Research On Firm Disclosure In New Media Environment

Information disclosure is the cornerstone of the development of capital market.In the traditional media environment,firms disclose information on the designated media.Information coverage,timeliness and fairness are difficult to be guaranteed.With the development of Internet and information technology,the emergence of new media changes the mode of dissemination of information.So that firms can throw off the middle of the media and face directly to the investors.This article uses the method of normative analysis and empirical research to study firm disclosure in new media environment.The main contents and conclusions are as follows:(1)Through theoretical analysis,this paper claims that under new media environment,information dissemination is characterized by diversity,interaction,nonlinearity and autonomy,and information spreads faster and wider.The diversification of the main and universal communication rights makes the agent behavior are more likely to be exposed to the client.And the agent has the convenient and lower cost information channel.The information of operation and management of the firms spreads more easily through new media.Theoretically,if the characteristics of new media can be better used in disclosure it can reduce information asymmetry and principal-agent costs and enhance market efficiency(2)Through the analysis of economic analysis and game theory,this paper studies the game relationship between the main interests of the firm.We believe that the decision of the firm to disclose in new media depends on the trade-off between the cost of disclosure and the impact of the disclosure on the firm's market value.This paper also argues that firms will use new media to disclose because the competition and their own interests.If lacking of supervision the management will choose to disclose exaggeratedly.If firms consider long-term benefits,they will disclose true information in the new media.But because of the short-term behavior of investors and firms,firms will take exaggerated disclosure.Therefore,we should introduce regulators.If the regulators can return the benefits which have been invaded by the management to the investors or even punish management to compensate them the new media disclosure will be able to achieve the Pareto optimal.(3)This paper takes the firms which near new media industry as the research sample,and examines their use of the 9 main types of new media.Through the analysis of statistical analysis this paper finds out that firms' Web site and the interactive quiz are acceptance very high in the listed companies.WeChat and micro-blog accept relatively lower.The use of blog,mobile app,RSS subscription and mail subscription are very low.Interactive quiz disclose financial information very high.Micro-blog,WeChat and other media disclose financial information lower.They are mainly used to promote corporate culture and marketing value.Therefore,the willingness of voluntary disclosure of new media in China's listed companies is stronger,but the financial information is less and the channels are limited.Through cluster analysis,the new media acceptance is divided into high and low two groups,we find that the high groups disclose more information and get more attention from investors.It shows that new media can improve the efficiency of disclosure.(4)Through empirical analysis,this paper finds out that the factors that affect the traditional voluntary disclosure also affect the disclosure of new media.Firms'performance has a positive impact on the website news and WeChat and has a negative impact on interactive quiz.This reflects that excellent firms focus on to affect the publicity and the poor performance firms focus on to affect the short-term behavior of investors.We also find that the acceptance of new media by state-owned firms is relatively lower.The paper also studies the relationship between firm performance and the new media disclosure.We found that poor performance firms disclose more information and good performance firms get more attention which shows that investors are more rational on interactive quiz disclosure and the new media disclosure of good performance firm is more efficient.(5)This paper also studies the market response of new media disclosure.We take the most widely used WeChat as the object of study and select firms that frequently use WeChat disclosure in two industries.Indicator variables are used to distinguish between WeChat disclosures and non WeChat disclosures.Through the empirical analysis,this paper finds that firms which disclose information through WeChat have high stock volume,turnover and Volatility.This shows that WeChat disclosure can enhance the liquidity of stocks and reduce the information asymmetry.However,due to the immaturity of our investors WeChat disclosure has also increased the volatility of the stock market.This paper also uses WeChat click rate as a proxy for disclosure level and find that the more WeChat click,the higher stock volume,turnover and volatility.WeChat disclosure increase investor attention and enhance the stock market liquidity.The paper also divides the firms into two groups with different sizes,and finds that the market liquidity increment of small frms' WeChat disclosure is stronger than that of big firms,which shows that the effect of WeChat disclosure is more obvious in small firms.(6)Based on the research of new media disclosure,this paper puts forward the supervision suggestion and system design.The theoretical and empirical analysis confirms that new media disclosure can improve market efficiency.Therefore,from regulatory point of view,it is good to open channel of disclosure,advocate firm using a variety of carriers to improve disclosure,encourage the use of new media to enhance fair disclosure,advocate universal supervision,enhance frms' media pressure in order to reduce false disclosure,increase penalties,raise corporate governance,curb false new media disclosure,strengthen the supervision of new media disclosure.From the system design,it is good to the establish new media regulatory system,perfect the legal supervision system,enhance the social monitoring system,encourage investors to use new media to obtain information and strengthen the internal monitoring system of new media disclosure.