Persuasion in Earnings Calls: A Diachronic Pragmalinguistic Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates persuasive language in earnings calls. These are routine events organized by companies to report their quarterly financial results. The analysis is based on the earnings calls of 10 companies in the third quarter of 2009, when financial markets were still suffering from the global financial crisis, and the third quarter of 2013 when markets had largely recovered. Earnings call transcripts were compiled in two parallel corpora (Crisis Corpus and Recovery Corpus), thus providing a diachronic perspective. Semantic annotation software was used to extract pragmalinguistic resources of persuasion. The Crisis Corpus had a higher frequency of persuasive items, as executives often emphasized progress and future hopes. However, the types of items were largely the same across the corpora. This suggests a well-consolidated linguistic protocol within this discourse community that transcends financial performance. The findings offer insights into how earnings call participants use persuasive language strategically to achieve their distinct professional objectives as responsible providers of information (executives) versus discerning seekers of information (analysts).