An Analysis of the Organizational Core Values of the World's Most Admired Companies

Despite the importance of the ethics and values for the design and implementation of managerial practices, there has been little effort to analyze the core values of the companies that act in the international arena from the point of view of their impact on the business performance. To that end, we examined the value statements of the companies that have kept their place within the top 50 of the world’s most admired companies rankings, made by the authoritative business magazine Fortune, from 2009 to 2013. We have identified five independent core value orientations: to customer/user, to employees, to economic and financial growth, to excellence, and to social responsibility. Our analysis highlights the strict relation between high revenues, global admiration, and social-responsibility-oriented core values. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.