In our networked world today, business-to-business (B2B) inter-firm partnerships are
increasingly a feature of the organisation. At the same time, corporate reputation has been
strongly identified as a key factor in the success of organisations (Fombrun & Van Riel,
2004; Fryxell & Wang, 1994). However, reputation has most often been looked at from the
perspective of a single organisation and how its stakeholders perceive it. By comparison,
less attention has been paid to the importance of the reputations of organisations when they
form a partnership. This is surprising given that partnerships are to be found in so many
walks of life today including business, sport, the arts and the media.
B2B partnerships are often the subject of significant investments and it is therefore important
to understand the value that can be derived from them. An example of a successful B2B
partnership is that of the Boeing Company with Rolls-Royce plc. The reputations of each are
synergistic and together they are seen as pioneers in greener air travel with the new Trent
1000 range of multi-fuel (kerosene/biofuel mix), efficient and quiet jet engines used as part of
the 787 Dreamliner product family of commercial aircraft.
Successful partnerships are those in which close collaboration arises because of synergistic
skills and complementary outlooks that result in positive outcomes. These partnerships have
reputations, and in some cases create a strong advantage over competitors by broadcasting
a jointly fostered sense of identity and culture with employees and a sense of community
and loyalty that attracts other stakeholders. If the reputations of such partnerships are
important to those within the dyadic exchange (Bennett & Gabriel, 2001; Arend, 2009), then
there is merit in assessing the impact of partnership reputation more widely in a network
setting. This report discusses the importance of corporate reputation and the characteristics
and outcomes that result from such B2B partnership reputations. It is based upon work
conducted jointly at Henley Business School and Albers School of Business and Economics
at the University of Seattle, and which has been published in the Industrial Marketing
Management journal (Money et al, 2010)
