PurposeThis study examines whether manipulation in attributes of corporate narrative disclosures and the use of graphical representations can bias non-professional investors' judgment towards firms' future performance, in an emerging market context.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conduct three different experiments with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, using accounting and finance senior undergraduate students to proxy for the non-professional investors.FindingsResults show that simple (more readable) disclosures improve non-professional investors' judgment towards firms' future performance. In addition, it is found that non-professional investors are prone to a recency effect from the intentional ordering of narrative information, when using complex (less readable) narratives. However, no primacy effect is found, when using simple (more readable) disclosures. The results further provide evidence that the inclusion of graphical representations, along with the manipulated narrative disclosures, can moderate the recency effect of information order, when using less readable and complex narrative disclosures.Research limitations/implicationsThe results reveal that although the content of corporate disclosures can be objective, neutral and relevant, manipulation in textual features and the use of graphical presentations, can interact to impact how non-professional investors perceive and process the disclosed information. This study provides an Egyptian evidence regarding this issue, as the majority of prior studies concentrate on developed capital markets. In addition, it contributes to prior studies evaluating the appropriateness of the Belief Adjustment Model predictions about the effect of textual presentation order on decision-making, by providing evidence from an emerging market.Practical implicationsResults attempt to increase the awareness of investors and encourage them to use multiple sources of information to avoid the probable bias that can result from management's manipulation of narratives. In addition, the study could be of interest to regulators and standard-setters, where the results reveal the need for guidelines and regulations to guide the disclosure of narrative information and the use of graphical information in corporate reports.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effect of two impression management strategies in narrative disclosures (readability and information order), along with the use of graphical representations, on non-professional investors' judgment in an emerging market, like Egypt.

PurposeThe authors investigate whether abnormal tone in corporate narrative disclosures is associated with earnings management and earnings quality, in an emerging market context. Based on agency theory and opportunistic/impression management perspective, this study examines whether executives manage disclosure tone to support their opportunistic behavior, when using earnings management.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of earnings press releases of publicly traded firms in the MENA region during 2014–2019. It employs textual analysis to measure disclosure tone. The authors estimate abnormal disclosure tone after controlling for firm characteristics. Discretionary accruals proxy for earnings management and are estimated using Modified Jones model. Earnings quality is measured using accounting-based and market-based proxies: earnings smoothness, persistence, predictability and value relevance/informativeness.FindingsResults show a positive association between abnormal disclosure tone and earnings management. Additionally, results show that earnings persistence is higher for firms with lower levels of abnormal disclosure tone. Results are sustained for earnings smoothness, but not for predictability and value relevance/informativeness.Research limitations/implicationsResults provide initial evidence of management's use of tone management jointly with earnings management. This adds to prior studies adopting the opportunistic perspective of disclosure tone, through showing that discretionary tone in narrative disclosures can be strategically used by management to influence investors' perceptions.Practical implicationsThe results provide valuable insight to board of directors, auditors and market participants on the possible biases emerging from tone of narrative disclosures in corporate reports. For regulators and standard-setters, results shed light on the need for regulations and rules beyond financial statements, to guide disclosure of narrative information in different corporate reports.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the rare evidence that investigates textual disclosure characteristics to uncover management's opportunistic practices and assess earnings quality. Where majority of studies concentrate on developed markets, this study provides novel evidence of emerging markets by examining the association between abnormal disclosure tone and earnings management/earnings quality. Also, it validates the tone management model proposed by Huang et al. (2014) for capturing tone manipulation.

Anfushi and El-Mex stations in Alexandria were seasonally analyzed during the period from Autumn 2001 to Summer 2002, to determine the levels of Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Pb and Zn to reveal their patterns of accumulation throughout different seasons. The correlation between seasonal variations and the nature of investigated stations in metal concentrations was significant. Summer recorded the highest concentrations of Cu and Zn and the lowest one for Pb. Winter recorded the lowest concentrations of Fe, Zn and Cd. while Co recorded its highest concentration in the same season. Fe recorded its highest concentration in Spring, while Autumn recorded the highest concentrations for both Cd and Pb. On the other hand, Cd, Pb and Zn concentrations in water and tissues revealed highly significant differences for stations and seasons. Co, Cu and Fe concentrations in water revealed marked differences for both seasons and stations. There were no marked differences between seasons for Co, Cu and Fe that accumulated in the soft parts of Patella tissues, while stations were significant. The highest values of Cd and Pb was reported for samples collected from El-Mex in Autumn, while the highest ratio of Cu was revealed for the same station but in Summer. The highest concentration of Co appeared in Autumn from El-Anfushi, while its lowest concentration during the same season was in Abu-Qir. Fe recorded its highest concentration in Abu-Qir station in Spring. While El-Anfushi presented the highest concentration of Zn in Summer.

Investigating Abnormal Disclosure Tone in CorporateNarratives: Evidence from an Emerging Market 1. Introduction Firms usually communicate their information to external interested parties and different stakeholders through a variety of channels, such as annual reports, corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability reports, investors' presentations, conference calls, press releases, websites etc. (Brennan and Merkl-Davies, 2018). For years, corporate reports were mainly composed of large amounts of numerical or quantitative information, with small portions of explanations and descriptions (except for footnotes with the financial statements). Since quantitative information provide users with an incomplete picture of the company's economic performance (Huang et al., 2014), there is a need to be accompanied by unstructured textual information. Nowadays, narrative or qualitative disclosures have become a very important form of disclosures, representing a major part of firms' reports (Lo et al., 2017;Masztalerz, 2016).As a result, researchers' attention was directed towards examining different characteristics and dimensions of narrative disclosures, such as length (e.g.