Advisory Board Member Professor Buhmann outside the landmark BI Business School Campus in Nydalen, Oslo.
Alexander Buhmann, professor of communication at BI Norwegian Business School and advisory board member at Linq Advisors, has long been fascinated by the power of reputation. A social scientist by training, Buhmann’s research has contributed greatly to the use of evidence to make reputation management more strategic and impactful.
“My PhD research explored how image and reputation influence investment behaviour and political support. That experience reinforced the idea that perceptions aren’t soft—they are deeply tied to economic and political outcomes.”
Now based in Oslo, Prof. Buhmann leads the Nordic Alliance for Communication & Management (NORA), a think tank and leadership forum he co-founded to bring together senior corporate communications leaders and academic researchers. “The purpose is to generate actionable knowledge and test insights in the real world,” he explains.
Dr. Buhmann’s longstanding collaboration with Linq founder Dennis Larsen made his decision to join the firm’s advisory board a natural one. “Dennis has always straddled both worlds—he understands the value of research but also how to translate it into boardroom conversations,” says Dr. Buhmann. “Joining Linq was an opportunity to further that mission—developing rigorous, evidence-based approaches to managing reputation at the intersection of theory and practice.”
For Dr. Buhmann, Linq is uniquely placed to help organisations understand and manage reputation as a strategic asset. “Reputation is both impactful and fragile,” he says. “Linq is working to embed it into the heart of business strategy—not just as a comms issue, but as something that affects risk, value, and long-term success.”
He believes Linq’s model—pairing seasoned advisors with a strong data-led approach—can reshape how companies treat reputation. “The goal is to make communications accountable, not in the sense of press clippings, but in terms of business outcomes. That means measuring the effect of reputation on key behaviours like stakeholder trust, investment decisions or policy support, and using these insights for better business decisions going forward.”
Dr. Buhmann’s contribution to Linq is clear: bringing analytical rigour and insight to a space often accused of lacking both. “Reputation and its impact have been historically hard to quantify,” he says. “But that’s changing. We’re seeing real advances in how we can measure communications performance and link it to reputation outcomes. I want to help Linq make those insights practical.”
He’s particularly passionate about shifting perceptions of communications inside organisations.
“Too often, they’re seen as peripheral. But in an era defined by stakeholder scrutiny and public accountability, reputation is at the core of strategy.
For Dr. Buhmann, the work also carries broader democratic implications. “Reputation management isn’t just about business. It’s also about how organisations show up as responsible actors in society. We need to encourage transparency, dialogue, and long-term thinking—and reputation is central to that.”