e-Reputation Management and Strategic Business Development Using Web 2.0 Tools: The Case of the Hotel Industry

Although the concept of e-reputation is relatively recent, and indissociable from the advent of Web 2.0, the notion of reputation is centuries old, as revealed by a review of the literature. In King Richard II, for example, William Shakespeare wrote: “the purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless reputation” (Shakespeare, 1595: 196). Similarly, describing a character in his novel “A Woman of Thirty,” Honoré De Balzac stated: “He did nothing to forfeit a high military reputation gained by his dashing courage, for he had never been a commander-in-chief” (Balzac, 1832: 52). Analysis of numerous literature quotes and texts concerning reputation immediately raises a core question: how did the notion of reputation transform into the e-reputation concept? As demonstrated in the first part of this chapter, this change is the result of a historical evolution. Whereas reputation can be considered to have initially involved a static process, the advent of the e-reputation following the development of the Internet, and especially Web 2.0 tools, has introduced a dynamic factor. The reputation of an individual or business is no longer established once and for all but is now subject to change over time.