Application of data science for building corporate reputation strategy: An analysis in business intangibles scoping review

This scoping review examines the application of data science (DS) on corporate reputation and other intangible business assets, highlighting their combined value to companies. These assets are crucial in hyperconnected environments for a new sustainability model, given the increased global competition, product communication, stakeholder relations, social media activity, and marketing strategies amid geopolitical and economic challenges. DS enhances corporate reputation and other intangibles by measuring indicators, metrics, and variables with data series, thereby demonstrating the company’s reality. Objectives and hypotheses were developed to address conceptual gaps and assess DS’s impact on corporate reputation and related intangibles such as corporate communication, stakeholder relations, and marketing. Hypotheses suggest that DS positively affects: 1) corporate communication, 2) stakeholder relations, 3) social network impact, and 4) innovation in marketing techniques. A scoping review methodology, guided by search, appraisal, synthesis, and analysis (SALSA) and preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) frameworks, facilitated a quantitative analysis of academic literature and perspectives from 64 out of 172 publications in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. This study’s relevance is highlighted by the paucity of similar research over 20 years that combines these concepts and underscores their strategic value through DS application. Findings emphasize the strategic importance of these assets for economic growth, challenges in measuring and reporting business impact, and the lack of consensus on defining intangible constructs. Future research is recommended on links to other intangibles like trust, business ethics, and sustainability.