Self-presentation Research Articles

I Care That You Don’t Share: Confidentiality in Student-Robot Interactions

Enabled by technological advances, robot teachers have entered educational service frontlines. Scholars and policymakers suggest that during Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), human teachers should remain “in-the-loop” (i.e., oversee interactions between students and robots). Drawing on impression management theory, we challenge this belief to argue that robot teacher confidentiality (i.e., robot teachers not sharing student interactions with the human teacher) lets students make more use of the technology. To examine this effect and provide deeper insights into multiple mechanisms and boundary conditions, we conduct six field, laboratory and online experiments that use virtual and physical robot teachers (Total N = 2,012). We first show that students indeed make more use of a confidential (vs. nonconfidential) robot teacher (both physical and virtual). In a qualitative study (Study 2), we use structural topic modeling to inductively identify relevant mediators and moderators. Studies 3 through 5 provide support for these, showing two key mediators (i.e., social judgment concern and interaction anxiety) and two moderators (i.e., student prevention focus and teacher benevolence) for the effect of robot teacher confidentiality. Collectively, the present research introduces the concept of service robot confidentiality, illustrating why and how not sharing HRI with a third actor critically impacts educational service encounters.

How altruistic alternatives reverse the compromise effect

AbstractBrand managers increasingly add altruistic product attributes, such as fair trade or charitable donations, to their products to account for consumers’ increasing expectations of altruistic brand behavior. Despite the extensive amount of altruistic product attributes in today’s markets, it is unclear how these attributes affect consumer decision-making in different contexts. This paper particularly examines the influence of altruistic product attributes on the compromise effect. Through five experimental studies, we provide pioneering evidence that consumers face general difficulty in accepting trade-offs involving altruistic attributes and that altruistic attributes change the compromise effect substantially. While the well-established compromise effect, predicting a preference for middle options (compromises) over extreme options, holds for trade-offs between utilitarian attributes, it diminishes for altruistic trade-offs. Moreover, the trade-offs between utilitarian and altruistic attributes reverse the compromise effect, i.e., leading to a preference for extreme options. We also demonstrate that impression management moderates this effect.

Emotion regulation in response to discrimination: Exploring the role of self-control and impression management emotion-regulation goals

Contending with discrimination can yield a cascade of negative psychological and physiological outcomes which adversely affect health. How individuals manage their emotions in response to discrimination can influence the extent of these negative health outcomes. Research finds, however, that Black and Latine individuals are more likely to use expressive suppression (vs. cognitive reappraisal) in response to discrimination, which is associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In the present research, we explored whether self-control (the ability to manage impulses and regulate thoughts, emotions, and behavior to achieve long-term goals) and impression management emotion-regulation goals (regulating emotions to shape others’ perceptions of one’s personality and skills) could help explain the differential use of suppression and reappraisal in response to discrimination. Across two cross-sectional studies, we found that Black and Latine participants’ everyday discrimination experiences were related to lower self-control and increased impression management emotion-regulation goals. Reduced self-control was, in turn, linked to less use of reappraisal, while impression management emotion-regulation goals were associated with both greater reappraisal and suppression use in response to discrimination. Reappraisal was also related to participants’ self-reported depressive symptoms. These findings contribute to our understanding of the factors that are associated with emotion regulation in response to discrimination.

External guarantees and ESG performance in China: Resource constraints or impression management?

External guarantees provided by listed firms are prevalent in China, influencing firms' motivations and capabilities concerning other business strategies. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) represents a strategic imperative for companies aiming at sustainable development. Understanding how external guarantees impact ESG performance is essential for advancing the ESG agenda. This study examines the relationship between the intensity of external guarantees and ESG performance among Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2021. Our results consistently show a negative correlation between external guarantee intensity and ESG performance, impacting all ESG pillars and remaining robust through various robustness and endogeneity checks. The mechanisms underlying this impact include reduced resources, diminished stakeholder welfare, and hindered green innovation. The extent of this impact is influenced by environmental regulation, social trust, and market position while unaffected by the needs for impression management. These findings suggest that regulatory interventions in external guarantees could improve ESG outcomes, with significant implications for policymakers and corporate governance.

Strategic tone management in ESG reports and ESG risk

In this study, we investigate whether strategic tone management in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports can serve as an indicator of future ESG risk. Our baseline results reveal a positive association between abnormal positive tone in ESG reports and future ESG risk. The findings suggest that firms employ impression management strategy in their ESG reports to provide misleading information. Analyst coverage and media attention can mitigate this positive association. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive correlation is stronger for firms mandated to disclose ESG reports and those adhering to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Additional tests indicate that abnormal positive tone is positively associated only with future environmental risk, not with future social and governance risk. We observe this positive association exclusively in government-reported ESG risk, not in media-reported ESG risk. Our results offer valuable implications for mitigating the adverse impact of strategic tone management on corporate sustainability practices.

Book Review Sair, A. (2024). Dramaturgi Politik Elektoral: Memahami Perilaku, Wacana, dan Motif Politik di Aras Lokal. Intrans Publishing. 148 pp.

This book offers a thorough investigation of political dramaturgy within the context of the 2010 Regional Head Elections in Surabaya. It spans six chapters, exploring the historical and theoretical foundations of political dramaturgy and providing a detailed case study of its application in Surabaya's electoral politics. Drawing on Erving Goffman's concepts of dramaturgy, the book illustrates how political interactions resemble theatrical performances, encompassing both "frontstage" and "backstage" elements. The backstage arena includes all the necessary preparations for the actors' performances on the front stage, ranging from research to logistical and technical requirements. In contrast, the front stage focuses on the actors' skills in impression management, which involve face-to-face interactions and the use of technology to effectively communicate political messages and influence public opinion. Overall, this book highlights the importance of dramaturgical elements in shaping electoral strategies and provides valuable insights into the complex interplay of cultural, social, and political factors that affect the dynamics of electoral politics at the local level.Keywords: political dramaturgy; regional elections; electoral politics

CEO Optimism on Corporate Risk Management: Evidence from China

Based on impression management theory and upper echelons theory, this study constructs an integrated mediating model involv-ing external investors. It aims to explore the impact of CEO optimism, a positive psychological advantage, on corporate crisis management performance. The research uses machine learning based on LSTM to analyze content text, measuring CEO displayed optimism. It also uses a Python program to crawl objective financial data and third-party objective reports after corporate crises occur, evaluating investor confidence and corporate crisis management performance. This study reveals the positive psychological advantage factors of leaders that enhance corporate crisis management performance and potential mediating mechanisms. It deepens our understanding of how CEOs improve corporate crisis management performance, provides practical insights for en-terprises and managers, and offers reference value for future research.

Studying the impact of profitability, bankruptcy risk, and pandemic on narrative tone in annual reports in an emerging market in the East

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the narrative tone of annual reports is influenced by profitability, bankruptcy risk, and pandemic in the context of Vietnam. The study applies the necessary regression analysis steps such as ordinary least squares (OLS), random effects model (REM), fixed effects model (FEM), and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS). Bootstrapping and System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) methods are used to test the robustness and address endogeneity and dynamic relationships in the data. The findings show that net tones increase while negative tones decrease in companies with high profitability. Companies at risk of bankruptcy use more negative tone and less net tone than companies that are not at risk of bankruptcy. The study also affirms that bankruptcy risk moderates the relationship between profitability and negative tone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies used more positive and negative tones than they did before the pandemic. After the COVID-19 situation stabilized, positive tones were used more, and negative tones were used less than during the outbreak. The research results also recognized that companies do not intend to hide information through impression management when faced with difficult economic conditions. This study has practical implications for investors and information users when considering management disclosures through the narrative tone of annual reports. To our knowledge, this is the first study (1) in an emerging market in the East—where there are fundamental cultural and linguistic differences compared to Western countries, (2) to build a list of Vietnamese words and phrases expressing emotional nuances used in finance and accounting, and (3) refers to the narrative tone of annual reports across different groups of companies.

Social dynamics of luxury customization: The unique impact of name personalization

AbstractAs customized luxury becomes increasingly mainstream, adhering to a uniform treatment of all types of customization falls short of the nuanced insight needed. Our research focuses on the effects of a prevalent form of customization—name personalization—on the perceived “social cost” associated with luxury items from a potential buyer's point of view. Despite most luxury brands offering consumers the option to imprint their names on products for a personalized touch, concerns arise about being perceived to be “showing off.” Our four experimental studies demonstrate that adding one's name to luxury goods heightens apprehensions about the social cost, specifically diminishing metaperceptions of warmth due to impression management (Study 1). This phenomenon applies to both the imprinting of one's full first name, and only their initials (Study 2). However, luxury consumers with a lower social‐adjustive (i.e., less driven by the desire for social approval) show an elevated concern over the social cost of name personalization (Studies 3 and 4). As the trend of customizing luxury items rises, our findings emphasize the significance of luxury researchers and practitioners to discern both the positive and negative outcomes associated with various forms of luxury customization.

EXPRESS: Understanding Unitized Food Choice – The Role of Social Context and Marketing Factors in Mitigating Overconsumption

The unit bias, which asserts that consumption decreases as a food unit size decreases, is a prominent effect studied in psychology, health, and obesity research domains; yet, little is known about when or why this effect occurs, or how marketing plays a role in the effect. To address this gap in the literature, this research extends the current understanding of the unit bias by proposing the Social Unitization Effect (SUE), which posits that consumers’ selection of discrete unitized foods is dependent on impression management motives. That is, when impression management motives are low, consumers choose a greater number of small (vs. large) food units; however, in social (public) settings, when impression management motives are higher, this difference between small and large food units selected is attenuated. This effect is driven by a reduction in the number of small units selected when consumers are with others (vs. when they are alone). The research then demonstrates how the SUE manifests in various marketing contexts via marketing-related factors like servicescape design (e.g., in-store surveillance), food branding (e.g., branding food as ‘mini’), and food design (i.e., the shape of food units). These findings offer novel and actionable implications for marketers, health advocates, and consumers.

Posting to impress? Organizational impression management tactics multinational firms employ to showcase innovations supporting SDGs

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a significant role in promoting innovation and implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MNEs have embraced social media use not only to promote themselves, but also to engage with various stakeholders. Using mixed methods such as Python programming scripts, big data analysis, text analysis and coding, this study explores Facebook (FB) communications specific to innovation and SDGs (ISDG). The study's findings suggest that only approximately 2.7% of the overall communications are about ISDGs. The frequency of ISDG communications varies by industry category and region, but public engagement only varies by industry. Additionally, the study found that MNEs predominantly use assertive organizational impression management (OIM) tactics in their ISDG communications. Our analysis also suggests that ISDG communications tend to focus on SDGs that impact positive externalities rather than negative ones. Overall, our findings indicate that slowly but surely most MNES are laying down the foundation for possibly adopting innovations related to the implementation of SDGs.

Corporate responsibility and corporate misbehavior: are CSR reporting firms indeed responsible?

Abstract We investigate whether firms that proclaim a commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by CSR reporting indeed internalize such a commitment and behave more responsibly. We analyze the association of the issuance and quality of voluntary CSR reports with the occurrence, number, and severity of corporate misbehaviors, both preceding and subsequent to CSR reporting. We find a significantly positive association of CSR reporting with our measures of prior and future misbehavior. The results are corroborated by a quasi-natural experiment around the Rana Plaza disaster where we find that the signatories of an accord for better working conditions have significantly higher prior and future misbehavior relative to non-signatories and firms unaffected by the exogenous shock. Our results are in line with legitimacy theory implying that, on average, the firms’ proclaiming commitment to CSR is not a signal of internalized commitment but more likely serves greenwashing and impression management purposes.

Filling in the missing pieces: Personality traits (un)related to dishonest behavior

Despite notable progress in the study of dishonest behavior and in particular the identification of personality traits (most notably, Honesty-Humility) that are robust predictors of individual differences in dishonesty, prior research has also left several traits untested or yielded inconsistent or inconclusive findings for other traits. We herein provide corresponding evidence, testing the associations between dishonesty and six operationalizations of Big Five Agreeableness, the dark tetrad traits, impression management and lie scales, and self-control versus impulsivity. We relied on a large dataset ( N = 1,916) across two incentivized measurements of dishonesty (separated by about 5 weeks) and tailored hierarchical modeling, and preregistered all hypotheses prior to data analysis. As expected, neither impression management and lie scales nor self-control versus impulsivity were related to dishonesty. By contrast, dark tetrad traits were consistently associated with dishonesty, though almost entirely due to their shared aversive core, the dark factor of personality. Finally, several (but not all) operationalizations of Big Five Agreeableness were associated with dishonesty, but none explained incremental variance above Honesty-Humility whereas the opposite was always the case. We discuss the implications of these findings for recent controversies about basic personality structure, the question of theoretical parsimony, and the dangers of jingle-fallacies.

Impression Management and Employee Commitment in Akwa-Ibom Tertiary Institutions

General background: Employee commitment is crucial for organizational success, and impression management techniques may significantly influence this commitment. Specific background: Previous studies have examined the effects of impression management in organizational contexts, yet the specific dynamics in Nigerian tertiary institutions remain underexplored. Knowledge gap: The influence of exemplification, ingratiation, and self-promotion on different dimensions of employee commitment (affective, continuance, and normative) in Nigerian institutions has not been fully examined. Aims: This study aims to determine how these dimensions of impression management influence employee commitment and the moderating role of organizational culture. Results: Findings reveal a positive and significant relationship between impression management and employee commitment. Specifically, exemplification enhances affective commitment, ingratiation promotes continuance commitment, and self-promotion influences normative commitment. Organizational culture was found to strongly moderate these relationships. Novelty: This study provides new insights into the contextual effects of impression management on employee commitment in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Implications: The findings suggest that management should employ strategic impression management techniques to enhance employee commitment, fostering improved organizational performance and reduced turnover. Highlights: Impression management positively influences employee commitment in tertiary institutions. Exemplification enhances affective commitment, ingratiation promotes continuance commitment. Organizational culture strongly moderates the relationship between impression management and employee commitment. Keywords: Impression Management, Employment Commitment, Exemplification, Ingratiation, Self-Promotion

Corporate tax avoidance and narrative disclosure tone: a developing country perspective

Purpose This study aims to examine the link between tax avoidance, corporate governance and narrative disclosure tone using a sample of public companies in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach Data for 125 companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) are collected over 10 years from 2011 to 2020. Sentiment analysis is conducted to determine the disclosure tone, and regression analysis is used to test the association between the variables. Findings This paper finds that firms that engage in tax avoidance tend to use a more positive disclosure tone and are more likely to engage in impression management. Moreover, promoting sound governance through board independence and gender diversity is associated with a less positive disclosure tone. However, firms with more family board members and higher foreign ownership are more likely to use a more positive disclosure tone. Practical implications Regulators can use this information to develop better guidelines to protect investors and ensure faithful disclosures to address both positive and negative news. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature by examining corporate tax avoidance as a determinant of narrative disclosure tone, a relationship that has not been widely explored. Moreover, as most disclosure tone research has been conducted in developed countries, this paper provides valuable evidence from a developing country.

“None of Us Wanted to be at This Party, But What a Guest List”: How Technology Workers Position Themselves on LinkedIn Following Layoffs

Mass layoffs offer a unique and understudied context to understand how affected workers communicate the involuntary, collective nature of their organizational exit. In this study, we explored the communicative strategies that workers affected by mass layoffs in the technology industry used to engage in impression management by analyzing LinkedIn posts ( N = 362). Our findings showed that workers engaged in proactive impression management by drawing on targets of identification (such as positioning themselves within the collective group of affected workers and highlighting their former membership with prestigious companies) to minimize blame for their layoff and signal their employability. Our findings also suggest that, amid environmental shock and in digital environments, individuals enact remarkably similar communicative strategies to one another, suggesting that this type of organizational exit announcement is a distinct emergent genre for impression management. We discuss our findings’ implications for our understanding of organizational exit and work-related online impression management behavior.

Intercultural communication, faith and impression management: former Muslims’ engagement with social media

ABSTRACT This study adopts a virtual ethnographic approach to delve into the intercultural communication of eight purposively selected Malaysian former Muslims through social media. It focuses on postings that contest Islamic beliefs while excluding general criticisms of Islam. Data generated, through an extended observation of participants' Facebook and Twitter accounts, were analysed using discourse analysis, focusing on impression management strategies. The findings unveiled the former Muslims' recurrent engagement in and interplay of self-promotion, ingratiation, supplication, and exemplification which elucidated their adept utilisation of IM strategies, particularly humanisation and rationalisation, in shaping their image as advocates of humanity and rational thinking.

How could you think that? Supervisor misattribution leads to reduced subsequent employee organizational citizenship behavior

PurposeFrom a social cognitive perspective, the current study examines how the relationship between the employee and the organization changes following supervisor motive misattribution of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).Design/methodology/approachThe current study utilizes an experimental vignette methodology (EVM), linear regression and Hayes' (2017) Process Version 4 macro in SPSS to examine the relationships between supervisor misattribution of employee OCB, personality and individual differences and future organizational citizenship behavior intentions.FindingsResults indicate that supervisor misattribution of employee OCB, specifically when the act is attributed to impression management, will reduce the intention to engage in future OCBs. Results also indicate that this negative relationship is enhanced when subordinates are high in openness.Research limitations/implicationsThis study extends social exchange theory by demonstrating how the misattribution of motivation to perform OCBs creates a negative social exchange and discourages future organizational citizenship behavior from the employee. The current research demonstrates the importance of supervisors understanding employees' motivations for engaging in (OCB). If an employee engages in OCB based on intrinsic motivation, such as a desire to help others, and their motivation is attributed to external motivation, such as impression management, the employee may feel misunderstood and believe their values and motivations are incorrectly perceived, leading to reduced OCB.Originality/valueThe current research is examined using EVM. By immersing participants in realistic hypothetical scenarios, experimental vignette methodology allows researchers to explore the intricacies of decision-making across unique scenarios, unraveling both the “why” and the “what next” behind decision-making.

Impression management strategies, entrepreneurial reputation, and financial resource acquisition: an empirical study in entrepreneurship

Impression management strategies, entrepreneurial reputation, and financial resource acquisition: an empirical study in entrepreneurship

“Hi. I’m Molly, Your Virtual Interviewer!” Exploring the Impact of Race and Gender in AI-Powered Virtual Interview Experiences

The persistent issue of human bias in recruitment processes poses a formidable challenge to achieving equitable hiring practices, particularly when influenced by demographic characteristics such as gender and race of both interviewers and candidates. Asynchronous Video Interviews (AVIs), powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), have emerged as innovative tools aimed at streamlining the application screening process while potentially mitigating the impact of such biases. These AI-driven platforms present an opportunity to customize the demographic features of virtual interviewers to align with diverse applicant preferences, promising a more objective and fair evaluation. Despite their growing adoption, the implications of virtual interviewer identities on candidate experiences within AVIs remain underexplored. We aim to address this research and empirical gap in this paper. To this end, we carried out a comprehensive between-subjects study involving 218 participants across six distinct experimental conditions, manipulating the gender and skin color of an AI virtual interviewer agent. Our empirical analysis revealed that while the demographic attributes of the agents did not significantly influence the overall experience of interviewees, variations in the interviewees' demographics, significantly altered their perception of the AVI process. Further, we uncovered that the mediating roles of Social Presence and Perception of the virtual interviewer critically affect interviewees' Perceptions of Fairness (+), Privacy (-), and Impression management (+).