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This study introduces a new type of platform recommendation about mutual funds and draws on the signaling theory to conduct a quasi-experimental design to investigate how the platform recommendation influences investors’ investment decisions. Moreover, the authors examine the combined effect of star ratings and the platform recommendation on fund flow and test the investment value of recommended funds.

This study implements a quasi-experimental design based on 1,295 mutual funds traded on Alipay’s online platform to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results show that the recommended funds received higher fund flows from investors when the platform recommendation was established. Moreover, a substitution effect between tag recommendation and star ratings on fund flow was identified. We also uncovered that investing in platform-recommended funds can yield significant and higher fund returns for investors than those without platform recommendations.

Our findings shed new insights into the role of platform recommendations in helping fund investors make investment decisions and contribute to the business of online mutual fund transactions by investigating the effect of platform recommendations on fund flow and performance.

This paper aims to examine whether firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark engage in tone management in earnings conference calls to complement earnings management in the UK context. It also investigates whether the audience tone in beating or just meeting earnings fails to predict future performance.

This study was performed using a sample of non-financial UK firms listed in the FTSE 350 index over the period 2010–2015.

The findings show that firms that exercise more earnings management to meet or just beat earnings are positively associated with the abnormal tone during earnings conference calls. The outcomes also reveal that the audience’s tone of firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark fails to predict future performance. This confirms the effectiveness of the tone management in managing the perception of audience.

This study highlights the need for increased accountability by firms on earnings conference call. It also supports academics and practitioners in understanding the management discretion used in reporting and communication during the earnings conference call. Overall, the results of this study are beneficial for regulators, policymakers and professionals, regarding confirming the need for the earnings conference calls to be regulated.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the association between earnings management and tone management in the UK earnings conference calls. It adds to the existing literature by examining the self-serving behaviour of managerial tone during earnings conference calls within a sitting in which meeting or just beating a benchmark is used. Unlike several studies that explain the behaviour of tone as a signalling strategy, this study reveals that the tendency of impression management behaviour can explain the tone management.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the discussion surrounding impact measurement on social enterprises (SEs). The findings provide a more nuanced perspective on tensions that often emerge from SEs journeys by presenting the complexities which social entrepreneurs and investors should be attentive to.

This research used grounded theory as the means to explore how stakeholders accomplish the requirements for impact measurement, overcoming the challenges that arise in the process. Through 18 semi-structured interviews, the authors develop a conceptual model to better understand how a practice that is often taken for granted might compromise SEs achievements and sustainability in the long term.

The proposed model uncovered an unintended consequence of impact measurement: mission drift. The requirements to assess the social impact raise expectations on different actors and create challenges that affect the true purpose of SEs, the delivery of their social mission.

This study contributes to research and practice. First, the authors develop a theoretical model for social entrepreneurs and social investors to shed light on the hidden consequences of impact measurement. Second, the authors strengthen the knowledge in the field by conducting a study on SEs outside the mainstream Western-centric context.

The authors enrich the literature by exploring the tensions related to impact measurement in SEs in the Global South and unravel new perspectives on the subject.

This paper examines the hypothesis of local herding (i.e. own-area effects) by individual investors on a particular stock-month. Using a unique dataset on online and offline individual investors’ trading records in Korea, we analyze buying and selling transactions involving 10,000 accounts from February 1999 to December 2005. We find that both online and offline investors in the same area tend to exhibit stronger local herding compared to investors’ trades who are geographically remote. Interestingly, online investors not only present stronger own-area effects but also exhibit more pronounced other-area effects compared with offline investors. Furthermore, our analysis indicates that gender and religious affiliation are important in investment behavior, with male and non-religious investors displaying a greater stock market participation in contrast to investors who are female and Protestant.