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Cited by 893

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 2 of the 2 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Are Investors Influenced By How Earnings Press Releases Are Written?

Open access
Henry, E.·2008·Journal of Business Communication

Abstract

Earnings press releases are an important means by which many firms communicate to investors. This study examines whether investors are influenced by how earnings press releases are written - the tone and other stylistic attributes - using actual earnings press releases and archival capital markets data in a standard short-window event study. To measure the tone and other stylistic aspects of press releases, I use elementary computer-based content analysis. Tone is measured using a frequency count of positive or negative words. Other stylistic aspects are the overall length of the press release, the overall percentage of numbers versus words, and the complexity of the words used. Results suggest that tone of earnings press releases influences investors' reactions to earnings. An explanation for this result is provided by prospect theory (Tversky and Kahneman, 1981, 1986), which predicts that framing financial performance in positive terms, will cause investors to think about the results in terms of increases relative to reference points. Limited evidence is presented that other stylistic attributes of earnings press releases affect investors' reactions to earnings.

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Crossref · 10.1177/0021943608319388

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Cites

  • The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice

    Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1981) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.7455683 · Cited by 18,497 · cited 4×

    “Experimental research (Kahneman, 2002; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981, 1986) has shown that individuals’ probability-dependent judgments are affected by the terms in which expected outcomes are expressed, that is, “framing effects”; and prospect theory predicts that choices differ when outcomes are…”
    Influential
  • The Content Analysis Guidebook

    Neuendorf, K. A. (2017) · doi:10.4135/9781071802878 · Cited by 9,286 · cited 1×

    “Using term frequency counts to capture the content of a document is commonly used for textual analysis in the social sciences, where such techniques fall into the general category of analysis referred to as content analysis (Neuendorf, 2002).”

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Henry, E.
Venue
Journal of Business Communication
Published
2008-10-01
Volume
45
Issue
4
Pages
363-407
ISSN
0021-9436 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3123492911
Cited by
893
References
2
FWCI
37.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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