Better or worse? Revealing the impact of common institutional ownership on annual report readability

Based on the data on Chinese listed companies over the period from 2007–2021, the relationship between common institutional ownership (CIO) and annual report readability (ARR) is revealed in this paper. The results show that CIO reduces ARR. After a series of robustness tests, this conclusion continues to hold. Further analyses indicate that in situations where analyst attention, industry concentration, and media coverage are high, the above negative relationship is more significant. In addition, operational risks play a mediating role between CIO and ARR. This study enriches the evidence supporting the collusive manipulation effect of CIO.