Can Social Media Interaction and Message Features Influence Nonprofessional Investors' Perceptions of Firms?

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe investigate the impact of social media messages on nonprofessional investors' assessments of management credibility and firm value. In a between-participants experiment, we examine the joint effect of social media message vividness, valence, and micro-blogger influence on nonprofessional investors' assessments of management credibility and firm value. We find that when social media messages are pallid and negative (positive), high micro-blogger influence decreases (increases) nonprofessional investors' assessments of management credibility. In contrast, the effect is absent when messages are vivid. Further, we find that the effect of micro-blogger influence on nonprofessional investors' assessments of blogger credibility and management credibility is mediated by social media interactions. The assessment of management credibility, in turn, significantly impacts nonprofessional investors' firm valuation assessment. The results have implications for regulators (SEC 2013) that may wish to update their guidance to managers on how to monitor or even control nonprofessional investors' interaction on social media platforms.Data Availability: Contact the authors.