Despite significant regulatory and academic interest in sell-side analyst forecasts and an extensive literature demonstrating the impact of teamwork in general, we lack evidence of the effect of teamwork on analyst forecasts. In 2005 analyst teams issued nearly three-fourths of analyst reports for a sample of 89 large, heavily followed companies. Over a twelve-year period 86 of those companies had more reports issued by analyst teams than by individual analysts. Using a hand-collected sample of more than 17,000 analyst reports, I document that forecasts issued by analyst teams systematically differ from the forecasts of individual analysts in ways predicted by team literature. I find that prior to the year 2000 analyst teams issue forecasts that are less accurate and more biased than forecasts issued by individual analysts. Beginning in 2000, the relative benefit of analyst teamwork strengthens, consistent with changes due to Regulation Fair Disclosure, brokerage closures, and other regulatory interventions. In addition I find that, within company-year, team-issued forecasts are less pessimistically biased but not less optimistically biased than the forecasts issued by individual analysts. Lastly, the benefits of teamwork vary with the size of the team and over the life of the team, following an inverted u-shaped pattern. My results inform regulators as they consider factors that impact analyst forecast accuracy and bias.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Structural economic changes in many countries, together with unprecedented developments in the business environment, have significantly affected the value creation processes of firms and the way business is conducted. The traditional financial reporting model is inadequate as a consequence of these developments, and intellectual capital (IC) information has gained importance for investment decision making. Empirical capital markets research demonstrates the value-relevance and predictive ability of certain types of IC information. The use of IC information by capital market participants is a topic that has begun to gain attention from contemporary researchers, but for which scant empirical evidence exists. Much of the research in this area relies on the literature about the use of non-financial information (NFI), which is inadequate in its examination of certain types of IC information. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is to examine the use and communication of IC information by sell-side analysts. Sell-side analysts are of particular interest because they are capital market intermediaries and sophisticated processors of corporate information. The reports they produce provide an opportunity to examine their use and communication of IC information. The specific objectives of this thesis are to examine: the extent and types of IC information used by sell-side analysts in initiating coverage reports produced by them; how IC information is used and communicated in these reports; and factors that may influence the use of IC information by sell-side analysts. In order to address these research objectives a content analysis of IC references in 64 initiating coverage reports written on an equivalent number of S&P/ASX 200/300 companies is performed. The content analysis identifies and measures IC references by topic, evidence (discursive, monetary, numerical, or visual), news-tenor (positive, neutral or negative) and time orientation (forward-looking, past-oriented or non-time-specific). The findings indicate that Australian sell-side analysts appreciate the importance of IC in firm valuation, and thus are not ambivalent about the use of IC information in general. However, the findings suggest that their communication of IC information is inconsistent and unsystematic, and inadequate in relation to certain types of IC. This highlights the need for undertaking work at a policy level to educate and train sell-side analysts to deal with IC information, and the development of better models and guidelines for analysing and communicating IC information. On how IC information is used, this thesis finds that sell-side analysts have varying uses of IC information. It was found that IC is predominantly communicated discursively, positively, and in a past-oriented manner; and in doing so IC is used as a tool to further the sell-side analysts’ agenda for the company analysed. Further, the results highlight that the type of investment recommendation in analyst reports impacts on the evidence, news tenor, and time-orientation of IC communicated. These findings alert future researchers to the wider role played by IC beyond its use in forecasts and valuations. Also, the findings indicate inter-sectoral differences in the use of IC information in analyst reports, highlighting the need to improve IC reporting practices of firms by including additional information on industry-specific IC value drivers. Further, it was found that sell-side analysts emphasise IC information in analyst reports for companies from high IC-intensive sectors compared to those from low IC-intensive sectors. Similarly, it was found that analyst reports on risky companies contain significantly more IC information than analyst reports on less risky companies. Contrary to expectations, the extent of IC information is not found to vary with firm size and firm profitability. Also, the results support that the extent of certain types of IC information differs between types of analysts’ investment recommendations. More generally, the findings of this thesis suggest that the corporate reporting process could be improved by including additional types of IC information and providing this information more effectively in a manner that enables users to visualise the interrelationships between resources (both tangible and intangible) and outcomes. This study calls for standards or guidelines for intellectual capital reporting (ICR) in Australia and the expansion of the role of auditing and assurance services to enhance reliability of firm provided IC information in a bid to improve the use of IC information in company analysis by sell-side analysts.

Au cours de la précédente décennie et avant la crise financière de l’automne 2008, les marchés financiers internationaux ont connu un développement considérable et l’émergence d’une véritable industrie de l’investissement institutionnel. Au sein de cette industrie, les analystes financiers sell side employés par les sociétés de courtage apparaissent comme des acteurs majeurs, autour desquels se forment l’évaluation des sociétés cotées et les recommandations d’investissement à destination de leurs clients gestionnaires de fonds amenés à passer leurs ordres de bourse auprès de ces sociétés de courtage. La recherche présentée vise à identifier les modes de gestion des analystes financiers dans le champ de l’industrie de l’investissement institutionnel et l’influence qu’ils exercent sur les représentations, pratiques et productions des analystes. La première partie de cette thèse, après avoir étudié la construction du métier d’analyste et son contexte, met en débat les cadres de références théoriques et les disciplines qui s’impliquent dans l’analyse de la gestion du travail de quelques-uns des principaux acteurs de la finance, en général, et des analystes financiers en particulier. La seconde partie mobilise une approche contextualiste, interdisciplinaire et multi-méthodes au service d’une investigation empirique. Celle-ci met en relief le rôle du droit dans des dimensions coercitives et normatives très prégnantes, encourageant aussi bien la concurrence entre structures que l’homogénéisation et la standardisation de l’organisation du travail. Elle montre comment, sous l’effet de la concurrence des banques d’investissement anglo-saxonnes et de l’introduction d’un nouveau mode de financement de l’analyse financière par les volumes de courtage, les sociétés de « brokerage » ont adopté des stratégies de niche et intégré dans leurs configurations organisationnelles plutôt professionnelles de fortes dimensions mécanistes. Enfin, elle constate une uniformisation des modes de gestion des quatre principales sociétés de courtage françaises filiales de banques d’investissement. Les analystes français sont soumis à des modes de gestion qui privilégient clairement les dimensions marketing du métier qu’il s’agisse des modalités d’organisation du travail, des pratiques de recrutement, de communication interne, d’évaluation et de rémunération. Un des rôles essentiels assigné aux analystes consiste alors à accroitre les volumes de courtage ce qui les conduit à privilégier les activités aval de leur fonction. Mais cette dimension marketing qui caractérise la production des analystes doit être relativisée. En fonction de leur histoire professionnelle et des ressources qu’ils peuvent mobiliser, les analystes développent en effet des stratégies et des identités au travail différenciées. / Over the last decade and before the October 2008 credit crunch, international financial markets have witnessed a considerable development with the emergence of an important industry of institutional investment. Within this industry, financial analysts hired by brokerage firms play a major role while contributing to the assessment of listed companies through investment recommendations to asset managers, thereby obtaining from these clients orders for execution. The objective of this research is to pinpoint the role played by research analysts in the financial industry, and their influence over the representations and practices. The first part of this study, once constructed the analyst’s activity as a category, challenges the referential and theoretical grounds, as well as the fields involved in the work of some financial functions, and draws the attention to research analysts. The second part focuses on a contextual, multidisciplinary and multi-methodological approach to support an empirical investigation, which highlights the role played by law in both its coercive and prescriptive aspects, whether stimulating competition between structures or promoting the homogenization and standardization of work arrangements. We demonstrate how competition from Anglo-Saxon investment banks, as well as the adoption of a new business model resting on commissions generated by trading volumes, has led to the development of niche strategies, and introduced an important mechanistic dimension to the organizational configurations of brokerage firms. Lastly, it sheds light on the standardization of the managerial modes of the four main French brokerage firms, which are all subsidiaries of investment banks. French analysts are subject to management modes which clearly favor the marketing dimensions of the activity, as can be seen through the way their work is organized, the recruitment practices, the internal communication flows, their assessments and salaries. One of the roles assigned to analysts is thus to generate higher brokerage volumes, which as a consequence drives them towards marketing activities. This marketing dimension however needs to must be into perspective. Depending on their professional backgrounds and the resources they access, research analysts develop specific strategies and differentiated identities.

Analistas do mercado financeiro (conhecidos como sell-side analysts, mas aqui designados apenas como analistas) são importantes intermediários da informação contábil/financeira. Seus relatórios são amplamente disponíveis e utilizados por investidores institucionais e não profissionais. É sabido que os analistas possuem conflitos de interesse e sofrem pressões quando processam as informações financeiras e escrevem seus relatórios de recomendações. Como consequência, analistas costumam escrever relatórios extensos e com um tom e recomendação muito otimistas. Assim, existe uma extensa literatura que examina o detalhe e o tom nos relatórios dos analistas. É sabido também que, em face a esse cenário, o investidor \"ajusta\" a recomendação do analista e utilizado de outros dados, além do relatório do analista, para tomar a decisão de investir, como o tamanho da empresa. Porém, um campo pouco explorado diz respeito às heurísticas e vieses que o analista está propenso a ter. Assim, pouco se sabe em que extensão tais atributos cognitivos influenciam o processo de escrita do analista, bem como a reação do mercado acionário. Por conta dessa incerteza, acadêmicos usualmente atribuem o processo de escrita do analista como sendo uma \"caixa-preta\" (BARKER, 1999b; BROWN, CALL, et al., 2015) e o uso do tamanho da empresa como fator de decisão de investimento como firm size effect (SHEFRIN, 2002). O objetivo principal desta tese é entender se as heurísticas e vieses influenciam o processo de escrita do analista. Também procura aqui determinar se esses mesmos atributos, inseridos nos relatórios dos analistas, funcionam como um gatilho, fazendo o investidor negociar. Como objetivo secundário, espera-se verificar se o efeito tamanho da empresa contribui na decisão do investidor negociar ações dentro de uma janela curta de 3 dias (D-1, D 0, D+1). Logo, esta tese visa contribuir para a rica literatura que trata sobre o papel dos analistas no mercado acionário, no entanto, também espera-se dar um passo adiante ao analisar o papel das heurísticas e vieses na escrita do analista. Como expectativa final, espera-se incentivar novas pesquisas que envolvam processos de julgamento dos analistas e das finanças comportamentais. Para tanto, esta tese procura responder a seguinte questão: Qual é o grau de influência das heurísticas e vieses no detalhe e no tom do relatório do analista e como o mercado acionário reage a tais atributos qualitativos? Esta tese espera também atender ao chamado de Schipper (1991) e Brown (1993) no que diz respeito a mais pesquisas que explorem os atributos qualitativos do relatório do analista. A metodologia que será aplicada aqui será o mixed-methods, em que serão coletados dados qualitativos dos relatórios dos analista e interpretados com análises quantitativas. A análise qualitativa envolverá análise de discurso com o uso de dicionários de termos amplamente utilizados na academia. A análise quantitativa envolverá, além de regressões simples e multivariadas, a aplicação da correlação canônica para analisar como as variáveis qualitativas interagem entre si. A base de dados a ser utilizada será os relatórios completos dos analistas que foram classificados como \"melhores\" analistas pela revista Institutional Investor Magazine por 3 anos consecutivos. Para alcançar esses objetivos, foram coletados 4.593 relatórios completos e analisados mais de 47 mil páginas de relatórios publicados entre os anos de 2012 a 2016. Como achados, descobriu-se que as heurísticas e vieses exercem uma influência positiva (na ordem de grandeza de 64,8%) na forma como o analista escreve, especialmente no que diz respeito ao detalhe. Também notou-se que tais relatórios explicam parte da negociação das ações no período, medida pelo volume negociado numa janela de 3 dias da data de publicação do relatório (D-1, D 0, D+1). Como achado final, foi demonstrado que tais atributos qualitativos isolados funcionam como um gatilho, fazendo o investidor negociar. Quando incluído o tamanho da empresa na análise notou-se um ponto interessante, essa variável, em conjunto com os achados das heurísticas e vieses, demonstra que o investidor não negocia rapidamente. / Financial market analysts (known as sell-side analysts, but here designated only as analysts) are important intermediaries of accounting / financial information. Its reports are widely available and used by institutional and non-professional investors. Analysts are known to have conflicts of interest and are pressured when they process financial information and write their recommendations reports. As a consequence, analysts often write lengthy reports with a very optimistic tone and recommendation. Thus, there is extensive literature that examines detail and tone in analysts\' reports. It is also known that, in the face of this scenario, the investor \"adjusts\" the analyst\'s recommendation and used other data, in addition to the analyst\'s report, to make the decision to invest, such as the size of the company. However, an unexplored field concerns the heuristics and biases the analyst is likely to have. Thus, little is known to what extent such cognitive attributes influence the analyst\'s writing process as well as the stock market reaction. Because of this uncertainty, scholars usually attribute the analyst\'s writing process as a \"black box\" (Barker, 1999b; Brown, Call, et al., 2015) and the use of firm size as an investment decision factor as firm size effect (SHEFRIN, 2002). The main objective of this thesis is to understand if the heuristics and biases influence the writing process of the analyst. It also seeks to determine if these same attributes, inserted in analysts\' reports, act as a trigger, causing the investor to negotiate. As a secondary objective, it is expected to verify whether the size effect of the firm contributes to the investor\'s decision to trade stocks within a 3-day window (D-1, D 0, D + 1). Therefore, this thesis aims to contribute to the rich literature that deals with the role of analysts in the stock market, however, it is also expected to take a step forward by analysing the role of heuristics and bias in analyst writing. As a final expectation, it is hoped to encourage further research that involves judgments of analysts and behavioural finance. To that end, this thesis tries to answer the following question: What is the degree of influence of heuristics and biases on the detail and tone of the analyst\'s report and how does the stock market respond to such qualitative attributes? This thesis also hopes to meet the call of Schipper (1991) and Brown (1993) for more research exploring the qualitative attributes of the analyst\'s report. The methodology that will be applied here will be the mixed-methods, in which qualitative data will be collected from the analyst reports and interpreted with quantitative analyses. Qualitative analysis will involve discourse analysis with the use of term dictionaries widely used in academia. The quantitative analysis will involve, besides simple and multivariate regressions, the application of canonical correlation to analyse how the qualitative variables interact with each other. The database to be used will be the full analyst reports that have been ranked \"best\" analysts by Institutional Investor Magazine for 3 consecutive years. To achieve these objectives, 4,593 complete reports were collected, and almost 48,000 pages of reports published between the years 2012 to 2016 were collected. As a result, heuristics and biases were found to exert a positive influence (in the order of magnitude of 64,8%) in the way the analyst writes, especially with regard to detail. It was also noted that such reports explain part of the trading of the shares in the period, measured by the volume traded in a 3 days window from the date of publication of the report (D-1, D 0, D + 1). As a final finding, it has been demonstrated that such isolated qualitative attributes act as a trigger, causing the investor to negotiate. When we included the size of the company in the analysis we noticed an interesting point, this variable, together with the heuristic and bias findings, demonstrated that investors do not trade quickly, they prefer to wait before to start trading.

Au cours de la précédente décennie et avant la crise financière de l'automne 2008, les marchés financiers internationaux ont connu un développement considérable et l'émergence d'une véritable industrie de l'investissement institutionnel. Au sein de cette industrie, les analystes financiers sell side employés par les sociétés de courtage apparaissent comme des acteurs majeurs, autour desquels se forment l'évaluation des sociétés cotées et les recommandations d'investissement à destination de leurs clients gestionnaires de fonds amenés à passer leurs ordres de bourse auprès de ces sociétés de courtage. La recherche présentée vise à identifier les modes de gestion des analystes financiers dans le champ de l'industrie de l'investissement institutionnel et l'influence qu'ils exercent sur les représentations, pratiques et productions des analystes. La première partie de cette thèse, après avoir étudié la construction du métier d'analyste et son contexte, met en débat les cadres de références théoriques et les disciplines qui s'impliquent dans l'analyse de la gestion du travail de quelques-uns des principaux acteurs de la finance, en général, et des analystes financiers en particulier. La seconde partie mobilise une approche contextualiste, interdisciplinaire et multi-méthodes au service d'une investigation empirique. Celle-ci met en relief le rôle du droit dans des dimensions coercitives et normatives très prégnantes, encourageant aussi bien la concurrence entre structures que l'homogénéisation et la standardisation de l'organisation du travail. Elle montre comment, sous l'effet de la concurrence des banques d'investissement anglo-saxonnes et de l'introduction d'un nouveau mode de financement de l'analyse financière par les volumes de courtage, les sociétés de « brokerage » ont adopté des stratégies de niche et intégré dans leurs configurations organisationnelles plutôt professionnelles de fortes dimensions mécanistes. Enfin, elle constate une uniformisation des modes de gestion des quatre principales sociétés de courtage françaises filiales de banques d'investissement. Les analystes français sont soumis à des modes de gestion qui privilégient clairement les dimensions marketing du métier qu'il s'agisse des modalités d'organisation du travail, des pratiques de recrutement, de communication interne, d'évaluation et de rémunération. Un des rôles essentiels assigné aux analystes consiste alors à accroitre les volumes de courtage ce qui les conduit à privilégier les activités aval de leur fonction. Mais cette dimension marketing qui caractérise la production des analystes doit être relativisée. En fonction de leur histoire professionnelle et des ressources qu'ils peuvent mobiliser, les analystes développent en effet des stratégies et des identités au travail différenciées.

<p>This thesis is concerned with exploring the equity market price discovery process, the translation and incorporation of new information into stock prices, by studying both what information is included in this process and which valuation methods are used to translate that information into a value.</p><p>The overarching research question posed in this thesis is: <i>How is equity valued?</i> The overarching question is broad and has been divided into the following sub questions:</p><p><i>What valuation methods do companies use when valuing takeover targets?</i></p><p><i>What valuation methods do sell-side analysts use when valuing equity?</i></p><p><i>What factors explain the variation in the use of valuation methods by sell-side analysts?</i></p><p><i>To what extent do sell-side analysts utilize non-financial information in their reports?</i></p><p>These questions are addressed in four separate essays. Findings of the thesis emphasized that valuation behavior is contextual to several specific circumstances. Findings showed that companies valuing takeover targets used sophisticated valuation methods to a higher extent than did sell-side analysts. Findings also showed systematic differences in the choice of valuation methods among sell-side analysts.</p><p>With regards to the use of non-financial information and information on Intellectual Capital this thesis showed that the context of the target firm dictates which information is relevant for predicting future performance, and hence is used by analysts. Additionally, the accessibility of information is an important factor affecting what information is used in the valuation process.</p><p>Understanding the valuation behavior of the different actors on the capital market is to understand the pricing process of the market, and as such the contribution of this thesis has been to shed more light on the cornerstone of market efficiency- the ability of market actors to identify and buy (sell) under priced (over priced) stocks.</p>

This thesis is concerned with exploring the equity market price discovery process, the translation and incorporation of new information into stock prices, by studying both what information is included in this process and which valuation methods are used to translate that information into a value. The overarching research question posed in this thesis is: How is equity valued? The overarching question is broad and has been divided into the following sub questions: What valuation methods do companies use when valuing takeover targets? What valuation methods do sell-side analysts use when valuing equity? What factors explain the variation in the use of valuation methods by sell-side analysts? To what extent do sell-side analysts utilize non-financial information in their reports? These questions are addressed in four separate essays. Findings of the thesis emphasized that valuation behavior is contextual to several specific circumstances. Findings showed that companies valuing takeover targets used sophisticated valuation methods to a higher extent than did sell-side analysts. Findings also showed systematic differences in the choice of valuation methods among sell-side analysts. With regards to the use of non-financial information and information on Intellectual Capital this thesis showed that the context of the target firm dictates which information is relevant for predicting future performance, and hence is used by analysts. Additionally, the accessibility of information is an important factor affecting what information is used in the valuation process. Understanding the valuation behavior of the different actors on the capital market is to understand the pricing process of the market, and as such the contribution of this thesis has been to shed more light on the cornerstone of market efficiency- the ability of market actors to identify and buy (sell) under priced (over priced) stocks.

This study examines whether financial analysts produce larger amounts of research output and whether their research is more valuable for investors following a debt covenant violation (DCV, hereafter). After a DCV, investor uncertainty about firm value and information asymmetry among stakeholders likely increases. It is therefore difficult for investors to assess firm prospects, resulting in increased demand for firm-specific information. Sell-side analysts, as sophisticated information intermediaries, are skilled at gathering and processing information; thus they are well-suited to provide more research output in response to increased investor demand. I predict and find that equity analysts provide a larger amount of research, proxied by recommendation revisions and earnings forecast revisions, after a DCV. I also document an incremental association between a DCV and analyst research production for firms with less financial flexibility, firms with low institutional ownership, and firms covered by more experienced analysts. In addition, I find evidence that analyst research becomes more valuable and that uncertainty-adjusted analyst forecast errors decrease following a DCV. These results suggest that a change in a firm’s information environment associated with a DCV has significant influence on investors and equity analysts besides the economic consequences documented in prior literature.

Financial analysts play a key role in collecting, processing and disseminating information for the stock market. Selecting the best analysts among thousands of analysts is an important task for investors that determines future investment profitability. Extensive research has been dedicated to finding the best analysts of the market based on various criteria for different clienteles. The state of the art approach in this process has developed into so-called Star Rankings with lists of top analysts who have previously outperformed their peers. How useful are such star rankings? Do the recommendations of stars have higher investment value than the recommendations of non-stars (i.e., recommendations of Stars “shoot” more precisely before and after selection)? Or do star rankings simply represent the past performance that will regress to the mean in the future (i.e., in reality, Shooting Stars are not stars and quickly disappear from the sky)? The aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to empirically investigate the performance of sell-side analysts’ recommendations by focusing on a group of star analysts. This thesis comprises four papers that address two overarching questions. (1) Do star rankings capture any true skill, and, thus, can investors rely on the rankings? (Papers I and II) (2) How do market conditions impact star analysts? (Papers III and IV) Paper I examines the profitability persistence of the investment recommendations from analysts who are listed in the four different star rankings of Institutional Investor magazine, StarMine’s “Top Earnings Estimators”, “Top Stock Pickers” and The Wall Street Journal and shows the predictive power of each evaluation methodology. By investigating the precision of the signals that the various methodologies use in determining who the stars are, the study distinguishes between the star-selection methodologies that capture short-term stock-picking profitability and the methodologies that emphasize the more persistent skills of star analysts. As a result, this study documents that there are star-selection methods that select analysts based on more enduring analyst skills, and, thus, the performance of these methods’ stars persists even after ranking announcements. The results indicate that the choice of analyst ranking is economically important in making investment decisions. Paper II investigates the structure of the portfolios that are built on the recommendations of sell-side analysts and confirms that the abnormal returns are explained primarily by analysts’ stock-picking ability and only partially by the effect of over-weight in small-cap stocks. The study examines the number of stocks in the portfolios and the weights that are assigned to market-cap size deciles and GICS sectors and performs an attribution analysis that identifies the sources of overall value-added performance. Paper III examines the differences in seasonal patterns in the expected returns on target prices between star and non-star analysts. Although the market returns in the sample period do not possess any of the investigated seasonal effects, the results show that both groups of analysts, stars and non-stars, exhibit seasonal patterns and issue more optimistic target prices during the summer, with non-stars being more optimistic than stars. Interestingly, the results show that analysts are highly optimistic in May, which contradicts the adage “Sell in May and go away” but is consistent with the notion of a trade-generating hypothesis: since analysts face a conflict of interests, they may issue biased recommendations and target prices to generate a trade. A detailed analysis reveals that the optimism cycle is related to the calendar of companies’ earnings announcements rather than the market-specific effects. Paper IV discusses how a shift in economic conditions affects the competitiveness of sell-side analysts. The focus is on the changes that were triggered by the financial crisis of 2007-2009 and a post-crisis “uncertainty” period from 2010-2013. The study follows Bagnoli et al. (2008) in using a change in the turnover of rankings as a measure of a transformation in analysts’ competitive advantages. Paper IV extends their research and documents how different ranking systems capture analysts’ ability to handle changes in the economic environment. The results show that market conditions impact analyst groups differently, depending on the group’s competitive advantages. / <p>QC 20170412</p> / European Doctorate in Industrial Management

Relevance has become one of the key priorities for accounting policy, and implies that accounting should have an impact on the economic decision-making of accounting users. Despite the increased importance given to users, however, little is known concerning the properties of such relevance in practice. Furthermore, the lack of insight into the practices of users has been mitigated with a theoretical perspective of decision-making which supports an insufficient understanding of how stock markets function and how accounting users behave. This dissertation contributes to the emerging interest in the sociology of financial analysis by following users in their pursuit of relevance. By theorising financial analysis as a social and institutional practice, this dissertation investigates not only how accounting is relevant but also how such relevance is influenced by the particular setting of accounting users. Furthermore, the understanding of relevance as located within the activities leading up to a decision is here extended by emphasising the continuous activities of users and therefore also the role of accounting in the management of their decisions. Based on in-depth field studies targeting the activities of (sell-side) equity research analysts and equity sales brokers, this dissertation presents four papers addressing different notions of accounting, users and relevance. Theoretical insights are drawn from sociology and include actor-network theory, dramaturgy and text-and-conversation-theory. The studies find that the organisation of the sell-side industry necessitates a use of accounting which accentuates the links between accounting, users and investments recommendations. This dissertation concludes that, in order to produce and sustain such links, relevance becomes (a) mediated by a variety of elements, (b) based on the production of differences, and (c) mutually constitutive for accounting and users. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>