Anticipatory impression management : evidence of selective self-presentation taken from websites of firms in the U.S. brewing industry

At the individual level people try to present themselves as possessing socially desirable character traits, because convincing others that you have a certain disposition (e.g., being competent, friendly, trustworthy) is associated with a certain expected outcome (e.g., promotion, an invitation to a party, trust). This thesis generalizes this argument to the organizational level. I argue that organizations proactively manage their projected image in a way that ensures continued resource support from its various stakeholders. It was hypothesized that projected images are selected to appeal to various stakeholders, and appeal to utilitarian and normative values according to the nature of the firm's resource interdependencies. Resource dependency theory was used to predict the organization's allocation of communication to utilitarian or normative aspects of its character. The results showed that both normative and utilitarian aspects of the firm's character were selected to be part of projected image. The firm's characteristics, specifically age, size, ownership, and market concentration were related to the relative frequency of communication dedicated to both the utilitarian and normative aspects of projected image. Content analysis of the websites of 27 firms in the U.S. Brewing industry provided data for this study