Tesis Corporate Excellence The concept of corporate image has had critical influence in the evolution of methodologies for measuring reputation. More than 40% of dimensions and attributes are directly linked to this concept, leading to an underestimation of the impact of corporate identity on the reputation. The doctoral thesis titled Creating a New Multistakeholder Methodology for Measuring Corporate Reputation analyses dimensions and attributes, or variables that constitute the main existing methodologies: Fortune AMAC, Fortune WMAC, Merco, Corporate Reputation Quotient (CRQ) and RepTrak, in an attempt to create a new methodology and determine the weight of both concepts – identity and image

1. Thesis
Strategy Documents
T04 / 2011
Marta Carrió i Sala
Metrics
Creating a New
Multistakeholder
Methodology for Measuring
Corporate Reputation
The concept of corporate image has had critical influence in the evolution of
methodologies for measuring reputation. More than 40% of dimensions and
attributes are directly linked to this concept, leading to an underestimation of the
impact of corporate identity on the reputation.
The doctoral thesis titled Creating a New According to this research, there are four
Multistakeholder Methodology for Measuring major dimensions around which all attributes
Corporate Reputation analyses dimensions of reputation are structured:
and attributes, or variables that constitute the
main existing methodologies: Fortune AMAC, 1. Quality
FortuneWMAC, Merco, Corporate Reputation 2. Productivity (performance, profit)
Quotient (CRQ) and RepTrak, in an attempt to 3. Responsibility
create a new methodology and determine the weight 4. Appeal
of both concepts – identity and image.
In this context, and in order to develop an updated
Analysis of these dimensions and attributes as theoretical framework, three key concepts have
well as their comparison is valid at the time of been identified:
evaluating the impact of identity and image on
corporate reputation. 1. Corporate Identity: this is a subjective concept
that represents the forms in which a company
In 2004, Professor Manfred Schwaiger views itself compared to other companies and
(Germany) published a text analyzing which manifests itself through its actions, the
components and parameters used for studying way they are performed and the way they are
and evaluating reputation around the world. explained. It incorporates culture, beliefs, values,
The document is prepared by Corporate Excellence-Centre for Reputation Leadership and is based on the thesis of Marta Carriói Sala
(Doctor of Communication at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona), supervised by Dr. Josep Fernández Cavia and the Communication
Department of the University in 2011.

2. Creating a New relations between internal stakeholders as well turnover (10 companies per sector).
Multistakeholder as experiences and prospects.
Methodology for The sample includes executives, managers and
Measuring Corporate
Reputation 2. Corporate Image: this concept brings together all financial analysts of each sector who are familiar
meanings, beliefs and feelings that an individual with the companies that are being evaluated.
associates with an organization, the ideas used Interviews are held by phone or by e-mail and are
to explore and record it, including visual aspects structured in the following way:
and external signs that visualize its personality,
perception of all this by different individuals. 1. Companies of the sector that you admire most
That’s why we do not speak about one universal 2. Evaluation by eight attributes on a scale from 1
corporate image. Instead, there are different (low) to 10 (high):
corporate images, stemming from the multitude a. Innovation
of perceptions, impressions and experiences of b. Quality of management
different persons. c. Long-term investment
d. Social responsibility
3. Corporate Reputation: there are three major e. People management
approaches that define reputation from different f. Quality of products/services
perspectives or angles: g. Financial soundness
h. Use of corporate assets
a. Evaluation school: reputation as evaluation of
the organization’s productivity. Key stakeholders Therefore, global reputation rating is based on
are finance professionals (analysts, investors objective measurements obtained through valuation
and shareholders) and top managers. Ranking is by attributes made by the respondents.
based exclusively on these stakeholders’ views.
The focus is on finance. Criticisms of this methodology point to the fact
that the dimensions were not defined empirically,
b. Impression school: reputation as the consider only some stakeholders, valuations may
impression made by the organization. Key not correspond to the reality (there are important
stakeholders are individuals (usually clients discrepancies between the evaluation results and
and/or employees). Ranking is based on the data on profitability or corporate responsibility
these stakeholders’ views. The focus is on provided by the companies themselves) and do not
marketing, HR and communication. incorporate multistakeholder vision, which takes
into account relations between different groups
c. Relational school: reputation as a gap between of stakeholders, their emotions, thus articulating
the views held by internal stakeholders and aligning behaviour and communication - an
(identity) and external stakeholders (image) important point at the heart of the doctoral thesis.
who are seen as the key group. Ranking is
based on the views of multiple stakeholders. Fortune WMAC
The focus is on the link between the identity Developed by Fortune in 1997 to extend AMAC
and the image, and between the image and (America’s Most Admired Companies) to the rest
the reputation. of the world, and carried out in cooperation with
the world’s leading HR consultant Hay Group,
On the basis of these concepts and after analyzing the rating attempts to identify best practices and
existing models, the author develops a new determines which ones are reputation drivers and
methodology. Five models are analysed: useful tools.
1. Fortune AMAC (America’s Most The rating is based on 1,000 leading North
Admired Companies). American companies, complemented with 500
2. Fortune WMAC (World’s Most international companies, which are not based in
Admired Companies). the USA or foreign companies present in the USA.
3. Merco (Monitor Empresarial de 55 sectors and 33 countries are analysed with the
Reputación Corporativa, Business final sample of 670 companies. The poll is held
Monitor of Corporate Reputation) via phone interviews or e-mail, and respondents
4. Corporate Reputation Quotient (CRQ). include managers, executives and analysts, who
5. RepTrak. evaluate the companies by eight listed attributes
and one more attribute: effectiveness of business at
Fortune AMAC o Fortune 500 the international level.
This rating is published by a renowned North
American magazine, Fortune, and is the result of an Criticisms of this model are similar to the ones of the
internal contest of ideas held in the 80s. The rating previous model, with an addition that correlation
is based on evaluation of 500 largest U.S. companies between some of the attributes is high, which may
in terms of financial results, best performance and mean that they are not sufficiently operational: it is
Thesis 2

3. Creating a New hard to differentiate between them, since all of them It is based on surveying general population and aims
Multistakeholder are strongly dependent on the financial result. to find out which companies are liked and respected
Methodology for by individuals, and for what reasons. Its 20 attributes
Measuring Corporate
Reputation Merco are grouped into 6 dimensions:
Developed in Spain in 1999, by Professor Justo
Villafañe from the University Complutense de 1. Emotional appeal.
Madrid, in cooperation with his consultancy 2. Products and services.
Villafañe & Asociados, Análisis e Investigación and 3. Financial result.
Grupo mediático Prisa later renamed Vocento. 4. Vision and leadership.
5. Working environment.
The methodology is based on six dimensions: 6. Social responsibility.
1. Quality of products and services The sampling is performed in two stages:
2. Innovation identification of important companies via phone or
3. Internal reputation e-mail interviews with general population and an
4. Ethics and CSR online questionnaire on the scale from 1 to 7 by 20
5. Global dimension and international presence. attributes.
6. Economic and financial performance.
RepTrak
The weight of the dimensions depends on the value Developed by the Reputation Institute, this method
that managers (used as the base in the same way emerged in 2006 as a replacement for its predecessor
as stakeholders by Fortune) attach to them in their (Corporate Reputation Quotient), and is the result
own ranking, as they are the first to be contacted of an international research aimed to analyse the
in the course of the poll via post. They evaluate evolution of the reputation knowledge over the
companies (excluding their own company) that last decade around the world. It contains new
they consider the most reputed and decide which dimensions and new attributes. Seven dimensions
two attributes (out of six that are broken down into of this model are presented below:
18 subcategories) are the most relevant.
1. Governance.
Then two most reputed companies are identified 2. Products and services.
and experts step in (analysts, trade union activists 3. Leadership.
and journalists), who evaluate the companies that 4. Performance.
have been included in the preliminary list (only 5. Innovation.
evaluating an attribute which they have expertise 6. Workplace.
in, with criteria based on their experience). Finally, 7. Citizenship.
they draw up a questionnaire on merits, based on
specific data about the results of the policies applied The evaluation is held in the form of a poll in
by the companies. Then this is compared to a sample different countries, with respondents looking at
of consumers, thus yielding an overall ranking of one, two or three companies that they are familiar
the best companies to work for (Merco Personas) of with, continuously throughout the year, grading it
the previous year, which in its turn is based on the on a Likert scale from 1 to 7.
results of Merco Empresas of the previous year.
Critics of the two models developed by the
Criticisms of this methodology are similar to the Reputation Institute point out that general public
criticisms of Fortune ratings given the fact that the does not have sufficient information in order to have
Fortune methodology was used as the basis. The an informed opinion. Besides, for many companies
attributes are seen as too focused on behaviour and sectors, consumers are not the most important
and business competence and overlook appeal and stakeholders. That’s why it is important to adjust
identification. It may also overlook the opinion reputation measurements to the size and the sector.
of other stakeholders due to high emphasis on
top management, leaving beyond its scope such Comparison of the five models
important groups are regulators and suppliers, According to the author of the thesis, comparison
who play a key role in some sectors. It is also of dimensions and attributes leads one to suggest
questionable that trade unions are representative of that the evaluation in fact refers to the image and is
the employees’ opinion as well as associations are based on external perception ignoring the appraisal
representative of the consumers’ opinion. by internal stakeholders (and paying more attention
to the identity). Other groups of stakeholders, such
Corporate Reputation Quotient (CRQ) as suppliers and regulators, are marginalised, as, for
Developed by the Reputation Institute jointly with example, in the case of Monitor Merco.
Harris Interactive in 1998, it aimed to overcome the
shortcomings of the Fortune methodology in terms Similarly, we observe lack of attention to emotional
of inadequate representation of all stakeholders. aspects, which play an important role in evaluation
Thesis 3

4. Creating a New of the reputation and are only taken into account what the organisation is, and desired identity, what
Multistakeholder by the Corporate Reputation Quotient. Evaluation it says it is or what its internal stakeholders say it is)
Methodology for thus is dominated by cognitive and subjective and the image (what external stakeholders say it is),
Measuring Corporate
Reputation aspects, and overlooks emotional responses. as understood by the relational school described in
In conclusion, the thesis groups analysed models by the beginning of this document, the gap between
two factors: these two visions and their interaction may be the
key to reputation management.
1. Characteristics and variety of
stakeholders involved in evaluation:
a. Unistakeholder view: Fortune Reputation Elements
AMAC and Fortune WMAC.
b. Partial multistakeholder view:
Merco, CRQ and RepTrak. Identity – what the
organisation is
2. Value attached to different dimensions:
a. Emphasis on performance: Fortune.
b. Emphasis on performance
and quality: Merco. Gaps
c. Emphasis on quality: CRQ.
d. Emphasis on quality and
responsibility: RepTrak. Image – what external
Desired Identity – what
stakeholders say the
the organisation says it is
organisation is
A new multistakeholder methodology
All five methodologies share 11 Source: Marta Carrió, 2011.
common attributes, which the author
grouped into seven dimensions:
The connection between the internal and external
1. Products and services. dimensions is a fundamental aspect for reputation
2. Vision and leadership. management (a company can be considered reputed
3. Workplace context. on the global level if its reputation is recognised
4. Social and environmental responsibility. both by its clients, shareholders, suppliers and
5. Economic and financial performance. consumers in terms of purchasing, investing,
6. Transparency. supplying or consuming, and by its employees, in
7. Emotional appeal. terms of working).
Using this classification as a starting point, the new This is the aspect suggested by the methodology
methodology suggests 4 dimensions subdivided into presented here, which includes both
attributes: perspectives and tries to assign different weights
to different dimensions and different value to
1. Quality: different groups of stakeholders, which enables
a. Employees. one to bring together sufficient elements for
b. Management managing corporate reputation, and determine
c. Products and services. appropriate actions to improve recognition by
d. Focus on customer. each stakeholder.
Performance:
a. Results. In order to solidify the methodology, in-depth semi-
b. Investments. structured and structured interviews have been held
c. International expansion. with experts, managers, consultants and professors
d. Leadership. (first round) and employees, partners, investors,
Appeal: mass media, trade unions and administration
a. Admiration. (second round) as well as a structured online poll
b. Trust. broken down into 42 items with a scale of 11
c. Attractive for potential employees. categories and offered to respondents during the
Responsibility: same two rounds.
a. Social and environmental.
b. Ethics. It was found that quality, financial result and
c. Reliability. responsibility are the three items associated with
d. Transparency. reputation. Thus, it was necessary to include nine
corresponding attributes that capture evaluation by new
Conclusions: the gap between the theory stakeholders that have not been considered before.
of reputation and its practical application
If reputation is – as suggested by most of the theories The new suggested methodology is structured as
in the field –a link between the identity (real identity, shown in the following figure, and includes the
Thesis 4

5. Creating a New Dimensions and attributes of the new multi-stakeholder approach to measure corporate
Multistakeholder reputation
Methodology for
Measuring Corporate Dimension Attributes
Reputation
Quality Quality of managerial staff
Quality of employees
Meeting the stakeholder commitments
Attention to different stakeholders
Management based on quality criteria
Appeal Admiration
Trust
Attractive to work for
Authentic
Attractive for different stakeholders (suppliers, partners, etc.)
Offered experience
Loyalty of employees
Performance Economic and financial results
Capacity for investment
Growth potential
International expansion
Leadership on the market
Degree of innovation
Effect of CSR activities
Responsibility Social and environmental responsibility
Ethical behaviour
Reliability
Transparency
Behaviour towards internal and external stakeholders and society in
general
Legitimacy
Legality
Source: Marta Carrió, 2011.
dimension “appeal”, which is the most emotional that more weight is given to the views of employees
aspect in evaluation of the reputation. and the identity in evaluating reputation.
Finally, according to this thesis, there is a need to The thesis concludes by suggesting further steps:
evaluate reputation by sectors rather than in general, the need to analyse whether the new methodology
assigning different weights to each dimension contains correlations that enable to reduce the
depending on the sector in which the company number of items that it includes and identify specific
operates in accordance with the results obtained in values for each stakeholder group in each industry,
two rounds and to give different value to the opinions and, finally, whether stakeholders in each sector are
of stakeholders depending on the dimension, the different depending on the country and what are
sector, the size or the country, thus incorporating a the factors that allow one to compare reputations of
truly multistakeholder vision, especially in the sense companies that operate in different countries.
Thesis 5

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