IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v124y2014i1p19-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is the Optimism in CEO’s Letters to Shareholders Sincere? Impression Management Versus Communicative Action During the Economic Crisis

Author

Listed:
  • Lorenzo Patelli
  • Matteo Pedrini

Abstract

In this study, we explore the sincerity of the rhetorical tone of 664 annual letters to shareholders (CEO letters). Prior studies adopt Impression Management theory to predict that firms obfuscate failures and emphasize successes to unfairly enhance their image and maintain organizational legitimacy. Yuthas et al. (J Bus Ethics 41:141–157, 2002 ) challenged such a view, showing that firms reporting earnings surprises engage in ethical discourse with shareholders. We adopt the methodology of Yuthas et al. (J Bus Ethics 41:141–157, 2002 ) to explore the association between firm performance and the rhetorical features of CEO letters in a large sample of Fortune 500 firms in the wake of the global economic crisis. In contrast to most prior research, we find that optimistic tone is congruent with both past and future performance. We conclude that under tough macroeconomic conditions, incentives to distort public information strategically are low. Rather, firms tend to engage in communicative action aimed at dialoguing with shareholders through sincere disclosure. However, in our conclusions, we warn about the impact of accounting and rhetorical manipulation on the congruence between optimistic tone and financial performance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Lorenzo Patelli & Matteo Pedrini, 2014. "Is the Optimism in CEO’s Letters to Shareholders Sincere? Impression Management Versus Communicative Action During the Economic Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 19-34, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:124:y:2014:i:1:p:19-34
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1855-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-013-1855-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-013-1855-3?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. Cho, Charles H. & Roberts, Robin W. & Patten, Dennis M., 2010. "The language of US corporate environmental disclosure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 431-443, May.
    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. Aerts, Walter, 2005. "Picking up the pieces: impression management in the retrospective attributional framing of accounting outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 493-517, August.
    4. Shuping Chen & Dawn A. Matsumoto, 2006. "Favorable versus Unfavorable Recommendations: The Impact on Analyst Access to Management‐Provided Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 657-689, September.
    5. 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.
    6. Melina Alexa & Cornelia Zuell, 2000. "Text Analysis Software: Commonalities, Differences and Limitations: The Results of a Review," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 299-321, August.
    7. Angela K. Davis & Jeremy M. Piger & Lisa M. Sedor, 2012. "Beyond the Numbers: Measuring the Information Content of Earnings Press Release Language," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 845-868, September.
    8. Mark Clatworthy & Michael Jones, 2003. "Financial reporting of good news and bad news: evidence from accounting narratives," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 171-185.
    9. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    10. Lorenzo Patelli & Matteo Pedrini, 2015. "Is Tone at the Top Associated with Financial Reporting Aggressiveness?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 3-19, January.
    11. Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & David Obstfeld, 2005. "Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 409-421, August.
    12. James Weber, 2010. "Assessing the “Tone at the Top”: The Moral Reasoning of CEOs in the Automobile Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 167-182, March.
    13. Mark A. Clatworthy & Michael John Jones, 2006. "Differential patterns of textual characteristics and company performance in the chairman's statement," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(4), pages 493-511, July.
    14. Albert H. Segars & Gary F. Kohut, 2001. "Strategic communication through the world wide web: an empirical model of effectiveness in the ceo’s letter to shareholders," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 535-556, June.
    15. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh Brennan, 2007. "Discretionary disclosure strategies in corporate narratives : incremental information or impression management?," Open Access publications 10197/2907, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    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. Yubin Qian & Ya Sun, 2021. "The Correlation Between Annual Reports’ Narratives and Business Performance: A Retrospective Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    2. Ye Li & Yajun Zhang & Lu Lu & Junwei Zhang & Xiuli Sun, 2023. "Laughters Nurturing Tears for Leaders and Organizations: The Implications of Leader Humor for Leader Workplace Deviance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(3), pages 603-621, December.
    3. Curtis L. Wesley & Gregory W. Martin & Darryl B. Rice & Connor J. Lubojacky, 2022. "Do the Right Thing: The Imprinting of Deonance at the Upper Echelons," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 187-213, September.
    4. Qian Wang & Duowen Wu & Lina Yan, 2021. "Effect of positive tone in MD&A disclosure on capital structure adjustment speed: evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5809-5845, December.
    5. Naima Lassoued & Imen Khanchel, 2023. "Voluntary CSR disclosure and CEO narcissism: the moderating role of CEO duality and board gender diversity," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1075-1123, April.
    6. Xi Fu & Xiaoxi Wu & Zhifang Zhang, 2021. "The Information Role of Earnings Conference Call Tone: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 643-660, October.
    7. Hesham Bassyouny & Tarek Abdelfattah, 2022. "Executives vs. governance: Who has the predictive power? Evidence from narrative tone," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 361-382, January.
    8. Dongwook Kim & Sungbum Kim, 2017. "Sustainable Supply Chain Based on News Articles and Sustainability Reports: Text Mining with Leximancer and DICTION," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-44, June.
    9. Liu, Pu & Nguyen, Hazel T., 2020. "CEO characteristics and tone at the top inconsistency," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Runesson, Emmeli & Samani, Niuosha, 2023. "Goodwill or “No-will”: Hubris in the tone at the top," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1).
    11. Fiset, John & Oldford, Erin & Chu, Shaner, 2021. "Market signaling capacity of written and visual charismatic leadership tactics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    12. Afego, Pyemo N. & Alagidede, Imhotep P., 2021. "What does corporate social advocacy signal? Evidence from boycott participation decisions," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue forthcomi.
    13. Sarel, Roee & Demirtas, Melanie, 2021. "Delegation in a multi-tier court system: Are remands in the U.S. federal courts driven by moral hazard?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Ahlem Dabbebi & Naima Lassoued & Imen Khanchel, 2022. "Peering through the smokescreen: ESG disclosure and CEO personality," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 3147-3164, October.
    15. Bassyouny, Hesham & Abdelfattah, Tarek & Tao, Lei, 2022. "Narrative disclosure tone: A review and areas for future research," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    16. Yoojung Ahn, 2022. "A Socio-cognitive Model of Sustainability Performance: Linking CEO Career Experience, Social Ties, and Attention Breadth," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 303-321, January.
    17. Corinne Bessieux-Ollier & Grégoire Davrinche & Guillaume Dumas, 2022. "L'adaptation de la communication financière face à la crise COVID : le cas des résultats non-GAAP," Post-Print hal-03948560, HAL.
    18. Fedorova, E. & Afanasev, D. & Nersesyan, R. & Ledyaeva, S., 2020. "Impact of non-financial information on key financial indicators of Russian companies," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 73-96.
    19. Johannes Brunzel, 2023. "Linguistic cues of chief executive officer personality and its effect on performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 215-243, January.
    20. Manjul Gupta & Amulya Gupta & Karlene Cousins, 2022. "Toward the understanding of the constituents of organizational culture: The embedded topic modeling analysis of publicly available employee‐generated reviews of two major U.S.‐based retailers," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(10), pages 3668-3686, October.
    21. Elena Beccalli & Saverio Bozzolan & Enrico Laghi & Marco Mattei, 2018. "Do letters to shareholders inform or mislead? Insights from insider trading," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2018(2), pages 73-109.
    22. Corinne Bessieux-Ollier & Grégoire Davrinche & Guillaume Dumas, 2022. "L'adaptation de la communication financière face à la crise COVID : le cas des résultats non-GAAP," Post-Print hal-03948567, HAL.
    23. Javid Iqbal & Khalid Riaz, 2022. "Predicting future financial performance of banks from management’s tone in the textual disclosures," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 2691-2721, August.
    24. Iqbal, Javid & Saeed, Abubakr, 2023. "Managerial sentiments, non-performing loans, and banks financial performance: A causal mediation approach," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    25. Saverio Bozzolan & Giovanna Michelon & Marco Mattei & Andrea Giornetti, 2019. "Signing the letter to shareholders: Does the Signatory?s role relate to impression management?," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1), pages 37-82.

    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. Lorenzo Patelli & Matteo Pedrini, 2015. "Is Tone at the Top Associated with Financial Reporting Aggressiveness?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 3-19, January.
    2. Berkin, Anil & Aerts, Walter & Van Caneghem, Tom, 2023. "Feasibility analysis of machine learning for performance-related attributional statements," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    3. Walid Ben‐Amar & Merridee Bujaki & Bruce McConomy & Philip McIlkenny, 2022. "Disclosure transparency and impression management: A textual analysis of board gender diversity disclosures in Canada," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1247-1265, September.
    4. Xi Fu & Xiaoxi Wu & Zhifang Zhang, 2021. "The Information Role of Earnings Conference Call Tone: Evidence from Stock Price Crash Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 643-660, October.
    5. Ingrid E. Fisher & Margaret R. Garnsey & Mark E. Hughes, 2016. "Natural Language Processing in Accounting, Auditing and Finance: A Synthesis of the Literature with a Roadmap for Future Research," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(3), pages 157-214, July.
    6. Niamh Brennan & Encarna Guillamon-Saorin & Aileen Pierce, 2009. "Impression management : developing and illustrating a scheme of analysis for narrative disclosures – a methodological note," Open Access publications 10197/2905, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    7. YAN, Beibei & AERTS, Walter, 2014. "Rhetorical impression management in corporate narratives and institutional environment," Working Papers 2014014, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    8. Ralf Barkemeyer & Breeda Comyns & Frank Figge & Giulio Napolitano, 2014. "CEO statements in sustainability reports: Substantive information or background noise?," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 241-257, December.
    9. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    10. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh Brennan & Stuart McLeay, 2011. "Impression management and retrospective sense-making in corporate narratives : a social psychology perspective," Open Access publications 10197/2900, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    11. 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.
    12. Kshitij Khanna & Helen Irvine, 2018. "Communicating the Impact of the Global Financial Crisis in Annual Reports: A Study of Australian NGOs," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(1), pages 109-126, March.
    13. Saverio Bozzolan & Giovanna Michelon & Marco Mattei & Andrea Giornetti, 2019. "Signing the letter to shareholders: Does the Signatory?s role relate to impression management?," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2019(1), pages 37-82.
    14. Wanli Li & Tiantian Yan & Yue Li & Ziqiao Yan, 2023. "Earnings management and CSR report tone: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1883-1902, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Niamh Brennan & Doris M. Merkl-Davies, 2013. "Accounting Narratives and Impression Management," Open Access publications 10197/4949, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    17. Jessica H. Yang & Siwen Liu, 2017. "Accounting narratives and impression management on social media," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(6), pages 673-694, September.
    18. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh M. Brennan, 2011. "A conceptual framework of impression management: new insights from psychology, sociology and critical perspectives," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 415-437, December.
    19. Yuriko Nakao & Katsuhiko Kokubu & Kimitaka Nishitani, 2019. "Do Sustainability Reports Strategically Employ Rhetorical Tone? : An evidence from Japan," Discussion Papers 2019-01, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    20. Chen, Zhenhua & Loftus, Serena, 2019. "Multi-method evidence on investors’ reactions to managers’ self-inclusive language," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    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:kap:jbuset:v:124:y:2014:i:1:p:19-34. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.