A Path Makes a Road: Path Dependence in Organizational Impression Management

Abstract

Impression management affects how a firm maintains positive evaluator perceptions, an important dimension of firm survival and success. Most scholarship in this area has focused on managing impressions after events. However, a firm may also engage in anticipatory strategies to manage impressions. By synthesizing arguments from anticipatory and reactive impression management, I offer a novel theoretical framework that treats a firm’s impression management strategies as a path-dependent process. I also consider how firms manage perceptions around positive events, an area of inquiry that lacks sufficient attention yet carries substantial importance. Finally, I develop theory about antecedents to anticipatory impression management and thus link them to the path I explicate above. Together, these contributions illuminate how firm impression management decisions are more nuanced and more predictable than previous research has suggested.