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1 – 10 of over 4000Dara G. Schniederjans, Stephen A. Atlas and Christopher M. Starkey
As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with…
Abstract
Purpose
As organizations increasingly engage with consumers over mobile devices, there is a growing need to understand how consumers react to impression management over platforms with limited textual content. The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess how different impression management tactics can be used in mobile media to enhance consumer perception-attitude-intentions toward a corporate brand.
Design/methodology/approach
We surveyed 670 consumers and estimate structural equation models and repeated-measures ANOVAs to determine how short passages employing alternate impression management tactics influence consumers’ perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions.
Findings
Results reveal that each impressions management tactic (i.e. ingratiation, intimidation, organizational promotion, supplication and exemplification) influences consumer perceptions, attitudes and intentions. The authors compare differences in how the impressions management tactics influence each stage of the perception-attitude-intentions model and find evidence that initial differences in perceptions favoring ingratiation and exemplification appeals become magnified for purchase intentions.
Research limitations/implications
Recent calls for research focus on an understanding of how consumers process information on reduced-content platforms of small-screened mobile devices. These results provide empirical evidence of the use of impression management and the difference between five impression management tactics on enhancing consumer perception-attitude-intentions model.
Practical implications
The results of this study will provide marketers with insights to optimize communications and corporate brands with consumers over mobile media.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the nascent yet vital literature on mobile marketing by focusing on how impression management tactics influence perceptions, attitudes and intentions through the short message characteristic of mobile platforms. The authors develop a framework for how corporate brand management can strategically use impressions management tactics in this novel domain.
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Maria Sandberg and Maria Holmlund
The study aims to analyzes how companies present their actions to give the impression that they are sustainable actors. It identifies the organizational impression management…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to analyzes how companies present their actions to give the impression that they are sustainable actors. It identifies the organizational impression management tactics that companies use in sustainability reporting.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative template analysis of two sustainability reports was conducted to inductively identify the organizational impression management tactics that companies use in sustainability reporting.
Findings
The study identified eight organizational impression management tactics used in sustainability reporting, four of which relate to how companies present their actions while the remaining four are characteristic of the writing styles that companies use.
Research limitations/implications
The study is exploratory in nature and does not claim to identify all existing impression management tactics. Therefore, future research is needed to confirm the results and identify possible additional tactics.
Practical implications
Companies can use impression management tactics that more strongly aim to shape the impressions that stakeholders hold or tactics that more neutrally inform stakeholders of their actions. Companies need to make a choice between the two, considering that stakeholders’ expectations of sustainability reporting would be useful.
Originality/value
The study shows the different ways that companies use impression management in sustainability reporting, thus lending insight into a perspective on sustainability reporting that has rarely been explored in previous research.
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Ruth Segev, Aviv Shoham and Ayalla Ruvio
Previous research on impression management explored motives, the use of impression management tactics and the influence of personality characteristics on the tendency to engage in…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research on impression management explored motives, the use of impression management tactics and the influence of personality characteristics on the tendency to engage in impression management. The purposes of this research are to examine gift‐giving behavior among adolescents based on the building blocks of impression management theory, the ways that personality characteristics motivate gift‐givers to engage in active and defensive impression management and how the use of impression management tactics (i.e. similarity‐conformity and target‐enhancement) are reflected in their gift‐giving behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sample of 141 adolescences was used in a quantitative study. Self‐report questionnaires were distributed to adolescents of different ages (13‐16), with students from diverse social strata. Students were asked to recall a recent peer gift‐giving experience and to refer to it when answering the questions which covered motives for gift‐giving, personality characteristics, and the characteristics of the gift.
Findings
The authors' study shows that personality characteristics such as public self‐consciousness, self‐monitoring, and self‐esteem are positively related with gift‐giving motives. Additionally, gift‐giving motives are positively related with the use of similarity‐conformity and target‐enhancement tactics. Finally, the use of impression management tactics reflects adolescents' special characteristics, such as their tendency towards conformism, important role of peers in their lives, and their high need to protect and nurture these social resources.
Originality/value
This research explored the instrumental role of gift‐giving among adolescents and contributes to the existing literatures on gift‐giving, impression management, and adolescents' consumer behavior.
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Nazlı Ece Bulgur, Emel Esen and Selin Karaca Varinlioglu
The main purpose of this chapter is to understand climate change disclosures to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by discussing in the context of developed and emerging…
Abstract
The main purpose of this chapter is to understand climate change disclosures to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) by discussing in the context of developed and emerging countries’ company cases. Therefore, companies have been selected from the Forbes Global (2000–2021) list by looking at their climate change disclosures in their official websites and their corporate reports. Climate change disclosures have been discussed based on impression management perspective. The results of the study are that some of the tactics used in the reports are at a level that can affect the stakeholders of the enterprises. Therefore, it has been observed that climate change and the steps taken in the issue of climate change are at the top of the priority lists of companies in these four countries. This study is valuable to understand how country perspective changes in climate change disclosures to enhance SDGs by implementing impression management tactics.
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Henry Boateng and Ibn Kailan Abdul-Hamid
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication on corporate websites have become an emerging trend by firms. Similarly, corporate websites have been used to manage…
Abstract
Purpose
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication on corporate websites have become an emerging trend by firms. Similarly, corporate websites have been used to manage stakeholders’ impressions about the organization. Meanwhile, CSR by firms have been criticized for been a manipulative tactics used by firms. The purpose of this paper therefore is to ascertain how telecommunication companies operating in Ghana communicate CSR on their corporate websites.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative content analysis technique. It also used Bolino et al.’s (2008) impression management framework as the conceptual framework. Data were extracted from the websites of four telecommunication companies operating in Ghana. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques.
Findings
The results show that the companies use impression management in communicating CSR on their corporate websites. Account, assertive impression management; blaring, boasting, defensive impression management; demonstrative impression management; exemplification, favor-rendering, illustrative impression management; ingratiation, other-enhancement, other-focused impression management; self-enhancement, self-focused impression management; and self-promotion tactics are tactics prevalent in the CSR communication of the companies. Actor-to-actor link impression management and other emotional appeal also emerged as some of the impression management tactics used by the companies.
Originality/value
This provides insights into how organizations use impression management in their CSR communication on their corporate websites. Studies of this nature are limited. Again, studies specifically adapting Bolino et al.’s impression management to study CSR communication on corporate websites are rare.
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Dewan Mahboob Hossain, Md. Saiful Alam and Mohammed Mehadi Masud Mazumder
The purpose of this article is to explore the impression management practices in Covid-19 related discourses in the annual reports of the insurance companies in Bangladesh.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to explore the impression management practices in Covid-19 related discourses in the annual reports of the insurance companies in Bangladesh.
Design/methodology/approach
To fulfil this objective, the authors have conducted a discourse analysis of the Covid-19 related corporate narratives in the latest annual reports of listed insurance companies. The findings are then interpreted through the lens of impression management theory, following the impression management strategies identified by Caliskan et al. (2021).
Findings
It is found that companies tried to manage the impression of the stakeholders through the strategic use of language. There is evidence that the companies used assertive and performance-oriented tactics to impress their stakeholders. In few cases, defensive strategies were applied.
Practical implications
This study will facilitate improving the understanding of corporate communication during the Covid-19 crisis. Policymakers will be able to understand the current status of Covid-19 related disclosures and consider the necessity to provide guidance that may lead to better accountability during the crisis.
Originality/value
This study will contribute to the limited literature on Covid-19 related disclosure from the context of developing economies. This research is methodologically novel as it applies discourse analysis and interprets the findings through the lens of impression management.
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Rafael Barreiros Porto, Carla Peixoto Borges and Paulo Gasperin Dubois
Human brands in the music industry use self-presentation tactics on social media to manage audience impressions. This practice has led to many posts asking followers to adopt…
Abstract
Purpose
Human brands in the music industry use self-presentation tactics on social media to manage audience impressions. This practice has led to many posts asking followers to adopt behaviors favoring the human brand. However, its effectiveness in leveraging relevant performance metrics for musicians outside social media, such as popularity in specialized media, music sales and number of contracted concerts, needs further exploration. This study aims to reveal the effect of impression management tactics conveyed on social media on the market performance of musicians’ human brands.
Design/methodology/approach
Secondary data research classifies 5,940 social media posts from 11 music artists into self-presentation tactics (self-promotion, exemplification, supplication and ingratiation). It shows their predictions on three market performance metrics in an annual balanced panel study.
Findings
Impression management tactics via posts on social media are mostly self-promotion, improving the musicians’ market performance by increasing the number of contracted concerts. Conversely, ingratiation generated the most positive effect on the musician’s popularity but reduced music sales. Besides lowering the musicians’ popularity, exemplification also reduced the number of contracted concerts, while the supplication had no significant effect.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the research is the first to use social media postings of musicians’ official human brand profiles based on self-presentation typologies as a complete impression management tool. Furthermore, it is the first to test the effects of these posts on market performance metrics (i.e. outside of social media) in a longitudinal study.
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Yuan-Ling Chen and Ting Yi Chu
Drawing on the perspectives of emotional labor, self-concept and impression management, this study presents two major findings: (1) employees' excessive reliance on impression…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the perspectives of emotional labor, self-concept and impression management, this study presents two major findings: (1) employees' excessive reliance on impression management can bother supervisors, and (2) the effectiveness of impression management depends on how the management affects targets' attribution of characteristics to actors.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a cross-sectional design and a sample of 259 employees to investigate the antecedents of abusive supervision and, in this regard, the potential mediating effects of impression management. Through Mplus analysis, the authors specifically show that deep acting and surface acting affect impression management and that impression management activates abusive supervision.
Findings
Emotional labor is critical in triggering abusive supervision through impression management. The study specifically shows that impression management mediates two types of relationships: (1) the relationship between deep acting and abusive supervision, and (2) the relationship between surface acting and abusive supervision. The findings contribute to the abusive supervision literature by clarifying how impression management functions.
Originality/value
This study, by addressing how emotional labor is a potential antecedent of abusive supervision, reveals that impression management can be a mixed blessing, insofar as emotional labor can contribute to abusive supervision.
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Susan Lee Conway, Patricia Ann O'Keefe and Sue Louise Hrasky
Prior research has investigated legitimation strategies in corporate annual reports in the for-profit sector. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this phenomenon in an NGO…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research has investigated legitimation strategies in corporate annual reports in the for-profit sector. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this phenomenon in an NGO environment. It investigates Australian overseas aid agencies’ responses to criticism of the relief effort following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. It aims to determine whether voluntary annual report disclosures were reflective of impression management and/or of the discharge of functional accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper applies content analysis to compare the structure and content of the annual reports of 19 Australian overseas aid agencies before and after the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Findings
Results suggest voluntary disclosure in annual reports significantly increased post-tsunami and was more consistent with impression management activity rather than functional accountability suggesting a response to the legitimacy challenge. The use of impression management tactics differed with agency size, with larger agencies using ingratiation in order to appear more attractive while smaller ones promoted their particular achievements.
Originality/value
This paper makes a contribution by extending prior impression management and legitimacy literature to an NGO environment. It has implications for the development of these theories as it looks at organisations where the stakeholders are different from the for-profit sector and profits are not the main concern. It raises issues about the concept of accountability in the NGO sector, and how the nature of organisation reporting is changing to address the challenges of a sector where access to funds is highly competitive.
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Tahira M. Probst, Lixin Jiang and Sergio Andrés López Bohle
The purpose of this paper is to test competing models of the relationship between job insecurity and two forms of impression management (self- and supervisor-focused) on job…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test competing models of the relationship between job insecurity and two forms of impression management (self- and supervisor-focused) on job performance. Specifically, does job insecurity lead to greater subsequent impression management; or, does preventative use of impression management subsequently lead to reductions in job insecurity? Additionally, how do these both relate to in-role performance?
Design/methodology/approach
Using two-wave survey data collected from 184 working adults in the USA and the two-step approach recommended by Cole and Maxwell (2003) and Taris and Kompier (2006), the authors tested cross-lagged relationship between job insecurity and both forms of impression management by comparing four different models: a stability model, a normal causation model (with cross-lagged paths from T1 job insecurity to T2 impression management), a reversed causation model (with cross-lagged paths from T1 impression management to T2 job insecurity) and a reciprocal causation model (with all cross-lagged paths described in the normal and reversed causation model).
Findings
Results were supportive of the reversed causation model which indicated that greater use of supervisor-focused impression management at Time 1 predicted lower levels of job insecurity at Time 2 (after controlling for prior levels of job insecurity); moreover, job insecurity at Time 1 was then significantly associated with more positive in-role behaviors at Time 2. Moreover, the test of the indirect effect between T1 impression management and T2 performance was significant.
Originality/value
These results suggest that impression management clearly plays an important role in understanding the relationship between job insecurity and job performance. However, employees appear to utilize impression management as a means of pre-emptively enhancing their job security, rather than as a tool to reactively cope with perceived job insecurity.
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