FROM INTUITION TO EVIDENCE: A FIVE-FACTOR COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK FOR BUSINESS-REPUTATION ASSESSMENT

Abstract

Corporate reputation has shifted from a vague intangible to a measurable strategic resource exposed to disinformation waves, generative-AI risks, cyberattacks, and tighter disclosure/privacy rules. In this context, reputation assessors require integrated competencies that combine data analytics, ethics and law, risk management, and operational execution. The article designs and empirically validates an evidence-based, five-factor competency framework - Data & Intelligence; Ethics/Law/Governance; Risk & Resilience; Strategy & Stakeholders; Assurance & Performance - links these competencies to measurable outcomes (accuracy, time-to-decision, incident severity, stakeholder trust), and delivers practical instruments (validated scale, training pathways, governance templates, explainability artifacts, and benchmark datasets). An explanatory, sequential mixed-methods program integrates scoping review and expert Delphi, psychometric development (EFA/CFA, reliability, convergent/discriminant validity, measurement invariance), field measures and crisis simulations, quasi-experimental evaluations of analytics and governance (event studies, difference-in-differences, synthetic controls), randomized usability tests of XAI artifacts, and A/B studies on data-governance ROI. The model exhibits strong fit, reliability, and cross-industry/language invariance; higher competency levels are associated with greater assessment accuracy and trust, faster decisions, and lower incident severity. Quasi-experimental estimates indicate that adopting NLP/graph analytics and implementing MRM controls causally reduces time-to-detect, peak severity, and market impact. SHAP summaries paired with model cards improve practitioner comprehension and decision readiness, while data lineage, DQ rules, and access controls enhance model performance, auditability, and evidentiary robustness with minimal privacy-driven utility loss. Targeted micro-credentials produce durable gains across domains. A competency-centric, analytics-enabled, governance-anchored approach transforms reputation assessment into a managed, auditable discipline that organizations can operationalize immediately through the provided scale, governance templates, explainability playbooks, and open benchmarks.