Value relevance of blog visibility

Assimetria Informacional e o Preço das Ações: Análise da Utilização das Redes Sociais nos Mercados de Capitais Brasileiro e Norte-americano

“…In a study carried out by Hu et al (2011), the authors verified that the visibility of blogs has a positive impact on share evaluations, and they suggest that the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission) should investigate the impact of blogs on the capital market and regulate the release of such information, since it has important implications for company valuations. Rubin and Rubin (2010) employed the frequency of editing in Wikipedia as an instrument that captures the extent of the population's involvement in the processing of information related to companies.…”

“…According to Hu et al (2011), due to the rising popularity and reliability of blogs, they have become a valid information channel for market participants to use such information when making decisions regarding their investments.…”

“…Some studies (Hu et al, 2011;Rubin & Rubin, 2010;Drake et al, 2012;Blankespoor et al, 2014) sought to relate the use of social networks with information asymmetry and the pricing of shares.…”

“…The information gathered on social networks for this study are presented below and follow a methodology that is similar to that of Hu et al (2011) and of Rubin and Rubin (2010), which focuses on the visibility that social networks lend to information, though these studies used blogs and Wikipedia, respectively. ◆ Facebook: number of "likes" on the companies' pages;…”

“…It is hoped that this study contributes to a better understanding of the use of social networks in divulging information -thus assisting investors, as well as widening academic contributions with regards to capital market practitioners and regulatory bodies -showing evidence that such reporting mechanisms are important in reducing information Traditionally, stock market participants evaluate companies through information released via the usual channels, such as newspapers, journals, reports, and analysts' forecasts (Hu, Liu, Tripathy, & Yao, 2011, p. 1362. With advancements in technology and the increasing use of the internet by many different users around the world, it has become possible for companies to employ these tools to release information and relevant facts, and users of this information have come to base their decisions on this -from product launch announcements, institutional campaigns and advertising, to the communication of economic-financial related facts, by means of financial statements and management reports, among others.…”