Validation of reputation measurement methods in the post-Soviet territory

Abstract

Different approaches to definition of “reputation” concept and its presence in different disciplines’ discourse result in development of large number of reputation measurement approaches. The closest approaches to the sociological understanding of reputation are the RQ (CRQ) and RepTrak™ ones. These approaches were developed by western authors and have not been validated in the post-Soviet territory yet. The paper reviewed the verification of RepTrak™ methodology’s reliability and validity, and analyzed the terminological differences between the types of validity used by the authors of the methodology and their semantic counterparts, traditional for sociology. It is noted in the article that the developers of the methodology did not offer a unified model of corporate reputation; validation was carried out separately for two reputation constructs. The first construct confirms the connection between the emotional component of reputation and articulated willingness to act, the second — between the emotional and cognitive components of reputation. Using empirical data collected in Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan, the authors of the article reproduced the procedures and approaches used by the methodology developers for confirmation of the methodology’s reliability and validity. To this end, authors of the article used confirmatory factor analysis and built structural models that fully correspond to the models used by the developers of the model. The authors of the article compare the parameters of the models and their criteria of fitting to the empirical data. As a result of a comparison done for each reputational construct a conclusion about the possibility of using the emotional reputation index in all three countries was done. It was concluded also that it is possible to use a complete original methodology for reputation research in Ukraine and Russia and it is required to modify it for Kazakhstan.