Episode 08

This research explores how financial statement comparability influences the way executives communicate during earnings conference calls. The authors find that when a company’s financial reports are highly comparable to those of its industry peers, managers tend to reduce the linguistic complexity and information density of their verbal disclosures. This behavior occurs because comparable reports often inadvertently reveal proprietary data, making any additional details shared during calls more valuable to competitors.

The study was coauthored by Dr. Jung Eun Park, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems. The paper, entitled "Financial Statement Comparability and Managers’ linguistic Choices in Conference Calls" was published in the European Accounting Review in 2025. (https://doi.org/10.1080/09638180.2024.2424833)