The Association of Institutional Information on Websites with Present and Future Financial Performance

Hyung Jong Na, Sukjae Choi, Ohbyung Kwon

Abstract


The “About Us” page on the website of a corporation provides information regarding the organization’s vision, philosophy, and values. We examine the association between institutional information provided on corporate websites (i.e., the “About Us” section) with present and future financial performance. Utilizing a text mining technique, we analyze the institutional information of S&P500 firms in the year 2016. We conduct a factor analysis including words that are intentionally repeated in the introductory text of corporate websites. The results of the analysis reveal that keywords from this institutional information can be grouped into six factors. We then carry out an ordinary least squares regression analysis to determine the associations between these six factors and present financial performance. The results show that keywords in Factor 2 (those related to Purchasing experience) are positively associated with ROE, a variable representing present financial performance, while keywords in Factor 1 (those related to Note to customers) show a negative relationship with ROE. On the other hand, keywords in Factor 1 have a positive relationship with Tobin’s Q, a variable representing future financial performance. These results indicate that there is some relationship between the words used in the institutional information in this section of corporate websites and firms’ financial performance. Hence, the institutional information on a website may be a useful indicator of current firm performance and future firm value.


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