Despite widespread corporate governance reforms and a growing commitment to ethics and social responsibility, more than 70% of consumers participating in a recent survey, the “Reputation Quotient”, rate US businesses’ reputations as “not good” or “terrible”, up from 68% in 2004.

Most industries, including autos, airlines, pharmaceuticals and energy, lost ground in 2005. In fact, only tobacco ranks lower than pharmaceuticals and energy.

Technology companies, however, have bucked the trend, receiving positive ratings from more than 70% of the nearly 20,000 US consumers surveyed by Harris Interactive and the Reputation Institute at the Stern School of Business at New York University.

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