Performance Expectation Gap and Positivity of Corpo-rate Digital Strategy Messaging:Evidence from Inves-tor-Firm Q&A on Online Interaction Platforms
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 posi-tive 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,repu-tation 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 moti-vation among firms with different digitalization capabilities?Are there heterogeneous strategy motives behind firms'positivity of digital strate-gy messaging?As typical informal online interaction platforms,"E-Interactive"and"Interactive Easy"are set up by the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Ex-changes 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-In-teractive"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 infor-mation 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 strate-gy messaging and its mechanisms.This study finds that performance expectation gap motivates firms'positivity of digital strategy messag-ing.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 digi-tal 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.
Performance Expectation GapCorporate Digital Strat-egy MessagingOnline Interaction PlatformsGovernance Effect
万方数据
