Corporate Reputations in China: How Do Consumers Feel About Companies?

This article provides an overview of the reputation landscape in China. Consumer surveys demonstrate the existence of cognitive barriers to competition that favor international firms over domestic firms, and private firms over state-owned companies. In particular, Chinese consumers ascribe higher reputations to international companies such as Nokia, Intel, BMW and IBM and downgrade Chinese-branded companies. Few domestic companies do well, but privately held Haier Group, Tsingtao Brewery and Yili Group largely outdistance larger state-owned companies like China Telecom and SINOPEC, China's mammoth energy complex. Finally, Beijing 2008 Olympic partners already appear to be benefiting from the enhanced visibility pre-game publicity provides. The results reinforce the importance of examining reputation dynamics as an important factor shaping the rapidly evolving Chinese economy, both domestically and internationally.