This study investigates the impact of firm innovation on MD&A disclosure. Firms need to reduce information asymmetry to assist investors on the one hand and to prevent rivals from benefitting from disclosures on the other. Innovative firms can use an optimistic tone to convey good news but increase content similarity to reduce proprietary costs. Management chooses a certain content similarity and tone strategy for an innovation and as the number of innovations increases, the ratio of similar innovation disclosure and positive tone increases in the overall MD&A, resulting in greater content similarity and more news conveyed with a positive tone. We find that the firm's level of innovation is positively related to content similarity and tone optimism. We also find that this positive relation is more pronounced when product market competition is stronger and when regional intellectual property rights protection is weaker. Our further analyses on market responses provide evidence suggesting that management's disclosure strategy functions as intended.

中文翻译：

---

企业创新和披露战略

本研究调查了公司创新对 MD&A 披露的影响。公司需要减少信息不对称，一方面帮助投资者，另一方面防止竞争对手从信息披露中获利。创新公司可以使用乐观的语气来传达好消息，但增加内容相似性以降低专有成本。管理层为创新选择一定的内容相似度和语气策略，随着创新数量的增加，类似创新披露和积极基调在整个 MD&A 中的比例增加，导致内容相似度更高，以积极语气传达的新闻也更多。我们发现公司的创新水平与内容相似性和语气乐观正相关。我们还发现，当产品市场竞争越强，区域知识产权保护越弱时，这种正相关关系越明显。我们对市场反应的进一步分析提供的证据表明管理层的披露策略发挥了预期的作用。