Overcoming Deceptive Evasions in Earnings Calls: The Role of Investor Suspicion

This paper is based on the author’s dissertation at Emory University. The author thanks his committee chair, Kathryn Kadous, for invaluable guidance and mentorship, and committee members Kristy Towry, Melissa Williams, and Teri Yohn for insightful feedback and suggestions. The author is also thank Grace Bizzel, Kyle Broderick, Ewelina Forker, Allison and Joel Gilmore, Joe Nixon, Amanda Portugal, and Zac Wiser for excellent research assistance. The author is grateful to two anonymous reviewers, an anonymous associate editor, Eric Allen, Scott Asay, Bob Bowen, Nicole Cade, Shana Clor-Proell, Mike Durney, Scott Emett, Cassandra Estep, Razvan Ghita, Hayden Gunnell, Jessen Hobson, Patrick Hopkins, Jennifer Joe, Jane Jollineau, Steve Kaplan, Lisa Koonce, Ranjani Krishnan (Department Editor), Mark Lang, Michal Matejka, Cassie Mongold, Grace Pownall, Karl Schumacher, Mani Sethuraman, Tim Shields, Suhas Sridharan, Hun Tong Tan, Brian White, Tina Zamora, and Jake Zureich for helpful comments. The author further thank workshop participants at Arizona State University, Deakin University, Chapman University, Escola Brasileira de Administração Pública e de Empresas at Fundação Getulio Vargas, Emory University, Seattle University, University of California Riverside, University of Delaware, and University of Iowa, for valuable feedback.