Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT Corporate reputation is a valuable resource that companies can use in order to obtain both financial and non-financial benefits. Given its importance for business practice, reputation has made the subject of many scientific theoretical and research papers. Nevertheless, several scholars have argued that there is still no agreement with regard to the terminology used to define the concept. Furthermore, many scholars have noted the confusion between reputation and two related concepts (image and identity). Hence, it is not surprising that research in recent years aimed to clarify these two important issues. This paper briefly presents the findings reported by researchers who conducted an extended theoretical research with the purpose to shed light on the meanings associated with image, identity and reputation. Similarities and dissimilarities between approaches are noted in order to emphasize the issues shared by most researchers.
Keywords: corporate reputation, corporate image, corporate identity
JEL Classification: G39, M30, M31
1. Introduction
Corporate reputation has gained the interest of both academicians and business practitioners (Alniacik et al, 2012; Eberl, 2010; Helm, 2005; Feldman et al, 2014; Zhang, 2009) given its major influence on the success of companies (Alniacik et al, 2012; Maden et al, 2012). It is now appreciated that a solid reputation creates competitive advantages (Eberl, 2010; Feldman et al, 2014; Ponzi et al, 2011; Raithel et al, 2010; Vidaver-Cohen, 2007; Walker, 2010) both in hostile environments (Feldman et al, 2014) and during crisis (Feldman et al, 2014; Shamma, 2012). Moreover, researchers assert that reputation, as an intangible resource of a company, is "difficult to imitate and impossible to substitute" (Jing and Lei, 2007: 3278). Hence, reputation is more valuable than "conventional physical and financial indicators" (Alniacik et al, 2012: 3) and it can result in retaining old customers and attracting new ones (Schwaiger, 2004; Wang et al, 2006; Zhang, 2009) and in reduced "uncertainty about future organizational performance" (Vidaver-Cohen, 2007: 280).
Despite the benefits associated with a strong reputation and the interest in empirically investigating this construct, its dimensions, antecedents and consequences, several researchers, among which Gotsi and Wilson (2001) and Barnett et al. (2006), point that there is still no consensus in the definitions developed for the concept of reputation. Moreover, it is argued that even contradictory definitions are...