The Impact of Stakeholder Power on Corporate Reputation: A Cross-Country Corporate Governance Perspective

Abstract

Corporate reputation has roots in national beliefs about the role of the business corporation in society; these beliefs are constructed in accordance with the preferences of powerful stakeholders. Building on a stakeholder-power approach to corporate governance, we investigate whether differences in the legal rights and protections of shareholders, creditors, and workers across countries affect the general public’s reputation assessments of business corporations. Using a sample of 593 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world from 32 countries during 2007 to 2011, we find that in societies where shareholders enjoy a high degree of legal rights, the impact of stock market returns on corporate reputation becomes more positive. Likewise, the negative relationship between earnings volatility and reputation becomes greater when creditor rights are stronger. Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence of an interaction effect between labor rights and corporate social performance on corporate reputation.

Lens or prism? How organisations sustain multiple and competing reputations

“…For example, the Chinese office of Novel Insights was considered as a 'rising star' and 'number three' within the organisation, whereas the UK office was seen as one of the firm's 'Achilles heels' and near the bottom of the organisation's office hierarchy in terms of reputation. This is a significant insight because these findings go beyond the argument elsewhere in the literature that geographical context is important to study and affects stakeholder perceptions of companies (Bartikowksi et al, 2011;Soleimani et al, 2014;Ali et a., 2015). We extend this literature not only showing how the reputation of an organisational partnership varies both internally and externally by geography, but also why: namely, because of the distinct relationship that the individual has with the organisation.…”

Corporate environmental performance, environmental management and firm risk

“…This program is the largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world (Rasche, Waddock, & McIntosh, ) whose participants are encouraged to adhere to environmental‐, social‐, and governance‐related principles. Participation could thus be considered a proxy for a firm's ESG performance (Misani & Pogutz, ; Soleimani, Schneper, & Newburry, ). The definitions and constructions of all the variables are presented in Table .…”

“…(8) Soleimani, Schneper, & Newburry, 2014). The definitions and constructions of all the variables are presented in Table 2.…”

How Corporate Social Responsibility Helps MNEs to Improve their Reputation. The Moderating Effects of Geographical Diversification and Operating in Developing Regions

“…Differences across regions are critical to the formation of the firm's reputation (Soleimani et al, ). The CSR expectations of the various stakeholders in the host country are often very different from stakeholders' CSR expectations in its home country (Yang and Rivers, ), especially when the host country is a developing one (Jamali and Neville, ).…”