Corporate reputation is one of the most important assets for a firm. Literature has widely investigated on how corporate reputation affects competitive advantages and marketing strategies, thus improving customer loyalty and brand’s image. Specifically, scholars have focused on reputational loss event’s linkage with both financial performance and cushion effect on stock price fall during economic crises. Corporate reputation can be divided into three interrelated elements: managerial, financial, and product reputation. Main critical drivers that characterize corporate reputation are, firstly, the quality of product, management, and employees; then, organizational attractiveness, social responsibility and financial performance. Reputation loss may have different nature, resulting both from critical events that deeply affect customers’ perception, and from organizational drivers that are not significantly considered by customers although important for corporate social responsibility. To our best knowledge, while much effort has been given to positive effects of reputation, scarce attention has been given to the typology of reputational loss event impacting on firm’s financial situation. Thanks to multiple case studies in global fashion industry, the authors assess market reactivity after corporate loss of reputation. The focus is on critical drivers that may damage a brand’s image, consequently causing a financial loss. In addition to this, the paper highlights the nature of main reputational risks that mostly impact on stakeholders’ perception of firm’s reputation in fashion industry.

• Riccardo Rialti(University of Florence, Italy)
• Lamberto Zollo(University of Florence, Italy)