Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Shortcomings Of Investior-Based Ratings Of Corporate Reputation: An Exploratory Empirical Study That Shows A Variety Of Stakeholder Groups Place Greater Emphasis On Corporate Ethics Than Profits., Kent Walker Dr., Bruno Dyck Dr.

Odette School of Business Publications

We examine three assumptions commonly held in the corporate reputation literature: i) reputation ratings of owners and investors are generally representative of all stakeholders; ii) stakeholders will generally provide a higher reputation rating to firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility versus firms that do not; and iii) profitability is the primary criterion of importance to all stakeholders when rating a firm’s reputation. Using an exploratory in-class exercise our findings suggest that: i) there are significant differences among stakeholder groups in their reputation ratings; ii) firms that emphasize corporate social responsibility are not rated more highly across all stakeholder groups, and …