|
|
|
| The Impact of “Voting with Your Mouth” on Management Voluntary Disclosure |
| WANG Dan, SUN Kunpeng, GAO Hao
|
Business School, University of International Business and Economics;
School of Public Finance and Taxation, Central University of Finance and Economics;
Institute for Global Private Equity, Tsinghua University;
PBC School of Finance, Tsinghua University |
|
|
|
Abstract China is promoting capital market reform to achieve its goal of “standardization, transparency, opening up, vitality and resilience.” Capital market reform entails improving listed companies' governance status and information disclosure quality. Minor shareholders are important participants in China's capital market, but they rarely play an impactful role in corporate governance. They cannot “vote with their hands” or form effective constraints on management and major shareholders through shareholder meetings. Furthermore, they cannot effectively threaten a company by “voting with their feet” because they have little influence on market price.
The emergence of social media has decentralized the communication network and reduced the cost of communication for individuals. Stock forums are a social media platform that allows individuals to share their investment experiences and opinions on company operations. Stock forums have become an important platform for minor investors, enabling them to directly communicate with one another. This raises the question, does social media influence capital markets and improve corporate governance by allowing minor shareholders to comment on the actions of corporate managers？
Unlike traditional news media, stock forums are interactive multi-party platforms. They provide shareholders with direct access to a wide-ranging audience and act as timely, affordable, and accurate sources of information. Minor shareholders can directly express their opinions online, which are then read and spread by other minor shareholders of the respective company. Thus, the minor shareholder's voice is amplified, and the real-time mode of communication could cause public concern. Studies have found that stock forums can influence a firm's value and regulatory risk by triggering capital market feedback and regulatory attention. Considering that social media has empowered minor shareholders to impact corporate governance, the question this paper seeks to answer is whether corporate managers proactively respond to minor shareholders' online presence. In other words, does social media, such as stock forums, allow minor shareholders to express their opinions in ways that affect a company？
This paper collects data from stock forums on China's listed companies from 2012 to 2015 to test the governance effect of social media. The results show that a higher number of posts, readings, and comments on a stock forum positively affects the probability of management voluntary performance forecast, especially for the probability of disclosing bad news. Further, the research shows that “voting with your mouth,” or discussions on stock forums, could affect the stock price, attract regulatory attention, and influence media reports.
This paper contributes to the literature in several ways. First, few studies have considered how the media, especially social media, impact management's disclosure behavior as an external governance mechanism. This paper studies whether social media affects management's disclosure behavior and supplements the literature on management voluntary disclosure. Secondly, studies have considered traditional media's external governance role; however, they have focused on social media's impact on capital markets as a mechanism for information dissemination. Few studies have focused on the corporate governance role of stock forums. This paper enriches the research on social media's external governance role while focusing on management disclosure. Third, minor shareholders have difficulty in protecting their interests, whether by “voting with their hands” or “voting with their feet”, because large shareholders have a greater stake in the company. This paper proposes that social media can provide minor shareholders with a new governance approach, “voting with their mouth.” This is a new approach for minor shareholders to participate in corporate governance.
The Internet has greatly changed how information is disseminated in society. Researchers should examine how the change in dissemination affects the capital market's participants. This paper shows that stock forums provide minor investors with a platform to “vote with their mouth.” They allow minor investors to comment on and influence management's behavior, which helps protect their interests. This study has certain significance for better Internet regulation and capital market developments by demonstrating the comprehensive function of social media.
|
|
Received: 13 November 2018
Published: 02 December 2020
|
|
|
|
|
| [1] |
陈运森、邓祎璐和李哲,2018, 《非处罚性监管具有信息含量吗？——基于问询函的证据》,《金融研究》第4期,第155～171页。
|
| [2] |
戴亦一、潘越和刘思超, 2011,《媒体监督、政府干预与公司治理: 来自中国上市公司财务重述视角的证据》,《世界经济》第11期,第121～144页。
|
| [3] |
董大勇和肖作平, 2011,《证券信息交流家乡偏误及其对股票价格的影响:来自股票论坛的证据》,《管理世界》第1期 ,第52～61页。
|
| [4] |
高敬忠、 周晓苏和王英允, 2011,《机构投资者持股对信息披露的治理作用研究——以管理层盈余预告为例》,《南开管理评论》第5期,第129～140页。
|
| [5] |
金雪军、祝宇和杨晓兰, 2013,《网络媒体对股票市场的影响——以东方财富网股吧为例的实证研究》,《新闻与传播研究》第12期,第36～51页。
|
| [6] |
李欢和罗婷,2016,《管理层业绩预测的机会主义行为——来自高管股票交易的证据》.《南开管理评论》第4期,第63～74页。
|
| [7] |
李培功和沈艺峰, 2010,《媒体的公司治理作用: 中国的经验证据》,《经济研究》第4期,第14～27页。
|
| [8] |
罗进辉,2012,《媒体报道的公司治理作用——双重代理成本视角》,《金融研究》第10期,第153～166页。
|
| [9] |
沈艺峰、杨晶和李培功,2013,《网络舆论的公司治理影响机制研究——基于定向增发的经验证据》,《南开管理评论》第3期,第80～88页。
|
| [10] |
孙鲲鹏、王丹和肖星, 2020,《互联网信息环境整治与社交媒体的公司治理作用》,《管理世界》第7期, 第106～132页。
|
| [11] |
杨晓兰、沈翰彬和祝宇, 2016,《本地偏好、投资者情绪与股票收益率:来自网络论坛的经验证据》,《金融研究》第12期,第143～158页。
|
| [12] |
游家兴、吴静, 2012,《沉默的螺旋:媒体情绪与资产误定价》,《经济研究》第7期,第141～152 页。
|
| [13] |
于忠泊、 田高良和齐保垒等,2011,《媒体关注的公司治理机制——基于盈余管理视角的考察》,《管理世界》第9期,第127～140页。
|
| [14] |
袁振超、 岳衡和谈文峰, 2014,《代理成本、所有权性质与业绩预告精确度》,《南开管理评论》第3期,第49～61页。
|
| [15] |
张琦、郑瑶和宁书影,2016,《新闻的信息增量、审计监督与政府财务信息披露》,《审计研究》第6期,第89～97页。
|
| [16] |
张娆、薛翰玉和赵健宏,2017,《管理层自利, 外部监督与盈利预测偏差》,《会计研究》第1期,第32～38页。
|
| [17] |
Ang, James S.Hsu, Charles and Tang, Di and Wu, Chaopeng, 2020 “The Role of Social Media in Corporate Governance”, The Accounting Review.
|
| [18] |
Antweiler, W., and Frank, M. Z. 2004.“Is All that Talk Just Noise？ The Information Content of Internet Stock Message Boards” ,The Journal of Finance, 59(3): 1259～1294.
|
| [19] |
Brown, L.D.,and Higgins, H. N. 2005. “Managers' Forecasts Guidance of Analysts: International Evidence”,Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 24(4):280～299.
|
| [20] |
Cheng Q, Luo T, Yue H. 2013. “Managerial Incentives and Management Forecast Precision”, The Accounting Review, 88(5):1575～1602.
|
| [21] |
Chunrong Ai and Norton, E. C. 2003. “Interaction Terms in Logit and Probit Models”, Economics Letters, 80(1):123～129.
|
| [22] |
Edward C. Norton, Hua Wang, and Chunrong Ai. 2004. “Computing Interaction Effects and Standard Errors in Logit and Probit Models”, The Stata Journal, 4(2): 154～167.
|
| [23] |
Dan G. We the Media . O'Reilly Media, Inc. 2004.
|
| [24] |
Dyck,A.,N. Volchkova and L. Zingales. 2008. “The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia”,Journal of Finance, 63: 1093～1135.
|
| [25] |
Gorton, Gary B., Ping He, and Lixin Huang. 2014. “Agency-based Asset Pricing”, Journal of Economic Theory,149: 311～349.
|
| [26] |
Joe, J. R., Louis, H., and Robinson, D. 2009. “Managers' and Investors' Responses to Media Exposure of Board Ineffectiveness”,Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 44(3): 579～605.
|
| [27] |
Kothari, S.P., Shu, S., and Wysocki, P.D. 2009. “Do Managers Withhold Bad News？” Journal of Accounting Research, 47: 241～ 276.
|
| [28] |
Leung, Henry, and Thai Ton.2015. “The Impact of Internet Stock Message Boards on Cross-sectional Returns of Small-capitalization Stocks ”,Journal of Banking & Finance,55:37-55.
|
| [29] |
Newig, J. 2004. “Public Attention, Political Action: the Example of Environmental Regulation”,Rationality and Society, 16(2):149～190.
|
| [30] |
Noelle‐Neumann E .1974. “The Spiral of Silence a Theory of Public Opinion”, Journal of Communication, 24(2):43～51.
|
| [31] |
Tetlock P C.2007. “Giving Content to Investor Sentiment: The Role of Media in the Stock Market”,The Journal of Finance, 62(3):1139～1168.
|
|
|
|
