Creating Corporate Reputations

Recent research in business strategy suggests that corporate reputations are a valuable strategic asset for every company. Good reputations have been shown to help firms attain and sustain superior financial performance in their industry. This book outlines how high-status companies become corporate super brands, and it presents managers with a framework to proactively enhance their corporations' desired reputation.While many books concentrate on advertising or corporate identity as the primary tools for reputation enhancement, this book provides a more expansive and realistic picture of what it takes to build a corporate super brand. One of its key contributions is that it emphasizes the roles of customer value and organizational culture in the reputation-building process and exposes the limitations of corporate advertising, sponsorships, and minor corporate identity change.Drawing on more than fifteen years of academic research, executive seminars, and consulting experience, Grahame Dowling suggests ways to improve the corporate reputations that different groups of stakeholders hold of your company. He also describes how to avoid many of the traps that catch unwary managers who try to improve their company's desired reputation.

Clear writing style and concise arguments ... thought-provoking and extremely readable ... Whether you are a manager, an academic, or just an interested general reader, Creating Corporate Reputations will offer many new insights into the important role that corporate reputation plays in the success of business, Well written and interesting. Dowling does an excellent job of explaining why managers should spend time and resources to develop the organizational reputation, Dowling has created a book that is widely applicable to a variety of business situations. Creating Corporate Reputations will appeal to many business and nonprofit managerial audiences, Dowling has written a book offering fresh and unique insights into how managers create value both for their organizations and for their stakeholders

Grahame Dowling is Professor of Marketing at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is one of Australia's leading researchers and writers on marketing and its importance in today's successful corporations and organizations. He has published over 100 papers in the academic and business press dealing with a wide range of marketing topics. In 1997, Grahame Dowling was named the Distinguished Marketing Researcher in Australia and New Zealand for his work on theadoption and diffusion of innovations. He is currently a member of the editorial boards for the journals Corporate Reputation Review and the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing.