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

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.