IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v55y2016icp83-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investor reactions to management earnings guidance attributions: The effects of news valence, attribution locus, and outcome controllability

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Wei
  • Han, Jun
  • Tan, Hun-Tong

Abstract

We conduct two experiments to investigate how investors react to attributions accompanying management guidance. In our first experiment, we find that investors provide lower earnings estimates when management attributes negative guidance news to external factors than internal factors. When the guidance news is positive, the locus (internal versus external) of the attributions has no effect on investors' earnings estimates. In our second experiment, we separate out the effect of the attribution's outcome controllability (controllable versus uncontrollable) from that of attribution locus in a negative guidance news setting. We find that investors provide higher earnings estimates for internal and outcome controllable attributions than for internal and outcome uncontrollable attributions attributions. Outcome controllability does not matter when attributions are external. Our study extends prior research by showing how the valence of management guidance and the characteristics of guidance attributions jointly influence investors' earnings judgments.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Wei & Han, Jun & Tan, Hun-Tong, 2016. "Investor reactions to management earnings guidance attributions: The effects of news valence, attribution locus, and outcome controllability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 83-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:55:y:2016:i:c:p:83-95
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2016.10.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368216300885
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2016.10.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skinner, Dj, 1994. "Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Bad-News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 38-60.
    2. Stephen P. Baginski & John M. Hassell & Michael D. Kimbrough, 2004. "Why Do Managers Explain Their Earnings Forecasts?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 1-29, March.
    3. Elliott, W.B. & Hodge, F. & Kennedy, J.J. & Pronk, M., 2007. "Are MBA students a good proxy for nonprofessional investors?," Other publications TiSEM 20271f1d-d385-4122-a175-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Mark H. Lang & Russell J. Lundholm, 2000. "Voluntary Disclosure and Equity Offerings: Reducing Information Asymmetry or Hyping the Stock?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 623-662, December.
    5. Barton, Jan & Mercer, Molly, 2005. "To blame or not to blame: Analysts' reactions to external explanations for poor financial performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 509-533, September.
    6. Lee, Fiona & Tiedens, Larissa Z., 2001. "Who's Being Served? "Self-Serving" Attributions in Social Hierarchies," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 254-287, March.
    7. Bengt Holmstrom, 1979. "Moral Hazard and Observability," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 10(1), pages 74-91, Spring.
    8. Amy P. Hutton & Gregory S. Miller & Douglas J. Skinner, 2003. "The Role of Supplementary Statements with Management Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 867-890, December.
    9. Kristina Rennekamp, 2012. "Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions to Disclosure Readability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1319-1354, December.
    10. Lisa Koonce & Jeffrey Miller & Jennifer Winchel, 2015. "The Effects of Norms on Investor Reactions to Derivative Use," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 1529-1554, December.
    11. Koonce, Lisa & Seybert, Nick & Smith, James, 2011. "Causal reasoning in financial reporting and voluntary disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 209-225.
    12. Joseph Farrell & Matthew Rabin, 1996. "Cheap Talk," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 103-118, Summer.
    13. Baginski, Stephen P & Hassell, John M & Hillison, William A, 2000. "Voluntary Causal Disclosures: Tendencies and Capital Market Reaction," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 371-389, December.
    14. Hirst, De & Koonce, L & Simko, Pj, 1995. "Investor Reactions To Financial Analysts Research Reports," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 335-351.
    15. Han, Jcy & Wild, Jj, 1991. "Stock-Price Behavior Associated With Managers Earnings And Revenue Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 79-95.
    16. Jun Han & Hun‐Tong Tan, 2010. "Investors' Reactions to Management Earnings Guidance: The Joint Effect of Investment Position, News Valence, and Guidance Form," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 123-146, March.
    17. Lisa Koonce & Marlys Gascho Lipe, 2010. "Earnings Trend and Performance Relative to Benchmarks: How Consistency Influences Their Joint Use," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 859-884, September.
    18. Jun Han & Hun‐Tong Tan, 2010. "Investors' Reactions to Management Earnings Guidance: The Joint Effect of Investment Position, News Valence, and Guidance Form," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 81-104, March.
    19. Hodge, Frank & Hopkins, Patrick E. & Pratt, Jamie, 2006. "Management reporting incentives and classification credibility: The effects of reporting discretion and reputation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 623-634, October.
    20. D. Eric Hirst & Lisa Koonce & Shankar Venkataraman, 2007. "How Disaggregation Enhances the Credibility of Management Earnings Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 811-837, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brown, T. & Grant, Stephanie M. & Winn, Amanda M., 2020. "The effect of mobile device use and headline focus on investor judgments," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Joseph A. Johnson & Jochen Theis & Adam Vitalis & Donald Young, 2020. "The Influence of Firms' Emissions Management Strategy Disclosures on Investors' Valuation Judgments†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 642-664, June.
    3. Lei Dong & Bernard Wong‐On‐Wing, 2021. "Does causally linking nonfinancial measures influence investors' use of management’s disclosures of nonfinancial information?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 2269-2299, April.
    4. Grant, Stephanie M. & Hodge, Frank D. & Sinha, Roshan K., 2018. "How disclosure medium affects investor reactions to CEO bragging, modesty, and humblebragging," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 68, pages 118-134.
    5. Jochen Theis & Marvin Nipper & Marco Meier, 2024. "The influence of corporate philanthropic donations on private investors' valuation judgments: Experimental evidence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 540-554, January.
    6. Stefania Mariana VOICU, 2023. "Theoretical Management Enterprise Model in Global Market. Profitability and Rentability," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 2, pages 166-170.
    7. Wallbach, Sören, 2020. "Assimilation and Diffusion of Multi-Sided Platforms in Dynamic B2B Networks: Inhibiting Factors and Their Consequences," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 123277, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    8. Wilkin, Carla & Ferreira, Aldónio & Rotaru, Kristian & Gaerlan, Luigi Red, 2020. "Big data prioritization in SCM decision-making: Its role and performance implications," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    9. Mark Brosnan & Keith Duncan & Tim Hasso & Janice Hollindale, 2023. "Non‐GAAP earnings and executive compensation: An experiment," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4375-4398, December.
    10. Martin, Rachel, 2019. "Examination and implications of experimental research on investor perceptions," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 145-169.
    11. Javid Iqbal, 2019. "Managerial Self-Attribution Bias and Banks’ Future Performance: Evidence from Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-32, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Zhenhua & Loftus, Serena, 2019. "Multi-method evidence on investors’ reactions to managers’ self-inclusive language," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Martin, Rachel, 2019. "Examination and implications of experimental research on investor perceptions," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 145-169.
    3. Han, Jun, 2013. "A literature synthesis of experimental studies on management earnings guidance," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 49-70.
    4. Wei Li, 2017. "Level of business insights in the MD&A and nonprofessional investors' judgments," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(4), pages 1043-1069, December.
    5. Asay, H. Scott & Libby, Robert & Rennekamp, Kristina M., 2018. "Do features that associate managers with a message magnify investors’ reactions to narrative disclosures?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 68, pages 1-14.
    6. Cianci, Anna M. & Kaplan, Steven E., 2010. "The effect of CEO reputation and explanations for poor performance on investors' judgments about the company's future performance and management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 478-495, May.
    7. Lisa M. Gaynor & Andrea S. Kelton, 2014. "The effects of analyst forecasts and earnings trends on perceptions of management forecast credibility," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(1), pages 189-210, March.
    8. Rogers, Jonathan L. & Van Buskirk, Andrew, 2013. "Bundled forecasts in empirical accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 43-65.
    9. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    10. Thorsten Knauer & Christian Ledwig & Andreas Wömpener, 2012. "Zur Wertrelevanz freiwilliger Managementprognosen in Deutschland," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 64(2), pages 166-204, March.
    11. Skarlicki, Daniel & Lo, Kin & Rogo, Rafael & Avolio, Bruce J. & DeHaas, CodieAnn, 2023. "The role of CEO accounts and perceived integrity in analysts’ forecasts," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Francois Brochet & Lucile Faurel & Sarah Mcvay, 2011. "Manager‐Specific Effects on Earnings Guidance: An Analysis of Top Executive Turnovers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 1123-1162, December.
    13. Lei Dong & Bernard Wong‐On‐Wing, 2021. "Does causally linking nonfinancial measures influence investors' use of management’s disclosures of nonfinancial information?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 2269-2299, April.
    14. Feng Gu & John Q. Li, 2007. "The Credibility of Voluntary Disclosure and Insider Stock Transactions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 771-810, September.
    15. Libby, Robert & Rennekamp, Kristina M. & Seybert, Nicholas, 2015. "Regulation and the interdependent roles of managers, auditors, and directors in earnings management and accounting choice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 25-42.
    16. Niamh M. Brennan & Encarna Guillamon‐Saorin & Aileen Pierce, 2009. "Methodological Insights," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(5), pages 789-832, June.
    17. Robert Libby & Kristina Rennekamp, 2012. "Self‐Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 197-231, March.
    18. Grant, Stephanie M. & Hodge, Frank D. & Sinha, Roshan K., 2018. "How disclosure medium affects investor reactions to CEO bragging, modesty, and humblebragging," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 68, pages 118-134.
    19. García Osma, Beatriz & Guillamón-Saorín, Encarna, 2011. "Corporate governance and impression management in annual results press releases," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 187-208.
    20. Angela K. Davis & Jeremy M. Piger & Lisa M. Sedor, 2006. "Beyond the numbers: an analysis of optimistic and pessimistic language in earnings press releases," Working Papers 2006-005, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:55:y:2016:i:c:p:83-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.