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IT Signal Generation and Management Capabilities’ Effect on Corporate Reputation: A Typological Approach to Strategic Positioning in a Digital World

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Abstract

In this paper, we explore how signal generation capabilities (SGCs) and signal management capabilities (SMCs) affect corporate reputation management strategies, with respect to modern technologies of the digital world. Expanding upon signaling theory, and the notion of informational asymmetries, we draw attention to the complementary roles of current IT in creating and managing signals of productive and qualitative efficiency that may be converted into corporate reputation. We introduce a new typological classification for firms’ strategic positioning that highlights how technologies lead firms to be signal amplifiers, signal squanderers, signal mollifiers, and signal diminishers with respect to reputation management. We discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications of our research, alongside ethical and methodological considerations that could spawn interesting avenues of future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, University of Michigan-Flint, 2151 Riverfront Center, Flint, MI, 48502, USA

    Keith J. Kelley

  2. Department of Management, College of Business and Innovation, University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft Street, MS#103, Toledo, OH, 43623, USA

    Marcelo J. Alvarado-Vargas

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  1. Keith J. Kelley
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Kelley, K.J., Alvarado-Vargas, M.J. IT Signal Generation and Management Capabilities’ Effect on Corporate Reputation: A Typological Approach to Strategic Positioning in a Digital World. Corp Reputation Rev 23, 145–159 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41299-019-00072-2

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