What does it mean when managers talk about trust?

This paper investigates whether managerial rhetoric in the Management Discussion and Analysis section of 10-K filings can help gauge the level of managerial opportunism in a firm. We find that the use of trust-related words is connected to inefficient investment decisions and poor operating performa...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Breuer, Wolfgang 1966- (Author) ; Knetsch, Andreas (Author) ; Salzmann, Astrid Juliane (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2020
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2020, Volume: 166, Issue: 3, Pages: 473-488
Further subjects:B G30
B G41
B Agency problems
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B textual analysis
B Trust
B Behavioral finance
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Summary:This paper investigates whether managerial rhetoric in the Management Discussion and Analysis section of 10-K filings can help gauge the level of managerial opportunism in a firm. We find that the use of trust-related words is connected to inefficient investment decisions and poor operating performance. Furthermore, firms making more frequent use of trust-related words are subject to less monitoring by institutional investors or analysts. Their accounting also relies more heavily on discretionary accruals. These results are consistent with the notion that managerial rhetoric to advertise trustworthiness points towards agency problems plaguing the firm.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-4072-2