How Patterns of Past Guidance Provision Affect Investor Judgments: The Joint Effect of Guidance Frequency and Guidance Pattern Consistency
通过实验研究，发现公司历史指引提供的一致性（是否连续多年对同一季度提供指引）能提升投资者信心和投资意愿，但仅在指引频率较低时有效，且一致性被视为管理层机会主义较少的信号。
ABSTRACT Theory suggests that the provision of voluntary disclosure, in itself, is informative to investors, but prior empirical research largely focuses on investors' reaction to the content of disclosure. We extend the literature on earnings guidance by experimentally examining how investors react to a firm's historical pattern of guidance provision, holding constant guidance content. We manipulate two dimensions of guidance provision—how often guidance is provided (frequency), and whether guidance is provided for the same quarter(s) across consecutive years (pattern consistency). We find that consistency positively impacts investors' confidence and likelihood of investing because investors associate consistency with lesser managerial opportunism, but consistency matters only when frequency is low. Our results shed light on an important dimension of guidance provision unexamined in prior research—guidance consistency—and highlight when it can influence investor judgments even when key elements of a firm's historical guidance content are held constant. Data Availability: Contact the authors.