On the 'Realities' of Investor-Manager Interactivity: Baudrillard, Hyperreality, and Management Q&A Sessions

Abstract

This paper draws on extensive fieldwork to explore the nature, scope, and implications of management preparations for the question and answer session (Q&A) that occurs during a firm’s results presentation. Prior literature has associated the value of this encounter with investor–manager interactivity. As such, it is assumed that there are high levels of managerial authorship, ownership, and spontaneity as executives face questions from analysts. Following on, it is generally assumed that this translates into an increased risk of unintended disclosure, through verbal and non-verbal messaging. However, our data indicate that management engages in vast preparatory work to mitigate the risks associated with real (“original,” natural, spontaneous, un-staged) interactivity. Instead, the Q&A is carefully planned, organized, scripted, and rehearsed. As such, the event is transformed into a hyperreal encounter in the Baudrillardian sense. Despite this, the value of the Q&A is not necessarily impaired. Instead, these managerial backstage preparations arguably make the encounter realer than real. We suggest that the Q&A that we observe (the “copy”) is more useful than the original might have been. Our work provides evidence and discussion of two inter-connected paradoxes: perfection and self-reference. This study not only raises important questions, challenges, and opportunities for researchers interested in the study of investor–manager interactions, but also speaks to those with an interest in workplace meetings and Q&A more broadly.

Keywords: Financial Results Presentations, Question and Answer Sessions (Q&A), Qualitative Research, Theater and Performance Studies, Baudrillard

JEL Classification: M40, M49, Z13