DIVERGENT MARKET REACTIONS TO ABSTRACTLANGUAGE: A MULTICOUNTRY EVENT STUDY OFEUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK COMMUNICATIONS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Harmon, Derek; Mariani, Marcello
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Reading; University of Bologna
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2022.0814
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1553-1576
• 关键词: CORE-PERIPHERY RELATIONS; WORLD-SYSTEM; STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY; LANGUAGE ABSTRACTION; MANAGEMENT RESEARCH; Network analysis; COMPETITION; IMPACT; legitimacy; CHALLENGES

摘要

Prominent leaders regularly communicate with multiple markets around the world, butwe know little about the challenges that can arise when trying to effectively convey one'smessage in a global setting. In this paper, we develop a theory about how languageabstraction-a dominant strategy used to create common ground among diverseaudiences-can become problematic when used in a global environment where marketactors have divergent interests. Employing a multicountry event study, we analyze howthe stock markets in 11 eurozone countries react to the abstract language in publicspeeches delivered by the European Central Bank president. We find that abstract lan-guage, rather than creating common ground, produces divergent market reactions acrosscore and peripheral countries, such that market actors in core countries react morefavorably to abstract communication, while those in peripheral countries prefer con-crete communication. We also show that this divergent reaction is stronger when the eco-nomic interests of the core and the periphery are made more salient. This studycontributes new insights to research on strategic communication in market settings,expands our understanding of audience heterogeneity and market power, and highlightsthe growing challenges of communicating in a globalized societ