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korean management review - Vol. 49 , No. 5

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[ Article ]
korean management review - Vol. 49, No. 5, pp. 1087-1110
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Oct 2020
Received 10 Oct 2019 Revised 17 Jun 2020 Accepted 18 Jun 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2020.49.5.1087
Investor Attention and Corporate Disclosure Timing: Evidence from Korea
Yongsuk Yun ; Gun Lee ; So-Jin Yu
(First Author) Hannam University (hwantasi@hnu.kr)
(Corresponding Author) Changwon National University (gunlee@changwon.ac.kr)
(Co-Author) SUNY Fredonia (So-Jin.Yu@fredonia.edu)


Copyright 2011 THE KOREAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Funding Information ▼ Hannam University

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between investor attention and the timing of the release of corporate information in the Korean stock market. The association provides the evidence on whether the investor demand for earnings information affects the managerial disclosure decision. Similar to a previous study that uses the Google Search Volume Index to measure investor attention, this paper re-measures investor attention using the Search Volume Index provided by Naver, which has the largest market share of all internet search portals in Korea. Using 9,526 firm-quarter observations, the paper regresses disclosure timing on investor attention. Empirical results show that managers facing greater investor attention announce quarterly earnings information on an earlier date than in the previous year, and they release earnings information during trading hours rather than non-trading hours. The findings indicate that managers consider timely disclosure to be an important factor in meeting investor interests. In addition, this paper sheds light on the role of individual/retail investors in managerial disclosure decisions, considering that the measure of investor attention primarily captures individual/retail investor interest.


Keywords: disclosure timing, earnings announcement, managerial disclosure decision, investor attention, search volume index

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by 2020 Hannam University Research Fund. We appreciate anonymous reviewers for providing valuable comments.

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• The author Yongsuk Yun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting at Hannam University. Yongsuk Yun earned his PhD and Masters in accounting from Korea University. His research interests are in information demand, disclosure, and audit issues.

• The author Gun Lee is an assistant professor of Accounting at Changwon National University. Gun Lee received his MSc and PhD in business administration from Korea University. His research interests include corporate disclosure, executive structure and compensation, and corporate governance.

• The author So-Jin Yu is an assistant professor of Accounting at the State University of New York at Fredonia. So-Jin Yu earned degrees of a Bachelor Science of Business Administration and a Master of Professional Accountancy from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Accounting Ph.D from Korea University.