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Private Communication among Competitors and Public Disclosure

This study examines how private communication among competitors shapes their public disclosures. Theories at the intersection of accounting and industrial organization suggest that competing firms can use public disclosure to coordinate, and predict a substitutive relation between private communication and public disclosure: private communication reduces the need to coordinate via public disclosure. Using data on the extent of private communication among competing firms in strategic alliances, consistent with theoretical predictions I find that firms that enter into strategic alliances with competitors reduce their public disclosure about expected future business conditions, including forecasts of demand and production levels, and that the reduction is most pronounced for firms in alliances that entail more extensive private communication.