Master Meetings

MSc in European Studies in Investor Relations and Financial Communication

Financial Communication
Prof. Andrea Rocci, Dr. Carlo Raimondo

Communication is crucial in finance mostly because it enables the diffusion of information that financial players, first of all investors, need to construct their evaluations and decisions. Listed companies depend on effective communications to communicate their value to stockholders, to other investors and to a variety of stakeholders. Public communications from listed companies to the markets, often referred to as “disclosures”, impact stock price and are highly regulated. Central banks use communication, e.g. in the form of press conferences, as one of the key instruments of monetary policy. Financial analysts function as information intermediaries between listed companies and investors by taking part both to public and private interactions, from “conference calls” to “roadshows”. Business and financial media, from newspapers to the social media, also function as “information intermediaries” disseminate financial communications from a variety of sources to a variety of publics involved in the financial markets, including individual retail investors. Financial intermediaries, such as banks and asset managers communicate both publicly and privately with their client-investors, in particular private investors.

Communication Strategies in Financial Disclosures
Dr Renata Stenka

Communication is concerned with “messages, information, meaning, and symbolic activity” (Putnam and Cheney, 1985, p. 131) and affects every aspect of our daily lives. It produces our matrix of appreciation and perception as it determines how we make sense of the world around us, and how we perceive ourselves and others. It is both constitutive and a product of social relationships. For any business organisation, communication thus plays a crucial role in managing relations with external parties via reporting on the outcomes of its activities. Financial reporting is one of the primary means whereby managers communicate with investors and other stakeholders. Managers provide an account to investors and other stakeholders of the financial and other performance of their company in order to legitimize their actions. The course focuses in particular on communication strategies that can be observed in financial disclosure produced by the companies. Attention is also given to the regulatory aspect of financial disclosure requirements and discursive strategies that affect regulatory processes that determine what corporate information is reported upon.

The course explores relevant theoretical frameworks as well as having a strong practical element, using real-world examples and illustrations from the corporate and accounting regulatory world. It addresses corporate reporting from the perspective of discursive strategies used by managers and accounting regulators to legitimize their actions. It also discusses the often-overlooked importance of cognitive biases in the communication processes.

The main objective of the course is to explore why communication within corporate reporting is worthy of careful scrutiny, not just in what social actors say, but how they say it and the specific legitimation strategies they use.