Bill Mayew, Fuqua School of Business

Every week a business school professor, an expert in his or her field, defines a key term on FT Lexicon, our online economics, business and finance glossary.

Our professor this week

Bill Mayew is an associate professor of accounting at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. Prof Mayew received his PhD in business administration (accounting) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 and has been on the Fuqua faculty since graduation. He previously worked in accounting and financial reporting assurance at Ernst & Young.

Prof Mayew studies managerial communication of firm performance, including both voluntary disclosures made outside the financial reporting system and mandatory financial disclosures in financial reports. His research uses theories from economics and psychology to better understand the determinants and consequences of voluntary and mandatory managerial communication. He received the 2008 Financial Research Association best paper award for his work (with Mohan Venkatachalam) on the information content of managerial vocal cues during earnings conference calls.

Prof Mayew’s research has appeared in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies and Contemporary Accounting Research. His work is relevant to investors and analysts who interpret managerial communication and investor relations departments who shape and assist in the creation and dissemination of managerial communications. He has presented his research on managerial vocal cues to professional money managers, sell-side financial analysts and investor relations personnel. His teaching includes both financial accounting and corporate financial reporting, where he has received awards for teaching excellence in both the daytime and weekend executive MBA programmes.

He had chosen to define the term earnings conference call.

Why it is important to understand the importance of earnings conference calls

“It’s important to understand this term because earnings conference calls are a unique and regularly occurring opportunity to learn about a firm as a result of direct inquiry from analysts and as a result of actually hearing management speak,” says Prof Mayew.

“Relative to other communication outlets such as regulatory filings and press releases that only contain words and numbers, earnings conference calls are interactive and how executives sound during the conference calls can provide additional information to market participants,” adds Prof Mayew.

To find out more about the information that can be gained in earnings conference calls click on the hyperlinked terms.