Asset Management Performance and Reputation Building for Large US Firms

SUMMARY Corporate audiences construct the reputation of firms by interpreting informational signals about the firms from various monitors. Of importance to these parties are signals about asset management. The results of our empirical study of 114 large US firms supported the general hypothesis that corporate audiences construct reputations on the basis of information about firms' asset management performance, specifically using market and accounting signals indicating size of the assets, market assessment of the value of the assets in place, asset turnover and profit margin.