Data Source What’s Measured How It’s Measured
Customer Satisfaction
American Customer Satisfaction Index Customer satisfaction for household products and services available to U.S. consumers. >Surveys customers of companies randomly via email.
>Respondents are asked questions about their purchase and use of specific products and services bought within specified, recent time periods.
>Proprietary formula applied.
CSRHub: Product Rating The integrity of a company’s products and sales practices, including its labeling and marketing, social impacts and end-of-life disposition. Combines data from nine socially responsible investment analysis (ESG) firms and hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, news feeds, social networking groups and publishers.
J.D. Power: Bain Certified Net Promoter Score* The willingness of a customer to recommend a company’s products or services to others, which is seen as a proxy for gauging the customer’s overall satisfaction. >Customers are asked about their experience based on one key loyalty question: How likely is it that you would recommend [Company X or Brand X] to a friend or colleague?
>Bain certification is based on valid survey methodology and sample size, as well as surveyor independence.
Temkin Group: Customer Experience Rating, Customer Service Rating, Online Rating, Trust Rating, Forgiveness Rating Customer satisfaction and loyalty using a composite of several measures. >Respondents to surveys rate how likely they are to exhibit loyalty-related behaviors (repurchasing from the company, recommending the company to others, forgiving the company, etc.) as a result of their experiences with the company.
>100 respondents per company is the minimum level for inclusion in published research and data.
>Temkin purchases access to online consumer panels from third-party firms.
wRatings: Quality Score How well a company meets customer expectations. Analyzes the gap between expected quality and perceived quality through surveys of customer and executive panels.
Employee Engagement and Development
CSRHub: Comp & Benefits Rating >A company’s capacity to increase its workforce loyalty and productivity through rewarding, fair and equal compensation and financial benefits.
>Includes benefits that engage employees and improve worker development
>Also focuses on long-term employment growth and stability by promotion practices, lay-off practices and relations with retired employees.
Combines data from nine socially responsible investment analysis (ESG) firms, hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, news feeds, social networking groups and publishers.
Glassdoor: Culture & Values Rating, Career Opportunities Rating, Compensation & Benefits Rating How well the organization’s employee-related practices align with several key Drucker principles. >Information is submitted by employees of the company.
>Minimum n=100
Glassdoor engagement metrics: Overall Rating, Recommend Rating Employee engagement with the organization. See above
Glassdoor confidence metrics: CEO Rating, Positive Business Outlook Rating Confidence in the organization and its leadership. See above
kununu: Overall Workplace Rating* Eighteen different attributes, including support from management, autonomy, career development, work environment, company culture and more. >Information is submitted by current and former employees of the company.
>Minimum n=10
PayScale: Pay Differential The typical percent difference between what employees make at a given company and what they make in the broader market accounting for job title, skills, years of experience, location and several other factors that affect pay. Analyzes compensation data submitted by employees of companies.
PayScale: Job Satisfaction Employee responses to the statement: “I am extremely satisfied working for my employer.” Survey of employees. Computes the weighted average where 5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree.
Innovation
Burning Glass Technologies: Cutting-edge Job Postings (Relative)* Hiring in 10 cutting-edge fields: Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, fintech, augmented and virtual reality, drone technology, blockchain, mobile payments, robotics, autonomous vehicles and 3-D printing. Divides a company’s number of cutting-edge online job postings by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Burning Glass Technologies: R&D Job Postings (Relative)* Hiring for research and development positions. Divides a company’s number of R&D-related online job postings by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Clarivate Analytics: Number of Inventions (Relative) Publication of the first patent application. Divides a company’s number of patent applications by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Clarivate Analytics: Rate of Patent Abandonment (Relative) Rate at which patent applications are abandoned, giving a sense of whether a company follows Drucker’s principle of no longer investing in products and services that have become obsolete. Divides a company’s rate of abandonment by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Clarivate Analytics: Trademark Applications (Relative) Number of trademark applications filed annually. Divides a company’s number of applications by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Clarivate Analytics: Trademark Registers (Relative) Annual count of different registers where trademarks have been filed, indicating new distribution channels. Divides a company’s number of registers by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Clarivate Analytics: R&D Expenditures (Relative) Research and development expenditures. Divides a company’s R&D expenditures by the average for its industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
“Most Innovative” company listings Innovation and technological accomplishment in products and processes. As named by Boston Consulting Group, Forbes, Fast Company and MIT Technology Review.
Professor Dimitris Papanikolaou of Northwestern University and Professor Amit Seru of Stanford University: Patent Value (Relative)* Innovativeness of firms based on the market’s immediate valuation of their patents granted over the previous year. >Through a process developed by the professors and their colleagues, stock market reaction to announcements of approved patent applications is isolated from other news.
>Scores are divided by the average for a company’s industry (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Supply Chain Resource Cooperative: Innovation Rating Metrics related to spend management, category management, strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management. Through a process developed by North Carolina State University professor Robert Handfield, a review is conducted of publicly available information, as well as interviews and surveys of corporate procurement specialists.
wRatings Innovation Index Customer perceptions of companies’ performance in innovation. >A composite of seven attributes as derived from customer feedback.
>The formula was developed by wRatings and Strategos, a strategy and innovation consulting firm.
Social Responsibility
CSRHub: Overall ESG Score (Absolute) 12 indicators of employee, environment, community and corporate governance performance. Combines data from nine socially responsible investment analysis (ESG) firms and hundreds of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, news feeds, social networking groups and publishers.
CSRHub: Overall ESG Score (Relative) See above Percentage rank of firm’s overall score relative to industry peers (with industries defined by CSRHub).
HIP Investor: Overall ESG Rating A company’s impact in five areas: health, wealth, earth, equality and trust. Analyzes public dislosures to rate and rank companies for future risk, return potential and net impact on society.
“Shared Value” metric Whether a company has put a social purpose at the core of its business strategy. Averages standardized scores from two sources: HIP Investor’s Vision Rating and a formula developed for the Drucker Institute by Alice Korngold, which examines certain governance and transparency practices that are seen as indicators of a “shared value” orientation.
Supply Chain Resource Cooperative: Social Responsibility Rating Supply-chain policies, practices and results, including audits and lawsuits, with respect to human relations and the environment. Through a process developed by North Carolina State University professor Robert Handfield, a review is conducted of publicly available information, as well as interviews and surveys of corporate procurement specialists.
Sustainalytics: Total ESG Score (Absolute) Summary of a company’s environmental, social and corporate governance performance. Assessments by industry analysts of public filings, company websites and news reports.
Sustainalytics: Total ESG Score (Relative) See above Divides company’s ESG rating by the average of its peers (with peer groups defined by Sustainalytics).
Financial Strength
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Share of Market The percentage of an industry or market’s total sales that is attributable to the particular company over a specified time period. Calculated by taking the company’s sales over the period and dividing by the total sales of the industry over the same period (with industries defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard).
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Five-Year Average Total Shareholder Return Combines share price appreciation and dividends paid to show the total return to the shareholder. Expressed as an annualized percentage.
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Operating Return on Invested Captial A measure of the profitability and value-creating potential of a company after taking into account the amount of capital invested. Percentage return that a company makes over its invested capital.
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Return on Assets How profitable a company is relative to its total assets. Calculated by dividing a company’s annual earnings by its total assets.
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Return on Common Equity How many dollars of profit a company generates with each dollar of shareholders’ equity. Calculated by dividing net income by shareholders’ equity.
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Earnings for Common Shareholders Measures a company’s profits. Net income minus cost of preferred dividends.
Thomson Reuters Eikon: Economic Spread Whether the company’s use of capital exceeds the cost of borrowing it. A company’s return on invested capital minus its weighted average cost of capital.

* New for 2018