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Уголовно-правовые риски: репутация и имидж бизнеса
The article deals with the study of the influence of corporate criminal liability on its reputation and image. It is arguable that corporate criminal liability in Russia is the question of current interest and widely discussed phenomenon. Considering the events and processes taking place in the global economy, domestic and international companies are, more than ever, interested in «saving» their business today. According to some experts, the dissemination of information about the fact that a legal entity has committed a crime influences on its image, profitability and company value. In many ways it is consumer demand that forms the value of the company and defines a space in the market. In spite of this fact the image of the company has been recently studied. Nevertheless, the researching of image is rapidly growing today: for example, in the 21st century consumer behavior is studied by neuromarketing (a special direction in psychology). The author reveals the content of such terms as «reputation», «business reputation», «image» and also notes when and by whom it was first studied the content of the terms. The article makes a distinction between such terms as «goodwill» (the term which came to Russia from the Anglo-American law) and «business reputation» (there is an opinion that «goodwill» is a synonymous with «business reputation»).
The question about the influence of corporate criminal liability on business reputation and image of the company is considered by the author from common and economic point of view. Despite the fact that at first glance it may seem that corporate criminal liability can not have an impact on the image of the company and its values, the practice proves otherwise. Given the fact that most of the companies that produces, provides rules that seem socially significant (for example, safe production, environmental constraints, and so on), information about the violation of these rules can create a negative image of the company among consumers. From an economic point of view the fact of committing a crime by a company may be destructive to it, since the negative image of the company also affects the value of the shares of the company, the interest of potential investors. As an example we consider the case of the influence of committing a crime by the head of the Board of Directors on the share price of the company, as well as foreign judicial practice.