The significance of "Insider Money" as a foundation of Investment Finance and Banking

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

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DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSII

DECLARATIONIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Theoretical framework3

Research question4

Unit of analysis - firms' quarterly earnings reports6

Theoretical contributions7

Organization of the dissertation10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW11

Introduction11

Gap 1: The need to understand the reporter-source interface in financial news letter11

Studies of the reporter-source interface from sociology12

Gap 2: The case for utilizing sense making as a lens to examine the insider money14

Sense making studies that have included the media16

Sense giving studies from accounting17

An important theoretical hole18

Gap 3: Lack of focused attention to the insider money in organizational theory18

The impact of the insider money on stocks and markets19

The multi-faceted role of the insider money20

Literature review summary23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY24

Introduction24

Missing analysts' estimates as a trigger for sense making24

Status as a trigger for sense making in the financial news letter28

Chapter summary30

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION31

Research design and analyses for Study31

Introduction31

Unit of analysis: firms' quarterly earnings reports31

Data and analysis33

Variables for study 1 Dependent variables35

Descriptions of News letter-generated sources35

Descriptions affirm-generated sources38

Independent variables39

Control variables41

Descriptive statistics Dependent variable41

Independent variable43

Hypothesis tests45

Limitations and potential sources of measurement error48

Discussion49

The patterns of sense making and sense giving in study 151

Chapter summary51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION52

Chapter introduction52

Contributions to theory52

REFERENCES55

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The importance of the financial news media in the functioning of organizations, markets, and society is increasing as interest in and access to financial news has moved beyond financial service professionals and corporate elites. The financial revolution in America has created a portfolio society (Davis, 2009). The Wall Street Journal, with a circulation of over two million in the United States and an extensive range of readers, is one of the most prominent examples of the far-reaching presence of financial news. Financial news has become so prevalent that one can access stock prices and stories about companies on a mobile device such as a Blackberry.

One can easily find updated information 24 hours a day with the ubiquity of cable television and the Internet - at home, the office, and even while working out at the gym (Surowiecki 2004, 25). In 2009, the significance of the insider money has come to the fore in everyday life, as reporters and analysts from the financial television station CNBC have been taken to task on late-night comedy shows and in ...