Who likes jargon? The joint effect of jargon type and industry knowledge on investors’ judgments

Tan, Hun‐Tong; Wang, Elaine Ying; Yoo, G-Song

doi:10.1016/j.jacceco.2019.03.001

Cited by 32 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…We encourage future research to use novel data and adopt multiple research methods to further this literature as each research method has its unique strengths and weaknesses. One advantage of experimental studies is that they can hold economic fundamentals constant when examining the determinants and consequences of managers' linguistic features (Asay et al 2018; Tan et al 2019). However, experimental studies potentially have less external validity compared to archival studies.…”

Section: Managers and Directorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Economics of Accounting: A Review of Archival Research on Individual Decision Makers*

Hanlon

Yeung

Zuo

2021

Contemporary Accting Res

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This paper develops a unified framework to synthesize the growing stream of positive research on the role of individual decision makers in shaping observed accounting phenomena. This line of research recognizes two central ideas in behavioral economics. First, individual behavior depends not only on economic incentives and accessible information but also on individual preferences, abilities, experiences, and other characteristics. Second, the constraints that structure human interactions encompass both formal institutions (e.g., rules, laws, constitutions) and informal institutions (e.g., norms, conventions, rituals). Our review covers a broad set of individuals who are of interest in accounting research: managers, directors, audit partners, analysts, standard setters, politicians, judges, journalists, loan officers, financial advisors, and investors. We aim to understand the systematic effects of individual characteristics on a wide spectrum of accounting phenomena, including financial reporting, disclosure, tax planning, auditing, and corporate social responsibility. We highlight the importance of personal characteristics not only for an individual's own behavior but also for others' perceptions. Our review mainly focuses on archival research in accounting and provides some thoughts about opportunities for archival empiricists going forward. We also, when feasible, highlight opportunities for future field, survey, and experimental research. A central takeaway from our review is that individual‐level factors significantly improve our ability to explain and predict accounting phenomena beyond firm‐, industry‐, and market‐level factors.

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Section: Managers and Directorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Economics of Accounting: A Review of Archival Research on Individual Decision Makers*

Hanlon

Yeung

Zuo

2021

Contemporary Accting Res

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“…Researchers from disparate disciplines have warned us about the dangers of jargon abuse [9][10][11][12][13][14]. 'Never use a […] jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent', George Orwell [15] famously stated.…”

Section: On Jargon and The Reach Of Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Specialized terminology reduces the number of citations of scientific papers

Martínez

Mammola

2021

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Words are the building blocks of communicating science. As our understanding of the world progresses, scientific disciplines naturally enrich their specialized vocabulary (jargon). However, in the era of interdisciplinarity, the use of jargon may hinder effective communication among scientists that do not share a common scientific background. The question of how jargon limits the transmission of scientific knowledge has long been debated but rarely addressed quantitatively. We explored the relationship between the use of jargon and citations, using 21 486 articles focusing on cave research, a multidisciplinary field particularly prone to terminological specialization, and where linguistic disagreement among peers is frequent. We demonstrate a significant negative relationship between the proportion of jargon words in the title and abstract and the number of citations a paper receives. Given that these elements are the hook to readers, we urge scientists to restrict jargon to sections of the paper where its use is unavoidable.

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“…And, as the abuse of jokes, too much jargon can be tiring (Pennisi 2016) This is nothing new. Again and again, scientists (Montgomery 1989;Adams et al 1997;Hirst 2003;Rakedzon et al 2017;Barnett & Doubleday 2020), economists (Tan et al 2019), and philosophers (Wittgenstein 1953) have warned us about the dangers of jargon abuse. "Never use a […] jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent", journalists George Orwell (1968) famously stated.…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialized terminology limits the reach of new scientific knowledge

Martínez

Mammola²

2020

Preprint

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Words are the building blocks of science. As our understanding of the world progresses, scientific disciplines naturally enrich their specialized vocabulary (jargon). However, in the era of interdisciplinarity, the use of jargon may hinder effective communication amongst scientists that do not share a common linguistic background. The question of how jargon limits the transmission of scientific knowledge has long been debated, but rarely addressed quantitatively. We explored the relationship between the use of jargon and citations using 21,486 articles focusing on cave research, a multidisciplinary field particularly prone to terminological specialization and where linguistic disagreement among peers is frequent. We demonstrate that the use of jargon in the title and abstract significantly reduces the number of citations a paper receives. Given that these elements are the hook to readers, we urge scientists to restrict jargon to sections of the paper where its use is unavoidable.

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Who likes jargon? The joint effect of jargon type and industry knowledge on investors’ judgments

Cited by 32 publications

References 45 publications

Behavioral Economics of Accounting: A Review of Archival Research on Individual Decision Makers*

Behavioral Economics of Accounting: A Review of Archival Research on Individual Decision Makers*

Specialized terminology reduces the number of citations of scientific papers

Specialized terminology limits the reach of new scientific knowledge

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