Hi Christine. It is a tough question due to intrinsic features of the construct of (corporate or brand) reputation. As as far I know, Rep Trak is a sort of "global" version of Harris Reputation Quotient for the USA. They considered the same key dimensions of reputation (Products / Services, Workplace, Governance, Citizenship, Leadership, Financial Performance - and Innovation for RepTrak) based on questions measuring Trust, Admiration & Respect, Good Feeling and Overall Esteem.

However, the starting point of these systems is RQ - Reputation Quotient , a multi-stakeholder measure for reputation. You can find methodological item generation of this instrument described in this article: Fombrun, C. J., N. A. Gardberg, and J. Sever. 2000. "The Reputation Quotient: A Multi-Stakeholder Measure of Corporate Reputation.", Journal of Brand Management 7 (4): 241-255). However, there are other "systems" used to measure are, eg AMAC Fortune (America’s Most Admired Companies) but it seems influenced by "financial bias". In general, RQ can be considered a reliable tool (2013 RQ study represents the 14th consecutive year of measuring) even if I have some doubt that this method may be also proper for SMEs or less renowned companies, as their visibility is completely different from large companies and this greatly influenced the formation of stakeholder perceptions.

hi christine - you may ask a former fellow of mine who is working as an intl' business analyst at Roche in Basel. he has published his phd thesis about reputation effects controlling for industries. here is the link to his monography: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-8349-8398-5

best, c++

and this may also help ;-)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226315367_Challenges_in_Measuring_Corporate_Reputation

Chapter Challenges in Measuring Corporate Reputation

Thanks Christian and Agostino, this is very helpful!

Hi,

Perhaps, you may benefit from theses references. Douglas Diamond is very well-known on the subject of "reputation"

"Presidential Address, Committing to Commit: Short-Term Debt When Enforcement Is Costly." Douglas W. Diamond; Journal of Finance, 2004, 59(4), pp. 1447-79.

Diamond, Douglas W. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring." Rev. Econ. Studies 51 (July 1984): 393-414. . "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets."J.P.E. 97 (August 1989): 828-62. . "Debt Maturity Structure and Liquidity Risk." QJ.E. 106 (August 1991). Kolberg, Elon, and Mertens, Jean-Francois. "On the Strategic Stability of Equilibria." Econometrica 54 (September 1986): 1003-37. Kreps, David M., and Wilson, Robert. "Reputation and Imperfect Information."J. Econ. Theory 27 (August 1982): 253-