In financial communications, managers frequently attempt to persuade investors and other market participants to interpret information in a particular way. While research in accounting has examined characteristics that make a disclosure persuasive to investors, few papers examine whether and how...

Using a machine learning approach to analyze 12.8 million tweets posted by S&P 1500 firms from 2012 to 2016, we find that firms time financial tweets around earnings announcements, accounting filings as well as other important corporate events, and are more likely to use media (images or video)...

This paper investigates whether risk-related disclosure, which includes aggregate risk disclosure and its tone, including upside and downside risk disclosures, is value relevant for investors in the UK market. Based on 1941 firm-year observations for nonfinancial firms listed on the FTSE...

We study the links between conditional conservatism and voluntary disclosure of management private information. We argue that conditional conservatism acts as a mechanism that lends credibility to voluntary disclosure by providing a hard reporting benchmark that allows outsiders to better...

This paper examines how earnings performance relates to firms' narrative R&D disclosure decisions. The unique nature of R&D investments and financial statements' limited ability to communicate the value of such investments highlight the role of narrative disclosure as a supplement to the...

We examine the relation between shareholder activism and voluntary disclosure. An important consequence of voluntary disclosure is less adverse selection in the capital markets. One class of traders that finds less adverse selection unprofitable is activist investors who target mispriced firms...

Defining and measuring readability in the context of financial disclosures becomes important with the increasing use of textual analysis and the SEC's plain English initiative. We propose defining readability as the effective communication of valuation relevant information. The Fog Index — the...

This study examines the importance of sales executives in firms' disclosure policies. Our findings show that the fixed effects of sales executives are significant in explaining the properties of both revenue-related financial and non-financial disclosures after we control for economic...

We study firms' voluntary disclosures in a world of potential information leaks. We find that managers adapt their disclosure strategy to the likelihood and expected scope of leaks. An increasing likelihood fosters voluntary disclosure if leaks merely expose the manager's information endowment...

Using a large set of restatement announcements and regulatory filings by U.S.-listed firms between 2003 and 2009, we find evidence that managers aim to reduce litigation risk by (1) bundling negative information, such as earnings restatements, with other public announcements, and (2) leaking...