For the second year in a row, IKEA is Sweden’s most reputable company

For the second year in a row, furniture giant IKEA has topped the list of the most reputable companies in Sweden’s Reputation&Trust.

Among Sweden’s three most prestigious companies are also the music streaming service Spotify and the state-owned Systembolaget. IKEA, which has taken the top spot for the second year in a row, also ranks sixth on the list of Finland’s most prestigious companies.

“In Sweden, being a Swedish company—just as being Finnish is in Finland—gives you a home-market advantage. There are a significant number of Swedish companies on the list of the top 10 most reputable companies,” says Riku Ruokolahti, Director of Development at T-Media.

In Finland, IKEA was the only foreign company to make it onto this prestigious list.

Swedes are more cautious in their assessments – consumer brands lead the way

Compared to Finland’s list of companies with the poorest reputations, Sweden’s list includes many companies with a moderate reputation. On Sweden’s list of companies with a good reputation, only IKEA achieved an “excellent” rating. In Finland, four companies earned an “excellent” rating: Ponsse, Supercell, Fazer, and Kone.

On the Swedish list, only four companies received scores indicating a poor reputation, with Ryanair, Lundin Energy, and PostNord clearly ranking the lowest. On the Finnish list, there are seven companies with a clearly poor reputation: Esperi Care, Terrafame, Caruna, Attendo, Posti, Stockmann, and Nestlé.

“Swedes are more cautious than Finns when it comes to expressing strong opinions about the companies they evaluate. The biggest difference, however, lies in the industries the companies operate in: Finns value heavy technology companies more, while Swedes value their consumer brands,” Ruokolahti explains.

In Sweden, workplace image has the greatest impact on stakeholder support

A meta-analysis of the research revealed that workplace image has the strongest influence on the general public’s support for companies in Sweden. In Finland, however, the most significant aspect of reputation is products and services.

The overall reputation of the group of companies surveyed in Sweden rose this year compared to last year: last year’s overall reputation score was 3.29, while this year it rose to 3.35. In Finland, the corresponding figures were 3.37 last year and 3.44 in 2020.

“The shared experience of a global pandemic is changing people’s values, and at the same time, it is changing their expectations of companies. In Finland and Sweden, companies have been able to meet these expectations effectively, and their reputations have been on the rise,” Ruokolahti explains the background to this trend.

Here is how the study was conducted

The aim of the Reputation&Trust survey in Sweden was to examine the general public’s views on the reputation of companies operating in Sweden. Data for the survey was collected via an online survey conducted from September 18 to October 12, 2020. A total of 3,702 Swedes participated in the survey.

The companies with the best and worst reputations were selected for the study based on a preliminary survey conducted in the summer of 2020. In the preliminary survey, more than a thousand Swedes spontaneously named two companies they considered to have a particularly good reputation and two companies they considered to have a particularly poor reputation.

The thirty companies with the most mentions were examined in greater detail Reputation&Trust, in which a company’s reputation score is calculated as the average of eight different categories: corporate governance, finance, leadership, innovation, interaction, products & services, workplace, and corporate responsibility.

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.