Brand equity and corporate responsibility- A review of brand valuation methods

Background

During the last decades, brand equity has been a priority topic for both practitioners and academics. In accordance with the structural changes in the economic settings caused by the so-called ‘new economy’, corporations being confronted with a shift on perceived business value structure from tangible assets to intangibles where brands play a critical role in creating and long-lasting intangible values. In the realm of marketing, the intangible value induced by brand is referred as brand value or brand equity. In addition, firms are increasingly adopting more responsible behaviour towards their societies. Corporate responsibility within the context of sustainability can be defied through three dimensions of economic, environmental, and social scopes. Hence, one critical question is to understand how corporate conducts and particularly responsible behaviours would affect brand equity.

Our findings point to a major challenge; the importance of how corporate social responsibility and sustainability objectives may find grounds in a value system, and to what degree they influence corporate performance assessments. As key strategic value dimensions for many corporations it is important that the indicators in an assessment system reflects future values for a wide set of stakeholders. Starting with an understanding of epistemological development in marketing shows that the field is still developing. The brand value assessment literature is filled with methods that are not entirely presented in a transparent way, which makes it hard to evaluate trustworthiness.

Selected Publications:

• Pakseresht, Ashkan and Mark-Herbert, Cecilia (2014). “Leveraging brand value through corporate responsibility”. International Journal of Sustainable Development, 17:3, 281-297. DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2014.064182
• Pakseresht, A. and Mark-Herbert, Cecilia (2016). “A Review of Sustainable Development in Brand Value Assessments”. Social Business, Volume 6, Number 3, 2016, pp. 219-247. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1362/204440816X14811339560857
• Pakseresht, Ashkan, 2010. Brand equity and corporate responsibility: a review of brand valuation methods. Uppsala: SLU, Dept. of Economics.