The Centre’s research team is involved in multidisciplinary research into various aspects of corporate reputation. As a result of research to date, we have decided to focus on the following core reputation research areas:
Reputation is relational:
Corporations do not own their reputations – they are owned by others and consist of perceptions formed by others. Reputation is a relational construct that corporations can influence, but not control.
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Multiple reputations:
Corporations have a reputation FOR something WITH someone, and therefore have MULTIPLE reputations. Furthermore, these reputations may conflict or contradict each other. There is little apparent intellectual validity in attempts to combine these different reputations into one single measure.
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Reputation signals have value:
The value of each reputation lies in the signal that it sends – indicating perceived qualities about a firm which, in the absence of full and perfect information, substitute for fact and deliver value. While reputation spill-over clearly exists between different reputations, there is little evidence supporting the existence of a single overarching measure of reputation.
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Reputation intermediaries:
Reputation is constructed through behaviour – which directly signals certain qualities of a corporation – and also through what intermediaries say about a corporation. Companies attempt to influence their reputations through interaction with intermediaries including the financial and consumer media, investors and analysts, celebrities, NGOs and others. The status and position of these different intermediaries dictates the impact they have in reputation formation and destruction.
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