The Value of Online Investor Relations Under Covid-19 : Evidence from Investor Interactive Platforms in China

Using the COVID-19 crisis as a quasi-natural experiment, this study explores the value of online investor relations (OIR) on the official investor interaction platforms (IIPs). The results show that OIR are positively associated with stock returns during the crisis. This indicates that firms with high-quality OIR are more immune to the COVID-19 shock and outperform in the period following the shock. Furthermore, the “value protection” effect of OIR is more obvious for firms located in non-Hubei and surrounding provinces, and those with low visibility, such as small-cap firms and young firms