From entrepreneur to mayor: Assessing the impact of the founder’s changing reputation on Hubbard Foods Ltd

Small businesses have received limited attention from those researching corporate reputation. This paper addresses this gap by examining the development of corporate reputation within a small business in New Zealand. The longitudinal case study locates three distinct stages of corporate reputation building as Hubbard Foods Ltd. grew from small beginnings in 1988 to a firm that now employs 128 people and has a 21% share of the New Zealand cereal market. First, the values of Dick Hubbard, the company founder, were important at start-up as the entrepreneur and the company were viewed as one entity. Second, as the company began to grow, the creation of a family culture and socially responsible company behaviours were key to the reputation building process. In 2004, Dick Hubbard stepped into the political arena and placed the day-to-day running of the business in the hands of an experienced CEO. In this third stage, his and the company’s reputations parted. However, the corporate reputation of Hubbard Foods continued to thrive, even though the founder’s own reputation came under close media scrutiny and intense political pressure. The reasons for the persistence of the company’s good name appear to be related to the constant retelling of a corporate “story”, which captured the core values and competencies that resonated with staff, customers, and other stakeholders. The three-stage model introduced in this paper provides a useful framework for future research into the development of corporate reputation in small businesses. Implications for reputation management are also discussed.