Stakeholder Focus or Strategy Focus? An Eye-Tracker Study on the Effect of Presentation Format on Nonprofessional Investors’ Information Processing Patterns
通过眼动追踪实验，发现当公司财务业绩下滑但非财务业绩改善时，战略主题格式使有偏见的投资者更多关注有利的非财务信息，而利益相关者格式则促使他们仔细审视不利的财务信息，且战略主题格式能降低盈利预测偏差。
Using eye-tracking technology, we examine whether the information processing patterns of nonprofessional investors with a directional investment preference are affected by performance information presented based on either a focus on stakeholders (stakeholder format) or on strategic goals (strategic theme format). We find that when a company’s financial performance has declined but nonfinancial performance has improved, a strategic theme (stakeholder) format causes investors in a long investment position to focus on negative financial information to a lesser (greater) extent than those in a short investment position. These results indicate that a strategic theme format encourages biased investors to draw on favorable nonfinancial information to support their position, whereas a stakeholder format causes them to closely scrutinize unfavorable financial information. We also find that the level of bias in investors’ earnings forecasts is lower when information is presented in a strategic theme format than in a stakeholder format; however, a supplementary experiment finds that this result is reversed when a company’s financial performance has improved but its nonfinancial performance has declined. Our results have implications for external report preparers, standard setters, and analysts.