Dimensions and attributes building corporate reputation of rural businesses

Abstract

Given the intensive competition between rural businesses, building and managing good corporate reputation of rural businesses is gaining its popularity among business owners, marketers as well as among scholars. Building and managing good corporate reputation is considered to be one of the crucial goals for businesses that leads to successful competition in ever changing business world. The aim of this research is to determine dimensions and attributes for building good corporate reputation in the framework of rural businesses. To reach the aim, this paper adopts analysis and synthesis of scientific and practical literature in the field of corporate reputation management and, focus group discussion. 23 attributes of corporate reputation representing 7 corporate reputation dimensions were generated from scientific and practical literature. Generated attributes were provided for the evaluation and discussion during the focus group discussion to 7 representatives of rural businesses' stakeholder groups, namely: customer, employee, supplier, business owner, media, local community, and expert. Empirical research proved 7 rural businesses' corporate reputation dimensions: Products & Services, Innovation, Workplace, Governance, Citizenship, Leadership and Performance, each of the dimensions constituting of 3-4 corporate reputation attributes. For the further research, quantitative research to test corporate reputation dimensions and attributes and calculate its weights in the context rural businesses is necessary.