The value contribution of a corporate brand: evidence from Bayer AG

Manfred Schwaiger, Sven Theobald, Wolfgang Stippler and Sascha Raithel

Chapter 36 in Handbook on Intangibles, 2026, pp 689-710 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Stakeholder orientation is not the opposite of shareholder orientation but a prerequisite for it. The market value of a company depends on stakeholder behavior: customers purchase and recommend, employees show commitment and motivation, investors provide equity and loans, politicians determine the extent of a firm’s license to operate etc. Research has demonstrated that all these behavioral patterns are positively influenced by a company’s reputation – an intangible asset which, according to surveys among top executives, for decades has been emphasized as one of the most substantial drivers of corporate success. This holds true especially in societies that critically question the legitimacy of companies. Firms are therefore well advised to professionally guard and manage their corporate reputation, with the corporate brand serving as a carrier for reputation and as an identifier for it at the same time. The life science company Bayer has implemented a comprehensive corporate brand management following a tailor-made model depicting the impact of reputation drivers via stakeholder behavior on shareholder value. Using evidence from the German stock market proving a buy-and-hold abnormal return of 1.94% per year against the DAX index, we show that Bayer’s reputation contributes some 28% to its market capitalization. Regression analyses furthermore reveal that one scale point improvement in reputation ceteris paribus results in 313 m€ EBITDA pre exceptionals increase.

Keywords: Return-on-marketing; Return-on-branding; Brand value; Corporate communications; Corporate branding; Corporate reputation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035306367
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