords
activism, artificial intelligence, audience, digital technology, legitimacy, media, polarization, reputation, social evaluations, status, stigma; trust
Discipline
Strategic Management Policy | Technology and Innovation
Research Areas
Strategy and Organisation
Publication
Journal of Management Studies
Volume
63
Issue
5
First Page
2005
Last Page
2031
ISSN
0022-2380
Identifier
10.1111/joms.70121
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Clemente, Marco; Etter, Michael; Snihur, Yuliya; ERTUG, Gokhan; Scott, Graffin; and Zavyalova, Anastasiya.
Keeping up with the times? Rethinking social evaluations research under contemporary technological and sociopolitical forces. (2026). Journal of Management Studies. 63, (5), 2005-2031.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7911
Copyright Owner and License
Authors-CC-BY
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70121