Construction and validation of an international reputation index: the European case

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to create an index to measure the reputation of countries that belong to the European Union. Data for 28 countries has been taken from the Eurostat database and the method used is principal component analysis. The index is a combination of five different dimensions: (1) Economy, (2) Social Welfare, (3) Environment, (4) Digitalization and (5) Sports and Health, along with thirty-two distinct factors. The top scores in this index are Germany, United Kingdom or Sweden with high values in Economy or Environment. On the other side, we find Greece, Croatia or Cyprus, with a low process of digitalization. The International Reputation Index could be used to assist public policies designed to improve reputation in countries where it is needed.