IKEA has regained its position as Sweden’s most reputable company, while Shein is the least reputable

The Reputation&Trust " survey of Swedish companies, conducted by T-Media, reveals that the most reputable companies in Sweden are IKEA, Spotify, and Google. The survey examined the reputation of a total of 30 companies among the Swedish public.

The companies’ reputations were surveyed in October–November 2022, with a total of 3,755 Swedes responding to the survey. Of the top three companies, IKEA achieved an excellent reputation score of 4.08, while Spotify scored a solid 3.97, as did Google with 3.90. Reputation&Trust, a reputation score on a scale of 1–5 is calculated for each company.

Table: The Reputation&Trust survey in Sweden. The survey examined the reputation of 30 companies among Swedes.

IKEA has returned to the top spot as Sweden’s most prestigious company: Last year, the top spot was held by Avanza, Sweden’s largest brokerage and investment firm, but this year the company did not receive enough mentions in the preliminary survey to qualify for Reputation&Trust main Reputation&Trust. This is likely a knock-on effect of reduced investment following the collapse of the Swedish stock market.

“Although IKEA is Sweden’s most reputable company, its reputation score had fallen slightly from the previous year. Overall, the scores of the ten most reputable companies on the list declined. The same trend was observed in Finland. Even companies with a good reputation saw a significant decline, which indicates that building reputation is currently difficult even for the most reputable companies. Expectations for companies have risen,” says Harri Leinikka, CEO of T-Media.

Scania has moved up the rankings and now shares fourth place with the Swedish alcohol monopoly, Systembolaget. The newest addition to the top ten is ABB, which ranks ninth.

“It is interesting that both ABB and Scania are gaining a better reputation among the general public, despite being B2B companies. We see that Swedes consider how companies treat their employees to be the most important factor this year. This may also be why Swedes spontaneously mention these two large and stable employers during this period of uncertainty,” says Ingrid Landahl, founder of the Swedish communications agency Comman.

Chinese fast-fashion giant received its lowest-ever reputation rating

Among Sweden's ten companies with the worst reputations are four newcomers: Swedbank, Vattenfall, the Swedish railway company SJ, and the Chinese fast-fashion company Shein.

“The fact that Swedbank has once again fallen into the group of the ten companies with the worst reputations may be due to the money laundering allegations against Swedbank’s former CEO, Birgitte Bonnesen. SJ’s reputation is affected by the train chaos that marked the previous year, and in Vattenfall’s case, it is likely due to the energy crisis and high electricity prices,” Landahl notes.

“Shein received the lowest score, with an average of 2.24, which is the lowest rating ever recorded in our Swedish survey over the past four years. This means they’re in for a rough ride in the Swedish market. Of course, even a company with a bad reputation can successfully serve a small niche, but it’s impossible to reach mass-market volumes or break into new business areas. “Developing a company without stakeholder support simply becomes more difficult and more expensive,” says Riku Ruokolahti, Head of Development at T-Media.

This is how we conducted the study

The aim of the Reputation&Trust survey in Sweden was to assess the reputation of companies operating in Sweden among the Swedish public. Data for the survey was collected via an online questionnaire in October and November 2022.

Organizations were evaluated using T-Media’s Reputation&Trust, in which an organization’s reputation score is calculated as the average of eight different categories. The areas are corporate governance, finance, leadership, innovation, interaction, products & services, workplace, and responsibility. The study used a five-point rating scale (1–5).

The study included 3,755 Swedes. The study’s target group consisted of Swedes aged 15–65 nationwide. The sample was weighted to be representative of the population in terms of gender, age, and region of residence.

The companies with the best and worst reputations were selected for the study based on a preliminary survey conducted in August 2022. In the preliminary study, 1,004 Swedes spontaneously named two companies they considered to have a particularly good reputation and two with a particularly poor reputation. T-Media does not influence the selection of companies. The thirty companies that received the most mentions were examined in more detail Reputation&Trust. The list now being published includes the ten companies with the highest ratings and the ten with the lowest ratings.