The Effect of Mobile Device Use and Headline Focus on Investor Judgments
Published In
Accounting, Organizations and Society
Document Type
Citation
Publication Date
5-1-2020
Abstract
This study conducts two experiments to examine how investors’ judgments differ when they read a press release using either a mobile device or a computer. Results show that when investors use a mobile device, information related to a specific headline (mentioning a specific part of the news like “net income” or “revenue”) influences their investment judgments more than when investors use a computer. This effect is robust to specific headlines that focus on either positive or negative information. In contrast, investors’ judgments do not differ when they use a mobile device compared to a computer and the headline is general (using the broad term “results”). We replicate our findings in a second experiment and provide evidence that the observed effect occurs because investors who use their mobile device are in a more distracted frame of mind, which in turn increases the influence of prominent information. Our results suggest that managers’ presentation choices may have a greater influence on investors as they increasingly rely on mobile devices to research and execute investment decisions.
Rights
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1016/j.aos.2019.101100
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/34935
Citation Details
Brown, T., Grant, S. M., & Winn, A. M. (2020). The effect of mobile device use and headline focus on investor judgments. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 83, 101100.