Corporate Image Aspect of Corporate Management in Healthcare Industry: Definition, Measurement and an Empirical Investigation

Abstract

The concept of corporate image has increasingly been attracting interest in business and management fields, as identifying how they are perceived by the public, and re-formulating their strategies accordingly is of utmost importance for the efficient and effective executability of the business functions, enhancement of corporate performance, and for the sustainability of corporations. Specifically, in healthcare, corporate management executives are more and more aware of the importance of corporate image and its implications for their corporations' life prospects. This important concept, however, has been approached and defined by authors in multiple different fashions, and due to its largely overlapping attributes, it has also commonly been associated with other related concepts such as corporate reputation and corporate identity. In this paper, in an effort to establish an all-encompassing, clear and consistent conceptual definition for corporate image, the authors first attempt to provide a definitional statement based on a substantial theoretical research, then present a new model for capturing the corporate image for the corporations operating in the healthcare industry, and finally execute its initial application on a chain hospital through surveying 710 people in Turkey.