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CHAPTER 17
Corporate reputation
Philip Kitchen
Corporate reputation, or the management and communication of the corporate brand,
is playing an increasingly important role in terms of the ability of corporations to build
and sustain market share, and influence the minds, and hearts of customers and stakeholders
all over the world. Corporate reputation also significantly impacts upon share
values, and on the ability of the business to attract and retain excellent employees.
This chapter discusses and outlines some findings from recent empirical research. It
provides a foundation for the view that corporate reputation has significant meaning for
CEOs in sustaining global performance at national and international levels.
The backdrop behind the emergence, rising
importance, effective management, and
more appropriate communication of corporate
reputation is the interconnected and
omnipresent global economy. As early as
1967 McLuhan said: ‘The new electronic
interdependence re-creates the world in the
image of a global village’ (McLuhan, 1967).
By 1994, Jack Welch stated: ‘In the environment
of the 1990s, globalisation must be
taken for granted. There will be only one standard
for corporate success: international
market share . . . winning corporations will
win by finding markets all over the world’
(Welch, 1994).
In an earlier book (Kitchen and Schultz,
2001a), we argued that, by virtue of competing
in a globalised interactive marketplace or
marketspace:
that a multinational or global firm’s personality
and image [inter alia its reputation],
will become the biggest factors in consumer
choice between its products
and services and those selected from competitors.
But, personality and image do
not just impact on consumer choice and
behaviour, but also on a variety of publics
or stakeholders, whose views and behaviours
can impact markedly on overall
corporate performance and simultaneously
exert a positive or negative influence on
consumers, governments, and shareholders.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors