Evaluating corporate reputational interest in corporate foundations

This article investigates a new topic of research on Corporate Foundations (CFs): the relation between knowledge transfer from founder firms to the Corporate Foundations and the CFs’ meaning of effectiveness. Starting from a typology of CF’s effectiveness (Ostrower 2006a), we managed a survey addressed to a sample of Italian CFs to address the impact of different knowledge transfer methods (KTM) on the dimensions of CFs’ orientation to effectiveness: proactive orientation, social advocacy and capacity building. The results of linear regression show different relations among KTM methods and CFs’ meaning of effectiveness. The research identified four different KTMs and pointed out that the methods adopted by founder firms have a significant influence on proactivity, competences, and on social advocacy of CFs.