Online investor attention and firm restructuring performance: Insights from an event-based DEA-Tobit model

Abstract

Tourism firms frequently undergo restructuring to mitigate survival risks and enhance firm value. However, whether restructuring benefits for the formation of scale and synergistic effects remains unknown. In this paper, we aim to provide an approach to measure the scale effect brought by restructuring activities and investigate the determinants of performance from the scale effect of tourism firm restructuring. Drawing on efficiency theory, we propose an event-based data envelopment analysis method to measure restructuring performance by constructing dynamic event windows. Building on the complementarity of the attention-based view and the upper echelons theory, we uncover the transmission mechanism between managers and investors. Our results reveal that: (1) operating efficiency gains gradually decrease as event windows extend, while the proportion of increasing returns to scale grows across most tourism restructuring strategies; (2) Tobit regression analysis verifies an inverted U-shaped relationship between investor attention to online posting behavior and restructuring performance; and (3) the interaction between investor attention to online search and posting behavior strengthens the influence of investor attention on restructuring performance. This study sheds light on the complexities of restructuring in the tourism industry and highlights the importance of considering the impact of online investor attention on firm performance.