Time: 10:00-11:30, 3 November 2025
Speaker: Yuanfang Chu is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School. He received his PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School. His main research areas include empirical corporate finance, product market competition, information environment, corporate innovation, and financial frictions. Several of his papers are currently under review at leading international journals such as Management Science and Journal of Accounting Research. He has presented at major domestic and international academic conferences, including FMA, SFA, and CICF, and has received multiple best paper awards.
Abstract:
Using data from a popular social media platform, we examine whether firms' product market strategies are associated with social media reactions to competitors' product announcements. We document that product announcements trigger heightened discussions on social media. Firms adjust their product offerings to a greater extent in the following year when their competitors' new products attract strong social media attention, especially if accompanied by favorable sentiment. Furthermore, high attention is associated with greater product differentiation, while positive sentiment correlates with convergence in product offerings when attention is moderate. These effects persist after controlling for alternative information channels, product market dynamics, and firm characteristics. We argue that social media serves as a valuable external source of real-time, crowdsourced information on the consumer side, reflecting potential consumer bases and preferences for new products. This is evidenced by results showing the baseline associations are driven by product-related discussions and stronger in market-oriented industries.
