IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/crepre/v23y2020i3d10.1057_s41299-019-00072-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Keith J. Kelley

    (University of Michigan-Flint)

  • Marcelo J. Alvarado-Vargas

    (University of Toledo)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Keith J. Kelley & Marcelo J. Alvarado-Vargas, 2020. "IT Signal Generation and Management Capabilities’ Effect on Corporate Reputation: A Typological Approach to Strategic Positioning in a Digital World," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 145-159, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:crepre:v:23:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1057_s41299-019-00072-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41299-019-00072-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41299-019-00072-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41299-019-00072-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    2. Park, Hyejune & Kim, Youn-Kyung, 2014. "The role of social network websites in the consumer–brand relationship," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 460-467.
    3. William Beyers, 2003. "On the geography of the new economy: perspectives from the United States," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 4-26, January.
    4. Rodolphe Durand & Deborah Philippe, 2011. "The impact of norm-conforming behaviors on firm reputation," Post-Print hal-00609203, HAL.
    5. Dmitri Kuksov & Ron Shachar & Kangkang Wang, 2013. "Advertising and Consumers' Communications," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 294-309, March.
    6. Hayagreeva Rao, 1994. "The Social Construction of Reputation: Certification Contests, Legitimation, and the Survival of Organizations in the American Automobile Industry: 1895–1912," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 29-44, December.
    7. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    8. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    9. Kreps, David M. & Wilson, Robert, 1982. "Reputation and imperfect information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 253-279, August.
    10. Paul Milgrom & John Roberts, 1986. "Relying on the Information of Interested Parties," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 18-32, Spring.
    11. Rubén A. Mendoza, 2010. "Business Intelligence 2.0: The eXtensible Markup Language as Strategic Enabler," International Journal of Business Intelligence Research (IJBIR), IGI Global, vol. 1(4), pages 63-76, October.
    12. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2002. "Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 460-501, June.
    13. Christopher Courtney & Supradeep Dutta & Yong Li, 2017. "Resolving Information Asymmetry: Signaling, Endorsement, and Crowdfunding Success," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(2), pages 265-290, March.
    14. Erik Brynjolfsson & Lorin Hitt, 1996. "Paradox Lost? Firm-Level Evidence on the Returns to Information Systems Spending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(4), pages 541-558, April.
    15. Park, C Whan & Lessig, V Parker, 1981. "Familiarity and Its Impact on Consumer Decision Biases and Heuristics," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(2), pages 223-230, September.
    16. Keith Weigelt & Colin Camerer, 1988. "Reputation and corporate strategy: A review of recent theory and applications," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(5), pages 443-454, September.
    17. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    18. Hamzah, Zalfa Laili & Syed Alwi, Sharifah Faridah & Othman, Md Nor, 2014. "Designing corporate brand experience in an online context: A qualitative insight," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2299-2310.
    19. Rao, Akshay R & Monroe, Kent B, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Price Premiums," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(4), pages 511-535, October.
    20. Weichieh Su & Mike W. Peng & Weiqiang Tan & Yan-Leung Cheung, 2016. "The Signaling Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 479-491, March.
    21. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    22. Gensler, Sonja & Völckner, Franziska & Liu-Thompkins, Yuping & Wiertz, Caroline, 2013. "Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 242-256.
    23. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    24. Sascha Raithel & Manfred Schwaiger, 2015. "The effects of corporate reputation perceptions of the general public on shareholder value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 945-956, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. İsmail Gökhan Cintamür, 2023. "Linking Customer Justice Perception, Customer Support Perception, and Customer Citizenship Behavior to Corporate Reputation: Evidence from the Airline Industry," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(2), pages 111-132, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maurer, Joshua D. & Creek, Steven A. & Allison, Thomas H. & Bendickson, Joshua S. & Sahaym, Arvin, 2023. "Affiliation rhetoric and digital orientation in crowdfunding appeals," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    2. Eckardt, Martina, 2007. "Does signaling work in markets for information services? An empirical investigation for insurance intermediaries in Germany," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 77, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    3. Annika Veh & Markus Göbel & Rick Vogel, 2019. "Corporate reputation in management research: a review of the literature and assessment of the concept," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 12(2), pages 315-353, December.
    4. Sharifah Faridah Syed Alwi & T. C. Melewar & Maria Teresa Cuomo & Manfred Schwaiger, 2020. "Digital Society and Corporate Reputation: Towards the Next Generation of Insights," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 129-132, August.
    5. Heribert Gierl & Julia Koncz, 2007. "Unternehmenswachstum und Internationalität als Qualitätssignale," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 389-409, January.
    6. Chih-Yi, Su & Bou-Wen, Lin, 2021. "Attack and defense in patent-based competition: A new paradigm of strategic decision-making in the era of the fourth industrial revolution," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    7. Nguyen, Phong Thanh & Nguyen, Linh Thi My, 2022. "Understanding platform market value through decentralization governance — An integrative model from signaling and mechanism design theory," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    8. Vincze, János, 2010. "Miért és mitől védjük a fogyasztókat?. Aszimmetrikus információ és/vagy korlátozott racionalitás [Asymmetric information and/or bounded rationality: why are consumers protected and from what?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(9), pages 725-752.
    9. Kevin Money & Anastasiya Saraeva & Irene Garnelo-Gomez & Stephen Pain & Carola Hillenbrand, 2017. "Corporate Reputation Past and Future: A Review and Integration of Existing Literature and a Framework for Future Research," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 193-211, November.
    10. Donald D. Bergh & Brian L. Connelly & David J. Ketchen Jr & Lu M. Shannon, 2014. "Signalling Theory and Equilibrium in Strategic Management Research: An Assessment and a Research Agenda," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(8), pages 1334-1360, December.
    11. Stevens, Charles E. & Makarius, Erin E. & Mukherjee, Debmalya, 2015. "It Takes Two to Tango: Signaling Behavioral Intent in Service Multinationals' Foreign Entry Strategies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 235-248.
    12. Mishra, Debi P., 2013. "Firms’ strategic response to service uncertainty: An empirical signaling study," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 187-197.
    13. Chen, Yong & Mak, Barry & Li, Zhou, 2013. "Quality deterioration in package tours: The interplay of asymmetric information and reputation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 43-54.
    14. Torsten Oliver Salge & David Antons & Michael Barrett & Rajiv Kohli & Eivor Oborn & Stavros Polykarpou, 2022. "How IT Investments Help Hospitals Gain and Sustain Reputation in the Media: The Role of Signaling and Framing," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(1), pages 110-130, March.
    15. Elrashidy, Zeinab & Haniffa, Roszaini & Sherif, Mohamed & Baroudi, Sarra, 2024. "Determinants of reward crowdfunding success: Evidence from Covid-19 pandemic," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Goran Vlašić & Josef Langer, 2012. "Concept of reputation: different perspectives and robust empirical understandings," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 24(2), pages 219-244.
    17. Fletcher-Brown, Judith & Pereira, Vijay & Nyadzayo, Munyaradzi W., 2018. "Health marketing in an emerging market: The critical role of signaling theory in breast cancer awareness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 416-434.
    18. Schatzel, Kim & Droge, Cornelia & Calantone, Roger, 2003. "Strategic channel activity preannouncements: An exploratory investigation of antecedent effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 923-933, December.
    19. Delgado García, Juan Bautista & De Quevedo Puente, Esther, 2016. "The complex link of city reputation and city performance. Results for fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2830-2839.
    20. Tomi Rajala, 2019. "Mind the Information Expectation Gap," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 10(1), pages 104-125, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:crepre:v:23:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1057_s41299-019-00072-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.