{"id":106352,"date":"2026-01-22T14:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=106352"},"modified":"2026-01-22T15:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:00:34","slug":"uri-professors-answer-the-question-do-ceo-accents-play-a-role-in-investors-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/uri-professors-answer-the-question-do-ceo-accents-play-a-role-in-investors-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 professors answer the question: Do CEO accents play a role in investors\u2019 decision-making?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 22, 2026 \u2013 Within the S&P 500, only a small fraction of chief executive officers speak with an accent or come from foreign backgrounds. The figure hovers around 10 percent. However, their share of the market is substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the proportion of CEOs with accents at major U.S. firms, such as Alphabet, NVIDIA and Microsoft, continues to rise, Anis Triki<\/a> and Devendra Kale<\/a>, professors in the College of Business at the 溏心vlog免费B站, sought to explore whether CEOs\u2019 accents can influence investor behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe talk about it all the time as academics: \u2018Does a professor\u2019s accent matter?\u2019\u201d said Triki. \u201cTurning to business, we were surprised by the limited research on how accents impact investment decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Devendra Kale, assistant professor of account in the College of Business at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u00a0investigated\u00a0if\u00a0CEO accents play a role in investors\u2019 decision-making. (Credit: 溏心vlog免费B站)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So the pair set about to answer the question \u201cDoes CEO accent impact investors\u2019 investment decisions<\/em><\/a>?\u201d <\/em>Their findings\u2014yes and no\u2014were recently published in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryday investors may focus more on qualitative pieces of information instead of quantitative information when deciding what to invest in, whereas literature suggests qualitative data like accent shouldn\u2019t matter as much for a professional investor,\u201d said Triki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triki and Kale\u2019s study examined investors\u2019 willingness to invest up to $10K in a fictional company after being presented with different accents. One piece of information provided to study participants was a business journal article that offered context on the CEO\u2019s reputation. The other was audio from earnings restatement calls, with the CEO\u2019s voice digitally altered using AI to reflect American, Indian, and Kenyan accents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe main result was that people chose to invest more money with somebody who speaks with a foreign accent generally,\u201d said Triki. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the research also revealed that when a CEO\u2019s hypothetical reputation was poor, accent had no measurable influence on investment decisions. Conversely, accents matter more when the CEO enjoys a strong reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, of the three accents tested, CEOs with Indian and Kenyan accents attracted more hypothetical investment than those with an American accent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While their sample size was about 290 participants, their results demonstrate a direct contrast between potential negative prejudices against foreign accents and reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we presented the research, people were pleasantly surprised because there’s been so much written about how accents can create a negative bias in general,\u201d said Kale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on the results, if somebody’s reputation is bad, whether they have an accent or not, it’s not going to matter. But, if the CEO establishes a good reputation, then having a foreign accent could trigger higher investment decisions,\u201d said Triki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Jan. 22, 2026 \u2013 Within the S&P 500, only a small fraction of chief executive officers speak with an accent or come from foreign backgrounds. The figure hovers around 10 percent. However, their share of the market is substantial. As the proportion of CEOs with accents at major U.S. firms, such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":106353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88,1905],"class_list":["post-106352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-business","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106352"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106359,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106352\/revisions\/106359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}