Managing the Narrative: Investor Relations Officers and Corporate Disclosure

Investor relations officers (IROs) play a central role in corporate communications with Wall Street. We survey 610 IROs at publicly traded U.S. companies and conduct 14 follow-up interviews to gain insights into the nature of their interactions with sell-side analysts and institutional investors, and to deepen our understanding of the role of IROs in corporate disclosure events. Three important themes emerge from our results: (i) the value, nature, and timing of private communication between IROs, analysts, and investors; (ii) the significant influence IROs have on corporate disclosures; and (iii) the degree of “theater” involved in public earnings conference calls. We explore numerous topics that IROs are uniquely suited to address, and we provide new insights into the investor relations, analyst, institutional investor, and disclosure literatures.

Keywords: investor relations, investor relations officers, sell-side analysts, institutional investors, disclosure

JEL Classification: G10, G23, G24, M41, M45

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Brown, Lawrence D. and Call, Andrew C. and Clement, Michael B. and Sharp, Nathan Y., Managing the Narrative: Investor Relations Officers and Corporate Disclosure (February 2018). Fox School of Business Research Paper No. 17-015, Mays Business School Research Paper No. 2934937, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2934937 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2934937