SYNOPSIS Several studies have pointed to the transformative effects of blockchain on a wide spectrum firms, industries, and professions. Despite arguable consensus within business community that will real impact way firms do business, views diverge when it comes timing diffusion (i.e., achieve mass adoption). We propose information gathering helps potential adopters form expectations regarding payoffs from adoption. Information-gathering activities resulting sources, such as web searches,...

This study examines the informativeness of firm disclosures related to COVID-19 in earnings conference calls and annual reports (10-K) during first quarter 2020 when firms face tremendous uncertainty little regulatory guidance. We find that investors react discussions made presentation but not those Q&A session. further managers' tone does provide information incremental discussions. finding suggests fixate their attention on overwhelming event ignore sentiment signals from managers. In our...

Several studies have pointed to the transformative effects of blockchain on a wide spectrum firms, industries, and professions. While there is consensus within business community that will real impact way firms do business, views diverge when it comes timing diffusion (i.e., achieve mass adoption). In this study we propose information gathering helps potential adopters form expectations regarding payoffs from adoption. Therefore, activities resulting sources, such as web searches, news...

The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become the world's center of attention in 2020. In this paper, we examine firm disclosures COVID-19 during first quarter 2020, a time when firms face tremendous uncertainty and have little guidance on what how to disclose. We compare Coronavirus-related SEC filings earnings conference calls with timeline spread information gathering disseminating activities Google searches news articles. find that initial corporate are driven by demand, managers...

ABSTRACT Human capital (HC) is increasingly important to corporate value creation. Unlike other assets, however, HC not currently subject well-defined measurement or disclosure rules. We use a machine learning algorithm (word2vec) trained on confirmed set of disclosures develop comprehensive list HC-related keywords classified into five subcategories (DEI; health and safety; labor relations culture; compensation benefits; demographics other) that capture the multidimensional nature...

In November 2020, the SEC issued amendments to Regulation S-K requiring filers provide expanded discussion related firm's human capital (HC). This study provides first large-sample descriptive evidence resulting HC disclosures during year of regulation's implementation. Our findings confirm that, in absence detailed guidance under principles-based regulation, filers' are extremely heterogeneous terms their length, numerical intensity, tone, readability, and similarity with peer firms. The...

Blockchain, big data, and internet of things are just a few the over 200 technologies introduced in last 15 years. Technology adoption/diffusion has significant implications for adopting firms, suppliers these technologies, investors. Approaching technology adoption from strategic standpoint (i.e., potential source competitive advantage); objective this study is to develop framework predicting diffusion using publicly available data. The proposed integrates elements cycle, hype cycles...

We study the informativeness of corporate disclosures in an environment extreme uncertainty by using COVID-19 pandemic as setting. During initial stage pandemic, firms had to respond unprecedented crisis with little prior experience or guidance from regulators. find that annual reports appeared have been informative investors during this period uncertainty. Using two measures disclosure quality derived unsupervised machine learning, we market reacts more strongly are firm-specific....

Human capital (HC) is increasingly important to corporate value creation. Unlike other assets, however, HC not currently subject well-defined measurement or disclosure rules. We use a semi-supervised machine learning algorithm (word2vec) trained on confirmed set of disclosures develop comprehensive list HC-related keywords classified into five subcategories (diversity, equity, and inclusion; health safety; labor relations culture; compensation benefits; demographics other) that capture the...

Unequal access to costly datasets essential for empirical research has long hindered researchers from disadvantaged institutions, limiting their ability contribute fields and advance careers. Recent breakthroughs in Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential democratize data by automating collection unstructured sources. We develop evaluate a novel methodology using GPT-4o-mini within Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework collect corporate disclosures. Our approach achieves...

This study examines the relation between narrative risk disclosures and accounting conservatism by utilizing SEC's 2005 mandate that firms disclose "the most significant factors make company speculative or risky" in their 10-K filings. By viewing such factor (RFDs) as an integral part of financial reporting disclosure, I hypothesize RFDs likely affect firms' choice two ways, substitutive effect stimulative effect. On one hand, may substitute for revealing important information partly meet...

We examine whether the U.S. partisan gap over COVID-19 pandemic finds its way into corporate decisions in terms of how firms communicate impact to investors. Specifically, we executives' political leanings affect their firms' qualitative disclosures regarding pandemic. find that led by Republican-leaning executives not only provide a smaller amount COVID disclosure quarterly financial reports but also use language more positive tone, compared Democratic-leaning executives. This finding is...

We study the informativeness of corporate disclosures in an environment extreme uncertainty by using COVID-19 pandemic as setting. During initial stage pandemic, firms had to respond unprecedented crisis with little prior experience or guidance from regulators. find that annual reports appeared have been informative investors during this period uncertainty. Using two measures disclosure quality derived unsupervised machine learning, we market reacts more strongly are firm-specific....

We examine whether note disclosures play an enhanced role in value relevance when financial statement line item placement becomes more uniformly prominent. consider ASU 2011-05, which prohibited reporting other comprehensive income (“OCI”) the of changes stockholders’ equity. document that firms changing OCI exhibited incremental positive relevance, with FASB’s goal raising prominence. This finding resolves puzzling findings early studies, documented decrease relevance. then find this effect...