مقاله انگلیسی مدیریت ادراک در گزارش های سالانه شرکت
Abstract
Keywords
Introduction
IM during the GFC
Spanish context
Methodology
Results
Discussion and conclusions
Funding
Declarations of competing interest
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References
ABSTRACT
This paper analyses impression management (IM) during the global financial crisis (GFC). It examines the differences in multiple textual characteristics and attributions between a highly positive performance period (2002–2007) and the GFC period (2008–2012), within the setting of Spain, where these two economic cycles were extreme. In contrast to previous research, companies’ extreme poor performance in our sample is driven by an exogenous event. The findings do not show clear evidence of IM based on textual characteristics specifically linked to the GFC. Companies tried not to use overt IM and, to some extent, tried to clarify the impact of the crisis on performance. They were under great scrutiny and probably preferred to tell a more careful story. However, a general pattern of IM was still present during the GFC in the form of consistent positive attributions, favourable benchmarks and enhancement practices. In essence, the crisis did not fully stop IM practices, but rather influenced the way IM was produced. Overall, our results show that IM was lower during the GFC than in the case of poor performance in normal macroeconomic conditions found by previous literature. The results also show that the narratives of firms in the finance and real estate sectors were the most reactive to the GFC, probably linked to their key role in the crisis.
Introduction
Previous literature has tried to relate performance and impression management (IM) in corporate reporting. Researchers usually attempt to identify different patterns in textual characteristics between high- and low-performing companies by selecting top and bottom companies (Cen & Cai, 2013, 2014; Clatworthy & Jones, 2006; Courtis, 1998). They select different companies in a single year or in two consecutive years. Poor performance is therefore driven by firm-specific circumstances. By contrast, this paper responds to requests to analyse the influence of an exogenous event, such as the global financial crisis (GFC), on IM (Oliveira, Azevedo, & Borges, 2016; Sandell & Svensson, 2016). This paper analyses multiple textual characteristics in the chairperson’s statement (CS)1 in the same companies in two extreme periods in Spain. The first period was very successful and profitable. The second, determined by the GFC, was extremely negative.