Corporate reputation has become a source of competitive advantage whose underlying dimensions serve to influence companies‟ strategic direction, in order to maintain sustainable competitiveness. The purpose of this research is to determine the underlying dimensions of corporate reputation as perceived by buyers in the business-to-to business environment.Through critical review of literature on corporate reputation, the importance of building and maintaining a good reputation was highlighted by a myriad of resulting favourable consequences. Literature also revealed underlying dimensions of reputation which were complemented by the findings of the preliminary interviews with a selection of members of the sample to formulate a research instrument.Using stratified sampling of buyers in selected segments served by the steel industry, 169 questionnaire responses were gathered electronically via email and self administered. A factor analysis revealed five factors namely vision and quality of management, employment equity and social responsibility, superior quality of products and committed service, corporate appeal and safety and environment. These collaborated with the literature with the exception of two contributing elements omitted by literature, namely BEE and safety. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Recruiting and retaining top tier talent has increasingly become one of the few ways organisations can differentiate themselves from their competitors. In pursuit of the best talent for competitive advantage, an understanding of what job seekers want has become paramount to recruitment strategies. Given South Africa's heterogenous population make-up, the labour market consists of various groups of job seekers, each with unique characteristics that inform their organisational choices. To this end, the researcher sought to compare organisational choice decisions of different demographic groups of job seekers. Specifically, group comparisons in the consideration of ethical reputation as an organisational choice indicator, were made between job seekers of different genders, academic backgrounds and family income levels. Students registered at a metropolitan university in South Africa participated in a selfreport measurement instrument titled Organisational Choice Indicator (N = 330). Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a four-dimensional construct for organisational choices in South Africa. Independent t-tests showed that job seekers from higher family income levels consider ethical reputations of organisations when choosing employers, more than their counterparts from lower family income levels. However, the test also indicated no significant differences between male and female job seekers, in the consideration of this indicator. Analysis of variance with planned contrasts revealed that in their job search endeavors, individuals with Humanities backgrounds consider how ethically reputable an organisation is, more than those with Engineering and Commerce backgrounds. Implications of these findings are presented, as well as suggestions for future research.

Negative stereotypes characterizing Black males as prone to causing trouble can lead teachers to punish misbehaving Black boys more harshly than their White peers. Awareness of unfair discipline practices has been linked to future disciplinary infractions among Black males, hinting that some Black males may engage in defiant behavior in response to unfair discipline. Despite the documented links between awareness of unfair discipline and future disciplinary infractions among Black males, questions remain as to (1) the types of disciplinary practices from teachers that students perceive as fair and unfair; (2) the psychological processes that motivate Black male behavior after experiencing unfair discipline; and (3) whether these psychological processes differ from those that motivate White male behavior. Across three studies, the present research explores these questions by asking Black and White men to recall the type of treatment from teachers that they perceived as fair and unfair (Study 2), as well as how they would have perceived and responded to different scenarios describing instances of either fair and unfair discipline from teachers in middle and high school (Studies 1 and 3). Qualitative results from Study 2 highlights negotiable (i.e., a collaborative effort between a teacher and their pupil to discuss and analyze how and why a particular situation arose from all perspectives) and non-negotiable (i.e., teacher ignores the pupil’s explanation for the infraction) discipline as two contrasting practices that men viewed as fair and unfair, respectively. Quantitative results from Study 3 indicated that unfair (non-negotiable), compared to fair (negotiable) discipline from teachers triggered negative emotions associated with reputation threat (i.e., embarrassment, shame, anger, and sadness), which in turn predicted future defiant behavior among both Black and White men. Furthermore, the extent to which unfair discipline from teachers was attributed to racial bias also predicted greater negative emotions and defiant behavior for Black, but not White, men. Together, these findings shed light on a process through which unfair disciplinary practices may motivate defiance from students via negative emotions among both Black and White students; as well as the unique role that race bias attributions have on Black students’ perceptions of unfair discipline.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now playing an imperative role in South Africa and globally, especially in the mining sector. This industry is expected to make profits while contributing towards a better society. Despite the industry‘s significant contribution to the economy, it also has a negative impact socially and environmentally. Over the past decades the mining sector has been seen as not mindful of its immediate stakeholders. Communities in close proximity to mines do not trust mining companies due to perceptions that mining companies fail to consider the environment within which they operate. Communities are often left with the impression that mines have simply degraded the environment without contributing to sustainable local development such as such as poverty, health, infrastructure, education and unemployment. The reputation of mining companies thus has declined, resulting in economic losses. Mining companies still interpret CSR as an environmental stewardship rather than a model for improving alignment with its stakeholders, as well as enhancing and building brand reputation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of CSR on the mining industry's brand reputation. The study links the CSR efforts of Exxaro‘s Grootegeluk Mine and their ability to enhance the mine‘s reputation in areas of operation. Exxaro is among the top five coal producers in South Africa. The Grootegeluk Coal Mine is an open cast coal mine in Lephalale, Limpopo. A quantitative research methodology was applied using a face to face structured self-administered questionnaire to collect primary data from a sample of 330 participants. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted with a view to condense the sample composition. The non-probability sampling was deemed appropriate for this study, particularly, the simple random sampling. Regression analysis was deemed suitable to for this study. The collected data was analysed using SPSS version 26.0. Research results have shown that CSR has a favourable association with brand reputation. The study found that community members are more aware of the mine‘s economic responsibility in relation to other dimensions of CSR. This finding implies that the community is more in-tune with aspects that have a direct bearing on their livelihood and are more inclined to seek opportunities and initiatives that improve their overall standard of living. Overall, the findings show that organisations that invest in socially responsible behaviour have higher levels of perceived reputation among the society. Philanthropic initiatives should be developed with the involvement of community members to ensure that their real needs will be determined. Poorly developed community projects do not benefit the mine or the community. The mines should look into sourcing the majority of its staff from the local community. In addition, mining organizations should look into aggressively training local community members who do not possess the required skills necessary for employment within the mining sector. Furthermore, communities should be made aware of all CSR initiatives which are relevant to them through community engagement initiatives because this action will lead to attitude and behaviour changes towards the mine. Previous studies have focused mainly on how CSR initiatives contribute to brand value, customer satisfaction, brand attitude, customer retention, and customer loyalty, and on the relationship between CSR and organization performance. This study highlights the importance of CSR measures on organizational reputation and advises policymakers, the mining industry and scholars.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is now playing an imperative role in South Africa and globally, especially in the mining sector. This industry is expected to make profits while contributing towards a better society. Despite the industry‘s significant contribution to the economy, it also has a negative impact socially and environmentally. Over the past decades the mining sector has been seen as not mindful of its immediate stakeholders. Communities in close proximity to mines do not trust mining companies due to perceptions that mining companies fail to consider the environment within which they operate. Communities are often left with the impression that mines have simply degraded the environment without contributing to sustainable local development such as such as poverty, health, infrastructure, education and unemployment. The reputation of mining companies thus has declined, resulting in economic losses. Mining companies still interpret CSR as an environmental stewardship rather than a model for improving alignment with its stakeholders, as well as enhancing and building brand reputation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of CSR on the mining industry's brand reputation. The study links the CSR efforts of Exxaro‘s Grootegeluk Mine and their ability to enhance the mine‘s reputation in areas of operation. Exxaro is among the top five coal producers in South Africa. The Grootegeluk Coal Mine is an open cast coal mine in Lephalale, Limpopo. A quantitative research methodology was applied using a face to face structured self-administered questionnaire to collect primary data from a sample of 330 participants. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted with a view to condense the sample composition. The non-probability sampling was deemed appropriate for this study, particularly, the simple random sampling. Regression analysis was deemed suitable to for this study. The collected data was analysed using SPSS version 26.0. Research results have shown that CSR has a favourable association with brand reputation. The study found that community members are more aware of the mine‘s economic responsibility in relation to other dimensions of CSR. This finding implies that the community is more in-tune with aspects that have a direct bearing on their livelihood and are more inclined to seek opportunities and initiatives that improve their overall standard of living. Overall, the findings show that organisations that invest in socially responsible behaviour have higher levels of perceived reputation among the society. Philanthropic initiatives should be developed with the involvement of community members to ensure that their real needs will be determined. Poorly developed community projects do not benefit the mine or the community. The mines should look into sourcing the majority of its staff from the local community. In addition, mining organizations should look into aggressively training local community members who do not possess the required skills necessary for employment within the mining sector. Furthermore, communities should be made aware of all CSR initiatives which are relevant to them through community engagement initiatives because this action will lead to attitude and behaviour changes towards the mine. Previous studies have focused mainly on how CSR initiatives contribute to brand value, customer satisfaction, brand attitude, customer retention, and customer loyalty, and on the relationship between CSR and organization performance. This study highlights the importance of CSR measures on organizational reputation and advises policymakers, the mining industry and scholars.

A good corporate reputation is extremely valuable, and confers substantial benefits to the organisation. In order to better manage their corporate reputation, companies need to align their corporate identity and corporate image. Where they do not align and there are gaps, company directors need to identify and reconcile those identity-image gaps.In this research study, corporate reputation, and specifically image and identity, is investigated to understand whether there is gap between how the company views itself (corporate identity) and how it is viewed by its stakeholders (corporate image).Directors' perceptions of gaps between corporate identity and corporate image were explored through a qualitative research methodology that focussed on collecting primary data using an exploratory, phenomenological approach. Ten depth interviews were conducted with directors of companies operating in South Africa, who were selected through convenience sampling.A framework is proposed to assist the management of corporate reputation by reconciling identity-image gaps in companies. The core causes of these gaps are found in the company, the staff of the company, and in the external marketplace. Once these identity-image gaps are identified and acknowledged, mechanisms are proposed to reconcile the gaps through focusing on knowledge management, relationship management, communication, trust and implementation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Corporate reputation has evolved into a strategic and intangible corporate asset and accordingly directors, as custodians of corporate reputation, are tasked with building and managing corporate reputation as a source of competitive advantage. The purpose of this research is to ascertain the extent of the operationalisation of corporate reputation and the perspectives of directors as to the manner in which they perceive, value, build and manage corporate reputation. A critical review of the corporate reputation literature evidenced much ambiguity as to the definition of corporate reputation, whilst the value and competitive advantage of corporate reputation, has been empirically established. The literature within this realm fails to adequately address the operalisation of this construct and accordingly, this study attempts to address the apparent void in the academic literature by offering empirical evidence as to the manner in which directors build and manage a company’s reputation by proposing a framework to guide directors in their endeavours. In order to gauge director’s perspectives, 12 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the directors of a multi-national company based in South Africa. The company operates in a highly regulated and competitive industry and the research findings demonstrate that corporate reputation is indeed acknowledged as a key, intangible asset. Whilst the directors did not possess clear insight into building and managing corporate reputation, several key themes emerged and the findings are consolidated into a proposed framework and a portfolio of the dimensions of corporate reputation are established. This study lays the foundation for further studies within the realm of operationalising corporate reputation, particularly as a source of competitive advantage. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Reputation is an important customer choice criterion in banking, a sector characterised by intangible services and limited opportunity for pre-purchase evaluation. It has been shown that while companies may communicate their reputation in a particular way, responses to reputation stimuli are not homogeneous, resulting in calls in the literature to understand sources of variation in customer responses. This study investigated whether an individual’s social axioms, that is, an individual’s general beliefs about the world were such a source of individual difference and influenced corporate reputation and behavioural intention among middle-high income South African banking customers. Conceptualising corporate reputation as customer perceptions (beliefs and attitude) led to adoption of the reasoned action approach as the study’s theoretical basis. Each of the social axioms dimensions, namely, fate control, religiosity, reward for application, social complexity and social cynicism, was hypothesised to influence customers’ beliefs about their bank and behavioural intention. Following a deductive approach and adopting a positivistic paradigm, quantitative data was collected from 636 middle-high income customers of the top five South African retail banks using an online questionnaire. The conceptual model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The study’s results confirmed that social axioms are a source of individual difference, can explain variances in customers’ beliefs, and are therefore antecedents of corporate reputation. Reward for application has the strongest relationship with customers’ beliefs while the relationship between social cynicism and beliefs was statistically insignificant. Effects of all social axioms dimensions apart from social cynicism were completely mediated in series by beliefs and attitude. Contributions to corporate reputation scholarship include definition of the construct as a collective of beliefs and attitude and expansion of the set of antecedents to beliefs within the reasoned action framework beyond the traditional personality and demographic factors. In practice the findings endorse the view that corporate reputation is to an extent beyond a company’s control and is in part controlled by stakeholders. As a result, it is suggested that bank marketing executives and reputation practitioners consider including social axioms in customer segmentation models to ensure that their offerings resonate with customers’ general beliefs about the world. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / DPhil / Unrestricted

As the King III code has been described as the future of corporate governance the question has to be asked whether corporate South Africa is able to translate this international best practice document into best practice implementation. The purpose of this research was to assess how companies and industry experts have interpreted the requirements of King III – Governing Stakeholder Relationships – and to see if there was a change in focus by companies and their boards ‘to stakeholder engagement and reputation management’. Through qualitative interviews the objective of the research was to: • find out to what extent companies had adopted the recommendations on governing stakeholder relationship (King III); • confer with industry experts as to what companies are expected to report on when they adopt King III principles on governing stakeholder relationships; and • ascertain if there was a common understanding of the adoption of King III – Governing Stakeholder Relationships – from a company and industry perspective? For business leaders who have accepted that the sustainability of the system depends on delivering wealth creation and economic return for shareholders and stakeholders, sustainably and responsibly and who have placed stakeholder trust at the heart of their companies’ strategy adopting governing stakeholder relationship – governance element eight – recommendations is in synch. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

This study aims to investigate how aid organisations with different means of financing respond to corruption allegations, and how the perceived risk of reputational loss affects that response.  The method used to answer the research question was a collective case study where three different aid organisations, Oxfam GB, UNDP and SIDA, which all have different funding mechanisms, were compared in their response to corruption allegations - before and after the public gained knowledge of those allegations. The analysis shows that there is a difference in the response to corruption allegations between the cases, namely that Oxfam GB and UNDP developed their response to a large extent when the public learnt of the allegations, SIDA on the other hand did not change their response at all. However, donor pressure seems to be more important for this induced change rather than the perceived risk of reputational loss.