Date of Graduation

8-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Accounting

Advisor/Mentor

Rawson, Caleb

Committee Member

Richardson, Vern

Keywords

Disclosure Processing; Earnings Conference Calls; Firm Disclosure; Retail Trading Volume

Abstract

This paper examines whether disclosure characteristics–specifically hard versus soft information–influence disagreement among retail investors, whether due to differences in information sets or interpretation, and how such disagreement subsequently affects trading volume. Using a sample of 85,050 earnings conference calls and StockTwits disagreement data from 2010 to 2021, I find that hard information (i.e., earnings figures) is negatively associated with investor disagreement, while soft information (i.e., forward-looking statements) is positively associated with it. Further analysis reveals that the disclosure characteristics impact trading activity only indirectly, through their influence on investor disagreement. Additionally, I examine the moderating role of social network centrality, which is proxied by the centrality of the firm’s headquarters county. Results offer limited evidence that network centrality reduces interpretative disagreement associated with soft information. Cross-sectional analyses show that penny stock investors respond differently to disclosures, likely reflecting variation in investment preferences and information processing. Lastly, the results remain robust when excluding the post-COVID period, which saw an influx of a new group of retail investors. This study contributes to the literature on disclosure processing, retail investor behavior, and the informational sources of market disagreement, as well as its trading implications.

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