Paper Type

short

Description

Mobile app market is one of the fast-growing segments of the mobile industry. With the increasing app users, mobile app market provides a new source of information that could potentially help predict a firm’s future financial performance. This paper investigates the relationship between mobile app usage and future stock returns. We utilize a panel data set of 326 public firms that have released mobile apps on the Apple iOS App Store or Google Play Store. Our results show that monthly abnormal app downloads and abnormal daily users are positively associated with the next-month abnormal stock returns, suggesting that mobile app usage can help predict firm-level future stock returns. The findings are robust to the inclusion of different sets of controls. Collectively, this study provides new insights for investors with respect to the predictive value of mobile app usage data.

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Can Mobile App Usage Help Predict Firm-Level Stock Returns?

Mobile app market is one of the fast-growing segments of the mobile industry. With the increasing app users, mobile app market provides a new source of information that could potentially help predict a firm’s future financial performance. This paper investigates the relationship between mobile app usage and future stock returns. We utilize a panel data set of 326 public firms that have released mobile apps on the Apple iOS App Store or Google Play Store. Our results show that monthly abnormal app downloads and abnormal daily users are positively associated with the next-month abnormal stock returns, suggesting that mobile app usage can help predict firm-level future stock returns. The findings are robust to the inclusion of different sets of controls. Collectively, this study provides new insights for investors with respect to the predictive value of mobile app usage data.