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Managerial career concerns and the content of corporate disclosures: An analysis of the tone of earnings press releases

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  • Arslan-Ayaydin, Özgür
  • Bishara, Norman
  • Thewissen, James
  • Torsin, Wouter

Abstract

This study examines how the narrative content of corporate disclosures is affected by managers’ career concerns, measured by the enforceability of noncompete provisions in employment contracts. We provide empirical evidence that career concerns lead managers to manipulate the content of corporate disclosures by inflating the tone of earnings press releases to convey a more optimistic picture about the firm’s financial performance. We ensure the causality of our findings by exploiting changes to noncompete enforceability following court rulings. We also show that tone inflation is stronger when CEOs are younger, less capable and less experienced, as well as for managers of firms with more independent boards, more analysts following and better governance.

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  • Arslan-Ayaydin, Özgür & Bishara, Norman & Thewissen, James & Torsin, Wouter, 2020. "Managerial career concerns and the content of corporate disclosures: An analysis of the tone of earnings press releases," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:72:y:2020:i:c:s1057521920302416
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2020.101598
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    Cited by:

    1. Özgür, Arslan-Ayaydin & Thewissen, James & Torsin, Wouter, 2021. "Earnings Management Methods and CEO Political Affiliation," LIDAM Discussion Papers LFIN 2021017, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain Finance (LFIN).
    2. Miao Jiang & Bo Zhu & Luxi Li, 2024. "Manager‐specific manipulation of tone and stock price synchronicity," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3803-3821, December.
    3. Azam Pouryousof & Farzaneh Nassirzadeh & Davood Askarany, 2023. "Inconsistency in Managers’ Disclosure Tone: The Signalling Perspective," Risks, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, November.
    4. Mbanyele, William & Huang, Hongyun, 2024. "Staggered boards, agency costs and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    5. Mounia Boulhaga & Abdelfettah Bouri & Hany Elbardan, 2022. "The effect of internal control quality on real and accrual-based earnings management: evidence from France," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 545-567, December.
    6. Samya Tahir & Mian Sajid Nazir & Muhammad Ali Jibran Qamar & M. Martin Boyer, 2022. "Ineffective implementation of corporate governance? A call for greater transparency to reduce agency cost," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(5), pages 1528-1547, July.

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