Corporate Reputation - Assignment Example

BENCHMARKING Corporate reputation can be defined as the total sum of all existent organizational/ corporate beliefs and views about the entity, these based on both its historical past (journey from its founding), to its future prospects (as envisioned in both its vision and missions). Key to the overall drive and views of corporate reputation hence, rests on several parties including the existent employees, the company’s esteemed customer base, the entity’s shareholder parties, the entity’s competitors in the business sector, and trade/ labor bodies (unions) among other pertinent parties.Thus, corporate reputation is rooted in the following three intertwined aspects including the existent company values (as exemplified by the company/ organizational culture), the entity’s services and products offered, and the overall coexistence and interpersonal relationships existent in the entity’s employee base. In addition, pertinent procedures and processes, which aid in the smooth running of the business, are vital.Overall, corporate reputation rests on the existent industry legislation / regulations, the influencers, who include labor/trade unions and bodies, in addition to, the very influential media and press, regional and national influence (in the form of government action and taxation, in addition to, existent professional advisors), and the overall existent industry structure. This encompasses existent competitors, suppliers, new business entities and most importantly the customer/ consumer base. Internally, the employee base, following a set of procedures (company rules and regulations) in addition to the entity’s products and services, combine to represent the entity’s corporate reputation[Boy10]. As Lee and Roh (2012: 649) posit, corporate reputation is considered as an intangible quality, which aids in the differentiation of a specific business entity from other existent entities. This is in addition to its attraction and hence retention of customers towards not only purchasing, but also repurchasing of its goods/ products and services, with a willingness towards paying more (premium prices) for the same. Hence, the presence of high corporate reputation, being vital to an entity’s value, in addition to being a critical measure of performance, acts as a cost-saving mechanism of entities.It functions as a mechanism, which aids in the decrease of overall consumer uncertainty through an increase of customer satisfaction, the existent customer base and wholesome marketing effectiveness. In business entities possessing such a quality, its employees are often more competent, hence the need for contracting measures in addition to monitoring expenses and costs. Furtherance is the fact that through high corporate reputation, firms possess the advantage of enhancing their existent reputation through better product/ service provision, branding (for consumer attraction), and other socio-economic and environmental responsibilities.Though success measurement indexes remain significant, it is the associated non-financial factors, which benchmark a company’s overall success, in the face of existent competitors. Benchmarking, being the setting of corporate standards/ levels, is exemplified though such factors as a distinction of quality services and product provided, the existent corporate social responsibilities, the present leadership and leadership/ management styles, entity branding, innovativeness, imagery and customer service, in addition to cultivated corporate citizenship. As aforementioned, benchmarking of an entity’s corporate reputation rests on variants of measures, which mostly encompass the aspects of quality products and services provision, leadership and management styles, the branding of the business entity, customer service, and both corporate citizenship and social responsibilities. Benchmarking separately and effectively the two aspects of innovativeness and corporate imagewith the aim of improving corporate reputation is quite a stiff task as many views/ perspectives exits as to the definition and perspective of corporate image and its dynamism as pertaining to its continuous innovativeness. Different answers emanate from various arenas, the socio-economic and political contexts significantly affecting the overall entity’s innovativeness and corporate image, and hence its reputation[Joo12]. The first is the fact that attributes pertaining to corporate reputation do encompass a variant of aspects as existent in global firms and business entities. The multi-faceted characteristic of corporate reputation extends further towards the understanding of the overall picture/ scenario as pertaining to the existent link between performance and reputation. Secondly, corporate reputation provides a multi-dimensional effect on overall firm performance, as existent entity stakeholders not only are concerned with just financial benefits, but also with the incorporated high-quality intangible assets prerequisite to superior benchmarked performance. Thirdly, is the critical and significantly impactful industry context being more profound in the high-end technologies industry, where corporate reputation and overall performance may be greatly enhanced or dented in equal measure. In such an arena, the entity’s innovativeness entails a redoubling of efforts towards improvement of the entity’s corporate image by better product/ service provision. The above is because of the fact that technology-based/ oriented entities sustain their existent corporate reputation through their branding of images (for services or products provided), in addition to both the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of such entities and their constituent components. Furtherance is their greater spending on research, marketing investment and development.Hence, an entity’s excellent reputation surfaces in situations in which longitudinal and repeated comparison with other existent competitors, occurs. Because of the organization’s tacit, contingent and specific practices and expertise in the improvement, maintenance and building/ earning of its corporate image, reputation the organizational image and structure becomes virtually impossible to copy. This is because it reflects the sophisticated and wholesome reflection of the entity’s overall activities.With company/firm innovativeness, organizations are hence able to build a sustainable competitive advantage, which is crucial in the contemporary dynamic economic arena[Hul08]. As Zhou and Wu (2010) allude, innovation is the means by which firm entities are able to draw upon their existent core competencies to be utilized into resultant tangible outcomes. Innovativeness, being a critical dimension of existent company reputation, it continues to play a distinguishing role towards the attainment of firm/ company competitive advantage in addition to much-sought-after consumer/ customer loyalty.Furtherance, is their opinion that through utility of innovative thinking in both strategy (entailing strategic management), and company process/ procedural measures, entities are able to render the existent fierce/stiff competition irrelevant. Hence, the notion that superior leadership leads to an enhancement of entity innovativeness, resulting in overall entity enhanced output/performance.Firm characteristics (structural), such as Research and development (R&D) intensity, capital existence and availability, firm size and capacity, in addition to existent debt leverage are all control variables towards overall company competitiveness and hence performance. With more R&D expenditure, firms are able to create new technologies and products, which aid in both the development and sustenance of the firm’s competitive advantage, in addition to acquiring new (additional) market share and an overall penetration into these new market arenas.The existent industry context whereby firms, which have advanced technological bases (assets), tend to brand their images better, effectively and hence more efficiently in order to boost their existent corporate reputation do so through innovativeness and enhanced entity image/ branding. Many firms lay more emphasis on corporate reputation building dwelling more on the physical aspects, which require attention that is more urgent. However, many other organizations lay higher emphasis on their brand name (good name) especially in most knowledge-based organizations where professional services are employed towards building an admirable reputation and an accompanying brand name[Zho10]. Benchmarking is however irrelevant if not keenly done dependent on the economic or industry context, as different legal entities possess different characteristics, some conducive towards specific economic arenas than to others. Hence, what is workable in a more developed nation may not be achievable in a growing economy influenced by a variety of factors, such as overall consumer purchasing capabilities existent infrastructure and pertinent service sectors, in addition to the existent socio-economic and political stability of a nation state.Though many leaders (top management) are of the agreement that building a favorable corporate reputation and image enhanced through entity innovativeness amongst other factors, plays a major role in boosting overall business venture prospects, a majority of these managers are instead quite reluctant towards the employment of such mechanisms. Some of the possible reasons leading to this may include the fact that corporate reputation and/ or image remain intangible concepts, which are quite complex and hence take much time and resources to possibly change or alter. In addition is the fact that an entity’s image is representative of a broader aspect in an existent organization requiring keen attention when allocating the responsibility of handling aspects of reputation to specific areas that have functional personnel. The money value aspect required towards the facilitation ofsuch improvementsis hard to quantify, and hence making it difficult for such entities to engage in the enhancement of their existent corporate image and overall reputation. Furtherance may be the presence of managers being forced to prioritize more on immediate issues affecting their firm entities and thereby paying less attention towards corporate image and reputation, as being concepts that are long-term oriented and hence not requiring immediate attention[May96]. Changes expected in overall organizational operations would include increased R&D spending to enhance existent services and products provided, in addition to the creation of novel products for the enhancement of further competitiveness. This would also portend to the further refining of existent products, the primary objective being a furtherance of services or products overall quality. With increased R&D, would be increased innovativeness, which provides the existent consumer base with wider varieties of product and service choice. With consumers having a varied choice of products, they are then able to pay, even if premium price, for those items which are of most value/ interest to them. A top-down approach would also be necessary towards the cultivation of better and more customer-friendly organizational cultures, the other stakeholders views, and expectations being put into consideration. Benchmarking of the twin aspects of Corporate Image and innovativeness can positively contribute to overall entity reputation aspect entailing not only the scrutiny of physically tangible processes, but more in depth analysis into the viability of corporate innovativeness as an enhancement measure of overall corporate image, and hence the entity’s reputation. An entity’s corporate image, it should be noted, is necessarily not restricted to the favorable-unfavorable context as espoused in the dynamic business arena; rather, it may be broadened to relate to existent public perceptions of a business entity’s type/ kind of business venture. However, it should be taken into account that the improper/incorrect (re-) presentation of entity image may prove to be detrimental in the final analysis despite the image being favorable[Boy10]. Corporate image is not easily descriptive, as different perspectives and ideals exist, these influenced by the contemporary socio-economic and political arena. Different jurisdictions pose unique definitive characteristics as to what constitutes corporate image.These include the quality of existent services and products offeredthe twin aspects of company integrity and honesty, good customer relations and services and the presence of both fair and competitive prices. Others are the entity’s efficiency; existent corporate social responsibilities; environmental protective measures, good management and leadership style,in addition to, the important aspect of realizing profit margins and hence making the existent shareholders happy. Hence, the benchmarking of an entity’s image would necessitate the process of corporate enhancement, with favorable corporate image ratings increasing through such aspects as a general augmentation of the public’s entity awareness (familiarity factor) and the effective utility of the most credible of sources available towards the aforementioned goal. The latter aspect pertains to either the personal acquaintance with the entity’s employee (s) or the hearing of positive aspects pertaining to the entity, from such personnel. The former on the other hand, pertains to the existent entity advertisement measures in addition to entity news item creation. Through the enactment of different procedural measures, an entity’s existent corporate image is enhanced further into a more favorable image. Through regular corporate advertisement purposed towards the creation of a more favorable corporate image, such advertisements entail a change of the entity’s image and overall business aspects. The creation and maintenance of a positive corporate image in the public’s eyes ensure the prerequisite countermeasures are in place that cushionsthe entity’s negative publicityemanating from a known past wrong/ mistake or the existent assumptions as to the entity’s participation in such negative actions. Hence, it is with difficulty that an entity may embark of changing its corporate image, in addition to its overall business angle, if such a corporate image is not rooted on factual, easily available/ obtainable information. Thus, an entity’s strive towards the creation, change and maintenance of a positive corporate image may be an easy affair or a difficult endeavor dependent upon a number of factors[Cha96]. The existent and hence easily identifiable corporate image is difficult to change, especially so if it is negative affecting. Furtherance, is the fact that the biggest impediment towards corporate image change would be the incompatibility between the new message (as espoused in the existent corporate image), and current perceptions as pertaining to the same corporate image. With the benchmarking process of corporate image, a number of measures would aid towards the positive enhancement of an existent entity’s corporate image including countering any existent negative publicity through positive entity advertisement and ‘news-making’, in addition would the maintenance of the positive image amongst the existent public/ consumer base. Through a presentation of positive facts, which prove to be incompatible with the damaged image, and the successful utility of approximation measures, an entity is able to build its brand name in addition to the overall corporate image and reputation. The latter successive approximation techniquepertains to the successive application/ presentation of positive facts/ ideals as regarding the corporate entity through a gradual manner over a given period. Though slow in resultant effects and time utility, in addition to extra expenditure on resource allocation, it is a sure way of increasing public awareness as to the business entity’s image and overall corporate reputation.The successful benchmarking of an entity’s corporate image entails the utility of analytical techniques in addition to conventional research methods, the initial prioritization being the delineating of the measurement objective present. A rating of 7-10, on a 10-point scale pertaining to a specific attribute, would be categorized as good to excellent performance, depending on the entity’s business venture context.Hence, such benchmarking would only be a comparison between entities dealing in the same business field. Towards the above process, would necessitate the presence of standard questionnaires, which would necessitate a perceptual mapping of existent competing business entities. The benchmarking process further necessitates the presence of normal economic/ business environments, and not friendly or hostile arenas, as a resultant effect of either positive or negative publicity.Communication effectiveness is also fundamental towards the public’s shift of perceptions, as regarding an existent business entity. For example, the utility of the aforementioned successive approximation technique should be followed by an assessment of resultant gradual public shift in perceptions. Techniques necessary here would be either standard qualitative or quantitative research methodology. Quantitative surveys aimed towards the measurement of the aforementioned entity’s communication effectiveness require following the existent benchmarking measurements/ variables closely. In addition to the above, and as a backup measure, would be the alternative utility of focus group techniques aimed at probing public opinions and reasoning trends. It should be noted that overall public perceptions gradually change, hence the lack of completely effective survey findings[Ebe05]. An understanding of existent dynamics as pertaining to the audience/ stakeholders present is necessary, as corporate image perspectives vary according to the existent stakeholder’semployees, shareholders, the consumer base and the public at large. A utility of questionnaires with existing specific core questions, and directed towards interested parties, should be accompanied by considerations such as relevance/ objectivity as set up by the existent business entity. Secondly, should be the aspect of meaningfulness as pertaining to the relevance of measurable attributes with consumer considerations being present.Such attributes, should portend to the presence of advantage, on the specific entity’s part vis-à-vis existent business competitors. Furtherance should be the aspect of non-redundancy, as pertaining to the specified attributes used. Hence, it should entail the grouping of similar variables, through such techniques as factor analysis amongst others towards the dissuasion of the utility of various variables in measuring more or less the same existent underlying attribute. Such a measurement would be arrived at by way of a benchmarking study, which will consequently identify those attributes that are redundant. With this, one is hence able to choose from the remaining independent variables/ attributes as to the best combination (basis) for future measurement procedures. The above should be put into consideration when benchmarking corporate image, as this is subjective to great variations than the entity’s existent products’ image.Hence, on should expect a dynamic nature as pertaining to corporate image being influenced by the existent socio-economic contexts and parties present.A business entity’s corporate image, entailing both the logical/ cognitive attribute, and its accompanying emotional feeling aspect, is best enhanced in contexts where behavioral learning approaches utilized, through classical conditioning, evoke stimulus-response orientated behaviors in the larger consumer base. Hence, to customers whose feelings and beliefs about a corporate entity’s image fit their own individual personal ideals and perspectives, pertaining to proper corporate behavior, they are more likely to attribute this to the existent good reputation of the said organization/ entity[Dut]. It is with great difficulty that one tries to distinguish between corporate image and reputation, as the two attributes are often used interchangeably.However, corporate image entails the universal evaluation comprising of existent general feelings, beliefs and perspectives, by people about a particular entity. On the other hand, corporate reputation pertains to the attribution of various values to an existent entity further endearing the said entity to the crucial consumer base and hence enhancing its potential future economic competitiveness. Corporate image hence stems from the mental/ pictorial aspect as viewed by the interest parties in addition to their accompanying sensory feelings of like or dislike of a particular entity. The benchmarking of corporate image, in summary entails overall product/ service attributes (high and sustained quality), in addition to the attitudes and benefits (functionality) of persons associated with the entity. Corporate innovation (innovativeness) pertains to the development of both unique and novel marketing programs especially pertaining to either product/ service improvements and/ or introduction. Of critical importance is the above in respect to those business entities, which carry the same name (brand), as their existent services and products. However, this is not the case as pertaining to those entities, which being highly branded, have variants of products and services, whose quality benchmarking is difficult to transfer to the existent parent entity/ organization. Pertinent to this is the existent entity’s stakeholder approach, in addition to its corporate social responsibility, which builds upon existent corporate innovativeness through provision of avenues of enhancement. Major factors affecting an entity’s corporate innovativeness would be traceable to the leadership style/ form the existent organizational structure and day-to-day affairs management, or the corporate culture towards both the generation and fostering of novel ideas[Eis]. In leadership, there may be a lack of explicit search for novel ideas and perspectives, hence a suppression of innovativeness. This may be due to the lacking of such aspects among the high-agenda topics/items during conferences on short-to-long term planning procedures; instead, is a focus on the short-term goal of profit making. Furtherance would be the aspects of management, in planning, strategy formulation, budgeting and business venturing be concerned primarily with cost cutting measures rather than the promising arena of opportunity discovery through enhanced corporate innovativeness. This would entail increased expenditures of attributes such as existing R&D, an upgrading of the existent technological base, in addition to sponsoring field, fact-finding activities outside the organization’s immediate domain/ environment. Existent organizational structures also do play roles towards the suppression of innovativeness as is espoused in the presence or lack of tolerance towards a variation to existent defined corporate norms. Such norms, beingunrewarding to innovativeness, in addition to guarding against risk factors, and the expected increased expenditure margins, result in R&D spending levels being underfunded. Hence, for possible benchmarking of corporate innovativeness, there needs to be above all, leadership, which fosters novel ideals and perspectives, in addition to, collaboration that results in the creation of novel opportunities. Furtherance would be a building of existent capacity towards innovativeness being utilized in concert with the business ideals/ perspectives present. A change in perspective, where ambiguity is encouraged (as an added advantage), would increase potential for existent corporate innovativeness through seeking better avenues and multiple possibilities of entity functionality. Key to the aspect of corporate innovativeness should be a focused effort on the overall existent customer experience. Hence, a deep, emphatic understanding of consumer wants and needs is the greatest and stepping step towards better-enhanced corporate innovativeness, which on its part sustains the entity’s reputation and brand name[Tor94]. In conclusion, benchmarking of both corporate innovativeness and image entails a number of measures apart from other corporate benchmarking procedures. Being abstract attributes, such are fostered through succeeding leadership vision towards set corporate goals and missions towards enhanced corporate reputation and identity. The consumer base is critical to both aspects as it provides judgment as to which products or services are best suited for their liking, tastes and wants. Furtherance is the fact that the above two aspects necessitate an increase in corporate expenditure converse to existent cost-cutting ideals. Through benchmarking of the two aforementioned entity attributes, companies are able to adapt to the dynamic, globalized and competitive contemporary arena through a constant development of novel ideas/ products translating to an enhanced corporate image and reputation. References Boy10: , (Boyd, 2010, p. 67), Joo12: , (Jooh Lee, 2012 , p. 35), Hul08: , (Hull, 2008, p. 45), Zho10: , (Zhou, 2010 , p. 34), May96: , (Mayer, 1996, p. 64), Boy10: , (Boyd, 2010, p. 64), Cha96: , (Fombrun, 1996, p. 85), Ebe05: , (Eberl, 2005, p. 69), Dut: , (Dutton, 1994, p. 54), Eis: , (Eisenhardt, 2000, p. 65), Tor94: , (Tor Guimaraes, 1994, p. 65), Read More