A Contingency Model of The Effectiveness of Impression Management Tactics

Abstract

This paper proposes a contingency model showing the effectiveness of two types of impression management tactics when implemented in market categories with differing degrees of categorical stigma. Specifically, we investigate ego centric tactics (those that center on member specific information) and alter centric tactics (those that use information about others), and explore the mechanisms – related to the risk of perceived manipulation – that determine their effectiveness under environments characterized by different levels of stigma. Using a large dataset covering the US food retail industry between 2006 and 2015, we find that ego centric tactics are more effective when implemented in categories that exhibit low rather than high levels of stigma. Conversely, we find that alter centric tactics are more effective in highly stigmatized categories, as opposed to categories displaying low levels of stigma. Our study highlights the strategic role of impression management in aiding category members to instrumentally position themselves in the competitive space and contributes to the research debates on impression management in contested settings and stigma management strategies.