LABOR UNION AND LINGUISTIC ATTRIBUTES IN FIRM DISCLOSURE

dc.contributor.advisor Jung, Boochun
dc.contributor.author Zhang, Jiarui
dc.contributor.department Business Administration
dc.date.accessioned 2020-11-25T18:22:11Z
dc.date.available 2020-11-25T18:22:11Z
dc.date.issued 2020
dc.description.degree Ph.D.
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10125/70347
dc.subject Accounting
dc.subject Conference calls
dc.subject Content analysis
dc.subject Labor union
dc.subject Linguistic attributes
dc.subject Voluntary disclosure
dc.title LABOR UNION AND LINGUISTIC ATTRIBUTES IN FIRM DISCLOSURE
dc.type Thesis
dcterms.abstract Little research examines managers’ language itself in the presence of labor unions, especially using a rich communication channel such as earnings conference calls. By disentangling the two latent components of linguistic complexity (i.e. information and obfuscation) using conference call transcripts, I find that firms with stronger labor unions tend to disclose less information and, surprisingly, employ less obfuscation. However, the negative relation between obfuscation and union strength is driven by the loss firms subsample, indicating that the strategic obfuscation of negative news is less likely for firms with a powerful labor union in order to be forthcoming about negative information to gain bargaining power. Furthermore, I document that unionized firms tend to provide more non-factual language to add noise to disclosure, reveal less forward-looking information, and use more negative words in their narratives. This study provides a comprehensive view on the nuanced linguistic styles and contents via which firms react to labor unions.
dcterms.extent 81 pages
dcterms.language en
dcterms.publisher University of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rights All UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.type Text
local.identifier.alturi http://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:10725
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