Social Media and Firm Value: An Exploratory Study of the Dieselgate Scandal

Résumé En

Strategy scholars have been increasingly interested in the influence the media, as stake holders, have on the corporate world. Not with standing their increasing prominence in society, the role of social media how ever has only started to be investigated. In this study, we explore the extent to which Twitter usage may independently affect firm value in the context of a major corporate scandal. Using an exhaustive data set of 1.2m tweetspublished before and during the Dieselgate scandal, we find (preliminary) evidence of an independent effect of Twitter usage on abnormal stock returns, suggesting that what happened on Twitter during the course of the scandal might have had an influence on the market value of thelargest firms in the industry.