Beibei Yan, Walter Aerts and James Thewissen
This paper aims to investigate the informativeness of rhetorical impression management patterns of CEO letters and examines whether these rhetorical features affect financial…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the informativeness of rhetorical impression management patterns of CEO letters and examines whether these rhetorical features affect financial analysts’ forecasting behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use textual analysis on a sample of 526 CEO letters of US firms and apply factor analysis on individual linguistic style measures to identify co-occurrence patterns of style features.
Findings
The authors identify three holistic style patterns (assertive acclaiming, cautious plausibility-based framing and logic-based rationalizing) and find that assertive rhetorical feature in CEO letters is negatively related with the dispersion of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts and positively associated with earnings forecast accuracy. CEOs’ use of a rationalizing rhetorical pattern tends to decrease the dispersion of financial analysts’ earnings, whereas a cautious plausibility-based rhetorical position is only marginally instrumental in getting more accurate earnings predictions.
Practical implications
Whilst impression management communication is often theorized as manipulative and void of real information content, the findings suggest that impression management serves both self-presentation and information-sharing purposes.
Originality/value
This paper elaborates on the co-occurrence of style characteristics in management communication and is a first attempt to validate the external ramifications of holistic style profiles of corporate narratives by focusing on an economic target audience.
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Lixia Wang, Xin Zhang, Beibei Yan and Vigdis Boasson
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the internal logical relationship between two intergenerational inheritance ways of passing property rights and residual control rights (RCR) and to construct a conceptual model comprising transfer elements, paths and timing of succession in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Driven by the cases of Haixin, Tianyijiao and Changhe Group, this paper applies research methods of copying and expanding analysis logic, progressive deduction, content analysis and comparative research based on the perspective of HeXie theory to explore the deep interrelation of transfer elements, paths and timing during family business succession.
Findings
The findings present that the content of intergenerational inheritance of a family firm is the inheritance of property rights and RCR. First, the inheritance of property rights is a static inheritance of time-point delivery, whereas the inheritance of RCR is a dynamic inheritance process for a period of time. Second, the inheritance of property rights and RCR are not independent; only a “HeXie” succession of both rights can realize a successful inheritance of family firms.
Originality/value
This paper constructs the paths and timing model of intergenerational inheritance of property rights and RCR in family firms. This paper integrates the current literature studies on the family inheritance of property rights and RCR and explains their internal mechanisms. This paper also provides a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for family business transitions in the business world.
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Using composite style measures of the letter to shareholders, the purpose of this paper is to elaborate dominant rhetorical profiles and qualify them from an impression management…
Abstract
Purpose
Using composite style measures of the letter to shareholders, the purpose of this paper is to elaborate dominant rhetorical profiles and qualify them from an impression management (IM) perspective. In addition, the paper examines how institutional differences affect rhetorical profiles by comparing intensity and contingencies of rhetorical profiles of UK and US companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use automated text analysis to capture linguistic style characteristics of a panel of UK and US companies and employ factor analysis to determine rhetorical profiles. Next, the authors investigate company-level and country-level determinants of a company’s rhetorical stance.
Findings
The authors document three prominent rhetorical profiles: an emphatic acclaiming stance, a cautious plausibility-based framing position, and a logic-based rationalizing orientation. The profiles represent distinct self-presentational logics and have different readability effects. Rhetorical IM is stronger in US companies, but higher expected scrutiny in the US institutional environment affects sensitivity of rhetorical postures to message credibility and litigation risk, while marginally increasing the less litigation-sensitive defensive framing style in US letters.
Originality/value
The authors develop replicable archival-based measures of prominent rhetorical IM traits of the shareholder letter, based on composite style features. The authors argue that they are qualitatively different from content-based IM proxies. The authors investigate their institutional and organizational relevance by examining how company features and country-level differences affect incentives and constraints for style-based rhetorical IM.
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Beibei Yan, Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin, James Thewissen and Wouter Torsin
Prior research shows that managers with lower ability release less accurate management earnings forecasts and have more earnings restatements, lower earnings persistence and lower…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research shows that managers with lower ability release less accurate management earnings forecasts and have more earnings restatements, lower earnings persistence and lower quality accruals estimations. Yet, whether the impact of managerial ability (MA) on financial reporting can be extended to the narrative section of firms' financial disclosures needs to be theoretically and empirically examined. The authors theorize in this paper that managers with low ability opportunistically inflate the tone to increase outsiders' perceptions of their ability. The authors also examine the relation between MA and the informativeness of tone to predict future firm performance and explain investors' reaction at earnings announcement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collect 24,000 earnings press releases of 1,149 distinct firms between 2004 and 2013. Content analysis is used to proxy the tone of the disclosures. The authors use the score developed by Demerjian et al. (2012) to measure MA. The authors then employ panel data regressions to examine the impact of MA on disclosure tone.
Findings
The authors find that low-ability managers inflate the disclosure tone to positively influence labor market's perceptions about their ability. This effect is magnified for younger and shorter-tenured managers, for firms with more intense monitoring and during bear markets. The authors also find that the tone of earnings press releases of low-ability managers results in a lower stock price reaction. Supplementary analyses show that the results do not only hold for the tone, but also can be extended to other linguistic features such as the numerical intensity and the readability of earnings press releases. The results are robust to alternative library specifications and other corporate disclosures such as CEO letters to shareholders or 10-K filings.
Research limitations/implications
The paper shows that managers worry about how firm performance influences the labor market assessment of their ability. In particular, the authors find that managers of low ability are willing to opportunistically manipulate the content of corporate disclosures to improve this perception and build their reputation.
Originality/value
The authors contribute by providing theoretical and empirical evidence on how managers attempt to steer assessments of their ability by manipulating corporate disclosures. Consistent with prior business research suggesting that one's ability is a key feature that affects managers' propensity to engage in ethical practices, such as tax avoidance or manipulation of financial information, this study shows that less able managers tend to inflate the tone of the earnings announcements and that this ability-driven bias is likely to be magnified by career concerns.
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Nan Sun, Beibei Tan, Bolun Sun, Jinjie Zhang, Chao Li and Wenge Yang
Sargassum fusiforme is a popular edible seaweed in coastal cities of China that contains diverse nutrients including iodine. Cooking is an effective way to improve food safety…
Abstract
Purpose
Sargassum fusiforme is a popular edible seaweed in coastal cities of China that contains diverse nutrients including iodine. Cooking is an effective way to improve food safety, but it can alter both the contents of elements along with speciation and bioavailability. Three common cooking methods, the soaking, steaming and boiling, were evaluated for their effects on the protein structures, protein digestibility, iodine content and iodine bioavailability of S. fusiforme.
Design/methodology/approach
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to study the structural changes of protein, and an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture system was used to evaluate the digestibility of protein, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of iodine.
Findings
Boiling and steaming altered the protein secondary structure demonstrated by increased a-helix and random coil and decreased β-sheet, which improved the in vitro protein digestibility. Iodine content was reduced by cooking, with the highest loss observed after boiling, followed by soaking and steaming, while it was found that both bioaccessibility and cellular uptake of iodine were significantly elevated by boiling and steaming using an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture system. The presence of ascorbic acid, citric acid or tyrosine was beneficial for the iodine absorption, while oxalic acid and phytic acid hindered the iodine bioavailability.
Originality/value
The present finding suggested that cooking was conducive to the digestion and absorption of iodine in S. fusiforme. In addition, different dietary factors could have a certain impact on the absorption of iodine. Results of the study are essential for improving the application value of S. fusiforme to ensure reasonable consumption of seaweeds.
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Ren Hong, Du Yongjie, Cai Weiguang, Ma Xianrui, Wang Peng, Qin Beibei and Chen Mingman
With high-speed urbanization and strict requirements on energy conservation and environmental protection, eco-city has become the priority of urban development in China…
Abstract
With high-speed urbanization and strict requirements on energy conservation and environmental protection, eco-city has become the priority of urban development in China. Governments of all levels promote various eco-city planning schemes within a short term, but most schemes are characterized by randomness and subjectivity. To solve the lack of scientific pre-implementation evaluation for eco-city planning and improve eco-city construction quality, a systematic analysis is conducted in this study from three dimensions, namely, eco-city planning scheme, operating mechanism, and guarantee measures. A 3D evaluation model for eco-city planning is constructed through index selection. Schemes are ranked comprehensively with the distance measure method, and projection analysis is performed with the four-grid evaluation screen. Finally, the 3D evaluation model is applied to evaluate eco-city planning for Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Weifang. Results show that the model can be used to evaluate eco-city planning schemes effectively and comprehensively and offers targeted optimization suggestions in accordance with the evaluation results. Construction of the 3D evaluation model of eco-city planning based on the distance measure to determine the reasonability of eco-city planning reduces the institutional and social costs of eco-city planning practices.
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Teng Xiao, Daosheng Wen, Shouren Wang, Mingyuan Zhang, Beibei Kong and Qiqi Yu
This paper aims to investigate the fretting wear mechanism of an Al-Li alloy at room temperature, the tangential fretting wear tests were carried out.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the fretting wear mechanism of an Al-Li alloy at room temperature, the tangential fretting wear tests were carried out.
Design/methodology/approach
The effects of displacement amplitude and fretting frequency on the tangential fretting wear characteristics were mainly investigated. The experimental data obtained are analyzed and compared.
Findings
The results indicated that the fretting friction coefficient increased with the increase of displacement amplitude. As the displacement amplitude increased, the wear scar morphology changed significantly, mainly in terms of delamination debris and furrow scratches. The wear mechanism changed from initial mild wear to more severe oxidative wear, adhesive wear and abrasive wear.
Originality/value
This paper extends the knowledge into mechanical tight connections. The conclusions can provide theoretical guidance for the fretting of mechanical tight connections in the field of automotive lightweight and aerospace.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-11-2019-0490/
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Abstract
Purpose
Flow force is one of the crucial factors affecting the performance of conical throttle valves. The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationship between the flow force and operating parameters of the conical throttle valve.
Design/methodology/approach
The flow force of the throttle valve can be obtained by the difference between the axial force and static pressure on the valve spool. In this paper, the internal fluid is divided into two regions and the axial force and static pressure are obtained, respectively. In addition, a two-dimensional axisymmetric simulation model and experimental test are carried out to validate the results of the flow force.
Findings
It can be seen that the theoretical, simulation and experimental results exhibit high agreement with each other and the error between them decreases with the increase in the size of the opening. The curves of pressure distribution reveal that the pressure on the spool first decreases then increases when it reaches the minimum pressure at the orifice. Additionally, the minimum pressure decreases with the increase of opening and pressure difference. The results also indicate that the increase in the size of the opening and inlet pressure has a positive effect on the flow force. However, the increase in outlet pressure has a negative effect on the flow force.
Originality/value
In this paper, the flow force calculation model of conical throttle valve is established and the influence of operating parameters on the flow force of conical throttle valve is studied.
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Ting Nie, Zhihua Lian and Hua Huang
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of vocational identity and the moderating effect of work values on the relation between career exploration and fit…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating effect of vocational identity and the moderating effect of work values on the relation between career exploration and fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to measure variables in this study. Based on review of the related studies about work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception, the authors establish a theoretical model and propose hypotheses. Data were obtained from 647 Chinese post‐1980s generation employees.
Findings
According to the statistical analysis result, the paper demonstrates that career exploration can affect fit perception through mediator of vocational identity; when people have stronger preference to chase for job comfort and security, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes stronger; once individual has stronger preference for status and independence, the relations between career exploration effort, vocational identity and fit perception becomes weakened.
Research limitations/implications
The data used in this study only came from the employees, although the authors test homologous deviation through Harman single factor test. If the authors can conduct the survey from both employees and their supervisors, it will be better for them to avoid homology bias. Furthermore, more factors need to be considered in the formation of fit perception of Chinese new generation employees.
Originality/value
The paper explains the internal relations between work value, career exploration, vocational identity and fit perception on the basis on of the characteristics of Chinese new generation employees.