HOUSTON – (April 11, 2017) – As United Airlines responds to public reaction to an incident on one of its flights Sunday evening, a Rice University expert views the development as a case study in modern reputation management.

Anastasiya (Annie) Zavyalova, assistant professor of strategic management at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, said that in a customer-centric industry, public perceptions about a company become a foundation of its reputation. She is available to discuss United’s crisis management situation with the media.

“What has been rapidly changing in the reputation-management landscape is the role of social media,” Zavyalova said. “No longer do customers wait on mainstream media to publish stories about companies to learn about their actions. And business-to-customer companies, like United Airlines, can no longer reactively manage their reputations every time a crisis occurs. They have an opportunity to use social media to engage with their stakeholders. Those firms that adapt to this change quickly will be able to weather such crises better.”

Zavyalova’s research focuses on negative events in organizations and the role of the media and organizational identification for stakeholder support following such incidents.