How does investors’ perceived ease of information access affect their investment judgments?

By manipulating the perceived ease of information access through use of a search engine, I provide experimental evidence that investors are more likely to rely on information gist and use shallow processing after using an online search engine to access a firm’s financial information. Results show that investors using a search engine to access a company’s financial information were more likely to invest in a company with a higher likelihood of real earnings management (REM) than a company with the same net income but a lower likelihood of REM. On the other hand, investors who did not use a search engine were more likely to invest in the lower likelihood of REM company. Furthermore, investors who accessed financial information via a search engine judged the financial information more easily available, were more likely to reopen the financial information, and scored lower on the retention test. The study contributes to the accounting literature by showing that technologies that increase perceived ease of information access change how investors process and use financial information.