Investing in a more caring and considerate corporate image

The love-hate duality characterizing the relationships between corporations and the societies they operate in has undoubtedly been one of the most controversial topics of the past decades. From Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” to the regular protests that accompany each meeting of the World Trade Organization, all sorts of channels have been used to express negative feelings that stem from the enduring unfavorable perceptions of corporations’ activities: perceptions of abuse of power, greed, influence peddling and many others. One can argue that these feelings were originally rooted in actual events and corporate behavior, thereby justifying the continuous suspicion and scrutiny corporations endure. Names such as the United Fruit Company, which operated in South America at the beginning of the century and to whom we owe the famous ‘Banana Republic’ expression, have contributed to raising the walls of defensiveness and mistrust amongst a large portion of the general public. Further fueling public