Reputation and Stakeholder engagement: an Italian case study

Purpose – This paper aims to argue that corporate communication reaches its full potential in building corporate reputation, when it moves beyond the influencing of public opinion’s perceptions, towards the shaping of organizational reality by engaging stakeholders as the main reputation drivers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the case study of a leading dairy company in Italy, Granarolo, where stakeholder engagement activities have been put at the centre of the corporate reputation development. Findings – It is argued that corporate reputation of Granarolo has been built on a network of stakeholder partnerships through which the company continuously improves organizational learning and develops new business solutions. In particular, the activation of co-decisional processes involving stakeholders, the building of partnerships, and the stimulation of supporting behaviours, enabled the company to recover from a severe loss of confidence by investors in the second half of the 1990s. Originality/value – The paper proposes the case of a company where the corporate communication function effectively contributed to reputation development, because it moved beyond the mere activity of listening to stakeholders, towards a deeper engagement with stakeholders which looked for shared business solutions.