Towards a conceptual model of the relationship between corporate trust and corporate reputation

Abstract

This paper challenges three key contentions in current theory regarding the relationship between corporate trust and corporate reputation. The first contention being challenged is that corporate trust plays less of a critical role in the sustained success and survival of an organisation than corporate reputation does. The second contention challenged is that, when the role of corporate trust in relation to corporate reputation is recognised, it is regarded as an antecedent of corporate reputation. This latter contention suggests that much of the current understanding of the role of the corporate trust construct is superficial and that the use of and differentiation between the corporate trust and trustworthiness constructs in relation to corporate reputation are blurred and indistinct. The third contention this paper challenges relates to the more generally accepted antecedents of corporate reputation, where current theory either does not include corporate trustworthiness as an antecedent or where it incorrectly includes corporate trust (viz-à-viz trustworthiness) as an antecedent to corporate reputation. This paper introduces a conceptualisation of corporate trust, in relation to corporate reputation, within a broader framework of corporate sustainability. We propose a conceptual model illustrating the relationship between corporate trust and corporate reputation. Where trust is usually regarded as an attribute or antecedent of reputation, our model suggests an inverse direction to this relationship, namely that corporate trust is an outcome of corporate reputation.