Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a Key Driver of Corporate Reputation

Corporate reputation encompasses the feelings individuals have towards a company. A favourable corporate reputation is considered as an intangible asset that offers a strategic competitive advantage to companies, leading to value creation and higher profits. One of the key drivers of corporate reputation is corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the contemporary business environment companies pay much more attention to CSR in order to improve their reputation and attract customers. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of reasons for CSR and main practices of CSR in relation to building a good corporate reputation; it describes how CSR activities are associated with corporate reputation, and presents the most reputable and socially responsible companies in the world according to the Reputational Institute and its annual Global Pulse Study.