The Role of CEO Reputation in the Reputation of the Spanish Firm

Corporate reputation can be seen as a global estimate of perceptions held by the firm's major stakeholders. Academics have seen corporate reputation as one of the most valuable intangible assets from the viewpoint of creating and sustaining competitive advantage; therefore, research has tried to identify corporate reputation antecedents. One of these outstanding corporate reputation antecedents is the reputation of the Chief Executive Officer. In Spain, research on corporate reputation antecedents is very Scarce, particularly research on the influence of Chief Executive Officer reputation on corporate reputation, a fact that justifies this study and proposes its objective. Based on a sample obtained from the Spanish Corporate Reputation Monitor, and after proposing various hypotheses derived from literature and from preliminary, univariable data analysis, a multivariable regression analysis was made. Results show that, in the case of Spain, sectorial concentration level, sales growth and CEO reputation are the antecedents and best predictors of corporate reputation. These results make it possible to look at and analyze corporate reputation from a more operative perspective.