Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of the quality of online corporate reporting (OCR) by UK listed firms on analyst behaviour. Using a proposed new OCR index, we find that higher quality of OCR is related to increased analyst following. Additionally, we find that the main OCR component that drives analyst following is financial information content. However, we find no association between the quality of OCR and properties of analyst EPS forecasts as proxied by error in analyst EPS forecasts, dispersion in analyst EPS forecasts and common uncertainty in analyst information environment. We also investigate the direction of causality between OCR quality and analyst following and find that the later has no impact on the first. Furthermore, we find no evidence that herding behaviour by financial analysts in the UK has interrupted the association between the quality of OCR and forecast properties. Our results contribute to the understanding of the role of analysts as information intermediaries in providing information to investors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 59-88 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Financial analysts
- disclosure quality
- online corporate reporting
- analyst behaviour
- analyst herding