Values "On-Air": how the top management espoused values enter the stakeholder's ethical reputation formation process

Corporate reputation is an increasingly valuable intangible organisational asset. Reputation is perceptual, multidimensional, specific, and varies from stakeholder to stakeholder. However, there is still a lack of research in understanding the reputation-formation process. The social construction approach to reputation uses stakeholder theory to understand the process of forming a corporate reputation. Stakeholder theory recovers the central role of values in organisational strategy and sets the tone for the development of responsible management and responsible leadership. The organisational values adopted by the organisation's top management (espoused values) influence organisational dynamics. Still, studies on the connections of the values adopted by the top corporate management and their effects on internal and external stakeholders are scarce. This study aims to understand how the values embraced by the top management play a role in the formation of corporate reputation. With a qualitative processual approach and a narrative construction strategy, 62 in-depth interviews were conducted with the management of the largest national radio group and various internal and external stakeholders. Also, I collected archival data on cases and events identified in the interviews, in a total of 28 cases. This study presents a process that reveals how the salience of the values adopted by the top management (espoused values) enter the orgnisation's ethical reputation formation process.