关键词: 媒体情绪, TFP, 融资约束, 创新能力, 投资效率

Abstract: At present, China’s economy has reached a bottleneck in its development, and it is difficult to support the healthy and rapid growth of the economy only by investing a large number of production factors in the development model. As the microscopic subject of economic operation, whether enterprises can shift to the development mode oriented to improving their own development quality has become the key to the transformation of China’s economy. In the era of information economy, the media, as an important information intermediary in the capital market, can not only alleviate the information asymmetry problem among market participants and improve the external governance level of enterprises, but also influence the decision-making of external investors by publishing reports with distinctive positions and emotional tendencies, which in turn affects listed companies and the capital market. Therefore, it is of great significance to actively use the function of media tone in improving corporate governance and easing corporate financing constraints, so as to promote high-quality development of both micro enterprises and the macro economy.
Many studies have found that in addition to playing the role of information intermediary and external monitor of enterprises, the media reports with tendentious emotions may also intervene in enterprises’ investment, innovation and other activities in various ways. Therefore, in the current context of China’s economic development, this paper takes the high-quality development of enterprises as the starting point, focuses on the relationship between media sentiment (tone) and total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises, and attempts to uncover the positive effects of emotion-laden media reports on the high-quality development of enterprises. Specifically, based on the Chinese financial media text information obtained from the CNRDS database, we first construct the tone of news media reports on Chinese listed companies by using the Chinese financial text sentiment dictionary (CFTSD) and combining it with textual analysis. Secondly, using the financial data of Chinese listed companies obtained from CSMAR, we calculate the TFP of the companies by using the LP method, the OP method and the fixed effects method. Finally, with both tone and TFP as the explanatory variables, and with the introduction of a series of control variables, we construct a two-way fixed-effect model to test the impact of tone on the TFP of Chinese listed firms over the period 2009-2019. We find that positive media sentiment can significantly increase firms’ TFP, which is mainly due to the mitigating effect of rising media sentiment on firms’ external financing constraints, as abundant capital allows firms to improve their TFP by enhancing their own innovation capabilities. In addition, we find that positive media sentiment may exacerbate agency conflicts and reduce firms’ investment efficiency, which may dampen firms’ TFP to some extent, but overall, rising media sentiment mainly contributes to firms’ TFP. Further research finds that positive media sentiment can help firms obtain more bank loans at lower interest rates, which undoubtedly effectively alleviates firms’ financing constraints. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of media sentiment on TFP is also better for firms with higher financing constraints and lower location marketing process. This also indirectly proves that the improvement in the marginal effect of firms’ external financing pressure is an important reason why media sentiment drives firms’ TFP.
As media reports with biased sentiment often question the impartiality and objectivity of the media, most of the previous literature has focused on discussing the negative economic consequences of media sentiment. This paper, on the other hand, validates the positive economic consequences of media sentiment from the perspective of the quality development of enterprises, which not only expands the research on the economic consequences of media sentiment on enterprises, but also provides a valuable reference for the government on how to use media tools to promote the quality development of enterprises in the future. In addition, although existing studies have examined the impact of media sentiment on enterprises' innovative ability, investment efficiency and financing constraints, not all the conclusions are positive. Therefore, based on the analysis of the existing literature alone, it is not yet possible to infer an effective relationship between media sentiment and the quality development of firms. By examining the impact of media sentiment on corporate TFP, as well as the influencing mechanism and specific channels behind this impact, this paper not only provides direct empirical evidence on how media sentiment promotes corporate quality development, but also extends the research on external influences on TFP of listed firms and the corresponding channels of action.
The findings of this paper have the following policy implications: First, it is important to take a dialectical view of the role of media sentiment, which has been prejudged by most people in the past. In fact, our study shows that positive media sentiment can improve the innovation performance of firms by easing their financing constraints, which in turn increases their TFP, contributing to the transformation of China’s economy into a high-quality development. Second, at present, China’s private enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), still face the problem of difficult and expensive financing; if media sentiment can be effectively used within a reasonable range to alleviate the financing constraints of SME, it will be conducive to stimulating economic vitality and promoting the high-quality development of the economy. In addition, excessive emotional reporting may also aggravate the problem of agency conflict, lead to a decline in the investment efficiency of enterprises, and ultimately inhibit the TFP of enterprises. Therefore, the government should carry out reasonable regulation and guidance of media reporting, which is of great significance to create a healthy and efficient market environment.

Key words: media sentiment, TFP, financing constraints, innovation capacity, investment efficiency