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EJM
39,1/2 Antecedents of managerial public
relations: a structural model
examination
110
Carmen Lages
ISCTE Business School-Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal, and
Received September 2003
Revised March 2004; Luis Filipe Lages
June 2004 Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract
Purpose – This paper identifies key forces influencing the degree of managerial public relations
(MPR), i.e. the practice of public relations (PR) as a strategic tool.
Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data of nearly 300 PR consultants from English
firms, the authors propose a conceptual framework of MPR and test it through structural equation
modeling (SEM).
Findings – Findings reveal that research expenditure and importance given to qualifications are key
antecedents of MPR. Surprisingly, while the direct effect of the perceived quality of PR graduates on
the practice of MPR is non-significant, the indirect effect through research expenditure is highly
significant and negative.
Research limitations/implications – Future research is encouraged to identify key drivers of
MPR by investigating clients’ perceptions on this topic. Such an approach would bring interesting
guidelines for improving the agency-client relationship as well as consultancies’ performance.
Research is also encouraged to investigate not only MPR antecedents, but also MPR outcomes.
Practical implications – From a practitioner perspective, a better comprehension of MPR might
promote the understanding of PR as a strategic tool, the understanding of the client’s problem from a
strategic standpoint, the inclusion of research and evaluation in the PR process, and incursion in
long-term policies.
Originality/value – Following the principle of strategy-environment co-alignment, this paper shows
that the practice of PR is a result of a strategic response by consultants to the interplay of internal and
external forces over their consultancy firm.
Keywords Public relations, Marketing communications, Linear structure equation modelling,
Consultants, United Kingdom
Paper type Research paper

European Journal of Marketing
Vol. 39 No. 1/2, 2005
pp. 110-128
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/03090560510572043
This research has benefited from the financial support of Fundação para a Ciência e a
Tecnologia-Portugal/European Union (SFRH/BPD/3649/2000) and the support of Warwick
Business School in conducting the survey. Carmen Lages also acknowledges research support
from UNIDE/ISCTE. Luis Filipe Lages acknowledges a research grant from NOVA ÉGIDE. We
are also grateful to Lyndon Simkin, Paulo Gomes, and participants of Nova-IRW seminar, as well
as EJM reviewers and reviewers of the EMAC and ANZMAC conferences for comments on
earlier versions of this manuscript. The collaboration of British PR consultants was also
invaluable to the completion of this project.
Introduction Antecedents of
The contribution of public relations (PR) for marketing purposes, particularly in the managerial PR
context of marketing communications, has been extensively recognized (e.g. Kotler and
Mindak, 1978; Kotler, 1982; Goldman, 1984; White, 1991; Henry, 1995; Kitchen, 1996).
From a marketing perspective, the tendency has been to treat PR primarily as a
publicity function whose main role is seen as providing tactical support for marketing
campaigns (Kotler, 1982, 1986, 2000; Shimp and Delozier, 1986). This study argues that 111
PR not only provides tactical support for marketing campaigns, but also plays a
strategic role through managerial public relations (MPR).
Specifically, this paper looks more closely at the managerial function of PR
consultants, which has been largely ignored by previous research. This may be
because the existing marketing and PR literature does not provide specific measures
for the proposed conceptualization. Lages and Simkin’s (2003) study is an exception,
and their proposed operationalization of MPR is employed here. While building on
their work, this paper analyzes key antecedents of MPR in the context of PR
consultancy exercise.
Although there is some evidence suggesting that PR is used mainly as a tactical
marketing support activity to generate product publicity (Moss et al., 1997) and that PR
practitioners are found not to play a significant strategic role (Hogg and Doolan, 1999),
research suggests the (co)existence of a tactical and strategic approach in PR practice,
namely identifying two major PR practitioner roles, i.e.:
(1) the manager role, which creates and manages strategic PR programs; and
(2) the technician role, which writes, edits and produces publications (Dozier, 1992).
Within this line, Grunig and Grunig (1992) proposed that PR practice might be
conceptualized in terms of two continua: one of “craft” PR and one of “professional” PR.
While practitioners of craft PR apply communication techniques to get publicity and
information into communication media, practitioners of professional PR lean on a body
of knowledge and techniques to use PR with a strategic purpose.
Modern PR is seen as the “strategic management of communication”, aiming at
developing relationships between an organization and its various internal and external
publics, and not only consumers (Ledingham and Bruning, 1998). The search for
balance between internal/external realities, by adapting the organization’s mission to
the environment, is seen as the key proposition of PR in the management process
(Grunig, 1992).
The article is organized as follows: in the next section, we develop a conceptual
framework that incorporates the relationships among consultancy and industry forces
and MPR. We then develop a set of research hypotheses, which are summarized into an
operational model. This is followed by a description of our methodology for testing the
hypotheses. This model is then tested via a field survey of nearly 300 PR consultants.
We conclude with a discussion of results, limitations and directions for future research.

Conceptual framework
The particular theoretical perspective adopted here is the principle of
strategy-environment coalignment (Venkatraman and Prescott, 1990), which
suggests a “fit” between strategy and its context – whether it is the external
EJM environment or organizational characteristics. The principle has its roots in industrial
39,1/2 organizations (cf. Scherer and Ross, 1990) and rests on two premises:
(1) that organizations are dependent on the internal and external environments for
resources (Pfeffer and Salancik, 1978); and
(2) that organizations can manage this dependence by developing and maintaining
strategies (Hofer and Shendel, 1978).
112
Hence, our framework (see Figure 1) assumes that the practice of PR is a result of a
strategic response by consultants to the interplay of internal and external forces over
their consultancy firm.
Figure 1 presents consultant’s perceptions at three broad levels:
(1) consultancy;
(2) industry; and
(3) practitioner.
The logic that underpins the model is to verify the impact of some contingent (internal
and external) forces on the PR consultant’s practice of MPR. More specifically, the
framework postulates that MPR is affected by consultancy internal forces (i.e. research
expenditure and strategic needs from clients) and PR industry external forces (i.e.
competition, quality of PR graduates, trade body contribution, and importance of
qualifications). Below we present the variables that comprise each of the three broad
dimensions (Figure 1).

Consultant’s perceptions at the practitioner level

At the practitioner level, MPR is defined as the extent to which PR practitioners engage
in tasks of a strategic nature. Hence, MPR includes issues that concern activities
typically carried out at the managerial level, and the more frequently the practitioner

Figure 1.
A conceptual framework
of key antecedents of MPR
engages in these tasks, the more he/she is practising MPR (Lages and Simkin, 2003). Antecedents of
Tasks of a strategic nature in practising PR include frequency in setting strategic
goals, setting quantifiable objectives, deciding on communication policy, assessing
managerial PR
progress periodically, and making presentations.

Consultant’s perceptions at the consultancy level

At the consultancy level this study analyzes the practitioner’s perception of two 113
variables:
(1) strategic needs from clients; and
(2) research expenditure.
Research expenditure is the degree of expenditure on research and evaluation.
Strategic needs from clients means the extent to which clients are perceived to be
proactive in asking for services of a strategic nature, including asking for the PR
consultancy to get involved in their strategic planning, for communication beyond PR,
for evaluation of programs, and for research-based programs (Lages and Simkin, 2003).

Consultant’s perceptions at the industry level

Similarly to Lages and Simkin (2003), this study analyzes the practitioner’s perception
of four variables at the industry level:
(1) competition;
(2) quality of PR graduates;
(3) trade body contribution; and
(4) importance of qualifications.
Competition is defined as the perceived competition from agency or people from other
competing disciplines which might be seen as substitutes of PR consultancy services,
namely competition from agencies/people in advertising, marketing, management and
sales promotion. The quality of PR graduates is the perceived degree of preparation of
PR graduates to work in the PR industry, which is assessed by graduates’ strategic
thinking, management skills, writing skills and overall preparation to work in the
industry. Trade body contribution refers to both perceived contribution of professional
associations[1] to professionalism and benefits from trade body membership. Finally,
importance of qualifications is the perceived importance of formal (academic or
professional) qualifications for one to practice PR.

Research hypotheses
We start this section by presenting the hypotheses associated with antecedents of MPR
(see Figure 2). This is followed by antecedents of research expenditure, antecedents of
perceived quality of PR graduates, and finally antecedents of perceived importance of
qualifications.

Antecedents of managerial public relations

Nowadays, PR is positioned as a management discipline gaining a strategic emphasis.
As with PR, the need for strategic considerations in marketing theory has also been
emphasized by different authors (Anderson, 1982; Day and Wensley, 1983; Lambkin
and Day, 1989; Wind and Robertson, 1983). Strategy is understood as providing a “plan
EJM
39,1/2

114

Figure 2.
An operational model of
key antecedents of MPR

of attack” regarding how resources should be deployed to achieve objectives, and

should therefore provide direction and implementation procedures (Wind and
Robertson, 1983; Day, 1984; Morris and Pitt, 1993). Strategy is assumed to aid PR in
achieving its objective of building a favorable reputation by obtaining mutual
understanding between organizations and their constituencies, through the
management of communication. At the practitioner level, PR implies that
practitioners master technical skills while understanding why to employ them.
Indeed, previous research indicates the existence of a PR manager role (Dozier, 1992;
Toth et al., 1998; Hogg and Doolan, 1999; Moss and Green, 2001).
Today’s institutions depend on their handling of information, as this helps them to
enhance decisions by reducing uncertainty (Deshpande and Zaltman, 1982; Turner, 1991;
Glazer, 1991). Although there are examples of successful marketing decisions being
taken on the basis of intuition, it is frequently proposed that decisions based on
marketing research information are essential for business success (Kohli and Jaworski,
1990; Narver and Slater, 1990). Considering that MPR includes two items that relate to
the assessment of results (frequency of setting quantifiable objectives, and frequency of
assessing progress periodically), one would expect that research expenditure would have
a positive impact on the frequency of practice of MPR. Hence our first hypothesis is:
H1a. A PR consultancy’s research expenditure is positively associated with the
practice of MPR by PR consultants.
Traditionally, PR (both in-house and consultancies) tends to recruit from other
professions, such as journalism, law and business, and these entrants would
subsequently be trained in PR by apprenticeship (Hatfield, 1994). Thus, the previous
generation of practitioners learned more by trial and error than by formal qualification
specifically in PR. Although PR graduates have been increasingly available to the
industry, it seems that the industry has been reluctant to recruit PR graduates in
significant numbers. Overall, the literature suggests that PR graduates in some Antecedents of
developed countries, such as the UK, have a poorer reputation than other graduates to managerial PR
work in the PR industry (Lages and Simkin, 2003). PR consultants who practice MPR
are frequently engaged in managerial type tasks such as setting quantifiable objectives
and setting strategic goals, and because such tasks are not included in the curricula of
typical university PR degree programs, they are therefore expected to perceive the
quality of PR graduates to be less adequate. This leads to the following hypothesis: 115
H1b. Consultants’ perceptions about the quality of PR graduates are negatively
associated with the practice of MPR.
Practitioners who engage more frequently in MPR are expected to give more
importance to formal qualifications and academic training. For managerial positions,
education seems to be given more weight than experience, as shown by Panagyrakis’s
(1994) study on the backgrounds of PR managers in several countries. This study
confirmed that college graduation was the minimum requirement for advancing to a
managerial position, hence:
H1c. Consultants’ perceptions about the importance of qualifications for PR
practice are positively associated with the practice of MPR.

Antecedents of research expenditure

PR consultants whose clients have strategic needs are expected to spend more on
research and evaluation. However, for a better understanding of PR there is a need for
those clients to become literate in strategic public relations (Countrywide Porter
Novelli, 1998). Moreover, PR practitioners tend to have a limited notion of research and
evaluation, and a disinclination to learn about PR evaluation techniques (White, 1988).
Research and evaluation seems to be used mainly as a reactive tool, i.e. to present data
on which practitioners would be judged, instead of proactively improving or fine-tuning
current activity (Watson, 1994). Although PR practitioners recognize that PR suffers
when results might not be measured, they also fear evaluation because it might reveal
unsatisfactory results. Research and evaluation are more likely to occur when clients are
strategically oriented, because they invest more in PR firms’ services for strategic
problem resolution and therefore seek results of their investment. Hence, we expect that:
H2a. Strategic needs from clients are positively associated with research
expenditure.
Within the field of strategic management the “resource-based view of the firm”
(Barney, 1991; Teece et al., 1997) argues that sustainable competitive advantage occurs
if a firm has a resource that is valuable, rare among competitors, difficult to imitate and
able to deliver clients’ products that embody that resource. From this perspective,
consulting firms consider research knowledge to be a core capability for achieving
competitive advantage (Pasternack and Viscio, 1998). Hence, PR practitioners who
perceive higher competition in the industry are expected to spend more on research and
evaluation in order to achieve competitive advantage.
H2b. Perceived competition is positively associated with research expenditure.
EJM Nowadays, managers expect universities to provide their graduates with a set of skills
39,1/2 to perform in the practitioner world. These expectations will be higher from firms in
which research and evaluation expenditure is higher. For example, they are more likely
to expect that PR students “will need to understand the intricacies of research in order
to understand research specialists, to evaluate their work, and to use the information in
decision making” (Stern and Tseng, 2002, p. 225). Practitioners who spend more on
116 research tend to be more involved in strategic activities, and are therefore expected to
perceive PR graduates as having poor preparation to work in the PR industry. Thus:
H2c. Consultants’ perceptions about the quality of PR graduates are negatively
associated with research expenditure.

Antecedents of quality of PR graduates

The need for professional and academic training within the PR industry is widely
acknowledged (Hatfield, 1994; Dibb et al., 1996; L’Etang and Pieczka, 1996). PR firms
whose clients’ profiles have strategic needs are expected to perceive PR academic
courses as not meeting all the requirements for the strategic end of the market.
According to Lages’s (2001) study, respondents believe that PR degrees need
improvement, especially through the enhancement of numeracy and business skills.
Interviewees perceived that PR graduates were not trained to think like a
businessperson. Particularly, practitioners whose clients have strategic needs are
expected to perceive PR graduates as having poor preparation to work in the PR
industry because they might be more demanding towards them. Thus:
H3a. Strategic needs from clients are negatively associated with consultants’
perceptions about the quality of PR graduates.
Firms operating in highly competitive markets tend to be more demanding because
intense competition increases market uncertainty and unpredictability (Gupta et al.,
1986). Moreover, in these environments market shares become more volatile (Day and
Wensley, 1988). Hence, practitioners who perceive higher competition (from
advertising, marketing, management and sales promotion agencies/people) will tend
to impose higher standards. Consequently, they will tend to have higher expectations
and will perceive PR graduates as having less adequate preparation to work in a highly
competitive PR industry. This leads us to the following hypothesis:
H3b. Perceived competition is negatively associated with consultants’ perceptions
about the quality of PR graduates.
The fact that many mechanisms of professionalization are not in place contributes to
PR’s poor reputation: there are no barriers to new entrants, no certification is required,
and only rarely is large capital investment necessary. PR professional associations are
seen to have limited membership benefits and to make a limited contribution to the
development of professional standards (Lages, 2001). Practitioners perceiving that PR
associations contribute to the industry might tend to perceive that PR graduates
contribute in a like manner. Those who perceive that the professional PR associations
(trade bodies) contribute to professionalism might have an overall better perception
towards the PR industry, and are therefore expected to perceive PR graduates as Antecedents of
having more adequate preparation: managerial PR
H3c. Trade body contribution to professionalism is positively associated with
consultants’ perceptions about the quality of PR graduates.

117
Antecedents of importance of qualifications
In their study of professionalism, sociology academics have tried to identify what it is
that makes a profession as opposed to an occupation. One of the characteristics of a
profession is a vocation founded in a body of knowledge (Freidson, 1986; Halliday,
1987; Abbott, 1988), which underlines the importance of qualifications. In agreement
with this position, some PR scholars have argued for the central role of PR education in
advancing PR to a comparable standard of established professions (Hatfield, 1994;
L’Etang and Pieczka, 1996; Grunig and Grunig, 1992), although acknowledging that PR
is developing its own unique body of knowledge.
Practitioners who perceive higher competition are expected to perceive
qualifications to be more important. Practitioners who perceive that they have
competition are more likely to believe that academic training is important for PR
practice and that formal academic or professional qualifications should be made
compulsory. Qualifications upgrade PR to strengthen its capacity to face competition
from more established fields, such as management, marketing, advertising, and sales
promotion. An awareness of competition leads to the valuing of qualifications as a
means of meeting the challenge of competition. Thus:
H4a. Perceived competition is positively associated with consultants’ perceptions
about the importance of qualifications.
Some practitioners believe that experience is the most valuable requirement, and
consequently might not value a trade bodyśs contribution at the education level.
Indeed, in a recent study, it was concluded that some PR professional associations are
not fully exploring the opportunity offered by education to raise their members’ level of
“knowledge and skills to a professional level” (L’Etang, 1999, p. 284). Despite trade
bodies’ attempts to impose a rigorous system of entry by qualification, there is an
absence of a delineated specialized PR education on which to base specific standards.
Practitioners who perceive that a trade body contributes to professionalism have an
overall positive view of the industry, and consequently might perceive qualifications as
being important:
H4b. Trade bodies’ contribution to professionalism is positively associated with
consultants’ perceptions about the importance of qualifications.
Any occupation with aspirations to professionalize finds education an indispensable
path to reach that goal. Education helps to define PR expertise and the scope of its
activity to provide theoretical underpinning for its practice and ethics and to legitimize
its process of social acceptance (L’Etang, 1999). Practitioners who perceive PR
graduates as having a better preparation are naturally expected to value qualifications
more:
EJM H4c. Consultants’ perceptions of the quality of PR graduates are positively
39,1/2 associated with the importance of qualifications.

Method
118 The research setting
The PR consultancy world provides the context for this study. Institutions face the
need for skilled staff to deal problems. Engaging in-house specialists from among staff
to solve these situations, particularly emergencies, sometimes becomes unfeasible
because staff training takes time and money. In these situations, organizations may
decide to subcontract the expert services of professionals who help organizations solve
their problems or improve their situation. Consultants in many areas are used for a
variety of reasons that normally fall into three categories:
(1) resources;
(2) specialization and expertise; and
(3) objectivity (Bryan, 1992; Sturdy, 1997).
Conversely, consultants may be hired when managers simply desire to use the
presumed objectivity and/or status of an outsider to legitimatize a decision (Sturdy
1997).

Sample
Although the PR occupation comprises both practitioners working in external
consultancies and practitioners working in-house for an organization, a sample of
external consultants was drawn from the UK Hollis Directory (1999) for three main
reasons. First, it provided the only comprehensive database with consultancy contacts.
Second, this was the most up-to-date database available at the time of the survey.
Third, this study intends to contribute toward filling a literature gap by using PR
consultants as the target population. Most studies tend to build on the perceptions of
in-house practitioners, although external consultants are behind many organizations’
PR practice (Dibb et al., 1996; White and Blamphin, 1995).

Data collection procedure

Primary data were collected through preliminary interviews, a mail survey and
follow-up interviews. From a sample frame of N ¼ 2; 308, 1,000 managers were
selected through stratified random sampling (geographical criteria) and mailed a
questionnaire survey. The sample obtained for the study, 297 valid questionnaires
(equivalent to a 29.7 percent response rate), exceeds the minimum required for the
overall sample and for each stratum.
Non-response bias was tested by assessing the differences between the early and
late respondents with regard to the means of all variables (Armstrong and Overton,
1977). Early respondents were defined as the first 75 percent of the returned
questionnaires, and the last 25 percent were considered to be late respondents. These
proportions approximate the actual way in which questionnaires were returned. No
significant differences among the early and late respondents were found, suggesting
that response bias was not a significant problem in the study.
 The survey was directed toward PR practitioners of English consultancies in 1999. Antecedents of
Respondents are experienced senior practitioners and therefore have significant managerial PR
knowledge about their own job and industry. Most are male (58 percent), in their forties
or fifties (62 percent) and hold a degree (44 percent) or “A” levels (27 percent) as their
highest qualification. The PR sample is young (73.5 percent of PR firms were created
after the 1980s), and are made up of small-sized firms, mostly with fewer than six
employees (65 percent) and fewer than ten clients (58 percent) and a turnover below 119
£500,000. Agencies tend to be more business-to-business oriented (47 percent) than
consumer-oriented and are more generalist (55 percent) than specialized. The majority
of agencies in the sample are not internationalized.

Findings
Confirmatory factor analysis
In order to assess the validity of the measures, the items are subjected to a
confirmatory factor analysis using full-information maximum likelihood (FIML)
estimation procedures in LISREL 8.3 (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1993). In this model, each
item is restricted to load on its pre-specified factor, with the seven first-order factors
allowed to correlate freely. The x 2 for this model is significant (x 2 ¼ 384:48, 231df,
p , 0:00). Since the x 2 statistic is sensitive to sample size, we also assess additional fit
indices: the comparative fit index (CFI), the incremental fit index (IFI), and the
Tucker-Lewis fit index (TLI). The CFI, IFI, and TLI of this model are 0.92, 0.92, and
0.91, respectively. Since fit indices can be improved by allowing more terms to be freely
estimated, we also assessed the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA),
which assesses fit and incorporates a penalty for lack of parsimony. An RMSEA of 0.05
or less indicates a close fit to the population. The RMSEA of this measurement model is
0.047. The measurement model revealed discriminant and convergent validity.
Discriminant validity was evidenced by the correlation estimates between any two
constructs. No correlation includes the value of 1 (Anderson and Gerbing, 1982).
Convergent validity was evidenced by large and significant standardized loadings of
each item on its construct (p . 0:01) (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1993).
A full listing of the final constructs and their scale reliabilities can be found in the
Appendix. The average internal reliability (Cronbach’s a) was 0.78[2].

Structural model estimation

The conceptual framework of Figure 2 is simultaneously estimated in a structural
equation model using FIML estimation procedures in LISREL 8.3. This model contains
seven constructs, 24 observable indicators, measurement and latent variable errors,
and inter-correlations between the latent constructs. The estimation results for the
significant structural paths are shown in Table I. This model has a x 2 of 386.27 (237 df,
p , 0:00), while the fit indices suggest a good fit of the model to the data (CFI ¼ 0:92,
IFI ¼ 0:93, TLI ¼ 0:91, RMSEA ¼ 0:046). This reveals that the final model is good in
reproducing the population covariance structure, and there is an acceptable
discrepancy between the observed and predicted covariance matrices (Steiger, 1990).
A final examination of the individual paths indicates that seven of the 12 predicted
direct relationships are confirmed to be statistically significant. Additionally, there are
two indirect and eight total significant effects.
 EJM

120
39,1/2

Table I.

constructs
prior endogenous
Effects of exogenous and
h1 Quality of PR h3 Importance of h4 Managerial public
graduates h2 Research expenditure qualifications relations
Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total Direct Indirect Total

j1 Strategic needs from clients 0.13 0.13 20.03 2 0.03 20.06 2 0.01 2 0.01 20.02 20.02
1.71 1.71 20.36 2 1.55 20.80 2 1.08 2 1.08 20.75 20.75
H3a NS H2a NS
j2 Competition 0.13† 0.13† 0.01 2 0.03 20.02 0.23†† 2 0.01 0.22†† 0.03 0.03
1.78 1.78 0.18 2 1.59 20.29 3.42 2 1.08 3.27 0.77 0.77
H3b U H2b NS H4a U
j3 Trade body contribution 0.30†† 0.30†† 2 0.07** 20.07** 0.40†† 2 0.03 0.37†† 0.03 0.03
3.78 3.78 2 2.64 22.64 5.38 2 1.27 5.32 0.87 0.87
H3c U H4b U
h1 Quality of PR graduates 20.25†† 20.25†† 2 0.10 2 0.10 0.02 20.12†† 20.10
23.21 23.21 2 1.37 2 1.37 0.30 23.04 21.37
H2c U H4c NS H1bNS
h2 Research expenditure 0.43†† 0.43††
5.67 5.67
H1a U
h3 Importance of qualifications 0.15† 0.15†
2.10 2.10
H1c U
Notes: Values in upper rows are completely standardized estimates; values in lower rows are t-values; †p , 0:05; ††p , 0:01 (one-tailed test)/*p , 0:05;
**p , 0:01 (two-tailed test)
Discussion of findings Antecedents of
Our findings reveal that the most important determinant of MPR is research managerial PR
expenditure, which is almost three times more important than importance given to
qualifications[3]. Surprisingly, while the direct effect of the perceived quality of PR
graduates on the practice of MPR is non-significant, the indirect effect through
research expenditure is highly significant and negative (the total effect became
non-significant). So, although perception of PR graduates’ preparation appears not to 121
have a direct effect on the practice of MPR, consultants that practice more MPR, when
spending more on research and evaluation, tend to perceive that PR graduates’
preparation is unsatisfactory. The follow-up interviews revealed that when
considering the perceived quality of PR graduates to work in the PR industry,
British PR graduates have a worse reputation than other graduates. A possible
explanation is that practitioners who spend more on research and evaluation tend to be
more involved in strategic activities, and are therefore expected to perceive PR
graduates as having poor preparation to work in the PR industry.
Second, there is a highly significant negative indirect impact of perceived trade
body contribution on research expenditure, through perceived quality of PR graduates.
Consultants who spend more on research and evaluation have a less favorable
perception of trade body contribution and a less favorable perception of the quality of
PR graduates. Practitioners who perceive that the British trade body contributes to
professionalism and that PR graduates have good preparation are probably less
demanding, less involved in strategic activities, and would be expected to spend less on
research.
Finally, a possible explanation for the non-significant effect of strategic needs from
clients on both the quality of PR graduates and research expenditure is the fact that
when clients ask a PR firm to solve strategic needs, it does not mean that the PR firm is
prepared, i.e. it does not mean that the firm has the required human and financial
resources to do it. This might also explain the positive relationship between quality of
PR graduates and research expenditure.

Limitations of the research

Some limitations of the research should be considered. The first limitation is associated
with the sample frame. It arises from the unavailability of a complete listing of all units
of the population, which was defined by the sample frame availability. The sampling
frame was the Hollis Directory, a list of names and contacts of PR consultancy
managers in England, which nevertheless was the most up-to-date and comprehensive
database at the date of the study. Second, this is a stratified-random judgment sample
due to time and financial resource constraints. Our results became skewed towards PR
consultants, which makes it difficult to generalize our findings to other important PR
players. For example, PR clients (who emerged as fundamental actors), PR scholars, PR
students, in-house PR practitioners and other practitioners who compete with PR firms
(e.g. marketing, advertising and management consultants) are not represented in the
sample. Third, the fact that the sample involves only practitioners from a single
country may limit the generalizability of the results to some degree. However, countries
in situations similar to that of England may also benefit from the findings.
Another limitation is associated with the type of data. First, the data, and hence
findings, are somewhat dated. Second, the data are not longitudinal. Hence, the survey
EJM methodology may have created common method variance that could have inflated
39,1/2 construct relationships. This inflation could be particularly threatening if the
respondents were aware of the conceptual framework of interest. However, they were
not appraised of the specific purpose of the study, and all of the construct items were
separated and mixed so that no respondent should have been able to detect which
items were affecting which factors (Lages and Jap, 2003; Lages et al., 2004). Hence, the
122 bias of common method variance was partially minimized. Furthermore, we
guaranteed confidentiality to all survey participants, which also helps to reduce the
possibility of bias in performance reports for self-presentation reasons (Singh, 2000).
Additionally, if common method bias exists, a CFA containing all constructs should
produce a single method factor (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986; Lages and Lages, 2004).
The goodness-of-fit indices (CFI ¼ 0:25, IFI ¼ 0:26, TLI ¼ 0:18, RMSEA ¼ 0:156)
indicate a poor fit for both models, which suggests that biasing from common method
variance is unlikely.

Conclusions and implications

Our work is differentiated from past research in a number of ways. First, the paper
uses MPR (i.e. the practice of PR as a strategic tool) as a dependent variable. It is
believed that research in PR can be enriched if it incorporates strategic considerations.
Second, this research is one of the few works that considers strategic co-alignment with
the internal and external context by including the role of consultancy and industry
forces in the same framework. Third, previous research tends to focus on single
relationships among variables while rarely considering their simultaneous effects. Our
approach is expected to develop he understanding of how MPR is simultaneously
affected by consultancy forces (both directly and indirectly through industry forces)
and by industry forces (both directly and indirectly through consultancy forces).
Finally, past research tends to analyze exclusively the direct effects among variables.
We argue that it is important to analyze not only the direct relationships among
variables, but also the indirect and total effects for a better understanding of this
complex reality (see Lages and Montgomery, 2004).
PR has struggled to gain recognition as a senior management function in addition to
its role as a tactical marketing tool (Horner, 1992; Dibb et al., 2001). The view that PR’s
main role is that of providing tactical support for marketing campaigns largely ignores
what PR practitioners and academics see as the more strategic role of PR, namely that
of managing the relationships between an organization and those strategically
important constituencies – both customer and non-customer – within its environment
(e.g. Grunig and Hunt, 1984; Cutlip et al., 1994).
MPR might promote the understanding of PR as a strategic tool, the understanding
of the client’s problem from a strategic standpoint, the inclusion of research and
evaluation in the PR process, and incursion in long-term policies. This implies that
client organizations must be aware of the potential of PR as a strategic managerial tool,
and that clients must trust PR firms as strategic advisors. These clients’ attitudes
require the initiative of the industry in demonstrating their professional worth to them.
From a managerial standpoint, individual PR practitioners could frequently set
strategic goals, set quantifiable objectives and decide on communication policy. The
implications are as follows:
 .
setting strategic goals implies that strategic thinking could complement tactical Antecedents of
implementation; managerial PR
.
setting quantifiable objectives implies that research and evaluation could
substitute intuition and trial and error; and
.
deciding on communication policy implies understanding business strategy.
This understanding implies the importance of professional and academic education as 123
vehicles for knowledge transfer rather than intuition, experience and trial-and-error.
Knowledge could become one of the major priorities for the industry as a whole.
Future research should also identify key drivers of MPR by investigating clients’
perceptions on this topic. Such an approach would bring interesting guidelines for
improving the agency-client relationship as well as consultancies’ performance.
Research is also encouraged to investigate not only MPR antecedents, but also MPR
outcomes. This is something overlooked by previous empirical research. Future
empirical studies might also try to test in which contexts the impact of the
determinants presented here might be positive or negative, for example by testing the
moderating effects of the consultancy’s experience (e.g. start-ups and established
consultancies).
To conclude, most empirical studies in the field of PR are exploratory in nature or
focus exclusively on the direct effects of different contingent forces. However, as
understanding of PR practice has grown in the last few years, it has become clear that
we need to look for more complex predictive models that allow the analysis and testing
of complex inter-relationships. Similarly to what has been done in the current research,
we recommend that future studies develop models that account for intervening
(indirect) effects between variables. This type of approach has the potential to enrich
our theoretical understanding when analyzing the antecedents and consequents of
MPR. Following the principle of strategy-environment co-alignment (Venkatraman
and Prescott, 1990), our framework (see Figure 1) assumes that the practice of PR is a
result of a strategic response by consultants to the interplay of internal and external
forces over their consultancy firm.

Notes
1. Within this specific context, trade body refers to the two existing professional associations in
England, the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) and the Public Relations Consultants
Association (PRCA).
2. Evidence for the reliability of the measures is indicated by the fact that the alphas were all
above Nunnally’s (1978) recommended level of 0.70. The only exception is the alpha for
“Importance of qualifications”, which is 0.69. We have decided to include this construct
because this value is near the recommended level of 0.70 and compares reasonably well to
accepted levels in the marketing literature (e.g. Jap, 1999; Jap and Ganesan, 2000).
3. The standardized coefficients indicate how a typical variation in the independent variable
leads to, or is associated with, a typical change or variation in the dependent variable
(Goldberger, 1964). They give an indication of the relative importance to the dependent
variable.
EJM References
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Appendix

Scale items and reliabilities

PR consultant’s perceptions at the practitioner level

Managerial public relations (a ¼ 0:81):
.
frequency setting strategic goals;
.
frequency setting quantifiable objectives;
.
frequency deciding on communications policy;
.
frequency assessing progress periodically; and
.
frequency making presentations.

PR consultant’s perceptions at the consultancy level

Strategic needs from clients ða ¼ 0:74):
.
clients ask agency to get involved in their strategic planning;
. clients ask for communication beyond PR;
.
clients ask for evaluation of program; and
.
clients ask for research-based program.
EJM
Research expenditure (a ¼ 0:87):
39,1/2 .
evaluation expenditure; and
.
research expenditure.

128
PR consultant’s perceptions at the industry level
Competition (a ¼ 0:78):
.
competition from advertising agency/people;
.
competition from marketing agency/people;
.
competition from management agency/people; and
.
competition from sales promotion agency/people.

Quality of PR graduates (a ¼ 0:77):

.
graduates’ strategic thinking;
.
graduates’ management skills;
.
graduates’ writing skills; and
.
graduates’ overall preparation.

Trade body contribution (a ¼ 0:77):

.
trade body membership benefits;
.
contribution of IPR to professionalism; and
. contribution of PR CA to professionalism.

Importance of qualifications (a ¼ 0:69):

.
formal qualifications should be compulsory; and
. importance of academic training for PR.