Welcome to the inaugural double issue of the Corporate Reputation Review. At a time when disciplines are fragmenting into ever-more specialized domains, we are pleased to announce the creation of an integrative medium for research and practice about reputation management. Indeed, the primary purpose of the Review is to provide a forum for research-based discussions about corporate reputations. We expect these conversations to reflect the diversity of academic disciplines that are actively contributing to knowledge in this area, whether grounded in strategic management, organization theory, economics, marketing, communications, accounting, or finance. As such, the Review will assemble emerging scholarship about an area that is proving to be of considerable interest to scholars with widely divergent orientations. In this way, we hope to encourage a closer examination of corporate reputations and thereby stimulate the growth of knowledge about the complex socially constructed environments in which companies operate. We also intend the Corporate Reputation Review to address the proliferating demands by practitioners for answers to questions about how reputations affect competitive positioning, about how to examine and value corporate reputations, about how to build, maintain, and defend those reputations (Hall, 1992). Many professionals have a vested interest in developing answers to these questions, be they chief executive officers or strategic planners, brand managers or identity specialists, accountants or financiers, heads of public relations, community relations, investor relations, customer relations, or employee relations. In their everyday life, each is deeply involved in managing a company’s reputational assets. Yet all too few can identify and provide well-reasoned and defensible answers to questions about corporate reputation and reputational dynamics. A key purpose of the Corporate Reputation Review, then, is to help remedy that lack. Through conceptual articles, empirical research, case studies of best practice, and occasional book reviews, we hope to draw on the expertise of leading researchers and practitioners concerned with corporate identity and identification, the strategic management of stakeholders, corporate branding, the valuation of intangibles, communication, crisis management, and the socioeconomic analysis of competition.

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The Reputational Landscape

This paper responds to the need for a deeper empirical investigation of the impact of corporate social responsibility pillars on the financial performance of banks. To address this question, this study first analyzes the factors that encourage banks to be more environmentally friendly and then investigates the relationship between a bank's environmental engagement and its risk. Using a sample of 142 banks from 35 countries covering the period from 2011 to 2015, we document the positive impact of effective corporate governance mechanisms on banks' environmental engagement. Moreover, by using the Heckman's two‐stage model for the treatment of sample selection bias, we find that banks that are more sensitive to environmental issues also exhibit less risk. Stakeholder theory and the conflict resolution hypothesis are useful frameworks to overcome the trade‐off between economy and ecology in the banking industry.

Sustainable development and corporate governance in the financial system: Are environmentally friendly banks less risky?

?Que significado presenta la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) en los consumidores? ?Utilizan los consumidores informacion del grado de RSC para realizar sus compras? ?Que posicion ocupan los criterios de RSC sobre los criterios tradicionales (precio, calidad, imagen) para la compra de productos? ?En que medida la actitud positiva del consumidor hacia la RSC depende de la cultura y los valores personales? Estas cuestiones son objeto de analisis en este articulo, a traves de un estudio realizado en cuatro paises (Argentina, Chile, Espana y Portugal).

Percepción de la responsabilidad social corporativa: un análisis cross-cultural

This study analyses the impact of women leaders on environmental performance in a sample of 96 listed banks in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region from 2011 to 2016. Gender diversity in leadership positions is explored through women in the board of directors, chief executive officer gender, and the interaction between these two aspects. This study sheds light on inconsistent results in prior literature by testing three theoretical perspectives: gender difference, critical mass, and homophily. The main results suggest that there is nonlinear relationship between women directors and the environmental performance of banks and that female chief executive officers play a strategic role in shaping this relationship, by confirming the homophily perspective for the banking sector. Therefore, leader gender diversity is an important driver of environmental sustainability in banks, which are increasingly involved in environmental issues either directly, as companies, or indirectly, through their lending activity.

The impact of women leaders on environmental performance: Evidence on gender diversity in banks

The current study aims to answer dual, related questions: Does corporate environmental policy affect corporate reputation, and does this link also influence risk‐adjusted profitability and company's risk? With a comprehensive framework involving analyses of each question, among a sample of firms traced by the Reputation Institute, this study reveals several notable results, after correcting for endogeneity biases. First, environmental engagement and green product innovation are both antecedents of corporate reputation. Second, corporate reputation has a positive impact on risk‐adjusted profitability and Z score indicator of financial distress risk. Thus, corporate environmental responsibility and green practices represent cospecialized assets that enhances an intangible asset, namely, corporate reputation. The latter influence constitutes a missing link between sustainable development and the firm's financial performance. Overall, environmental engagement and corporate reputation act as insurance‐like protections of firm competitiveness.

How do corporate environmental policy and corporate reputation affect risk‐adjusted financial performance?

The marketplace has seen significant growth in the demand for ‘ethical’ behavior, and banks are seeking to leverage customers’ perception in order to build a sustainable competitive advantage. In consequence, the concepts of corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation are of vital concern for academics and managers in terms of their potential impact on customers. This study seeks to contribute to the literature by examining the mediating role of corporate reputation on the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (conceptualized as a formative second-order formative construct) and customer loyalty. The study also takes into consideration the role played by bank type in the mediation effect. To achieve this aim, a study was performed comprising 572 personal surveys in the Basque Country. The results showed that corporate reputation partially mediated the relation between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. On the other hand, bank type is shown not to moderate the mediation effect. The results have important implications for practitioners wishing to manage their relations with customers.

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Reputation in Cooperative Banks Versus Commercial Banks in the Basque Country

Izaskun Agirre Aramburu

Papers

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Reputation in Cooperative Banks Versus Commercial Banks in the Basque Country