U.S. firms’ reputations rank high, but ...

Disney drops to No. 3 in global rankings as Apple, Google also fall

U.S.-based global companies rank among the most admired in the world, but some slipped in a recent ranking of corporate reputations.

In all, 44 American businesses are listed among the top 100 worldwide in the 2017 ranking of well-regarded and familiar companies in 15 countries by the Reputation Institute, a research firm that offers advice on measuring and managing public perceptions of corporate reputations.

The annual rankings are based on approximately 170,000 ratings of top global firms’ products and services, innovation, workplace, corporate governance and citizenship, leadership and performance.

The ranking “spotlights the companies that truly understand what they stand for and how to reinforce the emotional bond with their stakeholders across all the markets they serve,” Michele Tesoro-Tess, executive partner of the Research Institute, said in a statement.

The number of U.S. companies that made 2017’s top 100 is down slightly from the 46 listed last year. Some moved lower in the corporate pecking order.

Entertainment giant Walt Disney, the top-ranked U.S. firm overall, placed third in 2017, one spot lower than last year. Google slid from third to fifth, Microsoft dropped from seventh to 11th and Apple fell from 10th to 20th.

Disney, Google and Microsoft all increased their scores but not as much as other companies that finished high in the rankings, said Allen Bonde, the Reputation Institute’s chief marketing officer.

Apple’s ranking has declined since a second-place finish six years ago. The tech giant continues to rank high for its iPhones and other products, as well as its corporate performance, Bonde said. Apple got lower scores in corporate citizenship and governance this year, months after a legal battle with federal investigators who sought the company’s aid in gaining access to data from the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, Calif., terrorist attack in 2015.

U.S. health care giant Johnson & Johnson plunged from 16th last year to the 44th spot in 2017 amid what Bonde characterized as statistically significant declines in most of the measures used to gauge corporate reputations.

Some domestic firms that made previous top 100 rankings, such as sportswear company Under Armour and engineering giant DuPont, missed the cut this year. They probably fell short of the public familiarity threshold needed for inclusion, Bonde said.

In contrast, Netflix earned the 40th spot in 2017 after the streaming firm’s high growth powered sufficient familiarity and corporate reputation.

Separately, the 2017 listing marked a steep plunge for one non-U.S. global giant. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, whose corporate woes have ranged from explosions of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to Tuesday’s embezzlement and bribery indictment of de facto leader Lee Jae Yong, ranks 70th in the 2017 survey, down from 17th last year.

Netflix earned the 40th spot in 2017 after the streaming firm’s high growth powered sufficient familiarity and corporate reputation.