If It Works Here, How Can We Make It Work Anywhere? Reputation Transfer Across Borders.

Abstract

Firms with a positive home country reputation should be highly motivated to transfer their reputation abroad when they internationalize. This article presents the results of interviews with corporate reputation specialists and develops practicable insights for managers. It finds that the comprehensive understanding of the firm’s reputation among the variety of its home country stakeholders is necessary for corporate reputation transfer. Then, the firm needs to empower reference stakeholders to become reputation ambassadors, who must credibly communicate about the firm’s positive reputation with prospective stakeholders in the host market. Moreover, firms should utilize social media as a tool for cross-border reputation transfer.