reputation management
Introduction
Corporate reputation is one of the intangible resources or non-financial indicators of the business world.[1] Corporate reputation is based on the management of relevant dimensions of business behavior, such as financial performance, quality of products and services, innovation, citizenship, work, leadership and ethics. Reputation management seeks the positive consideration and prestige of the company.[2]Corporate reputation is the "set of appreciations that different audiences have about an organization, which are formed on the basis of the different actions it carries out -voluntary or not- and the consequences that these acts generate in the areas in which it carries out its activities."[3].
Terminology
The specific term “reputation economy” was coined for the first time at the XV International Conference on Corporate Reputation, Brand, Identity and Competitiveness, of the Reputation Institute, held in 2011 in New Orleans (United States). Its rise arose after the great reputational crises") (Arthur Andersen, Parmalat, WorldCom) which made leaders around the world understand that a bad reputation can cause the disappearance of a company. The concept, as a management discipline, was consolidated after the financial crisis of 2008 with the so-called economic cycle of the "economy of intangibles and corporate reputation")", although it has direct antecedents since the 1980s, when the value of the intangibles of companies tripled. S&P 500 companies.[1].
As indicated by the consulting firm Reputation Institute"), reputation is the most valuable asset of organizations[4] and its poor management is considered, along with that of the corporate brand, as the main risk that companies face[5]. According to Enrique Carreras, Ángel Alloza and Ana Carreras "Reputation is a positive feeling towards a person or institution that integrates three vectors: admiration, good esteem and trust."[1] From the academic point of view, certain ideas have been repeated when this concept has been addressed:
Currently, the approach that considers corporate reputation as an attitude prevails,[1] since it stimulates favorable or unfavorable behavior towards a company or institution. It is based on legitimation, which explains the behaviors of interest groups, as well as on the theory of planned action, which explains the appearance of valuable behaviors, such as the purchase of a product or service, the investment in a business or the decision to work in a specific place. These theories have already shown their effectiveness in areas of human behavior and in the field of economic behavior.[1].