Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis

This paper presents the findings of sentiment analysis as a refined approach to detecting impression management that may be present in the Chairman’s Statements of companies during an exogenous event such as the Corona virus pandemic. FinBERT, a more advanced machine learning model of natural langu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Caroline Cherry, Waheeda Mohamed, Yogesh Brahmbhatt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Johannesburg 2023-07-01
Series:Communicare
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2318
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832593892105519104
author Caroline Cherry
Waheeda Mohamed
Yogesh Brahmbhatt
author_facet Caroline Cherry
Waheeda Mohamed
Yogesh Brahmbhatt
author_sort Caroline Cherry
collection DOAJ
description This paper presents the findings of sentiment analysis as a refined approach to detecting impression management that may be present in the Chairman’s Statements of companies during an exogenous event such as the Corona virus pandemic. FinBERT, a more advanced machine learning model of natural language processing (NLP), was used to investigate the change in net sentiment expressed in the Chairman’s Statements of a sample of South African JSE-listed companies before and during the pandemic. A computation of net sentiment for each report was performed. Overall, no generic pattern of communication in the Chairman’s Statements emerged between the periods researched. Impression management tactics may vest within reports on an entity-specific basis and may be the exception, not the rule. Considering the increasing amount of unaudited narrative disclosure presented in formal corporate communication, consideration must be given to whether the sentiment expressed in these formal corporate reports is balanced, clear and transparent. Content analysis has historically been labour-intensive. More accurate ways of analysing growing bodies of financial text would be relevant to investors, analysts, key stakeholders, policy makers and academics. Pre-trained NLP models such as FinBERT offer a specialised way of understanding the sentiment of financial text. Research exploring impression management in corporate narrative sections using FinBERT is still gaining momentum across the world and is limited in South Africa. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is one of the first South African studies to employ FinBERT as an innovative, accurate and efficient approach to analysing the sentiment in the Chairman’s Statement.
format Article
id doaj-art-d70569e36dc3474ead01e7db54bb6859
institution Kabale University
issn 0259-0069
2957-7950
language English
publishDate 2023-07-01
publisher University of Johannesburg
record_format Article
series Communicare
spelling doaj-art-d70569e36dc3474ead01e7db54bb68592025-01-20T08:42:15ZengUniversity of JohannesburgCommunicare0259-00692957-79502023-07-0142110.36615/jcsa.v42i1.2318Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisisCaroline Cherry0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8615-4638Waheeda Mohamed1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3239-2964Yogesh Brahmbhatt 2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5791-8889WITSa:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:4:"Wits";}Wits This paper presents the findings of sentiment analysis as a refined approach to detecting impression management that may be present in the Chairman’s Statements of companies during an exogenous event such as the Corona virus pandemic. FinBERT, a more advanced machine learning model of natural language processing (NLP), was used to investigate the change in net sentiment expressed in the Chairman’s Statements of a sample of South African JSE-listed companies before and during the pandemic. A computation of net sentiment for each report was performed. Overall, no generic pattern of communication in the Chairman’s Statements emerged between the periods researched. Impression management tactics may vest within reports on an entity-specific basis and may be the exception, not the rule. Considering the increasing amount of unaudited narrative disclosure presented in formal corporate communication, consideration must be given to whether the sentiment expressed in these formal corporate reports is balanced, clear and transparent. Content analysis has historically been labour-intensive. More accurate ways of analysing growing bodies of financial text would be relevant to investors, analysts, key stakeholders, policy makers and academics. Pre-trained NLP models such as FinBERT offer a specialised way of understanding the sentiment of financial text. Research exploring impression management in corporate narrative sections using FinBERT is still gaining momentum across the world and is limited in South Africa. To the researchers’ knowledge, this is one of the first South African studies to employ FinBERT as an innovative, accurate and efficient approach to analysing the sentiment in the Chairman’s Statement. https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2318Chairman’s reportCoronavirus pandemicFinBERTimpression managementmachine learningnatural language processing
spellingShingle Caroline Cherry
Waheeda Mohamed
Yogesh Brahmbhatt
Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
Communicare
Chairman’s report
Coronavirus pandemic
FinBERT
impression management
machine learning
natural language processing
title Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
title_full Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
title_fullStr Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
title_full_unstemmed Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
title_short Using FinBERT as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
title_sort using finbert as a refined approach to measuring impression management in corporate reports during a crisis
topic Chairman’s report
Coronavirus pandemic
FinBERT
impression management
machine learning
natural language processing
url https://journals.uj.ac.za/index.php/jcsa/article/view/2318
work_keys_str_mv AT carolinecherry usingfinbertasarefinedapproachtomeasuringimpressionmanagementincorporatereportsduringacrisis
AT waheedamohamed usingfinbertasarefinedapproachtomeasuringimpressionmanagementincorporatereportsduringacrisis
AT yogeshbrahmbhatt usingfinbertasarefinedapproachtomeasuringimpressionmanagementincorporatereportsduringacrisis