The School of Economics of the University of Navarra hosted the annual congress of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) for researchers, which dealt with corporate reputation. EBEN is a European-wide association created in 1987 to promote the study and application of ethics in the field of organizations, business and Economics. These conference constitute a laboratory of ideas for the annual lecture of EBEN, to be held next September in Lille (France).

Welcoming remarks were given by Christine Choirat and Ignacio Ferrero from School of Economics, and by Anthony Gortzis, President of EBEN. The opening session was given by CB Bhattacharya, from the ESMT European School of Management and Technology (Berlin), who spoke on 'Corporate Responsibility through the lens of stakeholders'.  

Also participating were Alejo Sison (University of Navarra), 'section publisher' of the Journal of Business Ethics; Rosa Chun (University College Dublin), 'associate publisher' of Business & Society and member of committee publishing house of Corporate Reputation Review; Mollie Painter-Morland (DePaul University, Chicago), editor-in-chief of the Business and Professional Ethics Journal and co-editor of Springer's Issues in Business Ethics series. Angel Alloza of Corporate Excellence closed the conference.

A good reputation in organizations is one of the most important consequences of a good track record manager and of doing well with their stakeholders. Corporate reputation is today an asset core topic of contemporary institutions. Although it is still a relatively young field of study, researchers relate good reputation with tangible benefits in the long term deadline such as improvements in the production of organizations, in their profit and loss accounts, more satisfied consumers, more motivated employees, better environments for work, etc.

The congress presented research along three main lines: the relationship between corporate reputation and business ethics, reputation as a corporate asset, and the problem of how to reliably measure the reputation of institutions.

The economic crisis and the media focus on corruption cases has brought corporate reputation to the forefront of discussion public opinion. In fact, Spaniards have little confidence in the "honesty" of brands, as only 18% believe that they sincerely communicate their commitments and promises. This is revealed by the study 'Meaningful Brands 2013' conducted by Havas average Group in which 134,000 consumers from 23 countries participated and collected by Colpisa.

86% of Spanish citizens believe that brands should contribute to improving the quality of life and 84% expect multinationals to get involved in solving society's major challenges.

However, these desires clash with reality. In fact, only 27% believe that brands are working to increase the well-being of citizens. In Spain, as in Europe and the United States, only 5% of brands have a positive impact. It is therefore not surprising that Spaniards overwhelmingly say they would only miss 11% of brands. These results highlight both the social interest and the need for institutions to work to explain their contribution to society to their audiences.