This study explores fund manager use of trust to reduce information complexity concerning corporate intangible resources and sustainability. Analytically, fund managers are considered part of a system with social meaning. Fund managers construct and apply their own social rationales to reduce or verify information complexity. The empirical data for this study are obtained from two focus group discussions conducted with communications executives of leading Swedish companies and experienced fund managers in the Swedish financial market.
The results suggest that fund managers oscillate between exhibiting trust and distrust when reducing the complexity of information on intangible resources and sustainability. Fund managers tend to trust the stable context of company information and strive to trust top management. Communicative dilemmas emerge when fund managers oscillate between trust and distrust. The fund manager disinterest in details emerges because of a reliance on a stable information context and company management. The representation dilemma emerges when narratives are used in corporate reporting.
We conclude that information on intangible resources and sustainability becomes socially complicated for fund managers because of the level of company judgments involved in narratives. This study contributes empirically to the knowledge concerning the social complexity of fund management.