Corporate Reputation: The Definitional Landscape

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.

16

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

of 2001 - 2003, the average number of scholarly

articles on corporate reputation more

than doubled in frequency compared with

the