Corporate Reputation and Engagement

Abstract

Corporate reputation and customer engagement are imperative to a company's competitive advantage and in maintaining sustainable customer relations in the retail industry. However, the research is not in the same stream. Thus, this study investigates the strategic role of corporate reputation in customer engagement in the Bangladeshi retail sector. According to ontological and epistemological research philosophies, the study reflects subjectivism, interpretivism, and constructivism. Subsequently, a qualitative research strategy, an inductive approach, and a case study research design were applied to collect the primary data. Additionally, the survey was based on four customers and two employees of the case company using Microsoft Forms, and an open-ended interview with a high official was conducted via Microsoft Teams. Lastly, qualified data was evaluated through thematic analysis using Microsoft Office.

The empirical findings reveal that corporate reputation is the collective perception of customers toward a company. In contrast, customer engagement refers to enduring interaction between a firm and a customer to foster a strong relationship. Regarding corporate reputation strategy, the company generally maintains product quality consistency, ethical business practices, transparent communication, customer service excellence, affordable pricing, reliability, commitment, helpful staff, and customer shopping experience. The study underlines that the signaling theory should adopt feedback management to analyze, evaluate, and process the customers’ feedback.

The study suggests that companies should consider loyalty programs, rewards for repeat purchases, virtual communication for new products and promotions, information availability, sales advice, and real-time responses to engage the customers. The principal reason is that customers should have a trustworthy and reliable perception to reduce risk. Consequently, that builds the corporate reputation in the paint industry. The government should also confirm the companies’ ethical practices and customers’ rights to sustain the industry.