The Companies With the Best CSR Reputations (2024)

As a consumer with a plethora of options, how do you choose one brand over another?

Do you simply compare the price, quality and reputation of each product? Or do you think about how well the company behind each one treats its employees; how ethical the company is; and whether they engage with local communities?

Chances are, you think you do the former—but according to a study by Reputation Institute, a private global consulting firm based in New York, your willingness to buy, recommend, work for, and invest in a company is driven 60% by your perceptions of the company—or it’s reputation, and only 40% by your perceptions of the products or services it sells.

To find which companies have the very best reputations, the consulting firm invited more than 55,000 consumers across 15 markets to participate in a study between January 2013 and February 2013 that ranked the world’s 100 most reputable companies–all multinational businesses with a global presence.

Each company earned a “RepTrak™ Pulse” score representing an average measure of people’s feelings for it. The scores were statistically derived from four emotional indicators: trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling. Reputation Institute then analyzed what it calls the seven dimensions of corporate reputation, including workplace, governance, citizenship, financial performance, leadership, products and services, and innovation.

Three of the seven dimensions that drive reputation (citizenship, governance, and workplace) fall into the CSR category—and analysis shows that 41% of how people feel about a company is based on their perceptions of the firm’s corporate social responsibility practices.

“CSR speaks to who the company is, what it believes in and how it is doing business,” says Kasper Ulf Nielsen, executive partner at Reputation Institute. “It’s a core element of reputation and can be used to help establish trust and goodwill amongst stakeholders. [Almost half] of people’s willingness to trust, admire, and feel good about a company is based on their perceptions of the corporate social responsibility of the company, so this is a key tool for companies to use to improve support from stakeholders like consumers, regulators, financial community, and employees.”

That’s why Reputation Institute decided to separately rank and honor the corporations with the best CSR.

In Pictures: The 10 Companies With The Best CSR Reputations

Through an online questionnaire, consumers were asked to evaluate to what extent they agree with the following three statements: ‘Company’ is a good corporate citizen — it supports good causes and protects the environment; ‘Company’ is a responsibly-run company — it behaves ethically and is open and transparent in its business dealings; and ‘Company’ is an appealing place to work — it treats its employees well.

This year, four companies--Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, Google and BMW--tied for the No. 1 spot.

Earning RepTrak scores of 72.97, 72.83, 72.71 and 72.14, respectively—Nielsen explains that these companies are in a four-way tie because “there’s not a significant enough difference” between their scores.

Nielsen points out that all four companies are also considered the most reputable (overall) in the world, “so they have a positive ‘halo effect’ that carries over to any type of study they may be involved in,” he explains. “To put it simply, they’ve got great reputations.”

These four corporations are also “extremely active, genuine and well regarded, in terms of the dimensions that drive CSR perceptions,” he adds.

In terms of rankings for the three reputation dimensions that drive consumer CSR perceptions, The Walt Disney Company won the ‘citizenship’ category. Approximately 50% of consumers surveyed agree that Disney is a good corporate citizen that supports good causes and protects the environment.

"Disney is not only one of the best known companies in the world, we constantly strive to be one of the most admired companies as well--earning the respect of our consumers, our employees and our shareholders for what we create and for how we do it," saysZenia Mucha, executive vice president and chief communications officer at The Walt Disney Company. “We're proud of our progress and of our place in this year's ranking. We remain committed to being a good corporate citizen, from reducing our environmental impact and ensuring respectful workplaces to promoting the well-being of kids and families."

The company with the best perception for ‘workplace’: Google. Fifty-one percent of consumers across the 15 markets agree that Google is an appealing place to work, and that it treats its employees well.

“Google has been successful in building a perception of caring around the world,” Nielsen says. “They are seen as a company that treats their people well. It ranks number one in the world in this dimension--and that is a great platform to stand on. The logic is, that if you treat your own people well you are open, honest, and a caring company. And through its focus on this dimension, Google has been able to be seen as a local company in many countries around the world.”

Jacquelline Fuller, director ofGoogle Giving, says:"At Google we are big believers in the power of technology. Giving back is a huge part of what motivates us as a company, and as individuals. We invest in social entrepreneurs who are using technology to crack the code on the world's toughest problems. Last year we invested in tech-based efforts to expand access to clean water, stop wildlife poaching, prevent the horrible practice of human trafficking and reduce poverty worldwide. In addition to our dollars, we provide Googlers--everyone from engineers, marketers to business operations gurus--who help nonprofit teams carry out their work. Googlers are intensely passionate about everything they do, and that includes rolling up their sleeves to make their communities a better place—whether it's responding to natural disasters, tutoring kids in computer science or helping nonprofits collect real-time impact data."

In the past three years, Google has donated over $353 million in grants worldwide, approximately $3 billion in free ads, apps and products, and Googlers have volunteered approximately 6,200 total days of employee time to support nonprofits (a total of 150,000 hours).

In the third and final CSR dimension, 'governance,' BMW holds the top spot. Almost half (49%) of consumers across the 15 markets agree that the automaker is a responsibly-run company that behaves ethically and is open and transparent in its business dealings.

"BMW Group is a company of people and we are all citizens of our communities in the 140 countries where we do business around the world," saysKenn Sparks, manager of business communications atBMW of North America. "Therefore, our brand is both a promise and a symbol of trust in which our employees, our customers and our neighbors can rely. For us, reputation is and always will be about trust."

BMW wasn't the only German automaker to crack the top 10.Daimler (No. 5) and Volkswagen (No. 8 ) also made the list.

"How do companies that produce products that pollute have a positive reputation for social responsibility?" Nielsen asks. "Because it’s not about their products, it’s about the company behind the products. Remember, 60% of people's willingness to buy, recommend, or say something positive about a company is based on their perception of the company."

He says BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen are demonstrating that if you have CSR as an integrated part of your business strategy, you can use this to win. "I also believe that these car makers have a reputation for building efficient and well-engineered cars which promote a 'cleaner/greener' image. The three German car companies outperformed their competitors by a wide margin: Honda (No. 20), Toyota (No. 21), Volvo (No. 32), Ford (No. 72), Suzuki (No. 83), Peugeot-Citroën (No. 88), GM (No. 93) and Nissan (No. 95)."

In Pictures: The 10 Companies With The Best CSR Reputations

Reputation Institute also broke down the results geographically. As it turns out,Microsoft placed first in three out of the four regions where the study was conducted (North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific).

In North America—which includes the U.S. and Canada—Kellogg’s and Google rounded out the top three; inLatin America (Brazil and Mexico), Google ranked No. 2 and Nestle took the No. 3 spot; and in the Asia Pacific region (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea),Disney and BMW trailed right behind Microsoft.

"We are always honored to receive recognition for our CSR efforts and initiatives," says Lori Forte Harnick, general manager of citizenship and public affairs at Microsoft. "Being a responsible global corporate citizen is a critical part of Microsoft’s culture and business at all levels of the company. We take our responsibilities to the public seriously and believe it’s more important than ever to serve the needs of people in communities worldwide."

She says the company recentlymarked the first year of Microsoft YouthSpark, a global, company-wide initiative launched in September 2012. To-date, through partnerships with hundreds of youth-serving nonprofits, the initiative has created new opportunities for education, entrepreneurship and employment for more than 103 million young people around the world, and "we are inspired by the results that we have seen.Young people are leading great changes in their own lives and in the world around them, and we are honored to support them in their drive for success in the twenty-firstcentury global economy."

In addition, October marks Microsoft’s annual Employee Giving Campaign, now in its thiry-firstyear. "It’s a tradition that our employees drive each year with more than 300 fundraising events and activities on campus for their favorite nonprofit organizations and causes," Harnick says.In 2012, employees raised $105 million (inclusive of company match) for more than 18,000 community organizations--and they also announced the milestone achievement of $1 billion in employee contributions (inclusive of company match) to more than 31,000 nonprofits since 1983.

"I believe our positive reputation is a testament to our employees around the world and the difference they make in the technology they create every day and in the service they give to their local communities year-in and year-out. Being a good corporate citizen has been part of Microsoft’s DNA for more than 30 years, inspired and fueled by our employees’ passion and dedication."

In the EMEA region (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the U.K.)—the only area where Microsoft didn't earn the top spot--Disney ranked No. 1. Google and BMW rounded out the top three.

In total, 11 different companies made up the top five across all four regions.

“Building a strong reputation around the world is difficult,” Nielsen says. “And we see that across the four regions different companies stand out. Only one company, Google, is in the top five in each of the four regions. This tells us that even the largest companies have difficulties connecting with consumers in all 15 markets.”

To improve, companies need to find a way to be present as a brand in each of these markets. “To be seen as a company that cares about the local society, who is open and honest, and who treats its people well, they need to engage as a company and not just be a marketing machine pushing out products. And this is becoming even more important when you think about where growth will come from. It’s not from the home market but from foreign countries where they don't know the company history.”

In Pictures: The 10 Companies With The Best CSR Reputations

Another problem many companies face: They spend millions of dollars every year on corporate social responsibility--they invest in programs to support local communities, give away products to support people in need, invest in clean technology to lower their environmental footprint, donate money from sales, and engage their employees in nonprofit work—and they never see a return on their investment.

“For many companies it’s missing,” Nielsen says. “They don’t have a solid business case for why it’s a good investment for the company. And they don’t have a solid framework to tie their CSR action to the strategy of the company. And without this, it becomes more and more difficult to defend the investments and almost impossible to be taken seriously in the c-suite.”

Nielsen says the 2013 CSR study has provided “some comforting but also disturbing data for the CSR community.”

Seventy-three percent of consumers surveyed said they are willing to recommend companies that are perceived to be delivering on CSR--but only 5 out of the 100 top companies are seen to actually deliver (a significant drop from 12 companies in 2012). “The study results show that companies that understand how to create positive perceptions of their CSR programs gain the benefit in terms of sales and recommendations from consumers. However, even the biggest companies in the world are struggling to get their message across to consumers despite spending upwards of $100 million a year on their CSR programs.”

According to European School of Management and Technology professor CB Bhattacharya, the answer to why some companies do not achieve the ROI they should, can be attributed to how they treat the business of corporate responsibility. “Unfortunately, [CSR] is still equated to philanthropy in many organizations and hence, given short shrift when it comes to strategic formulation and implementation,” Bhattacharya says. “Although the top 100 companies all have well developed websites detailing their CR initiatives, how many of them do rigorous research to find out how their key stakeholders view these same initiatives?”

Nielsen believes there is a strong business case for CSR, and that it does have direct impact on business performance--but companies are not getting the return on investment because they have not developed strong enough systems to communicate, measure, and influence stakeholder behaviors. "This leaves too many companies acting on feelings rather than facts. And in this economic environment that is not a sustainable strategy."

"You don’t do CSR for the sake of CSR," he continues. “You do CSR as part of your reputation management strategy to drive business growth, customer loyalty, and employee alignment.” Only a few companies get it right. But those who do see the results.

To qualify for the ranking at all, each company had to have an above-average reputation score (defined as over 64) in its home market, based on Reputation Institute’s global database of RepTrak™ scores spanning 2007 to 2012. The criteria for qualification also included company size, based on annual revenue, multinational presence and high familiarity among consumers in the measured 15 markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, South Korea, the U.K. and the U.S.).

THE FULL RANKING:

Source: Reputation Institute

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