Articles Tagged with: best reviewer
Home / Blog Archives
22 September 2026
2026 Best Papers and Best Reviewer Award Winners

On the occasion of its annual Congress, the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) has awarded authors for their excellent research and the best reviewer for their contribution. This year, the annual Congress was hosted by Lund University in Lund, Sweden.

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards 2026

The Awards were given to the authors of the three papers with the highest rankings in a blind peer-review process performed by experienced reviewers from the EUPRERA community, under the guidance of the Heads of the Scientific Committee, Martina Topić-Rutherford and Sarah Marschlich. The winning papers were selected for their conceptual contribution, methodological quality, and relevance to contemporary challenges in the field.

The three winning papers are:

1st place – Enacting Sustainability Through Communication: Transformative Roles, Ethical Agency, and Organisational Constraints in Paradoxical Times
by Francisca Weder, Chiara Valentini, Flora Hung-Baesecke

This paper is awarded first place for its ambitious and timely contribution to sustainability and strategic communication scholarship. It moves beyond viewing sustainability communication primarily as reporting or messaging and instead conceptualises communication as a practice through which sustainability is interpreted, negotiated, and enacted within organisations. Drawing on 77 interviews across Finland, Austria, and Australia, the study demonstrates how organisational structures, leadership, and regulatory environments shape professional agency. Particularly valuable is its identification of change-agent roles centred on networking, coaching, storytelling, and challenging established assumptions. Its conceptual ambition, comparative depth, and relevance to contemporary organisational challenges make it the strongest paper in this year’s competition.

2nd place – Not Any Stance, but My Stance! Why People Support Corporate Social Advocacy Only When It Aligns With Their Own Position
by Thomas Koch, Sandra Mechler, Nora Denner

This paper is awarded second place for its conceptual clarity, methodological strength, and important challenge to assumptions about corporate social advocacy. Using a representative survey of 1,135 respondents, the study demonstrates that expectations of corporate advocacy are strongly shaped by people’s own positions on controversial issues. Rather than broadly expecting companies to participate in sociopolitical debate, publics appear more supportive when corporate positions align with their existing views. The study also shows that behavioural responses are asymmetrical, with avoidance and punishment more common than reward. These findings meaningfully complicate existing scholarship and offer important implications for organisations communicating in increasingly polarised environments.

3rd place – Facing the Numbers: An Eye-Tracking Analysis of the Effects of C-Suite Visuals and Text Valence in Annual Reports
by Laura Hackl, Andreas Enzminger

This paper is awarded third place for its methodological innovation and original contribution to investor relations, visual communication, and impression-management research. Combining eye-tracking with survey measures, the study examines how audiences process leadership imagery alongside positive and negative textual information in annual reports. The findings show that executive images attract attention and can strengthen perceptions when accompanying information is positive, but cannot compensate for negative information. By demonstrating that textual valence can override visual cues, the study adds useful nuance to assumptions about visual impression management while also showing the value of eye-tracking for strategic communication research.

 

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award 2026

The Best Reviewer Award recognises exceptional dedication, quality, and collegiality in the peer-review process, key values that uphold the academic standards of the EUPRERA Congress.  This year’s winner is:

Anastasios Theofilou
Bournemouth University, UK

This year’s Best Reviewer Award recognises Anastasios Theofilou, whose contribution to the review process combines scholarly rigour, reliability, generosity, and genuine collegiality. This reviewer consistently accepts invitations to review and can always be relied upon to support the process, responding to requests with characteristic warmth and often with the reassuring words, “Of course, you can always count on me.” The reviews themselves are consistently detailed, thoughtful, constructive, and developmental, offering authors substantive feedback that helps them strengthen their work rather than simply assessing it. This commitment is reflected in consistently excellent evaluations, including five-star ratings and highly positive feedback on the quality and usefulness of the reviews. What particularly distinguishes this reviewer is the combination of intellectual care and personal generosity brought to an increasingly demanding form of academic service: responsive, friendly, dependable, and consistently willing to contribute while maintaining a very high standard of scholarly engagement.

 

DOWNLOAD AS PDF
More info
info@euprera.org | dpra@euprera.org
12 October 2025
2025 Best Papers and Best Reviewer Award Winners

On the occasion of its annual Congress, the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA) has awarded authors for their excellent research and the best reviewer for their contribution. This year, the annual Congress was hosted by Lund University in Lund, Sweden.

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

The Awards were given to the authors of the three papers with the highest rankings in a blind peer-review process performed by experienced reviewers from the EUPRERA community, under the guidance of the Heads of the Scientific Committee, Martina Topić-Rutherford and Sarah Marschlich. The winning papers were selected for their conceptual contribution, methodological quality, and relevance to contemporary challenges in the field.

The three winning papers are:

The Diversity Washing Dilemma: How Diverse Corporate Self-Presentation and Product Communication Enhance Image and Credibility – And How Misalignment Can Backfire
by Sandra Mechler, Thomas Koch, Nora Denner

The study provides valuable insights into diversity communication and how it affects organisational credibility. By comparing self-presentation and product communication, it offers unique evidence on how diversity messaging shapes consumer perceptions and highlights the critical role of authenticity.

Reviewers praised the work as “well-executed and highly relevant”, noting its clear structure, theoretical depth, and robust dual experimental design. The paper investigates a strategic communication dilemma that is both timely and practically significant: how misalignment between corporate messages and reality can backfire.

Triangulating Narrative Alignment: An AI- and API-Driven Approach to Issue Detection Across Reddit, News, YouTube, and Brand Web Content
by Grazia Murtarelli, Stefania Romenti, Elanor Colleoni

This paper was described by the reviewers as “focused on a really interesting issue, presenting an original approach and achieving relevant results”. It is methodologically advanced and highly relevant for current strategic communication challenges.

The reviewers highlighted its strong theoretical grounding and sophisticated combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The study contributes conceptually and practically, bringing forward a scientifically and practically valuable tool for detecting narrative alignment in real time across digital platforms.

Ayn Rand in Tech Leadership: Critical Perspectives on Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover and the Erosion of Communication and Stakeholder Principles
by Philipp Bachmann, Diana Ingenhoff

This paper “problematizes the established normative assumptions of communication theory and calls for new, critical reflection”. Reviewers noted its potential for interdisciplinary contribution and its relevance to ongoing debates in leadership and technology communication.

The study advances critical PR research, offering a reflective and theoretically grounded perspective on communication, ideology, and stakeholder relations in tech leadership contexts.

 

Special recognition to the best reviewer

The Best Reviewer Award recognises exceptional dedication, quality, and collegiality in the peer-review process, key values that uphold the academic standards of the EUPRERA Congress.  This year’s winner is:

Michał Chmiel
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Michal Chmiel received five-star scores from the authors he reviewed. Reviewees praised his writing, insightful advice, and fairness, noting that his feedback was both supportive and highly constructive.

In addition to his review excellence, he also supported the Congress by reviewing a high number of papers at the last moment, helping the Congress run smoothly and ensuring that all participants received timely, high-quality feedback. His reliability and collegial approach are deeply appreciated and reflect the values that make EUPRERA’s review process both rigorous and supportive.

 

DOWNLOAD AS PDF
More info
info@euprera.org | dpra@euprera.org
19 September 2024
Awards for Best Papers 2024: EUPRERA honours academics and practitioners from Europe

We are just back from the EUPRERA Annual Congress, organised by the University of Bucharest, looking grand in its 160 years of history.

The congress was a success both in participation with nearly 200 attendants and in scientific contribution, with works on the theme “The Art of Communication”, grasping the legacy and challenges of the unprecedented times we are facing, characterized by fast-facing changes.

The Annual Congress is also time to hand out the EUPRERA Best Paper Awards. As always, the Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a blind peer-review process performed by experienced reviewers from the EUPRERA community, under the guidance of the Heads of the Scientific Committee, Alina Dolea and Sarah Marschlich.

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

The three winning papers:

Strategic Communication and Value Creation: Towards a Multi-Perspective Understanding of the Value-Formation Process in Strategic Communication Management
by Rickard Andersson

This paper significantly contributes to understanding the value formation process in strategic communication management. It proposes a novel multi-perspective that integrates the stakeholder, organizational, and societal perspectives. It has academic relevance and strong link with professional practice especially since demonstrating how strategic communication management creates value has long been considered a critical challenge for communication departments and managers. Moreover, it advances the theorizing of value creation in strategic communication.

Interdisciplinary Patchwork: A Bibliometric Analysis of Investor Relations and Financial Communication
by Laura Hackl

This paper provides a state-of-the-art overview of an important area that is less studied, investor relations and financial communication. It uses a bibliometric approach that draws on big data analysis and opportunities for different forms of analysis that technology/AI allows. Through the historical review, it nicely positions itself in relation to previous literature, highlighting similarities, differences, and relationships. It is a well-designed and methodologically sound interdisciplinary paper that significantly contributes to the under-developed study of investor relations and financial communication as part of strategic communication.

Policy Window and News Media Lobbying – Crisis Narratives of Finnish Trade Associations During a Public Health Crisis
by Markus Tapani Mykkänen, Chiara Valentini

This paper explores how the three major Finish trade associations used news media for lobbying during the pandemic. It is innovative in the sense that it tries to combine the theory of policy windows/cycles with the study of media lobbying. The combination of these approaches constitutes the originality of the study. The authors show the main narratives and meta-narratives the trade associations used, emphasizing the importance of timing. Overall, this is a very well-executed and argued study. It is neat, clear and relevant both for practice and research. The research on how lobbyists are arguing and how they work through media is understudied and this paper contributes to the literature on lobbying, interest groups and strategic communication.

 

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and success of the annual congress. This year’s winner is:

Dr Martina Topić,
College of Communication and Information Sciences, The University of Alabama

Dr. Topić stood out through the number of high-quality reviews she did for EUPRERA this year. Her feedback was detailed, diligent and constructive, with lots of suggestions offered to help authors develop and improve their papers.
Her willingness to help and pick-up last-minute additional reviews was also genuinely appreciated by the Scientific Committee.

 

 

DOWNLOAD AS PDF
More info
info@euprera.org | dpra@euprera.org
27 September 2023
Awards for Best Papers 2023: EUPRERA honours academics and practitioners from Europe

We are just back from the EUPRERA  Annual Congress, organised by Charles University in Prague, one of the largest and oldest universities in the world, as it was founded in 1348 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV.

The congress was a success both in participation with nearly 200 attendants and in scientific contribution, with works on the theme “Responsible Communication – or Communicating Responsibility?”, grasping the legacy and challenges of the unprecedented times we are facing.

The Annual Congress is also time to hand out the EUPRERA Best Paper Awards. As always, the Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Chiara Valentini.

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

The three winning papers:

“I want what you want! Understanding the Impact of Public Interest Arguments in Lobbying and Public Affairs”
by Ketil Raknes and Øyvind Ihlen

This paper significantly contributes to the realm of public affairs by providing valuable insights into how politicians and lobbyists in Norway use the concept of public interest to advocate for or against energy and environmental issues. The paper is well constructed, rigorous and well-argued. It offers a comprehensive, relevant, and coherent theoretical framework that thoroughly examines the utilization of “topos” in the communicative interactions of these influential social actors. The theoretical framework is highly valuable in that it can be used to analyze a diverse set of advocacy initiatives beyond the ones in focus in this study. Overall, this study constitutes a significant advancement in the understanding of lobbyism and rhetoric within the political sphere and offers a theory-driven tool to dissect the quality of argumentations of those in power and the role of communication in affecting democratic processes.

“Sustainable Engagement with Digitalization Challenges in Strategic Communication: Introducing the VUCA Radar”
by Peter Winkler, Jannik Kretschmer, and Philip Wamprechtsamer

This paper explores the frequently used, yet ambiguously defined concept of VUCA, aiming to provide a conceptual and empirical analysis that sheds light on its impact on strategic communication and outlines effective responses to its challenges. The study is backed by qualitative data gathered in Austria. A commendable aspect of this research is the authors’ intention to enhance our comprehension of VUCA while contributing to the theoretical understanding of current public relations in both internal and external environments. To aid professionals in navigating complex and volatile situations, the paper introduces a valuable tool called the VUCA RADAR. Overall, the study stands out as an intriguing, innovative, pertinent, and ambitious contribution to the field.

 “Trend Research in Communication Management: Introducing an Interdisciplinary Approach based on Futures Research Methodology”
by Ansgar Zerfass, Daniel Ziegele, Sünje Clausen, and Stefan Stieglitz

This paper proposes an integrative approach for future research in public relations and communication management. The methodological approach integrates insights from research developments in society, management, and technology and integrates insights from professionals. There is a nice dialectical engagement between theory and practice-based experiences which positions this work as one highly commented for its practical implications and contribution in expanding our knowledge for conducting formative research. Overall, the paper suggests an innovative integrative methodological perspective, that can become an important practical toolkit for professionals and their research efforts in identifying key trends.

 

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and success of the annual congress. This year’s winner is:

Melissa A. Johnson,
North Carolina State University

Dr. Johnson’s review stands at an exceptional level of quality. Her feedback is thorough, comprising in-depth and comprehensive comments, along with practical suggestions that effectively aid authors in enhancing their papers. Notably, her constructive and encouraging remarks prompt authors to introspect on their arguments and research decisions. Moreover, the review exhibits attentive feedback and a profound respect for diverse academic cultural traditions and perspectives, making it truly commendable.

 

DOWNLOAD AS PDF
More info
info@euprera.org | dpra@euprera.org
29 September 2022
Awards for best research papers: EUPRERA and Emerald honor academics and practitioners from Europe

We are just back from the EUPRERA XXIII Annual Congress, organised by two member universities and hosted in their stunning campus: University of Vienna and WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

The congress was a success both in participation with nearly 200 attendants and in scientific contribution, with works on the theme “Public Relations in Risk Society”, grasping the legacy and challenges of the unprecedented times we are facing.

On the occasion of our annual congress, EUPRERA and Emerald Group Publishing awarded for best research papers in public relations.

 

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Chiara Valentini. The three winning papers:

“Navigating Moral Minefields in a VUCA-World: The Contribution of Moral Foundations Theory to Research on Issues Management, Risk and Crisis Communication” by Timo Lenk

This paper offers an excellent and original discussion of key factors affecting today risky and complex societies and how public relations professionals and organizations can navigate the VUCA-world. It does an excellent work in compiling and discussing important questions related to issues, risks, crises, public fragmentation, and complexity, and is highly centered on the conference annual theme.  The paper is clearly and well written and provides provocative points of discussion for a deeper understanding of the conditions for targeted risk and crisis communication. It suggests original reflections on how moral foundation theory could inform research on issue, risk, and crisis management.

“Polarized Stakeholders and Crisis Communication” by Michael Etter

This is an overall well-written and well-thought conceptual paper shedding light on an important matter, such as stakeholder activism and polarization. The author has conducted an excellent multidisciplinary review of most recent research on a topical area to derive important conceptual and theoretical insights applicable to public relations problems. Moreover, the paper proposes a theoretical model explaining how stakeholders’ judgment disagreements become triggered as organizations engage in controversial actions with both normative and professional values. The model is set to advance our understanding of stakeholder behaviors that impact organizational legitimacy, reputation, and status, and has a great potential to set future directions for public relations research in crisis communication and stakeholder communication.

“Prospects and Risks of Digitalization in Public Relations Research: Mapping Recurrent Narratives of a Debate in Fragmentation (2010-2021) ” by Jannik Kretschmer and Peter Winkler

This is a highly stimulating and thoughtful paper, that tries to make sense of contemporary debates on digitalization in public relations research. It is clearly written and presents an updated review of how digitalization has been addressed in public relations literature, highlighting unsolved issues, and knowledge gaps.  Overall, the paper suggests an innovative integrative perspective on digitalization that can be of great “use” to researchers interested in understanding opportunities and risks of digitalization for societies.

 

Emerald Awards

Emerald Group Publishing, publisher of Journal of Communication Management, delivered the yearly Emerald Professional Impact Award for the best research-based paper that is not only academically sound, but which makes an important and useful contribution to the practice of communication management. The paper addresses issues of current concern to managers and also successfully discusses the research’s implications to managers and for practice. The winning paper is:

“Knowing Thy Enemy and Fighting the Good Fight: A Framework for Organizational Preparation for and Response to AI-driven Disinformation Campaigns” by Elise Maria Karinshak and Yan Jin

This is an excellent theory-driven paper with potential impact on practice in a field in need of more strategic communication research. Disinformation is harming both democracy and organizations in ways that we could not foresee some decades ago, when the digital transformation was mainly viewed as something with positive consequences. In this paper the authors synthesize theoretical and technical literature characterizing the effects of AI on disinformation. They then propose a conceptual framework for disinformation response in the corporate sector. The study concludes that future disinformation response efforts will not be able to rely on detection strategies, due to the evolution of AI- created content quality but need to rely on content influence.

And from this year on, the EUPRERA book series Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management, a collection of the best contributions from our congresses, competes for the Emerald Literati Award for Outstanding Author Contribution. This year the award was recognized to:

Vibeke Thøis Madsen for her chapter “Communicative Leadership on Internal Social Media: a Way to Employee Engagement?”, published in the volume Joy. Using Strategic Communication to Improve Well-being and Organizational Success.

Vibeke Thøis Madsen explores interactions on internal social media (ISM) in a Danish bank to understand how communicative leadership is enacted in social media dialogues within an organizational context. She identified three communicative leadership styles: formal communicative leadership, co-constructed communicative leadership, and peer communicative leadership. The findings suggest that communicative leadership is co-constructed in interactions between managers and employees as well as in interactions among employees. We learn that communicative leadership on ISM is not only enacted by formal managers; it is enacted just as much by knowledgeable individual organizational members and it is also co-constructed by groups of employees. In this respect, the findings help us understand leadership as a complex set of interactions in organizational contexts and know that empowering communication on ISM can therefore enhance employee engagement.

 

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and the success of the annual congress. This year’s winner is:

Maria Isaksson from BI Norwegian Business School, Norway, who has contributed to careful, thorough and useful reviews.

The quality of review of Dr. Isaksson is of excellent level. She provided lengthy and detailed comments, as well as practical suggestions to help authors further develop their papers. Her comments are constructive and encouraging and spur authors to reflect on own arguments and research choices. Attentive feedbacks and high consideration for different academic cultural traditions and perspectives are also visible in the offered comments.

 

DOWNLOAD AS PDF
More info
info@euprera.org | dpra@euprera.org
20 November 2020
EUPRERA Best papers, Best Reviewer, Best Theses
EUPRERA Best Paper Awards

Among the papers submitted on our 2020 theme The Camino of strategic communication: (re)-discovering the human element in public relations, the EUPRERA Best Paper Awards are given to the authors of the three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Sabine Einwiller from University of Vienna. The three winning papers:

Revisiting Public Relations’ (Hi)Stories: A Narrative Approach to Progress in a Multi-Paradigmatic Discipline
by Peter Winkler and Jannik Kretschmer
Public Relations “avant la lettre”: Press Accreditation during Russo – Turkish War (1877 – 1878)
by Valentin Vasile
Stress Resilience: A Key Competence For Professionals In Public Relations
by Daniel Ziegele and Ansgar Zerfass
Press release
Emerald Professional Impact Award

Emerald Group Publishing, publisher of Journal of Communication Management, delivered the yearly Emerald Professional Impact Award for the best research-based paper that is not only academically sound, but which makes an important and useful contribution to the practice of communication management.

The paper addresses issues of current concern to managers and also successfully discusses the research’s implications to managers and for practice. The winning paper is:

Meaning-making On The Ground: (Re)-discovering The Competence Of Interactional Framing In Environmental Conflicts
by Korien van Vuuren-Verkerk, Noelle Aarts and Jan Van der Stoep
Press release
EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and the success of the review process. This year’s winner is:

Sherry Holladay

from Texas A&M University, USA, who has contributed to careful, thorough and useful reviews

EUPRERA Master Thesis Award

Master Thesis Award for Excellence is an annual prize aimed to celebrate the PR academia and the role performed by European Higher Education Institutions in the evolution of knowledge of this field. The jury, headed by Alexander Buhmann, from BI Norwegian Business School in Norway, selected the winning theses in two categories.

The Head of the jury together with the winners will present the winning works and hints on how to produce an excellent master thesis during a webinar, free and open to everyone, on December 16, from 14.30 to 15.30 CET. More info & registration

Practical Impact Award: Sasha Jurchak

Thesis: Inside an evolving organisation: a framework for assessment
Tutors: Wim Elving, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; Rudiger Theilmann , Leeds Beckett University, UK

Theoretical Impact Award: Daniel Ziegele

Thesis: Work stress among communication professionals. A comparative study between Germany and the United States
Tutors: Ansgar Zerfass, Leipzig University, Germany;
Juan Meng, University of Georgia, USA

Press release

Congratulations to all the winners for their achievement
and thanks to the juries for their huge work!
Stay tuned because soon we’ll announce the
2021 call for papers
as well as the 2021 call for applications for the
master and the PhD awards!

27 September 2019
Awards for best research papers in public relations: EUPRERA and Emerald honor academics and practitioners

The European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), a body of academic institutions, researchers and senior professionals in the field of strategic communication with nearly 500 members from 40 countries, has awarded authors for their excellent research in strategic communication at the EUPRERA annual congress in Zagreb, on September 27. The congress is known as the major gathering of scholars and professionals interested in advancing the profession of public relations and corporate communications on the continent, hosted this year by University of Zagreb in Croatia.

Academic awards for research on
communication strategies to activate citizens,
Twitter as a lobbying tool, communication in Disaster Management

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Sabine Einwiller from University of Wien in Austria. Sabine Einwiller, Head of the scientific committee, and Ralph Tench, EUPRERA President, delivered the awards for the three winning papers:

“Small But Mighty. Communication Strategies Of Dutch Local Energy Initiatives” by Petrus ter Halle, Pascal de Vries, Liesbeth Hermans.
The paper addresses the role of communication strategies in activating citizens in private Local Energy Initiatives (LEIs) to stimulate engagement in a common social cause. In phase one, authors interviewed representatives of LEIs to then, in phase two, extend and deepen the insights by presenting them to other LEIs using dedicated workshops. It shows that LEIs do not appear to have a clear communication strategy, but elements of such a strategy are readily identifiable, and LEIs activate enormous civic potential. The paper is very innovative with a high level of practical significance and an inspiring methodological approach.

“The Democratic Success of Twitter as a Lobbying tool” by Øyvind Ihlen, Ketil Raknes, Anders O. Larson.
The paper discusses the contribution of Twitter to democratic goals of engagement and debate by asking “What type of interest groups and organizations succeed in having members of parliament react on (retweet) their Twitter messages?”. To answer this question, the authors analyzed the extent to which Norwegian politicians retweet messages from interest groups and lobbyists during normal parliamentary activity. Despite the touted democratic potential of Twitter, the researchers find that it is the powerful groups and organizations that get heard more by politicians, also on Twitter. The paper is excellently written with solid links to the relevant literature and sound methodology.

“Building Community Resilience: Strategic Communication in Disaster Management”, by Gayadini Imesha Dharmasena Madho Kandage, Margalit Toledano, Kay Weaver.
The authors analyze the use of strategic communication for building community resilience to natural disasters in two different socio-cultural contexts, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Based on 50 in-depth interviews of communication managers in government and non-profit organizations involved in disaster management, it shows that Sri Lanka has a fatalistic approach to disasters relying on collectivistic values, while in New Zealand the challenge is to persuade people to seek help from others and to be familiar with good sources of help and information. This highly interesting paper has a solid theoretical basis, sound methodology and contributes to our understanding of building community resilience in different cultures.

Moreover, Emerald Group Publishing, publisher of Journal of Communication Management, presented the yearly Emerald Professional Impact Award for the best research-based paper that is not only academically sound, but which makes an important and useful contribution to the practice of communication management. The paper addresses issues of current concern to managers and also successfully discusses the research’s implications to managers and for practice. The winning paper is:

“Happy or End: The Role of Strategic Communication in Start-ups”, by Markus Wiesenberg, Alexander Hagen Godulla, Katharina Tengler, Inga-Marit Noelle, Julia Kloss, Natalie Klein and David Eeckhout.
The paper is based on very sound theorizing, and takes an effort to ground the research in wider concepts and theoretical discussions that go beyond a mere observation of startup communication. Based on a systematic literature, the authors chose a qualitative-explorative approach reflecting the external perspective of consultants and funders as well as the internal perspective with start-up founders and the communication managers (where existent). Results reveal eight areas in which start-ups face strategic communication challenges including the basic orientation of strategic communication. This is an excellent paper combining a tight theoretical framework with practical and professional impact.

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and the success of the annual congress. The scientific committee identified as this year’s winner:

Grazia Murtarelli from IULM University, Milano, Italy, who has contributed to careful, thorough and useful reviews.

2 October 2018
Awards for best research papers in public relations: EUPRERA and Emerald honor academics and practitioners from Europe

Aarhus, September 28, 2018 – EUPRERA has awarded authors for their excellent research in strategic communication at the EUPRERA annual congress in Aarhus, on September 28. The congress is known as the major gathering of scholars and professionals interested in advancing the profession of public relations and corporate communications on the continent, hosted this year by Aarhus University in Denmark.

Academic awards for research on
conversation analysis, conceptual heritage, online stakeholder dialogues

EUPRERA Best Paper Awards were given to the authors of three papers with the highest rankings in a two-stage, blind peer-review process performed by a scientific committee of renowned international scholars, headed by Stefania Romenti from IULM University in Milan, Italy. The three winning papers are:
““Big Ideas“ Emerging From a Microscopic Perspective. The Why and How of Conversation Analytic Thinking for Strategic Communication” by Christian Schwägerl.
Drawing on the theoretical framework of ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA), the paper reflects the majorly deterministic presupposition of “communication“ of this mainstay. CA methodology may detect the specifics of stakeholders’ speech varieties with which they construe and interpret their social worlds. Seeking to accomplish outcomes, strategic communication has to relate to these specifics. Strategizing and evaluating has to be attuned to the microscopic perspective of the reciprocity emerging in communicative processes. The paper closes with the thought that CA’s inductive, strictly data-based fine-grained analyses of the sequential organization of speaker turns elicit this emergence.
“The Conceptual Heritage of Public Relations: Using Public Memory to Explore Constraints and Liberation” by W. Timothy Coombs and Sherry Holladay.
This article is an eye opener bridging the past and the future, contextualizing key concepts from different perspectives which enriches the reflections both, academics and practitioners, should have while “working” on them. The authors take the right distance and keep a valuable and scientific objectivity when describing from the perspective of “conceptual heritage” how these three concepts emerged and how counter-narratives can (and do) challenge and enrich the dominant one. It is a very dense piece of work summarizing throughout a well-done reflection the academic developments of our field.
“Controlling Conversations: The Effects of Moderation Strategies in Online Stakeholder Dialogues”, by Alexander Buhmann, Kateryna Maltseva, Christian Fieseler, Matthes Fleck.
The paper extends recent research on online dialogic strategies by providing evidence of the actual effects of different types of online dialogue strategies on common CSR outcomes, through an experimental vignette methodology. The paper distinguishes between two fundamental styles of moderating online stakeholder dialogues, namely: controlled conversations and crowdsourced conversations. This paper adds to building theory on the dialogic potential of online media by offering insights into the varying effects of stakeholder communication strategies in social media dialogues.
Moreover, Emerald Group Publishing, publisher of Journal of Communication Management, presented the yearly Emerald Professional Impact Award for the best research-based paper that is not only academically sound, but which makes an important and useful contribution to the practice of communication management. The paper addresses issues of current concern to managers and also successfully discusses the research’s implications to managers and for practice. The winning paper is:
“Communicating the Corporate Strategy: An International Benchmark Study in the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany”, by Karolin Köhler, Ansgar Zerfass.
Strong methodology offering opportunities for both future academic and practice-oriented reflections.
It is very interesting to read about these 3 conceptual approaches: strategic communication, communication strategy and strategy communication, to differentiate, position and embed yours, allowing the conjunction of multiplication as well as conveyance and interpretation.

Special recognition to the best reviewer

EUPRERA Best Reviewer Award recognizes the work done by the reviewer because it is an essential contribution to the quality and the success of the annual congress. The scientific committee identified as this year’s winner:
Anne-Marie Cotton from Arteveldehogheschool, Ghent, Belgium who has contributed to careful, thorough and useful reviews.
 

More info:
Virginia Villa, dpra@euprera.org

On this website we use first or third-party tools that store small files (cookie) on your device. Cookies are normally used to allow the site to run properly (technical cookies), to generate navigation usage reports (statistics cookies) and to suitable advertise our services/products (profiling cookies). We can directly use technical cookies, but you have the right to choose whether or not to enable statistical and profiling cookies. Enabling these cookies, you help us to offer you a better experience.