A Comparative Study Concerning Twitters Influence on Company Stock Market Performance: How Origin and Business Models Shape Corporate Twitter Strategy

Abstrakt

This study aims at determining how Twitter affects stock price movements, depending on companies’ origin and business model. Furthermore, novel strategic implications regarding exploitation of Twitter to bolster stock market performance based on firm-specific characteristics, are explored. The qualitative methods utilized to collect and analyze data intended for this thesis include semistructured interviews, internet-mediated self-administered questionnaires, and documentary secondary data. In addition, the Strategic Investor Relations Online Communication framework is developed, and deployed. The quantitative technique employed to collect data is an API data fetch. Regarding the data processing and analysis, the methods include Sentiment analysis, Granger causality tests and OLS regression. This paper concludes that companies’ origins and business models affect the magnitude of Twitter's influence in two different manners. Whereas a company’s origin determines the extent, the business model defines the way in which Twitter affects a company’s stock price movements. Furthermore, the findings suggest that firm-specific characteristics are irrelevant in developing Twitter focused strategies. Investor Relations strategies should be utilized instead based on the target audience to attract next-gen retail investors by engaging via Twitter.