The effect of corporate visibility on social media reputation management: An impression management perspective

The emergence of social media has opened new avenues for organizations to carry out their reputation management activities. Nevertheless, critical unexplained differences in corporate behaviors related to social media reputation management remain. On the basis of impression management theory and upper echelons theory, this paper argues that firms’ Weibo posting behavior—a type of social media reputation management activity—is influenced by consumer and media visibility. Furthermore, as corporate decision-making hubs, CEOs play an important role in building and maintaining corporate image. In particular, CEOs’ characteristics (i.e., educational level and narcissism) influence their perceptions of and focus on external situational factors, which in turn moderate the relationship between corporate visibility and social media reputation management behavior. Taking the listed manufacturing firms in China from 2011 to 2021 as a sample, our results reveal that firms with high levels of media and consumer visibility tend to post more on Weibo. Specifically, firms with highly educated CEOs are more likely to increase Weibo posts in highly visible situations with the media and consumers. Similarly, firms with narcissistic CEOs in highly visible situations with the media are more likely to increase the number of Weibo posts.