Abstract
Traditionally, the relationship between a firm's performance and its business strategy is studied using structured data taken from proxy statements and financial reports. However, there have been increasing efforts to explore the linkages between corporate outcomes and unstructured information, such as text or image/audio/video files. Until recently, semi-structured data had been largely overlooked. Given that a substantial amount of such data can be extracted using web crawler techniques and then processed using big data solutions, the current study employed this procedure to investigate whether dynamic job vacancy postings by Taiwanese publicly listed companies are associated with subsequent stock returns and operating ratios. We report that new job openings foreshadow a firm's operating performance, both indirectly, by boosting stock prices, and directly, by signaling positive developments. This finding remains robust to tests addressing endogeneity concerns and the adoption of alternative specifications. We thus shed light on the role of metadata in financial analysis.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 101371 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-20 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Pacific Basin Finance Journal |
Volume | 62 |
Early online date | 8 Jun 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sept 2020 |
Funding
Huai-Chun Lo acknowledges funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan (MOST 108-2410-H-155-005 ). Yuan-Teng Hsu gratefully acknowledge financial support from MOE Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 20YJCZH199 ), SBS Rising-Star Program (No. 18KY-PQMX-04 ). All errors are our own.
Funders | Funder number |
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SBS Rising-Star Program | 18KY-PQMX-04 |
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China | 20YJCZH199 |
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China | 108-2410-H-155-005 |
Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan |
Keywords
- Big data
- Corporate strategy
- Firm performance
- Job vacancy
- Web crawler