Corporate Reputation: A Combination of Social Responsibility and Industry

We use the technique of panel data in a sample of 320 American listed companies from 2003 to 2007 to estimate a model of corporate reputation, measured by the Fortune index. We propose that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a key driver of corporate reputation given its potential to foster hard-to-duplicate competitive advantage. Our model embodies the multidimensional concept of CSR, presenting a five dimensional construct employee relations, diversity issues, product issues, community relations, and environmental issues and interact those with industrial effects. Our results indicate that the five dimensions of CSR have a significant impact on corporate reputation and this impact is moderated by the industry of the firm. The most salient dimensions were diversity of the work force was positively relevant to eight of the nine industries; and product issues with a positive impact in five industries and negative in three. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.