Concept of a corporate reputation: definition and measurement

Grgić, Damir (2012) Concept of a corporate reputation: definition and measurement. In: Marketing challenges in new economy. Sveučilište Jurja Dobrile u Puli. ISBN 978-953-7498-57-3

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Due to the growing presence of market saturation, the attainment of a sustainable competitive advantage has become the key problem for many companies. A sustainable competitive advantage is the result of possessing resources which are almost impossible to imitate, are not interchangeable, and are hidden by their nature. The resource theory has been developed in relation to the thesis that a company’s strategy is predominantly defined by its resources, i.e. a company’s success is determined by its inner competencies, while recent research has shown that intangible assets are one of the key elements which influence a company’s achievement of success in the market. One of the essential theses of the resource theory stems from the assumption that resources are significantly heterogeneous, which means that every company has a range of resources which are, in some way, unique. A reputation is a resource which is extremely hard to imitate, thus converting itself into a valuable source of competitive advantages. Reputation management is a strategy whose fundamental principle is that a strong corporate reputation is the result of communication, i.e. of expressing its authentic and original values, or its personality. Exactly the corporate reputation itself has been identified as one of the key intangible assets when it comes to the establishment of a company’s added value, and the value established for the consumer is strongly connected and related to companies with a strong reputation (Roberts, Dowling, 2002, 1079). The uniqueness which defines every company and can be used against competition in a relatively long period represents the way in which a reputation creates a special value for a company (Shamsie, 2003, 201). It comes from a company’s culture, which is valuable, scarce and impossible to imitate (Barney, 1986), and results from forwarding a company’s fundamental values. This makes one’s reputation impossible to imitate. Therefore, successful management of a corporate reputation itself can be considered as an essential precondition and one of the ways to attain the competitive advantage. Notwithstanding the fact that a corporate reputation has attracted the attention of both scientists and practitioners, it should be pointed out that some aspects, which could be considered relevant to management, which is one of the company’s most important assets, have not been investigated enough. Whetten (1997) places great importance on scientists who go more deeply into the area of corporate reputation, especially because of the insufficiency of theoretical research on all aspects of this concept. Whetten’s major contribution lies in the identification of the steps necessary to discuss a corporate reputation. The first step consists of the recognition of relevant variables and the second of identifying implicit and explicit relations among variables, no matter wheter they are occasional or temporary. The third step refers to the delivery of information relevant to hypotheses, while the fourth step includes the recognition of applicable parameters or limitations of generalization. Finally, the fifth step calls for the demonstration of how a new study contributes to the creation of already existing perspectives. Whetten also values the relationship among constructs, pointing out that the theories on a corporate reputation cannot be limited only to the definition and the operationalization of key variables, but the relationship among them should be determined as well. Furthermore, he claims that integrated theory has to devote special attention to performance, i.e. a company’s results and its reputation. Following Fombrun (1996), who stresses the existence of three fundamental problems investigated in literature when it comes to corporate reputation - a need for a comprehensive and well accepted definition, then difficulties related to the operationalization of a corporate reputation, and a constant need for further theoretical development, Wartick (2002) arguably recognized three major issues in his narrative analysis of the literature on a corporate reputation: (a) the lack of definitional consensus, (b) weak and various methods used for the operationalization of constructs, and (c) insufficiently developed theory. Out of these three fundamental problems, the remaining part of this paper is to analyze the first two problems. More precisely, the aim of this paper is to analyze the most frequently cited articles from the most significant journals in the field of corporate reputation which refer to the definition of constructs and their measurement, and to provide their overview. Therefore, the author in this paper does not have any pretensions to cover the entire field. To make it clear, each of the two central problems will be discussed separately. Regardless of this, it is important to accept their mutual influence. The first part provides an overview of the development of the definition of the corporate reputation. The development of an understandable definition points to a difference between the theoretical conceptualization of a corporate reputation and the ability to measure it. The second part covers a discussion on the operationalization of the reputation, i.e. on its measurement.

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Tip objekta:	Dio knjige
Mentor:	NIJE ODREĐENO
Dodatne informacije:	e-book
Teme:	3 Društvene znanosti > 33 Ekonomija. Ekonomska znanost > 339 Trgovina. Međunarodni gospodarski odnosi. Svjetsko gospodarstvo > 339.1 Opća pitanja trgovine. Tržište > 339.138 Marketing
Odjeli:	Odjel za ekonomiju i turizam "Dr. Mijo Mirković"
Datum pohrane:	04 Jul 2013 06:21
Zadnja promjena:	04 Jul 2013 06:21
URI:	http://eknjiznica.unipu.hr/id/eprint/2234

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