Does product market competition influence annual report readability?
研究发现，随着行业竞争加剧，企业会降低年报可读性；这种效应在研发密集、商业秘密多、CEO绩效激励高的公司中更强，揭示了竞争对信息披露的专有成本效应。
We study product market competition’s influence on annual report readability. As competition increases in an industry, our findings show that firms reduce the readability of their annual reports. We further document that the impact of competition on annual report readability is stronger for research and development (R&D)-intensive firms, for firms that have a higher level of trade secrecy (i.e. proprietary information), and for firms with higher levels of CEO performance-based incentives. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of the proprietary cost effect of competition on annual report readability.