Corporate Branding and Corporate Reputation

Corporate branding has been seen as developing in “waves”. This chapter explores the links between corporate branding and corporate reputation as they emerge in the context of three waves of corporate branding. It highlights the way in which the two constructs have related to each other through organizational culture and identity, and how, although characterized by parallel developments, new ideas and models from a “third” wave of corporate branding challenge prevailing assumptions of corporate reputation particularly in terms of the assumptions that reputations emerge from authentic and transparent expressions of corporate brand identity. The chapter introduces notions that reputations, like corporate brands, may be considered as co-constructed by stakeholders, formed through multiple meanings and the subject of stakeholder negotiation, and discusses such ideas in the context of a future research agenda for corporate brands and corporate communication.