The Future of Analysts’ Work: Importance and Challenges Ahead

Abstract

The proposed symposium aims at promoting debate on the analyst profession by bringing several leading scholars in the study of equity analysts. Our symposium shares papers that highlight the role of analysts as information intermediaries but also as self-interested individuals performing careers, the significant part of which is providing insight and guidance to investors. We do not propose to solve the debate on whether or how analysts can be useful for understanding publicly traded firms and financial markets; rather, we hope to use the symposium as a platform to examine different ways in which the work of equity analysts can provide insight into important organizational phenomena. Each scholar studies analysts from a unique perspective, which combined with our discussant creates an opportunity for lively debate on the role, power, and importance of analysts in modern organizational and strategy research. Two sides to the story? Positive and negative aspects of securities analysts Presenter: Mary J. Benner; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Daniel Beunza Ibanez; Copenhagen Business School Analysts intertemporal evaluations of firms resources during radical technological change Presenter: Ram Ranganathan; U. of Texas, McCombs Presenter: Wei Yang; The U. of Texas at Austin Organizations Centrality in the Employee Mobility Network and Individual Performance Presenter: Matteo Prato; USI (Lugano) Presenter: Pino G. Audia; Dartmouth College Does playing to type make you a star? Gender and gender-based categories in analyst research Presenter: Anne Bowers; U. of Toronto Presenter: Matteo Prato; USI (Lugano) When do employees pursue firm goals versus their career concerns? Presenter: Viktorie Sevcenko; London Business School Presenter: Sendil Ethiraj; London Business School