Business ethics, a pillar of corporate reputation

The above study examines the relation between business ethics and corporate reputation and introduces the well-known and widely used methods and methodologies to asses corporate reputation, in order to put into light the contribution of business ethics. The main hypothesis is that an ethical behavior, supported by a sustainable corporate social responsability component, is a powerful antecedent of a strong reputation, while an unethical behavior can generate a very high reputational risk, which can be fatal for firm's survival. The main conclusion is that an ethical behavior is a pillar of corporate reputation and it is supported by a range of arguments: the widely used methodolgies to asses corporate reputation include in their evaluation criteria the ethical component, even if we talk about the quality of products, the quality of management, the financial or social performance; 90% of the companies listed in Fortune rankings have codes of ethics; in the same time, some recent surveys indicate that managers consider unethical behavior a major reputational risk (the second after financial irregularities). Finally, the study introduces some new trends in assessing ethical behavior, like intra-industry cooperation, taking business with ethical partners or being "ethically" visible in the public space.