Weekdays vs. weekends: How reporting timing influences the sentiment of annual reports

This study examines the impact of financial disclosure timing on the sentiment of corporate reports within an emerging market context. Leveraging a comprehensive dataset covering quarterly reports from all firms listed on Borsa Istanbul between 2018 and 2023, we categorized firms into three groups: firms transitioning disclosures from weekdays to weekends, from weekends to weekdays, and firms maintaining consistent disclosure timing. Utilizing XLNet sentiment analysis on this extensive dataset, we uncovered robust sentiment patterns linked to disclosure timing. Our findings align with investor inattention and strategic disclosure theories, showing that managers prefer weekdays for positive announcements to maximize attention, while relegating negative news to weekends. Moreover, a comparative analysis across pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods indicated that these disclosure timing effects intensified during the COVID-19 crisis. The study highlights strategic managerial behavior in disclosure timing, providing insights that are likely to be of significance for investors, stakeholders and regulators in emerging markets.