Good Times, Bad Times

Abstract

This corpus-based keyword analysis investigates the letters to the shareholders from two commercial banks, Bank of America and Citigroup, over a 3-year period from 2008, 2009, and 2010. The letters were compiled to facilitate a diachronic analysis, an assessment of language change over a specific period, of profit/loss reporting from two prominent financial institutions over a time period in which the recession commenced, peaked, and concluded. To conduct the analysis on the node texts, two sets of reference corpora were compiled. One reference corpus set consists of the letters to shareholders from eight consistently high-performing corporations not within the commercial banking industry for each of the 3 years; the other reference corpus set consists of the letters from the 10 banking institutions that also appeared in the Fortune 500 listings for the 3-year period. The corpus-based analysis revealed that in years of low performance companies create messages that assert a vision and forward a strategy for ensuring future success while also establishing distance between management and past failures. In contrast, when companies perform well, the keyword lists display a clear tendency of the company/author to accept praise and attribute success to actions of management.

Singing from the same hymn sheet: are the chair and CEO ‘on the same page’ in their annual letters to shareholders?

“…Prior studies in accounting suggest low performing firms' chairs and CEOs use their letters to shareholders strategically to increase their persuasive potential. For example, the chairs and CEOs of low performing firms tend to use language that is more prescriptive or objective, using techniques such as referring more heavily to external factors (Poole, 2016; Laskin, 2018; Sydserff and Weetman, 2002; Kohut and Segars, 1992; Thomas, 1997) or language that is more positive (Rutherford, 2005; Moreno and Jones, 2021). On the other hand, the CEOs and chairs of high performing firms tend to use a ‘stylish’ language, a language that underscores their own personal achievements by referencing their own names and self-pronouns (Clatworthy and Jones, 2003, 2006; Poole, 2016; Laskin, 2018; Thomas, 1997).…”

“…The same hymn sheet and the chair and CEO language, a language that underscores their own personal achievements by referencing their own names and self-pronouns Jones, 2003, 2006;Poole, 2016;Laskin, 2018;Thomas, 1997). We are not aware of any research to date that directly examines the degree of similarity in the language used by the chair and CEO in their letter to shareholders and its association with a firm's financial performance.…”

“…First, the content of the letter to shareholders is largely conditioned by the financial performance of the last year (Kohut and Segars, 1992). Second, the letter to shareholders provides an opportunity for the chair and CEO to communicate strategically or to engage in impression management (Clatworthy and Jones, 2003, 2006; Poole, 2016; Laskin, 2018; Sydserff and Weetman, 2002; Kohut and Segars, 1992; Thomas, 1997; Yuthas et al ., 2002; Brennan and Merkl-Davies, 2013).…”

“…Several studies have analysed the contents of either the Chair's or the CEO's letter to reveal whether particular language attributes are used when explaining or justifying the firm's financial performance (Clatworthy and Jones, 2003, 2006; Poole, 2016; Laskin, 2018, e.g. Sydserff and Weetman, 2002; Kohut and Segars, 1992; Thomas, 1997; Yuthas et al ., 2002).…”

Rhetorical Tactics to Influence Responsibility Judgments: Account Giving in Banks Presidents’ Letters During the Financial Market Crisis

“…As a result of these broad functions, research has been wide ranging (see Cody & Dunn, 2007; Dunn, 2009), including studies about account giving and sexual harassment (Dunn & Cody, 2000), the ideological use of accounts during organizational change (Tucker, Yeow, & Viki, 2012), and denial tactics during the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico (Bamber & Parry, 2014). Another stream of research has seen significant attention because of its relevance for economic relations, namely financial communication and its diverse communication channels, for example, annual reports (Beattie, Dhanani, & Jones, 2008; Conrad, 1992; Thomas, 1997), operating and financial reviews (Rutherford, 2005), and CEO letters (Conaway & Wardrope, 2010; Hyland, 1998; Kohut & Segars, 1992; Poole, 2016).…”