A series of setbacks from product deficiency to arrest of its top chief has taken heavy toll on the international credibility of South Korea’s technology giant Samsung Electronics.

According to U.S-based survey company The Harris Poll on Monday, Samsung Electronics came 49th in its 2017 Reputation Quotient survey, a tumble from the seventh rank in last year’s survey.

In 2015, the worlds’ largest memory chip and smartphone maker ranked third, beating out Google and Apple. It was seventh in 2014, 11th in 2013, and 13th in 2012.

In the 2017 quotation, Amazon.com came first followed by American grocery chain Wegmans Food Markets.

The Korean tech company scored 75.17 in this year’s Reputation Quotient by The Harris Poll and barely made the “very good” list. Last year, it was cited on the “excellent” category scoring 80 or above with 80.44 points.

Samsung Electronics’ reputation took a hard hit by the biggest-ever recall and termination of fire-prone Galaxy Note7. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and heir to the Samsung empire Jay Y. Lee became implicated in the high-profile power abuse scandal that led to legislative impeachment on President Park Geun-hye. Lee last week was placed under pretrial detention.

What hurt a corporate name most in the poll were illegalities and wrongdoings of the corporate head (85 percent), followed by lies and misleading marketing for products and services (83 percent), accounting irregularities (82 percent), security and privacy breach (74 percent), work environment (67 percent), equality level (65 percent), and recall programs (65 percent).

The Harris Poll surveyed 23,000 Americans online on a company`s social responsibility, emotional appeal, products and services, vision and leadership, financial performance and workplace environment between November 29 and December 16 last year.

It conducted preliminary polls between September 13 and 15, and between October 4 and 6 last year.

By Song Sung-hoon

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