Under Construction: How Commensuration and Management Fashion Affect Corporate Reputation Rankings

Abstract

This paper analyzes the antecedents of corporate reputation as a dynamic commensuration process in which management fashions influence audiences as they attempt to quantify corporate reputation. Using the context of Fortune reputation rankings over multiple decades, we find evidence consistent with our hypotheses that when asked to quantify corporate reputation, audiences rely heavily on traditional as well as emerging nontraditional measures of financial performance as they become more fashionable indicators of superior financial performance. However, audiences have recently begun to assess companies’ reputations based on indicators of social performance. We also examine how audience attention to these indicators is itself influenced by business press discourse.