Online presence, visibility, reputation: A systematic literature review in management studies

Purpose. The objective of this 22-year review is to synthetize business and management literature in the context of online presence, online visibility, and online reputation concepts. In particular, the article aims to investigate the level of interest of the Internet, digital, and interactive marketing-focused literature, as well as the more general business and management one towards these topics. Design/methodology/approach. In order to identify the existence or otherwise of an online presence, visibility, and reputation definition, as well as an index for measuring them, a systematic review and a content analysis process were performed on 199 articles categorized over 1997-2018. Findings. The findings highlight (i) the absence of clear and shared online presence, visibility, and reputation definitions; (ii) the absence of unanimously accepted indexes for measuring them; (iii) the identification of a sequence relationship between the three investigated constructs. Research implications. The article underlines the need for both theoretical as well as empirical contributions, in order to reduce the complexity characterizing the business and management literature focused on these topics. Originality/Value. The current study brings out interesting directions for future researches by systematizing all the articles devoted to the online presence, visibility, and reputation concepts from a business and management perspective.