“Financial resources and corporate reputation: toward common management principles for managing corporate reputation”

The purpose of this paper is to identify convergent elements between corporate reputation and financial resources. The paper seeks to draw parallels between corporate reputation management and corporate financial management in order to define common management principles. In this paper, the analogy-based approach is used to identify similarities in the functions and risks between corporate reputation and financial resources. This approach is the prerequisite for defining common management principles. The paper proposes some arguments in favour of common functions and risks thesis of corporate reputation and financial resources. The finding of common functions and risks opens the way for an analysis of common principles in corporate reputation management and corporate finance management. Cross-fertilization between corporate communication and reputation and corporate finance can encourage effective evolution over time of the common management principles. The limitation of the research is the parallelism between two types of resources which traditionally belong to different subjects/disciplines. Cultural barriers may oppose the acceptance of this unusual juxtaposition of resources. The use of these common principles allows for the development of an appropriate cultural background of managers. It could create advantages both for large companies and small businesses. The shared cultural background and language should serve to improve interaction and dialogue among managers on an intra- and inter-organizational levels. The parallels between corporate reputation and financial resources; the common management principles of these different resources; and their theoretical-conceptual and practical implications, are entirely new topics in literature.