IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/riibaf/v70y2024ipas0275531924001284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do media message receivers asymmetrically react to non-strategic and strategic media coverage? Evidence from Hong Kong

Author

Listed:
  • Fung, Michael K.
  • Cheng, Louis T.W.
  • Shen, Jianfu

Abstract

This study decomposes media coverage into a non-strategic (random news) component and a strategic component backed by investor relations (IR) activities. Conceptually, media message receivers, including analysts and investors, asymmetrically react to non-strategic and strategic media coverage if their reactions to strategic media coverage are biased. Therefore, their reactions to non-strategic media coverage provide a benchmark of unbiased actions for empirically identifying the upward bias, if any, in their reactions to strategic media coverage. Using a sample of Hong Kong firms that provides unique data on IR activities, this study finds that analyst following and forecast error are unbiased in response to strategic media coverage. However, investors’ actions are biased upward in response to strategic media coverage, whose positive impact is over 50% stronger than that of non-strategic media coverage on stock performance and institutional ownership. Moreover, investors heavily discount the strategic media coverage of firms with high information asymmetry.

Suggested Citation

  • Fung, Michael K. & Cheng, Louis T.W. & Shen, Jianfu, 2024. "Do media message receivers asymmetrically react to non-strategic and strategic media coverage? Evidence from Hong Kong," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:70:y:2024:i:pa:s0275531924001284
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2024.102335
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531924001284
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ribaf.2024.102335?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael P. Keane & David E. Runkle, 1998. "Are Financial Analysts' Forecasts of Corporate Profits Rational?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(4), pages 768-805, August.
    2. Darrat, Ali F. & Zhong, Maosen & Cheng, Louis T.W., 2007. "Intraday volume and volatility relations with and without public news," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2711-2729, September.
    3. Cai, Hongbin & Wang, Joseph Tao-Yi, 2006. "Overcommunication in strategic information transmission games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 7-36, July.
    4. Jin, Li & Myers, Stewart C., 2006. "R2 around the world: New theory and new tests," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(2), pages 257-292, February.
    5. Robert M. Bushman & Christopher D. Williams & Regina Wittenberg‐Moerman, 2017. "The Informational Role of the Media in Private Lending," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 115-152, March.
    6. Yang, Shuai & Wu, Chao, 2021. "Do Chinese managers listen to the media?: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    7. Bryan Kelly & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2012. "Testing Asymmetric-Information Asset Pricing Models," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(5), pages 1366-1413.
    8. J. Bradford De Long & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1989. "The Size and Incidence of the Losses from Noise Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 44(3), pages 681-696, July.
    9. Zhi Da & Joseph Engelberg & Pengjie Gao, 2011. "In Search of Attention," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1461-1499, October.
    10. Thomas J. George & Chuan‐Yang Hwang, 2007. "Long‐Term Return Reversals: Overreaction or Taxes?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(6), pages 2865-2896, December.
    11. De Long, J Bradford & Andrei Shleifer & Lawrence H. Summers & Robert J. Waldmann, 1990. "Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 703-738, August.
    12. Paul C. Tetlock, 2011. "All the News That's Fit to Reprint: Do Investors React to Stale Information?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(5), pages 1481-1512.
    13. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Green, Jeremiah & Muller, Karl A., 2020. "Market uncertainty and the importance of media coverage at earnings announcements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    14. Hong, Yun & Jiang, Yanhui & Su, Xiaojian & Deng, Chao, 2024. "Extreme state media reporting and the extreme stock market during COVID-19: A multi-quantile VaR Granger causality approach in China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    15. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Qiu, Annie A., 2010. "Ownership concentration, foreign shareholding, audit quality, and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 425-442, March.
    16. David Aboody & Baruch Lev, 2000. "Information Asymmetry, R&D, and Insider Gains," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(6), pages 2747-2766, December.
    17. Xie, Nan & Xu, Qifa & Jiang, Cuixia & Fu, Hong, 2023. "Social media, investor-company interaction and insider trading profitability: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Alexander Dyck & Adair Morse & Luigi Zingales, 2010. "Who Blows the Whistle on Corporate Fraud?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(6), pages 2213-2253, December.
    19. Brad M. Barber & Terrance Odean, 2008. "All That Glitters: The Effect of Attention and News on the Buying Behavior of Individual and Institutional Investors," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(2), pages 785-818, April.
    20. Abarbanell, Jeffrey S & Bernard, Victor L, 1992. "Tests of Analysts' Overreaction/Underreaction to Earnings Information as an Explanation for Anomalous Stock Price Behavior," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 1181-1207, July.
    21. G. Andrew Karolyi & Dawoon Kim & Rose Liao, 2020. "The Theory and Practice of Investor Relations: A Global Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4746-4771, October.
    22. Groseclose, Tim, 2021. "Do humans rationally discount biased signals? Evidence from the Crawford-Sobel Game," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 306-317.
    23. Gongmeng Chen & Louis T. W. Cheng & Ning Gao, 2005. "Information Content and Timing of Earnings Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1‐2), pages 65-95, January.
    24. De Bondt, Werner F M & Thaler, Richard H, 1987. "Further Evidence on Investor Overreaction and Stock Market Seasonalit y," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 557-581, July.
    25. Christopher S. Armstrong & John E. Core & Daniel J. Taylor & Robert E. Verrecchia, 2011. "When Does Information Asymmetry Affect the Cost of Capital?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 1-40, March.
    26. Gregory S. Miller, 2006. "The Press as a Watchdog for Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1001-1033, December.
    27. Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne & Larcker, David F., 2008. "The power of the pen and executive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-25, April.
    28. Reed, Adam V. & Samadi, Mehrdad & Sokobin, Jonathan S., 2020. "Shorting in Broad Daylight: Short Sales and Venue Choice," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(7), pages 2246-2269, November.
    29. Lily H. Fang & Joel Peress & Lu Zheng, 2014. "Does Media Coverage of Stocks Affect Mutual Funds' Trading and Performance?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(12), pages 3441-3466.
    30. Field, Laura Casares & Lowry, Michelle, 2009. "Institutional versus Individual Investment in IPOs: The Importance of Firm Fundamentals," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(3), pages 489-516, June.
    31. Kenneth R. Ahern & Denis Sosyura, 2014. "Who Writes the News? Corporate Press Releases during Merger Negotiations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 241-291, February.
    32. De Bondt, Werner F M & Thaler, Richard, 1985. "Does the Stock Market Overreact?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 793-805, July.
    33. Lili Dai & Jerry T. Parwada & Bohui Zhang, 2015. "The Governance Effect of the Media's News Dissemination Role: Evidence from Insider Trading," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 331-366, May.
    34. Lee, Charles M.C. & So, Eric C., 2017. "Uncovering expected returns: Information in analyst coverage proxies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 331-348.
    35. Gongmeng Chen & Louis T. W. Cheng & Ning Gao, 2005. "Information Content and Timing of Earnings Announcements," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1-2), pages 65-95.
    36. Lily Fang & Joel Peress, 2009. "Media Coverage and the Cross‐section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(5), pages 2023-2052, October.
    37. Brad Barber & Reuven Lehavy & Maureen McNichols & Brett Trueman, 2001. "Can Investors Profit from the Prophets? Security Analyst Recommendations and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 531-563, April.
    38. Laura Xiaolei Liu & Ann E. Sherman & Yong Zhang, 2014. "The Long-Run Role of the Media: Evidence from Initial Public Offerings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1945-1964, August.
    39. Crawford, Vincent P & Sobel, Joel, 1982. "Strategic Information Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1431-1451, November.
    40. Wu, Chunying & Xiong, Xiong & Gao, Ya & Zhang, Jin, 2022. "Does social media distort price discovery? Evidence from rumor clarifications," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    41. Zarowin, Paul, 1990. "Size, Seasonality, and Stock Market Overreaction," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 113-125, March.
    42. David H. Solomon, 2012. "Selective Publicity and Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(2), pages 599-638, April.
    43. Du, Hanyu & Hao, Jing & He, Feng & Xi, Wenze, 2022. "Media sentiment and cross-sectional stock returns in the Chinese stock market," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    44. Moyer, R. Charles & Chatfield, Robert E. & Sisneros, Phillip M., 1989. "Security Analyst Monitoring Activity: Agency Costs and Information Demands," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(4), pages 503-512, December.
    45. Tao, Ran & Brooks, Chris & Bell, Adrian R., 2020. "When is a MAX not the MAX? How news resolves information uncertainty," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 33-51.
    46. Alon Brav & J.B. Heaton, 2002. "Competing Theories of Financial Anomalies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 575-606, March.
    47. Kartik, Navin & Ottaviani, Marco & Squintani, Francesco, 2007. "Credulity, lies, and costly talk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 93-116, May.
    48. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Sharma, Piyush & Shen, Jianfu & Ng, Allen C.C., 2021. "Exploring the dark side of third-party certification effect in B2B relationships: A professional financial services perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 123-136.
    49. Duan, Yuejiao & Liu, Lanbiao & Wang, Zhuo, 2021. "COVID-19 Sentiment and the Chinese Stock Market: Evidence from the Official News Media and Sina Weibo," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Man & Hoang, Luong & Nguyen, Lily & Phan, Hoang Long, 2020. "Media coverage and stock price synchronicity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    2. Dang, Tung Lam & Dang, Viet Anh & Moshirian, Fariborz & Nguyen, Lily & Zhang, Bohui, 2019. "News media coverage and corporate leverage adjustments," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Buehlmaier, Matthias M. M. & Zechner, Josef, 2016. "Financial media, price discovery, and merger arbitrage," CFS Working Paper Series 551, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    4. Bajo, Emanuele & Raimondo, Carlo, 2017. "Media sentiment and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 139-153.
    5. Tung L. Dang & Thi H. H. Huynh & Manh T. Nguyen, 2021. "Media attention and firm value: International evidence," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 21(3), pages 865-894, September.
    6. Bonsall, Samuel B. & Green, Jeremiah & Muller, Karl A., 2020. "Market uncertainty and the importance of media coverage at earnings announcements," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    7. Di Giuli, Alberta & Laux, Paul A., 2022. "The effect of media-linked directors on financing and external governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 103-131.
    8. An, Zhe & Chen, Chen & Naiker, Vic & Wang, Jun, 2020. "Does media coverage deter firms from withholding bad news? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. Call, Andrew C. & Emett, Scott A. & Maksymov, Eldar & Sharp, Nathan Y., 2022. "Meet the press: Survey evidence on financial journalists as information intermediaries," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    10. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    11. Gao, Xin & Xu, Weidong & Li, Donghui, 2022. "Media coverage and corporate risk-taking: International evidence," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Yu-Fen Chen & Cheng-Few Lee & Fu-Lai Lin, 2023. "The influences of information demand and supply on stock price synchronicity," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1151-1176, October.
    13. Nicholas M. Guest, 2021. "The Information Role of the Media in Earnings News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 1021-1076, June.
    14. Salim Chahine & Gonul Colak & Iftekhar Hasan & Mohamad Mazboudi, 2020. "Investor relations and IPO performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 474-512, June.
    15. Lili Dai & Rui Shen & Bohui Zhang, 2021. "Does the media spotlight burn or spur innovation?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 343-390, March.
    16. Baloria, Vishal P. & Heese, Jonas, 2018. "The effects of media slant on firm behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 184-202.
    17. Wu, Yanling & Tian, Gary Gang, 2021. "Public relations expenditure, media tone, and regulatory decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Laure, de Batz, 2020. "Financial crime spillovers. Does one gain to be avenged?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 196-215.
    19. Bai, Jing & Tang, Xuesong & Zheng, Yuxin, 2023. "Serving the truth: Do directors with media background improve financial reporting quality?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    20. Hossain, Md Miran & Javakhadze, David, 2020. "Corporate media connections and merger outcomes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-Strategic media coverage; Strategic media coverage; Investor relations; Biased receiver actions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:70:y:2024:i:pa:s0275531924001284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ribaf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.