A Model of Competitive Impression Management: Edison versus Westinghouse in the War of the Currents
通过分析爱迪生与威斯汀豪斯的电流之战，提出竞争性印象管理概念，解释企业如何通过印象管理活动影响竞争对手在公众眼中的形象，对战略管理和市场营销学者有参考价值。
Organizational impression management theory traditionally explains how firms manage threats from specific events or from campaigns orchestrated by non-competitors, such as activists or regulators, but has not attempted to explain the complex dynamics of impression management campaigns orchestrated by a firm’s competitor. To address this oversight, we analyze one of the bitterest rivalries in corporate history—the war of the currents between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, which ended in the triumph of Westinghouse’s alternating current over Edison’s direct current for electric power transmission. We define competitive impression management as activity by a firm or its employees that is intended to alter the perceptions of a competing firm or its offerings in the eyes of a common audience. By combining historical case study and grounded theory methods, our findings reveal that the war of the currents unfolded across distinct chronological stages dependent on the actions and reactions of others that were shaped by audiences’ information filters. We explore the implications of our theory of campaigns and their consequences, expanding the scope of impression management theory, deepening our understanding of how organizations compete, and providing fertile ground for future research on market-based campaigns.