The impact of analyst sentiment on UK stock recommendations and target prices

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between narrative sentiment in analysts' company reports and their recommendation and target price outputs. We study an industry-balanced sample of 275 UK quoted company sell-side analyst reports over the period 2006-2010 using a content analysis methodology to measure net sentiment for a range of themes. We then model analysts' outputs against themed sentiment scores to analyse the impact of the Global Financial Crisis. We find that themed sentiments impact upon analysts' outputs, but their magnitude and direction vary over the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. In particular, before the crisis we find a strong negative relationship between the macroeconomic and regulatory environment and report outputs, though this effect diminishes somewhat with the onset of the crisis, to be restored thereafter. Growth sentiment exerts a weak positive impact before the crisis which disappears thereafter. Financial performance sentiment becomes a significant positive driver of outputs following the crisis. There is evidently a "back to basics" approach following the crisis which restores financial fundamentals to the heart of stock analysis. Our findings provide some insight into the thought processes of analysts by identifying the dynamic relation between analysts' outputs and themed sentiments

Analyzing confidentiality and privacy concerns: insights from Android issue logs

Context: Post-release user feedback plays an integral role in improving software quality and informing new features. Given its growing importance, feedback concerning security enhancements is particularly noteworthy. In considering the rapid uptake of Android we have examined the scale and severity of Android security threats as reported by its stakeholders. Objective: We systematically mine Android issue logs to derive insights into stakeholder perceptions and experiences in relation to certain Android security issues. Method: We employed contextual analysis techniques to study issues raised regarding confidentiality and privacy in the last three major Android releases, considering covariance of stakeholder comments, and the level of consistency in user preferences and priorities. Results: Confidentiality and privacy concerns varied in severity, and were most prevalent over Jelly Bean releases. Issues raised in regard to confidentiality related mostly to access, user credentials and permission management, while privacy concerns were mainly expressed about phone locking. Community users also expressed divergent preferences for new security features, ranging from more relaxed to very strict. Conclusions: Strategies that support continuous corrective measures for both old and new Android releases would likely maintain stakeholder confidence. An approach that provides users with basic default security settings, but with the power to configure additional security features if desired, would provide the best balance for Android's wide cohort of stakeholders

How are UK churches using social media to engage with their congregations?

Churches are important non-profit organisations that are increasingly adopting social media. In order to contribute to understanding of the value of social media as a communications channel for non-profit organisations, this article examines, and develops a typology of, the uses of social media by two global churches with a strong presence in the UK, Hillsong, a megachurch, and the Church of England. Informed by previous typologies of the use of social media in both commercial and non-profit contexts, content analysis was conducted of Hillsong's and the Church of England’s social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. This analysis provided the basis for the formulation of a typology of uses, the main categories of which are: building a brand, building the church community, outreach, and developing spiritual mission. Differences between the approaches adopted by the Church of England and Hillsong are outlined. Suggestions are offered for future practice and further research

A 27-year review of mergers and acquisitions research in 27 leading management journals

This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by providing a systematic review of over 500 academic articles across 27 management journals over a 27-year time frame. There appears to be a mixture of empirical and conceptual articles, with a larger proportion being empirical but an increasing number leaning towards a conceptual nature. Our findings show that most studies follow a quantitative approach and use large samples, mostly originating from existing databases. There is an emergence of thematic areas related to the strategic factors influencing M&As, but with the human dimension, gaining increasing attention over time.authorsversionpublishe

Supervised machine learning algorithms can classify open-text feedback of doctor performance with human-level accuracy

Background: Machine learning techniques may be an effective and efficient way to classify open-text reports on doctor’s activity for the purposes of quality assurance, safety, and continuing professional development. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of machine learning algorithms trained to classify open-text reports of doctor performance and to assess the potential for classifications to identify significant differences in doctors’ professional performance in the United Kingdom. Methods: We used 1636 open-text comments (34,283 words) relating to the performance of 548 doctors collected from a survey of clinicians’ colleagues using the General Medical Council Colleague Questionnaire (GMC-CQ). We coded 77.75% (1272/1636) of the comments into 5 global themes (innovation, interpersonal skills, popularity, professionalism, and respect) using a qualitative framework. We trained 8 machine learning algorithms to classify comments and assessed their performance using several training samples. We evaluated doctor performance using the GMC-CQ and compared scores between doctors with different classifications using t tests. Results: Individual algorithm performance was high (range F score=.68 to .83). Interrater agreement between the algorithms and the human coder was highest for codes relating to “popular” (recall=.97), “innovator” (recall=.98), and “respected” (recall=.87) codes and was lower for the “interpersonal” (recall=.80) and “professional” (recall=.82) codes. A 10-fold cross-validation demonstrated similar performance in each analysis. When combined together into an ensemble of multiple algorithms, mean human-computer interrater agreement was .88. Comments that were classified as “respected,” “professional,” and “interpersonal” related to higher doctor scores on the GMC-CQ compared with comments that were not classified (P.05). Conclusions: Machine learning algorithms can classify open-text feedback of doctor performance into multiple themes derived by human raters with high performance. Colleague open-text comments that signal respect, professionalism, and being interpersonal may be key indicators of doctor’s performance

Gender, age and the MBA: An analysis of extrinsic and intrinsic career benefits

Against the background of an earlier UK study, this paper presents the findings of a Canadian based survey of career benefits from the MBA. Results indicate firstly that gender and age interact to influence perceptions of career outcomes (young men gain most in terms of extrinsic benefits of career change and pay), and secondly that both men and women gain intrinsic benefits from the MBA. However, intrinsic benefits vary by gender: men in the study were more likely to say they gained confidence from having a fuller skill set while women were more likely to say they gained confidence from feelings of self worth; men emphasised how they had learned to give up control while women argued that they had gained a ‘voice’ in the organization. The role of the MBA in career self- management and the acquisition of key skills are examined as well as the implications for the design of programmes in meeting the varied need of men and women in different age groups