Abstract:
Data asset investment is characterized by high sunk costs, long payback periods, and difficult-to-quantify returns, leading firms to formulate their data asset strategies by referencing the attitudes and behaviors of peers. As an important vehicle for conveying management's subjective attitudes, how the sentiment tone regarding data assets in peers' annual reports influences corporate data asset investment deserves exploration. Using A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges as the sample, this paper employs textual analysis and empirically examines the spillover effects of peers' sentiment tone on corporate data assets. The study finds that the more positive the peer firms' data asset sentiment tone, the more it can motivate firms to enhance their levels of data asset investment. First, under government policy regulation, firms will reassess their development strategies and are more susceptible to the positive attitudes of peers, reducing concerns about risks and costs. Second, under socially normative cognition, firms tend to reference the positive behaviors of peers to gain social recognition, increasing investment in data assets. Third, the positive tone of peers can provide informational guidance to firms, helping them analyze and determine suitable investment directions. Further analysis reveals that the higher the frequency and quality of peers' information disclosure and the better the target firm's financial foundation and technological capabilities, the more significant the impact of peers' sentiment tone on corporate data asset investment. The positive sentiment tone of peers guides companies to learn from successful experiences, intensifies data mining and analytics, provides a scientific basis for corporate production decisions, enhances operational efficiency and profitability, and promotes the high-quality development of the corporate. This paper provides implications for enhancing corporate data asset levels and advancing the construction of Digital China.
下载:
