A literature review on impression management techniques usage in financial reporting

Impression management is a concept that has been developed in the field of social psychology and has initially been used in individual behaviour analysis. With time the concept broadened and has found its usage in the field of economics, especially in the financial reporting domain. Generally, impression management can be described as usage of certain reporting techniques with the specific aim of improving image of the company among public. This topic is rather appealing and relevant in the time period following the global financial crisis and in time of increased global competition among companies. In this paper the authors will present a literature review of existing research on the topic of impression management. Various impression management techniques used by companies in financial reporting will be explored. Special accentuation will be made on presentation of distinctions found by research studies on impression management techniques usage in companies of various samples (for example different countries, company size and company orientation). Expected contribution of the paper is twofold: firstly, the authors will present a literature review and synthetize the results of available research on the topic of impression management techniques in financial reporting and secondly, a critical review will be made on potential gaps present in available research