The purpose of this thesis is to gain understanding of how companies proactively can manage their reputation. The thesis analyzes three multinational companies in Sweden and uses two theoretical approaches - the reputation risk view and the reputation strengthening view - to gain an overall perspective of how companies work with their reputation. It focuses on investigating which key areas of reputation risk the focal companies identify and how they manage the reputation risks within these areas. Moreover, it examines which stakeholders the companies believe are most critical from a reputation point of view and in what ways the companies work with strengthening their reputation among those stakeholders. In order to find a general approach, the thesis investigates the similarities and differences that exist between the respective companies in the study. The thesis identifies some areas of reputation risk, such as product and service related risks, to be of general character and some, such as suppliers and animal testing, to be of a more specific character. It finds that a proper way to identify and manage reputation risk is to assign responsibilities to specific persons in the organisation and to continuously monitor current and possible future risks though reoccurring cross-functional council meetings. Furthermore, the thesis identifies several stakeholders that the investigated companies believe to be critical from a reputation perspective. Also in this part, the thesis finds general and more specific aspects. The stakeholder groups media and employees are found to be critical for all three companies, while other stakeholder groups such as students and medical doctors, are critical for individual companies. Important and reoccurring tools in strengthening reputation among critical stakeholders are found to be ethical frameworks, internal communication, CSR-activities and reputation measuring. The thesis concludes that some areas of reputation management are found to be app...
