Abstract:
This study aimed to determine the corporate reputation of Smart
Communications, Inc. among university students in the Taft Avenue area of
Manila. In relation to this, the researcher also wanted to find how each driver of
corporate reputations affects the actual score and also, which of these drivers
have the most and least effects on the overall corporate reputation score. To do
this, the researcher used the Harris-Fombrun Reputation Quotient as a
framework for this study.
The researcher then constructed a survey questionnaire using the six
drivers of corporate reputation, providing one category for each driver. The
instrument was pretested and once its reliability has been established, the survey
was administered to one hundred students from two universities in the Taft
Avenue area, one private - De La Salle University Manila, and one public -
University of the Philippines Manila. The survey was administered via hard copies
and an online version.
The data gathered from the survey was tabulated. Frequency tables
showing the scoring for each category were created, the final score for Smart
Communication, Inc.’s corporate reputation quotient among the respondents was
obtained, and then correlations were obtained by conducting a Pearson’s R Test
on the data. The data gathered indicated that Smart Communications, Inc. has a
relatively steady reputation among those surveyed, garnering a corporate
reputation quotient of 20.9 that we can interpret as above average. However, it is
notable that the lowest score the company got was for products and services, an
item that had the highest correlation to the corporate reputation quotient (0.754).
This is an indication that those surveyed give a heavy premium on the
satisfaction they get from using a product/service when it comes to how they
perceive an organization as a whole.
The emotional appeal of the organization, also one with a high correlation
to the total corporate reputation score, is also one that plays a more significant
role among the other drivers of corporate reputation. This indicates that it could
be inferred from this data that those surveyed and their peers also rely
significantly on their emotions in determining how they generally perceive an
organization.
The data also shows that workplace environment scored the lowest in
terms of correlation with the corporate reputation quotient with a value of 0.379
(low). This tells us that either the respondents don’t care a lot about this area or
that they are undecided on this driver when forming an opinion.
