Strategic Disclosure: The Content of Strategy Communications

This chapter considers the impact of companies' external communications about strategy on their reputations. Such strategy communications can take many forms, including material in companies' own annual reports and the media, and the impact may be felt in various ways, including consumer loyalty and managerial rankings such as the Fortune Most Admired list. In this chapter, however, the empirical focus is on the growing phenomenon of companies' own forward-looking communications about their strategies, and reputational impact is considered in terms of consequences in the financial markets. Specifically we address the spread of such strategy communications, abnormal stock returns due to these communications, and the nature of these communications in terms of their language, themes and strategies involved.