Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
9-2025
Abstract
While prior studies have examined whether financial analysts affect corporate innovation, there is little research on the mechanism through which this occurs. In this paper, we examine whether and how analysts' questions about innovation during site visits affect corporate innovation. Using a sample of corporate site visits in China, we find that when analysts ask questions about innovation during site visits, firms invest more in R&D in the future. Consistent with knowledge diffusion across firms, this association is stronger when analysts cover more firms in the same industry, when firms share similar technologies as industry peers, and when an innovation-expert analyst is present at site visits. We also find that analysts' questions about innovation during site visits are positively associated with the quantity and quality of firms' patent applications in the future. Overall, we provide evidence that analysts can affect corporate innovation through their questions about firms' innovation activities.
Keywords
innovation, questions about innovation, R&D expenditures, site visits
Discipline
Accounting | Corporate Finance
Research Areas
Corporate Reporting and Disclosure
Publication
Contemporary Accounting Research
Volume
42
Issue
3
First Page
1528
Last Page
1556
ISSN
0823-9150
Identifier
10.1111/1911-3846.13032
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
CHENG, Qiang; WANG, Brian Yutao; YANG, Holly I.; and ZHANG, Zheyuan.
How do analysts affect corporate innovation? Evidence from site visits. (2025). Contemporary Accounting Research. 42, (3), 1528-1556.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/2096
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1911-3846.13032