公司網站吸引投資者注意力或增加市場資訊?以網站流量為實證研究

Abstract

公司網站已經成為公司與投資者進行溝通的重要資訊科技投資。有效營運的公司網站具有高度的流量，可以代表公司有比較多的投資者注意或是有效的資訊揭露。對於公司而言，具有較多的投資者注意時，公司可以降低不完整識別的風險，此外，有效的資訊揭露可以減少資訊不對稱的風險。本研究之目的在於探討有效營運的公司網站對於公司資本市場風險是否產生影響以及進一步探討其背後的原因。我們透過1,142間美國公開公司的網站流量資料及其資本市場風險的衡量指標進行了兩個縱斷面的研究。研究結果顯示，網站流量降低了不完整識別風險因而與三個風險指標:報酬波動、分析師預測分散程度以及股本成本負向顯著相關。然而，網站流量與三個風險指標之間的關係並非透過減少資訊不對稱風險的中介而產生。本研究從風險的角度探討網站流量對於公司績效的影響，透過實證分析的結果，對於網站流量所產生的經濟效果，提供了不同於過去的新觀點。

Websites have become an important IT investment for firms to communicate with their investors. Effectively operated websites with higher traffic could represent either higher investor recognition or effective information disclosure. With more investor attention, firms can facilitate a more complete market by reducing incomplete recognition risk. In addition, effective information disclosure can reduce information asymmetry risk. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an effectively operated firm website on the firm’s capital market risk and explore the underlying reason. We conducted two cross-sectional studies on firm website traffic data and the capital market risk measures of 1,142 US public firms. After controlling for confounding factors, website traffic is significantly negatively associated with three risk measures: (1) return volatility, (2) analyst forecast dispersion, and (3) the cost of equity through reducing the incomplete recognition problem. However, the associations between website traffic and the three risk measures are not mediated by the bid-ask spread, the measure of information asymmetry. Our results provide new insights into the economic impact of website traffic. Specifically, we document empirical evidence that website traffic contributes to firm performance from the risk dimension.