Companies need to disclose their information, both financial and non-financial, not only to comply with requirements, standards, and regulations but also to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Increasingly competitive markets impact companies by demanding a favorable and acceptable image, which allows them recognition and visibility. In this context, information preparers’ use of Impression Management strategies to hide negative disclosures and highlight positive information in their reports is relevant. For this study, a systematic literature review was carried out, with scientific articles obtained from the Scopus database, to provide structured knowledge about the investigation in Impression Management. The results allowed us to know the evolution of the research on Impression Management, verifying that organizations use several IM strategies to highlight their performance, namely, the concealment of negative impacts; the strategic manipulation of reports; the word count; the presentation of images and sentimental expressions; the reference to financial and benchmarking indicators; to self-promotion measures and the attribution of positive factors to internal causes and negative aspects to external causes. The results also allowed us to identify the theories that have supported studies on Impression Management, as well as to provide clues for future research.

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Impression Management Strategies in Companies’ Reports - Systematic Literature Review

  • Maria de Fátima Simões,
  • Augusta Ferreira

摘要

Companies need to disclose their information, both financial and non-financial, not only to comply with requirements, standards, and regulations but also to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Increasingly competitive markets impact companies by demanding a favorable and acceptable image, which allows them recognition and visibility. In this context, information preparers’ use of Impression Management strategies to hide negative disclosures and highlight positive information in their reports is relevant. For this study, a systematic literature review was carried out, with scientific articles obtained from the Scopus database, to provide structured knowledge about the investigation in Impression Management. The results allowed us to know the evolution of the research on Impression Management, verifying that organizations use several IM strategies to highlight their performance, namely, the concealment of negative impacts; the strategic manipulation of reports; the word count; the presentation of images and sentimental expressions; the reference to financial and benchmarking indicators; to self-promotion measures and the attribution of positive factors to internal causes and negative aspects to external causes. The results also allowed us to identify the theories that have supported studies on Impression Management, as well as to provide clues for future research.