Can Corporate Self-media Offer More Guiding Information?Based on the Textual Analysis for Companies'Wechat Posts on the Disclosure of Technological Innovation
In formal channels,companies often struggle to balance innovation transparency with proprietary costs,facing the dilemma of innovation disclosure.Recently,the efficiency and impact of information disclosure via informal channels,such as self-media,has become increasingly prominent.It is worth exploring whether this emerging channel can mitigate innovation disclosure challenges and provide more guidance.This paper uses machine learning to analyze the text of high-tech companies'official WeChat posts from 2020-2022,testing whether self-media's technological innovation disclosures provide incremental guidance information.Specifically,the article constructs firm-level indicators of self-media technological innovation disclosure from multiple dimensions—disclosure level,strategy,and textual features—to explore its effect on mitigating firms'financing constraints.The main findings of this paper are as follows.First,corporate self-media's disclosure of textual information on technological innovations offers incremental guidance to investors,thereby reducing financing constraints through the alleviation of information asymmetry.Additionally,when the qualitative text disclosed through self-media is supported by quantitative patent outcomes(i.e.,alignment between words and actions),the alleviation of financing constraints is significantly enhanced.This enhancement is attributed to the logical consistency between results and evidence,which bolsters the credibility of these disclosures,enabling these informal channels to offer effective decision-making guidance to investors.Second,this study demonstrates that,compared to radical or incremental technological innovation disclosure strategies,a balanced strategy significantly mitigates financing constraints more effectively.In terms of financing sources,disclosures of technological innovations through self-media garner greater attention from debt investors than from equity financing.Concerning textual characteristics,a more positive emotional tone,more optimistic future projections,and more comprehensive descriptions further enhance the effectiveness in mitigating financing constraints.Third,the paper explores the variable impacts of corporate characteristics and the intensity of industry competition.It finds that disclosures about technological innovations via corporate self-media can more effectively break through financing barriers when management's shareholding is lower,the company's size is smaller,earnings management is less prevalent,and industry competition is milder.The potential marginal contributions of this paper are primarily in the following areas.Firstly,it uniquely applies machine learning to capture technological innovation information from corporate self-media more precisely,confirming the method's scientific validity through multiple verifications.Despite previous studies focusing on the informational effects of corporate self-media on capital markets,this paper pioneers a detailed examination of content adequacy on Wechat,a crucial informal channel.Additionally,it integrates machine learning with expert interviews to enhance the lexicon of innovation information,substantiating the disclosure channel's role in improving financing efficiency and alleviating constraints.Secondly,the study innovatively merges qualitative self-media indicators with quantitative annual report data within a unified analytical framework,enhancing research on how information disclosure affects financing constraints.It shifts from traditional single-source assessments to explore the interplay of qualitative and quantitative data on financing,delineating how various disclosure forms impact investor decisions and providing actionable insights for management on leveraging both information types.Thirdly,it offers a comprehensive analysis of self-media disclosures,focusing on content depth,novelty,and structure,thus expanding the dimensions of corporate innovation research.Furthermore,the study differentiates between breakthrough and incremental technology disclosures,developing variables to measure and compare these approaches'impacts on economic outcomes,thereby offering fresh perspectives for subsequent investigations.
information disclosuretechnological innovationself-mediafinancing constraintstextual analysis
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