Essay About Corporate Reputation And Corporate Reputation Review Volume

Corporate Reputation: The Definitional Landscape
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Corporate Reputation Review Volume 9 Number 1
Corporate Reputation: The Definitional
Landscape
Michael L. Barnett
College of Business Administration, University of South Florida, USA
John M. Jermier
College of Business Administration, University of South Florida, USA
Barbara A. Lafferty
College of Business Administration, University of South Florida, USA
ABSTRACT
While interest in the concept of corporate reputation
has gained momentum in the last few
years, a precise and commonly agreed upon
definition is still lacking. This paper reviews
the many definitions of corporate reputation
present in the recent literature and categorizes
these definitions based on their similarities and
differences. The purpose of the study is to
review, analyze and evaluate prior definitional
statements of corporate reputation. The analysis
led us to conclude that the cluster of meaning
that looks most promising for future
definitional work uses the language of assessment
and specific terms such as judgment,
estimation, evaluation or gauge. Based on this
review work and a lexicological analysis of the
concept of reputation, we propose a new definitional
statement that we think adds theoretical
clarity to this area of study. The statement
defines corporate reputation more
explicitly and narrowly and distinguishes this
concept from corporate identity, corporate image
and corporate reputation capital. It is our hope
that this study and the resulting definition will
provoke further scholarship devoted to developing
one voice when it comes to corporate reputation
as a concept.
Corporate Reputation Review (2006) 9, 26 – 38.
doi: 10.1057/palgrave.crr.1550012
KEYWORDS: corporate reputation ; identity ;
image ; reputation capital
INTRODUCTION
In the inaugural issue of Corporate Reputation
Review, Fombrun and van Riel (1997: 5)
lamented the dearth of studies on corporate
reputation: Although corporate reputations
are ubiquitous, they remain relatively understudied.
In part, it is surely because reputations
are seldom noticed until they are
threatened. In part, however, it is also a problem
of defi nition .Today, it is hard to argue
that corporate reputations are understudied.
Events of the last few years have certainly
moved corporate reputations into the spotlight.
As Figure 1 illustrates, the study of
corporate reputation has intensified over the
last few years. Figure 1 shows the number
of articles devoted to corporate reputation
for the period 1980 – 2003. To determine the
trend, we searched for peer-reviewed, scholarly
articles on corporate reputation that
were published in academic journals indexed
by ABI Inform (Pro Quest). Our search
identified only those articles in which the
phrase corporate reputation appeared in the
title or abstract of the piece, indicating
that the authors were focused on this
concept in their research. During the period
Corporate Reputation Review,
Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 26-38
© 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd,
1363-3589 $30.00
www.palgrave-journals.com/crr
Barnett, Jermier and Lafferty
1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002
Figure 1: Indexed peer-review articles1 con-
taining corporate reputation in title or ab-
stract.
of 2001 – 2003, the average number of scholarly
articles on corporate reputation more
than doubled in frequency compared with