Research On The Impact Of Wechat Official Account Information Disclosure On Equity Financing Cost Of Listed Companies

Weibo,We Chat and other social media platforms have opened up new information disclosure channels for listed companies and provided investors with more incremental information due to the characteristics of fast information release,wide dissemination range,strong interaction and low cost.Based on the traditional voluntary information disclosure,academia has done a lot of research,which shows that voluntary information disclosure can have an impact on the cost of equity capital.However,in the context of the rapid development of Internet and the social media such as We Chat Official Account(WOA),which become an important channel for the company to release information,we find that the research on the factors influencing the cost of equity capital lacks the relevant research on social media information disclosure,and little research on WOA.Therefore,in order to analyze the impact of voluntary disclosure on the cost of equity capital in the Internet era,this paper will explore the impact of WOA on the cost of equity capital.Based on information asymmetry theory,signaling theory and limited attention theory of investors,this paper constructs a theoretical framework for the impact of WOA information disclosure on the cost of equity capital.This paper selects2017-2019 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies for empirical research.Taking Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Company Limited(000756)as a typical case,this paper discusses the impact of WOA information disclosure on the cost of equity capital.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)Whether the WOA is set or not has no significant effect on the cost of equity capital;(2)At the same conditions,the more information released by the WOA,the lower the cost of equity capital will be;(3)The adjusting effect of marketization process on the relationship between the number released by WOA and cost of equity capital is obvious;(4)Different types of WOA information have different effects on the cost of equity capital,and "Performance achievements","investment and cooperation" and "Science and technology R&D" information is easier to be captured by investors and then reflected on the cost of equity capital.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward some relevant suggestions from the perspective of investors,enterprises and government:(1)Investors should pay more attention to the social media platforms such as WOA and Weibo of the companies;(2)Enterprises should actively build and maintain social media platforms and disclose more real,effective and high-quality information;(3)Relevant departments should encourage enterprises to make rational use of social media,guide investors to make appropriate use of social media information,and strengthen the supervision of social media information disclosure.