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Article
Publication date: 2 November 2015

Johan Henningsson, Ulf Johanson and Roland Almqvist

This study aims to explore fund manager use of trust to reduce information complexity concerning corporate intangible resources and sustainability and what consequences this have…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore fund manager use of trust to reduce information complexity concerning corporate intangible resources and sustainability and what consequences this have for corporates as providers of information. Analytically, fund managers are considered part of a system with social meaning.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach is used. Data are obtained from two focus group discussions that occurred on two separate occasions. The first discussion was between four communications executives at leading Swedish companies. The second discussion was between four experienced fund managers in the Swedish financial market.

Findings

The results suggest that fund managers oscillate between exhibiting trust and distrust when reducing the complexity of information on intangible resources and sustainability. Fund managers tend to trust the stable context of company information and strive to trust top management. Communicative dilemmas emerge when fund managers oscillate between trust and distrust. The fund manager disinterest in details emerges because of a reliance on a stable information context and company management. The representation dilemma emerges when narratives are used in corporate reporting.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes empirically to the knowledge concerning the social complexity of fund management.

Practical implications

The paper increases the understanding of communicative difficulties for corporates to communicate with actors on the financial markets through narratives on intangible resources and sustainability.

Originality/value

By focusing on the social meaning in the communication between companies and financial markets, we have contrasted the dominant view of financial economics of financial market actors as rational agents and the individualistic mode of theorizing in accordance with rational choice theory.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 February 2009

Roland Almqvist and Johan Henningsson

The purpose of this paper is to explore how capital market actors deal with information on personnel and work environment.

553

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how capital market actors deal with information on personnel and work environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers and two bankers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis is influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are imposed on capital market actors, when they observe corporate information vis‐à‐vis personnel and work environment.

Findings

Capital market actors are influenced by social forces when they reduce the complexity of information on corporate personnel and work environment. Four themes emerged in this study concerning emergent paradoxes which results from such a reduction. First, capital market actors seem to regard personnel in a variety of ways: sometimes as a resource, and sometimes as a risk or a non‐flexible cost problem. Second, they tend to reduce the complexity of information by depending on having the right management in organisations. Third, capital market actors refer to work environment matters as things that involve ethics and can affect their own reputation. Finally, they were continuously looking for signs that their initial analyses could be wrong. To various extents, the themes support each other by solving the emergent paradoxes that, according to systems theory, inevitably result from the reduction of external complexity.

Originality/value

This paper argues that the ambivalence and disinterest shown by capital‐market actors concerning information on personnel and work environment could be better understood by referring to how social forces influence capital‐market actors when they reduce the complexity of such information.

Details

Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1401-338X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 October 2012

John Holland, Johan Henningsson, Ulf Johanson, Chitoshi Koga and Shigeki Sakakibara

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of: how Japanese financial firms (JFF) acquire and use company intellectual capital (IC) information in their common…

1010

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of: how Japanese financial firms (JFF) acquire and use company intellectual capital (IC) information in their common routine equity investment decisions, how this activity contributes to knowledge creation in the JFFs, and how investee company knowledge creation is affected by the JFFs.

Design/methodology/approach

The research employed a multi‐case design, using four JFF cases. The investigation was performed in terms of Nonaka and Toyama's “theory of the knowledge creating firm”.

Findings

IC information contributed to earnings estimates and company valuation. Emotional information contributed to JFF feelings and confidence in their information use and valuation. JFF knowledge was an important component of the key interacting and informed contexts used by JFFs. This generated opportunities to improve disclosure and accountability between JFFs and their investee companies. Common patterns of behaviour across the JFFs were counterbalanced by variety and differences noted in JFF behaviour.

Practical implications

The findings provide important insights into how JFF knowledge creating patterns could limit or progress a common language of communication between companies and markets on the subject of IC. This could impact on the quality of corporate disclosure and accountability processes.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates that there is a need for further use of qualitative studies of financial market behavior. Especially in the area of understanding the communication of IC between firms and financial markets, the potential of using sociology of finance approaches appears to be considerable.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2009

Johan Henningsson

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social forces are imposed on fund managers when they do their jobs of observing company information, in particular intellectual capital…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how social forces are imposed on fund managers when they do their jobs of observing company information, in particular intellectual capital (IC) information.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a qualitative research approach involving interviews with 14 fund managers in Stockholm. The empirical analysis and the theoretical discussion are influenced by a combination of system and network theories where social networks are built up by communication.

Findings

Fund managers are influenced by the rationale of social networks when they reduce the complexity in company information. Three social forces emerged from the empirical data which influence fund managers when they deal with corporate information; the involvement of the organisational code, the market price and rationale, and the agenda surrounding a company. Furthermore, increased complexity of IC information does not seem to bother fund managers. The rationale of interacting social networks reduces this complexity in order for the information to make sense in its meaning‐based reproduction.

Originality/value

This paper argues that in order to deepen our understanding about the communication between companies and actors on the capital market we need to open up the issue of how complexity is dealt with. Based on the theoretical framework used in the study, information barriers become variables between the rationales of social networks.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2006

Ulf Johanson, Chitoshi Koga, Matti Skoog and Johan Henningsson

The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure (GIPID) in relation to the ambitious aspirations behind the guideline…

2893

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the present paper is to discuss the Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure (GIPID) in relation to the ambitious aspirations behind the guideline and in that way develop a future research agenda aiming at addressing the main challenges regarding the construction of guidelines for future IC reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

The purpose will be achieved by comparing the GIPID with two other IC guideline proposals, namely MERITUM and the Danish Guideline for Intellectual Capital Statements, respectively, from a capital market communication perspective and from a management control perspective. References are made to 12 Japanese companies that have published IP reports. The sample companies operate in a wide range of nine industries covering, for example, security, manufacturing, transportation, and chemistry, and comprise large as well as small firms.

Findings

The study identifies four major challenges for intellectual capital guidelines and reporting. These challenges regard market communication, management control, uniqueness versus comparability, and confidentiality versus accountability. The paper concludes with a number of questions of vital importance for future research within the research area.

Originality/value

This is one of the first papers that discuss the Japanese Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure as well as to compare it with similar European guidelines.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Content available
772

Abstract

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 7 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Article
Publication date: 21 May 2018

Johan Graaf

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sociology of financial analysis by exploring how sell-side analysts enact their professional roles during public earnings…

1017

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the sociology of financial analysis by exploring how sell-side analysts enact their professional roles during public earnings presentations. It addresses the following research question: How do analysts perform their professional roles in interactions with managers, fund managers and other analysts?

Design/methodology/approach

The research adopts a dramaturgical analysis of analysts’ interactions with managers and fund managers. The empirical material includes 50 hours of direct observations of earnings presentations and 21 interviews with analysts, managers and other relevant actors.

Findings

The findings show that analysts struggle with role conflicts because they need to satisfy the contrasting demands of managers, fund managers and colleagues. Performing the role of an expert critic mainly depends on the approval of managers; yet, analysts also find themselves in situations where they must confront the managers. To counter role conflicts and sustain their role performance, analysts also produce displays of role distance and carefully prepare to meet their audiences’ expectations. To maintain the role of the expert critic, analysts depend on both those taking their advice (fund managers) and those being reviewed (managers).

Originality/value

This study is one of few empirically rich investigations of analysts’ activities, interactions with managers and meetings with multiple audiences. It also contributes to previous interview studies using dramaturgical analysis by offering in-depth observations of a single, distinct situated activity system.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2018

Jenny Rendahl, Peter Korp, Marianne Pipping Ekström and Christina Berg

The purpose of this paper is to explore and elucidate adolescents’ reasoning about risks related to food and eating.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and elucidate adolescents’ reasoning about risks related to food and eating.

Design/methodology/approach

Boys and girls aged 15-16 years participated in a focus group interview with role-playing as a stimulus for discussion and reflection. In all, 31 participants took part, divided into five groups. In the role-playing, the participants portrayed agents who they perceived to give messages about food. In the focus group they discussed their experience of carrying out the role-play, and how they usually cope with conflicting messages, preferences and needs regarding food and eating.

Findings

The findings suggested that there were two main themes of risk profiling related to eating. One concerned bodily risk related to the food ingested and included concerns both about not reaching health and performance due to the unfavourable intake of calories, nutrients, additives, bacteria, viruses and parasites, and threats to immediate well-being following consumption. The second main category concerned the risk of being conspicuous, or “sticking out”, which incorporated food-based gender norms and norms related to table manners. In practice, the risk of not displaying an appropriate image of themselves through their food and eating choices was more prominent than risk perceptions related to impacts of food choices on well-being and performance. Difficulties in classifying foods as “good” or “bad” enhanced their uncertainty.

Originality/value

The results suggest that health-promotion activities for young people should focus not only on how to feed their bodies but also on how to avoid feeding their anxieties.

Details

Health Education, vol. 118 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-4283

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2013

Johan Graaf

The aim of this paper is to explore how managers are mobilising IC items when approaching their investors and analysts. To this date, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the…

1000

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to explore how managers are mobilising IC items when approaching their investors and analysts. To this date, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the translation processes of IC, from corporate disclosures to the capital market. Little is known of how managers mobilise their IC in order for analysts and investors to embrace it and consider it to be a relevant part of corporate disclosures.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies a performative approach to IC, in which framing theory is mobilized to understand the duality of financial indicators. The empirical material was collected through a case study approach, focusing on the interim reporting practices of a Swedish online gaming company. The study investigated a total of 16 earnings announcements and their accompanying conference calls in the period of 2008‐2011. In addition, five interviews with top managers and financial analysts were performed.

Findings

The findings suggest that IC is highly dependent on financial indicators and can therefore not be treated as the opposite of financial capital. Instead of complementing financial capital, IC is the symptomatic quality of financial indicators, i.e. a way to make sense, contextualise and reconnect a disentangled representation with empirical phenomena.

Originality/value

This paper introduces a new way of viewing IC disclosures, expanding the knowledge and methodology in IC research. The paper also highlights the study of an important disclosure, expanding research on IC disclosures beyond annual reports. Finally, it offers practitioners additional insights in the communication of non‐financials to the capital market.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2009

Bino Catasús, Maria Mårtensson and Matti Skoog

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on how sensegiving cues are encapsulated in models of reporting for human resources. This has been by investigating elements, arguments and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on how sensegiving cues are encapsulated in models of reporting for human resources. This has been by investigating elements, arguments and formats of the models.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper focuses on the three discourses of human resource reporting that Jan‐Erik Gröjer is a part of. This paper is an appreciation of the importance of Jan‐Erik's work in the field of human resource communication as well as an illustration of how ideas and models changes over time.

Findings

The paper concludes that: there is no coherent idea of how sensegiving should be made in order to affect the sensemaking processes of human resources, the models emanate from different forms of critiques and the sensegiving cues change accordingly, and accounting for human resources has an ethical dimension.

Practical implications

The choice of model for reporting on human resources affects not only the content of the human resource report (the what and how question), but also affected by which arguments are considered as most efficient in the sensegiving process..

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the understanding of how sensemaking is dependent on which sensegiving cues bring forward in the accounts of human accounts.

Details

Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1401-338X

Keywords

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