摘要
本文聚焦交易所网络互动平台这一典型的非正式互动性信息披露渠道,收集整理2010—2022年中国沪深两市4562家上市公司在上交所“e互动”和深交所“互动易”的投资者问答数据,研究业绩期望落差对企业数字化战略信息传递积极性的影响及其机制。研究发现,业绩期望落差激发企业积极传递数字化战略信息。机制检验表明,对于数字化能力强企业,业绩期望落差主要通过管理层可置信承诺假说下的“长期性激励动机”激发企业积极传递“言行一致”的真实性数字化战略信息,而对于数字化能力弱企业,业绩期望落差则主要通过管理层自利性偏差假说下的“暂时性安抚动机”激发企业积极传递“言行不一”的粉饰性数字化战略信息。异质性分析发现,在高管数字注意力强、组织惯性小、地区诚信与法治环境好的企业中,业绩期望落差对企业数字化战略信息传递积极性的促进作用更显著。进一步研究发现,对于数字化能力强(弱)企业,更严格的数字化信息披露规制和更大力度的数字化转型政策支持对其业绩期望落差与数字化战略信息传递积极性之间的正向关系起到强化(弱化)作用,而企业积极传递数字化战略信息对增加其数字化物质资本、人力资本投入和数字化创新产出具有积极的治理效应。
As the construction of Digital China advances,accelerating digital transformation has become a broad consensus among firms and investors.By delivering digital strategy information and releasing positive signals of digital transformation,firms significantly boost investor sentiment and market confidence.In recent years,positively delivering digital strategy information has increasingly become a new strategic response strategy for firms to cope with performance expectation gap,but there are fewer studies on how performance feedback affects firms’digital strategy disclosure.Firms’digital strategy messaging on online interaction platforms is a real concern,especially when faced with the pressure of performance expectation gap.At this point,market,reputation and legitimacy pressures can further enhance the complexity of firms’motivations for digital strategy messaging.So,does performance expectation gap motivate firms to positively deliver digital strategy information?Are there different underlying mechanisms for this motivation among firms with different digitalization capabilities?Are there heterogeneous strategy motives behind firms’positivity of digital strategy messaging?As typical informal online interaction platforms,“E-Interactive”and“Interactive Easy”are set up by the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges respectively,aiming at guiding and facilitating the exchange of information among multiple market participants,which provide a suitable research scenario for this study.From 2010 to 2022,on“E-Interactive”and“Interactive Easy”,the proportion of investors’questions of digital strategy information concern has increased from less than 5%to 10%,while the proportion of firms’answers of digital strategy information delivery has increased even more significantly,from about 4%to 12%.This trend thus indicates that both investors and firms are paying more attention to the Q&A sessions on online interaction platforms and the digital strategy information they convey.This study focuses on online interaction platforms,a typical informal interactive information disclosure channel,collects investor-firm Q&A data from 4562 listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges’online interaction platforms from 2010 to 2022,and investigates the impact of performance expectation gap on positivity of digital strategy messaging and its mechanisms.This study finds that performance expectation gap motivates firms’positivity of digital strategy messaging.Mechanism tests show that for firms with stronger digitalization capabilities,performance expectation gap motivates firms to positively deliver true digital strategy messages through the‘long-term incentive motivation’under the management credible commitment hypothesis.However,for firms with weaker digitalization capabilities,performance expectation gap motivates firms to positively deliver whitewashed digital strategy messages through the‘temporary appeasement motivation’under the management self-interest bias hypothesis.Heterogeneity anal-ysis reveals that the contribution of performance expectation gap to the positivity of digital strategy messaging is more significant among firms with stronger executive digital attention,lower organizational inertia,and better regional integrity and law environment.It is further found that for firms with stronger(weaker)digitalization capabilities,stricter regulation for digital disclosure and stronger policy support for digital transformation have a strengthening(weakening)effect on the positive relationship between performance expectation gap and positivity of digital strategy messaging.Moreover,positivity of digital strategy mes-saging has a positive governance effect on increasing digital physical capital,human capital investment and digital innovation output.This study contributes to the previous literature in four aspects.First-ly,previous research focuses on the economic consequences of firms’participation in online interaction platforms,there is a relative lack of research focusing on their antecedent factors.In order to explore when and how firms become active interaction participants or information transmitters,this study focuses on more essential performance factor and investigates whether performance expectation gap is an antecedent factor for firms’positivity of digital strategy messaging,providing new research literature and empirical evidence that performance expectation gap catalyzes strategic change.Secondly,facing multiple objectives such as responding to investor skepticism,deflecting social opinion,and alleviating operational pressure,firms with performance expecta-tion gap may adopt strategies such as tone management and investment and financing restructuring.In the digital era,positively delivering digital strategy information has gradually become a new strategy for firms to cope with performance expectation gap.This paper enriches the research related to firms’differentiated strategic responses under performance expectation gap from the perspective of digital strategy messaging.Thirdly,most of the previous studies suggest that digital strategy messaging is an information manipulation of hotspot specu-lation.In this paper,we propose and validate the“long-term incentive motivation”and“temporary appeasement motivation”based on the hy-pothesis of management credible commitment and management self-in-terested bias hypothesis,respectively.This suggests that there may be multiple motivations for positivity of digital strategy messaging driven by performance expectation gap.Fourthly,feedback theory can explain how performance expectation gap affects firms’homogeneous strategy behaviors,but it is difficult to explain their heterogeneous strategy in-tentions behind it.This study points out the importance and necessity of differentiating firms’digitalization capabilities from the capability-en-vironmental pressure interaction perspective.This study finds that firms with different digitalization capabilities exhibit homogeneous strategy behaviors with heterogeneous strategy intentions in the face of perfor-mance expectation gap.In this way,the performance feedback theory is deepened and expanded from the capability-environmental pressure interaction perspective.This study provides the following practical insights for firms and man-agers.Firstly,investors should neither overreact to the predictive digital strategy information delivered by firms or follow the trend of pursuing digital concepts,nor consider the digital strategy information delivered by firms to be information manipulation of hotspot speculation across the board,but rather enhance information discernment ability to make informed investment decisions.Digitalization capability is an important criterion for distinguishing the quality of firms’digital strategy infor-mation signals,which can provide reference for investors to judge,as-sess and screen massive digital strategy information.Secondly,in order to give full play to the positive governance effect of positivity of digital strategy messaging,firms and managers should pay attention to the dig-ital insight and vision of talents,strive to overcome the resistance of or-ganizational inertia to strategy change,and also vigorously promote the civilization of honesty and trustworthiness,and continuously optimize the construction of the regional rule of law environment.Thirdly,relying solely on digital commitments can not once and for all prevent the loss of legitimacy caused by digital backwardness.In the face of the pressure of performance expectation gap,firms’positivity of digital strategy messaging can only address the immediate needs,while effectively pro-moting digital transformation can lead to investors’long-term trust and confidence.In other words,the key to building a competitive advantage in the digital era is for both the digital commitments and digital trans-formation to go hand in hand.Fourthly,informal information delivery on online interaction platforms also affect investor decision-making and capital market operation.Firms should consciously deliver true and accurate,standardized and clear,objective and prudent information,and fulfill their responsibility for information disclosure.Investors should be prudent and skillful in distinguishing the authenticity of firms’digital strategy information.Regulators and other market players should also improve the level of fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities,so as to jointly improve the information environment of the capital market.
作者
严若森
高心仪
Yan Ruosen;Gao Xinyi(Economics and Management School,Wuhan University)
出处
《南开管理评论》
CSSCI
北大核心
2024年第9期65-77,共13页
Nankai Business Review
基金
国家社会科学基金重点项目(22AGL015)
教育部人文社会科学重点研究基地重大项目(22JJD630004)
中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金(413000390)资助。
关键词
业绩期望落差
企业数字化战略信息传递
网络互动平台
治理效应
Performance Expectation Gap
Corporate Digital Strat-egy Messaging
Online Interaction Platforms
Governance Effect