非正式信息传递机制能降低公司权益融资成本吗?——基于企业家微博的实证检验

Can Informal Information Transfer Reduce the Cost of Equity?Based on the“Sina Weibo”of Entrepreneurs

移动互联网时代,社交媒体日渐成为信息传递的重要渠道。作为社交媒体之一的微博为企业家从幕后走向台前提供了一条低成本且极便捷的通道。不同于以主流媒体为代表的正式信息传递机制,企业家微博具有明显的“非正式”特征。文章研究了企业家微博这一非正式信息传递机制对企业权益融资成本的影响。结果表明:(1)企业家微博发布与其所在企业的权益融资成本显著负相关。微博发布条数、评论条数以及转发条数越多,企业权益融资成本下降越明显。(2)企业家微博对权益融资成本的影响在市场化程度低的地区以及企业外部信息环境薄弱的情况下更加显著。(3)与企业不直接相关的个性化微博和与企业直接相关的披露式微博都与权益融资成本显著负相关,而个性化微博比例越高,越有利于降低权益融资成本。艾特(@)他人的数量越多,或者正向情感倾向的内容比例越高,企业权益融资成本下降越明显。在自媒体快速发展的时代,文章丰富了非正式信息传递机制经济后果的研究,为企业家选择信息传递方式和渠道提供了重要参考。

In the era of mobile internet,social media has become the main platform for people to transfer information.Microblog,an unofficial and informal communication channel with low cost and great convenience,provides entrepreneurs a chance to move from the backstage to the front-stage of firms.Unlike traditional information transfer mechanisms such as TV and newspapers,Microblog is an informal information transfer mechanism.It is an important supplement to the formal information transmission mechanism of firms,which can effectively alleviate the information asymmetry between investors and firms.By using Microblog,an entrepreneur has more initiative in disseminating information,such as what information to release,when to publish and how to express it,etc.At the same time,Microblog can not only spread the information to the fans and readers without attenuation and distortion,but also receive comments and feedback from them.Another advantage of Microblog is that the entrepreneur can express or share his or her outlook,viewpoint and even the mood in Microblog,which shortens the distance between the entrepreneur and information receivers.The kind of person the entrepreneur@shows their social capital.Investors and creditors are sensitive to the information of Microblog,by which they understand the entrepreneur and his or her financial decisions.So,we expect that when other things being equal,the cost of equity of firms with Microblog-entrepreneurs will be lower than the cost of equity of firms without Microblog-entrepreneurs.In addition to the dummy of Microblog,we use the number of Microblog posts,comments,forwards and likes to measure the information content of Microblog.We find that the Microblog of entrepreneurs plays a significantly positive role on reducing equity cost.This informal information transfer effect is stronger when firms are located in the regions with lower marketization and in the case of weak external information environment.Further tests show that the more personal information on Microblog,the more Microblogs including@,or the more positive sentiment in the content of Microblog,the more equity cost is reduced.We contribute to the literature in several ways academically.First,coping with the development of We Media,we classify the information transmission mechanism into formal and informal.Second,we investigate the behavior of entrepreneurs on firms’equity cost and fill the gap in the literature.Third,we offer a new idea and method to the front-stage behavior of entrepreneurs.In practice,Microblog of entrepreneurs is not just a simple individual behavior;it bears an important organizational purpose,and every word and action of entrepreneurs may affect firms.The results of this paper provide implications for the information transmission choice of entrepreneurs in the new We Media era.