IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v61y2021i5p5999-6035.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Follow friends to invest: evidence from the information role of weak ties

Author

Listed:
  • Chunxiao Geng
  • Tusheng Xiao
  • Chun Yuan
  • Yanan Zhang

Abstract

This paper investigates the information role of weak ties in inter‐regional investments. We find that firms are more likely to engage in inter‐regional investments when firms in the same region but in different industries have previously invested in that area. The information effect of weak ties is more pronounced when firms’ exposure to weak ties is higher, investor cities are less developed, and investee cities are more opaque. And firms mainly acquire soft information through weak ties. Finally, the shared information through weak ties facilitates investments to be better matched in investor firm’s business style, and improves investment performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunxiao Geng & Tusheng Xiao & Chun Yuan & Yanan Zhang, 2021. "Follow friends to invest: evidence from the information role of weak ties," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 5999-6035, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:5:p:5999-6035
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12848
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12848?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schmidt, Breno, 2015. "Costs and benefits of friendly boards during mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 424-447.
    2. Yuko Kinoshita & Ashoka Mody, 2001. "Private information for foreign investment in emerging economies," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 34(2), pages 448-464, May.
    3. Huberman, Gur, 2001. "Familiarity Breeds Investment," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(3), pages 659-680.
    4. Ross Levine & Chen Lin & Qilin Peng & Wensi Xie, 2020. "Communication within Banking Organizations and Small Business Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(12), pages 5750-5783.
    5. Kenneth A. Froot & Jeremy C. Stein, 1991. "Exchange Rates and Foreign Direct Investment: An Imperfect Capital Markets Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1191-1217.
    6. Ahern, Kenneth R. & Daminelli, Daniele & Fracassi, Cesare, 2015. "Lost in translation? The effect of cultural values on mergers around the world," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 165-189.
    7. Fan, Joseph P.H. & Huang, Jun & Morck, Randall & Yeung, Bernard, 2017. "Institutional determinants of vertical integration in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 524-539.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    9. Jens Ludwig & Greg J. Duncan & Paul Hirschfield, 2001. "Urban Poverty and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Randomized Housing-Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 655-679.
    10. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini & Christopher Malloy, 2008. "The Small World of Investing: Board Connections and Mutual Fund Returns," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 951-979, October.
    11. Cesare Fracassi, 2017. "Corporate Finance Policies and Social Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2420-2438, August.
    12. Lawrence F. Katz & Jeffrey R. Kling & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2001. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 607-654.
    13. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2013. "Does Information Asymmetry Matter to Equity Pricing? Evidence from Firms’ Geographic Location," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 140-181, March.
    14. Chong Ju Choi & Soo Hee Lee & Jai Boem Kim, 1999. "A Note on Countertrade: Contractual Uncertainty and Transaction Governance in Emerging Economies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 30(1), pages 189-201, March.
    15. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2008. "The strength of weak ties in crime," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 209-236, February.
    16. Cai, Ye & Sevilir, Merih, 2012. "Board connections and M&A transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 327-349.
    17. Paul Ellis, 2000. "Social Ties and Foreign Market Entry," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(3), pages 443-469, September.
    18. David Marmaros & Bruce Sacerdote, 2006. "How Do Friendships Form?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 79-119.
    19. Ishii, Joy & Xuan, Yuhai, 2014. "Acquirer-target social ties and merger outcomes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 344-363.
    20. Casey Dougal & Christopher A. Parsons & Sheridan Titman, 2015. "Urban Vibrancy and Corporate Growth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 163-210, February.
    21. David Constant & Lee Sproull & Sara Kiesler, 1996. "The Kindness of Strangers: The Usefulness of Electronic Weak Ties for Technical Advice," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 119-135, April.
    22. Joshua D. Coval & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 1999. "Home Bias at Home: Local Equity Preference in Domestic Portfolios," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(6), pages 2045-2073, December.
    23. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    24. Agndal, Henrik & Chetty, Sylvie & Wilson, Heather, 2008. "Social capital dynamics and foreign market entry," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 663-675, December.
    25. Yuko Kinoshita & Ashoka Mody, 2001. "Private information for foreign investment in emerging economies," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 448-464, May.
    26. Engelberg, Joseph & Gao, Pengjie & Parsons, Christopher A., 2012. "Friends with money," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 169-188.
    27. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    28. Kogut, Bruce & Chang, Sea Jin, 1996. "Platform Investments and Volatility Exchange Rates: Direct Investment in the U.S. by Japanese Electronic Companies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 221-231, May.
    29. Cooper, Ian & Kaplanis, Evi, 1994. "Home Bias in Equity Portfolios, Inflation Hedging, and International Capital Market Equilibrium," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 45-60.
    30. Brian Uzzi & Ryon Lancaster, 2003. "Relational Embeddedness and Learning: The Case of Bank Loan Managers and Their Clients," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 383-399, April.
    31. Jeremy C. Stein, 2002. "Information Production and Capital Allocation: Decentralized versus Hierarchical Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 1891-1921, October.
    32. José María Liberti & Mitchell A Petersen, 2019. "Information: Hard and Soft," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41.
    33. Martin Ruef, 2002. "Strong ties, weak ties and islands: structural and cultural predictors of organizational innovation," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(3), pages 427-449, June.
    34. Faccio, Mara & Marchica, Maria-Teresa & Mura, Roberto, 2016. "CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the efficiency of capital allocation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 193-209.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Biswas, Shreya & Kumar, Rajnish, 2022. "Bank board network and financial stability in emerging markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jere R. Francis & Wei Wang, 2021. "Common Auditors and Private Bank Loans," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 793-832, March.
    3. Ching-Hung Chang & Qingqing Wu, 2021. "Board Networks and Corporate Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3618-3654, June.
    4. Stephen P. Ferris & David Javakhadze & Tijana Rajkovic, 2019. "An international analysis of CEO social capital and corporate risk‐taking," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(1), pages 3-37, January.
    5. Duchin, Ran & Martin, Xiumin & Michaely, Roni & Wang, Hanmeng, 2022. "Concierge treatment from banks: Evidence from the paycheck protection program," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Fang, Ming & Francis, Bill & Hasan, Iftekhar & Wu, Qiang, 2022. "External social networks and earnings management," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    7. Chahine, Salim & Fang, Yiwei & Hasan, Iftekhar & Mazboudi, Mohamad, 2019. "Entrenchment through corporate social responsibility: Evidence from CEO network centrality," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 650-699.
    9. Ferris, Stephen P. & Javakhadze, David & Rajkovic, Tijana, 2017. "CEO social capital, risk-taking and corporate policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 46-71.
    10. Cesare Fracassi, 2017. "Corporate Finance Policies and Social Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(8), pages 2420-2438, August.
    11. Jing, Wei & Zhang, Xueyong, 2021. "Online social networks and corporate investment similarity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    12. Genc, Egemen & Shirley, Sara E. & Stark, Jeffrey R. & Tran, Hai, 2023. "Finding information in obvious places: Work connections and mutual fund investment ideas," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Jackowicz, Krzysztof & Kozłowski, Łukasz, 2019. "Social ties between SME managers and bank employees: Financial consequences vs. SME managers' perceptions," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Dbouk, Wassim & Fang, Yiwei & Liu, Liuling & Wang, Haizhi, 2020. "Do social networks encourage risk-taking? Evidence from bank CEOs," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    15. Geng, Chunxiao & Li, Donghui & Sun, Jian & Yuan, Chun, 2023. "Functional distance and bank loan pricing: Evidence from the opening of high-speed railway in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    16. Junho Park, 2022. "We are advertis’d by our loving friends: CEO‐connected directors," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3189-3238, September.
    17. Ding, Haoyuan & Hu, Yichuan & Li, Chang & Lin, Shu, 2021. "CEO country-specific experience and cross-border mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Stanley Iat Meng Ko & Rose Neng Lai & Zhenjiang Qin, 2023. "Social Network Matters: Capital Structure Risk Control on REITs," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 709-742, April.
    19. Kong, Dongmin & Pan, Yue & Tian, Gary Gang & Zhang, Pengdong, 2020. "CEOs' hometown connections and access to trade credit: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Chan, Kalok & Covrig, Vicentiu, 2012. "What determines mutual fund trading in foreign stocks?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 793-817.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:61:y:2021:i:5:p:5999-6035. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.