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The impairment of goodwill is not only an accounting technical issue but also involves arhetorical game when justifying the impairment. Therefore, the purpose of this study has been toenhance the readers' understanding of the rhetoric found in the justifications of goodwillimpairments. This was done by examining the presentation of goodwill impairments in financialreports. The theoretical framework is based on previous research on goodwill impairments andthe theory of impression management. To address the research question, a qualitative case studywas employed as the scientific method. Furthermore, a text analysis of the annual reports of thecase companies was conducted, with a focus on the note on intangible assets. The sampleconsisted of four Swedish companies in the industrial construction and engineering industry. Theresults indicate that rhetorical categories and strategies identified in previous research were alsofound in this study. The rhetoric in the companies' justifications is interpreted as rhetoricalattempts to deny own responsibility, diminish the significance of the impairment, and make theimpairment difficult to interpret. In the analysis, the study referred back to the theoreticalframework and built upon concepts from impression management after applying them to theempirical data. This building process concluded with a summary model of how rhetoricalcategories and strategies were utilized in the data sample. After the analysis, the study could drawthe overall conclusion that the case companies attempted to influence stakeholders' perception ofthe companies in a positive manner through rhetorical presentation of the impairment.

Using data collected from the online dating site Match.com, this paper performs a content analysis examining the relationships between race, gender, and sexuality as both independent variables and as intersections on impression management strategies in online dating. Impression management strategies form a foundational core of how people interact with others in social situations. This analysis focuses on impression management strategies by examining how people advertise their body type in a public arena. Analysis also draws upon the types of bodies these people desire in an ideal date, as a second method of looking at the norms surrounding the ideal body type for a given group. Drawing upon intersectionality theories, this paper looks at potential biases in previous online dating literature towards white heterosexuals. Taking this idea into account, this analysis utilizes 892 profiles from major urban centers within the United States, approximately equal in the numbers of whites and blacks, gay/lesbians and heterosexuals, and men and women, in order to examine underrepresented populations in previous online dating literature. Findings show that body type norms based on intersectional race and gender literature appear to be more accurate predictors of proclaimed body type than only those using gender literatures. In addition, sexuality, race, and gender interactions appear to have an effect in the terminology an online dater uses in describing both themselves and the types of bodies desired in ideal dates. Contrary to prior online dating and gender literature, findings also indicate a greater willingness of women compared to men to use terms that indicate their body might be overweight. Theoretical explanations look at how positions relative to hegemonic power may be an overriding influence in the importance of body type impression management strategies.

This dissertation consists of three separate, but inter-related, studies overarching a common theme labeled "the role played by social and environmental accounting disclosures using different methodologies and framed within legitimacy theory." The first study investigates the use of different language techniques in social and environmental disclosures (SED) and tests whether the impression management hypothesis holds when disclosures are measured as such. The second study extends the "legitimacy on the Internet" arguments of Patten and Crampton (2004) by examining the content and presentation of corporate website environmental disclosure in relation to firm environmental performance of four size-matched sample groups constructed based on industry environmental sensitivity and America's Toxic 100 membership (the top 100 polluters in the US). The third study investigates whether and how Total, one of the world's largest integrated oil and gas companies headquartered in France, utilized legitimation strategies such as social and environmental disclosures, to respond to two significant environmental incidents. Taken together, these three studies build upon prior theoretical and empirical work to substantiate and advance social and environmental accounting research using various methodological lenses and perspectives.

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