Management scholars have argued and demonstrated that firms use strategic noise as an anticipatory form of impression management to minimize the effect of a potential negative reaction to an event of interest. In this study, we contribute to the impression management literature by exploring how both positive and negative strategic noise may intercede in the process of reactive impression management. We argue that in reactive impression management, since firms already know the initial market reaction to a focal event, they can “strategically” release subsequent positive and/or negative strategic noise depending upon the direction and magnitude of the initial market reaction to the focal event. Using a sample of 7,575 mergers and acquisitions from 2001 to 2015 that represent our focal events, we find strong evidence to support our arguments.

中文翻译：

---

在反应性印象管理中使用战略性噪音：市场反应如何重要？

管理学者已经论证并证明，公司使用战略噪音作为印象管理的一种预期形式，以尽量减少对感兴趣事件的潜在负面反应的影响。在这项研究中，我们通过探索积极和消极的战略噪音如何在反应印象管理过程中进行调解，为印象管理文献做出贡献。我们认为，在反应性印象管理中，由于公司已经知道对焦点事件的初始市场反应，他们可以“战略性地”释放随后的积极和/或消极的战略噪音，具体取决于市场对焦点事件的初始反应的方向和幅度. 使用代表我们重点事件的 2001 年至 2015 年 7,575 次并购的样本，我们找到了强有力的证据来支持我们的论点。