Full Citation

Title: Social Media and Voluntary Nonfinancial Disclosure: Evidence from Twitter Presence and Corporate Political Disclosure

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2019

ISBN:

ISSN: 0888-7985

DOI: 10.2308/isys-52189

NSFID:

PMCID:

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Abstract: This study uses a sample of 1,316 firm-year observations of S&P 500 companies (2012–2016) to investigate whether and how social media (i.e., Twitter) affects firms' voluntary nonfinancial disclosure (i.e., corporate political disclosure). Our results show that Twitter-adopting firms are generally more transparent in their disclosure of corporate political contributions and of related policies and board oversight. Moreover, firms with more Twitter followers and firms whose corporate political activities are targeted in more Twitter messages are more transparent in such disclosures. Our cross-sectional analysis suggests that this effect is stronger for firms whose stakeholders are more active on Twitter and firms that are less visible or more reputable. Our results remain robust to different econometric model specifications and controlling for alternative social media platforms. Taken together, our findings suggest that social media (i.e., Twitter) presence exerts pressure on firms' voluntary nonfinancial disclosure practices (i.e., corporate political disclosure).

Url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3215416

Url: http://aaajournals.org/doi/10.2308/isys-52189

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Lei, Lijun (Gillian); Li, Yutao; Luo, Yan

Periodical (Full): Journal of Information Systems

Issue: 2

Volume: 33

Pages: 99-128

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Methodology and Data Collection, Other, Population Data Science

Countries: