This study investigates how competing earnings announcements affect retail investors’ participation in interactive platforms. Consistent with the notion that concurrent earnings announcements distract investors, we find a negative association between the number of competing earnings announcements and number of questions raised by retail investors. Further analyses show that investors’ attention is mainly diverted by peer announcements in the same industry. Moreover, retail investors concentrate on firms with fewer alternative information sources, less readable reports, a more abnormally optimistic tone, and poorer performance, indicating strategic attention allocation. Regarding the economic consequences, competing earnings announcements disperse retail investors’ attention, weaken their real-time interaction, and consequently reduce trading volume. Overall, retail investors’ post-announcement questions reflect not only their attention but also how they strategically allocate it.
Lu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.