88% of CEOs see trading suffer from poor reputation

Higher AI risks are expected as readiness lags despite strong awareness.

Reputational weaknesses affected company trading for 88% of Hong Kong chief executives over the past year, according to the Reputation Capital Scorecard 2026. The report said the commercial consequences of reputation shortfalls are increasing, with impacts extending across revenues, valuations, crisis recovery and talent outcomes.

The study, based on a global survey of more than 3,000 C-suite executives including over 100 respondents in Hong Kong, found 79% reported impacts on crisis recovery, 76% on company valuations, and 73% on talent attraction and retention. Despite these pressures, only 52% of Hong Kong executives said their organisation’s reputation is in a strong position, compared with 61% globally.

The report said fewer than half of Hong Kong companies are meeting stakeholder expectations. Only 39% of respondents reported strong alignment with customer expectations, whilst alignment stood at 40% for employees and investors, 37% for government and regulators, and 33% for community members.

Awareness of reputation risk remains high, with 73% of Hong Kong CEOs agreeing that reputation is critical to their organisation’s commercial success. However, the report found growing gaps between awareness and preparedness, particularly as new risk drivers emerge.

The impact of AI on communications ranked as the leading reputation management concern for the year ahead, according to the study. Only 37% of Hong Kong executives said they are well prepared to manage AI-related risks, whilst fewer than four in 10 reported readiness to address cyber and data security threats, ESG scrutiny, mis- and disinformation, and employee activism.

The Reputation Capital Scorecard identified Insights as the weakest area of reputation management for Hong Kong companies, with an average score of 55 points out of 100, compared with 62 for Strategy, 70 for Resources, and 78 for Relationships and Connectivity. The report said organisations in the top quartile for Insights were 34 percentage points more likely to operate a highly effective reputation management approach, linking stronger insight capabilities to better performance and fewer negative impacts.