Paper Title
Signals in Strategy Research: Defining Signals, Locating Senders, and Questioning Intentions
Abstract
This paper reviews and systematizes the strategic management literature that has empirically tested signals.
Research has included both focal firm and third-party senders and has furthermore implicitly acknowledged that signals may
be unintended. While this complexity provides a more accurate view of an actual signaling environment, it leads to terms
having many definitions and an inability to accumulate results. An organizing framework is presented that allows for
detailed examination of the signal construct, and overarching questions provide researchers with avenues for future research
that would provide signaling research with a more coherent and consistent structure.
Keywords - Signals, Strategy, Literature Review