Does Social Media Get Your Attention?

The effect of social media on corporate violations: Evidence from Weibo posts in China

“…From the perspective of investors, Kipp et al (2019) investigate how social media affect nonprofessional investors' assessments of management credibility and firm value. Also, some studies discuss how social media such as Twitter influences stock market with regard to stock returns and trading volume (Al-Nasseri & Menla Ali, 2018;Bollen et al, 2011;Chen et al, 2014;Renault, 2017;Sprenger et al, 2014;Wu, 2019;Zhang et al, 2012). The present study differs from these in its focus on using Weibo posts as a direct measure of the attention of investors and further discusses the potential effects of the attention arising from social media on corporate violations in China.…”

“…At the new age of information technology, social media has gradually replaced traditional media in providing source of information for investors (Wu, 2019). It promotes a dramatic change in information dissemination from a one-way mode to an interactive mode (Blankespoor et al, 2014;Kipp et al, 2019).…”

“…Second, the new strand of literature on social media has mainly focused on its impact on corporate information announcement (Blankespoor et al, 2014;Lee, Hutton, & Shu, 2015), investors' perception of companies (Kipp et al, 2019) and the stock market (Al-Nasseri & Menla Ali, 2018;Bollen, Mao, & Zeng, 2011;Chen, De, Hu, & Hwang, 2014;Renault, 2017;Sprenger, Tumasjan, Sandner, & Welpe, 2014;Wu, 2019;Zhang, Fuehres, & Gloor, 2012). The present study differs from these in its focus on using Weibo posts as a direct measure of the attention of investors and further discussing the potential effects of the attention arising from social media on corporate violations in China.…”

“…With the development of the Internet and information technology in the new era, social media platforms have gradually replaced traditional media in providing source of information for investors (Wu, 2019). By using social media, the production and consumption of information is no longer an one-way mode of "producer-communicator-users," but an interactive mode in the capital market (Blankespoor, Miller, & White, 2014;Kipp, Zhang, & Tadesse, 2019).…”

“…By the end of 2019 there were 462 million individuals active on Weibo to access and disseminate information. To our knowledge, only a few recent studies (Curtis, Richardson, & Schmardebeck, 2014;Wu, 2019) used social media posts as the main source for generating a direct attention proxy, and we believe this proxy can provide a sound measure of the attention of investors that would potentially affect corporate behaviors in China's context. Third, reputation has been proved to have influence on the media's governance role in developed markets (Joe et al, 2009;Lauterbach & Pajuste, 2017;Liu & McConnell, 2013).…”