There are two types of Alpha: Risk adjusted Alpha and Unadjusted Alpha. The unadjusted is truly just Excess Return. The risk adjusted alpha is a better measure as it incorporates teh risk you took to achieve that alpha.
The lower the beta the likelihood of a lower IR. Lower beta with outperformance implies larger tracking error. All else equal, the manager with the higher beta will have the better IR…the denominator in the equation is likely lower. Patacon, afraid you’re wrong on your interpretation of IR. IR does not use jensen’s alpha in the numerator. It uses a simple Ra (average account return) - Rb (average benchmark return). It does not adjust the return using the excess return minus expected return. If you go to SS 16, page 54, question 12, you’ll see that the denominator in IR uses a simple excess return calculation.