Cheap Talk? Strategy Disclosure Intensity, Corporate Risk-Taking and Financial Performance

Abstract

Corporate risk-taking is key to a firm's ability to achieve competitive advantages. Drawing on the attention-based view and the information-processing perspective, we argue that firms with higher strategy disclosure intensity (i.e. greater frequency of ‘corporate strategy’ mentions in a firm's public disclosure) will allocate more attention to corporate strategy and develop stronger information-processing capacities, enabling them to undertake more intensive risk-taking. This is particularly true when investment opportunities are more abundant and the environment is more dynamic. In addition, corporate risk-taking will lead to better financial performance when firms exhibit stronger strategy disclosure intensity. Findings from 3190 firms support our arguments. Overall, this study advances strategic management research by demonstrating that strategy disclosure intensity provides important insights into a firm's risk-taking decisions and performance.