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Corporate reputation is prevalent in the management literature and the reputational effects on financial performance of firms have been broadly examined. However, we do not have a complete and systematic understanding of the mechanisms of this relationship. In order to fill this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis to identify the mediators of the reputational effect on firm performance. Based on 766 correlations from 71 empirical studies, we tested three mediators including customer support, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and mitigation of market uncertainties/risks. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the social trend context of corporate reputation (before 2000 vs. after 2000), the measurement of corporate performance (internal financial performance vs. external competitive advantage), and the measurement of customer support (in-role behaviors vs. ex-role behaviors) moderate the relationships …