Predicting brand equity by text-analyzing annual reports

A firm’s public disclosure, such as its annual report, usually carries information of what it has done and/or will do. Since brand equity is a result of a firm’s branding efforts resulting from its long-term culture, strategy, and execution, an interesting but understudied issue is whether the infor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of market research 2020-05, Vol.62 (3), p.300-313
Main Authors: Huang, Chun-Yao, Liu, Ping-Yu, Xie, Shao-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Annual reports
Brand equity
Management Discussion & Analysis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A firm’s public disclosure, such as its annual report, usually carries information of what it has done and/or will do. Since brand equity is a result of a firm’s branding efforts resulting from its long-term culture, strategy, and execution, an interesting but understudied issue is whether the information revealed in the text of a firm’s public disclosure predicts its brand equity. In this study, we propose that how managers think and therefore what the firm behind a brand does will help predict brand equity, with the thoughts and deeds of concern reflected in the Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) component of the firm’s annual reports (i.e., 10-K filings). Through text analysis and regression analysis on annual reports, we empirically demonstrate that a firm’s degree of customer orientation and a set of word categories as inferred from its MD&A component in the annual reports significantly predict its brand equity (as measured by the four dimensions of Young & Rubicam’s Brand Asset Valuator, i.e., BAV).
ISSN:1470-7853
2515-2173
DOI:10.1177/1470785319883201