How have recent corporate scandals affected US Economic history and the way we view corporations and big businesses?

According to Goffman, stigma functions as a kind of reputational bankruptcy, in which the actual self cannot make good on the implicit promises of the virtual self. The best course of action for an executive stigmatized by scandal is to borrow, as it were, reputation and legitimacy from someone else. Managers who have extensive external networks, or who are in fields that emphasize individual reputations, may be able to acquire such cover through existing relationships.

For many others, executive search firms can serve as both the reference and the sponsor. Indeed, the importance of the research that these firms perform lies not only in the exonerating information but also in the time and energy that gathering such information represents. Search firms are hired by companies, not by job seekers, and will not invest in an in-depth background check unless they already believe in the candidate’s innocence and value on the job market. Their investigations provide a form of reputational voucher.

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