Time: 13:30 on Tuesday, Apr.29, 2025

Location: Room 303, Starr Building

Topic: How Do Big Data Affect Face-to-Face Interactions? Evidence from Analyst Site Visits

Speaker: Jiexuan Wang, Nankai University

Host: Professor Chenkai Ni

Abstract: We examine whether the availability of big data drives more face-to-face interactions. Using the introduction of granular online-sales data as the setting, we find that the availability of these big data sources leads to a significant increase in analysts’ corporate site visits, particularly for firms heavily reliant on online-sales channels, and among analysts with a history of such visits. Textual analysis reveals an increase in soft information content communicated during site visits. Furthermore, this intensified information gathering effort from face-to-face interactions correlates with enhanced analyst forecast accuracy, especially for visits received by CEOs. Our results suggest that big data do not substitute traditional information sources but rather complement them by crowding in more efforts for face-to-face interactions from analysts, highlighting the indispensable role of soft information in financial analysis.