Investor Relations on the Internet

111 Investor Relations on the Internet: Dialogical Communication Capacities of the Top 100 ISEM (IMKB/Istanbul Stock Exchange Market) Companies for Investor Relations in Turkey %3×QDUg]GHPLU $EVWUDFW Investors are one of the most significant stakeholders for private corporations. Investor relations is a relatively new phenomenon which looks to share information and building relationships with the company’s present and potential investors, economic analysts, economics correspondents, the general financial community and several others. In the last two decades expansion of the Internet offers private companies a strategic and dynamic tool for communicating and building relationships with these groups. This paper is methodologically based on dialogic communication principles of Kent and Taylor (1998) and examines top 100 ISEM companies’ investor relations links in their corporate web pages by operationalizing these principles in terms of identification of the relationships of these companies with their publics. It is concluded that although the Internet serves as a great opportunity for investor relations in creating dialogical communication, companies used it only for sharing limited information which they are legally obligated to do so. Key Words: Financial public relations, investor relations, Internet, dialogical communication úQWHUQHWWH<DW×U×PF×úOLüNLOHUL,0.%ûLUNHWOHULQLQ'L\DORMLNúOHWLüLP .DSDVLWHOHULh]HULQH%LU$UDüW×UPD g]HW g]HOùLUNHWOHULQHQ|QHPOLNDPXNDWHJRULOHULQGHQELULVLGH\DW×U×PF×ODUG×U<DW×U×PF×LOLùNLOHULùLUNHWOHULQ PHYFXWYHSRWDQVL\HO\DW×U×PF×ODU×LOHDQDOLVWOHUHNRQRPLPXKDELUOHULJHQHOILQDQVDONDPXYHEHQ]HUOHULQL GHLoHUHQKHGHINDPXODUODELOJLSD\ODùPDV×YHLOLùNLJHOLùWLUPHVLHVDV×QDGD\DQDQJ|UHOLRODUDN\HQLELU oDO×ùPDNRQXVXGXU6RQ\LUPL\×OLoLQGH÷QWHUQHWLQWPGQ\DGD\D\J×QRODUDNNXOODQ×OPD\DEDùODPDV×|]HO ùLUNHWOHUHWPNDPXNDWHJRULOHUL\OHLOHWLùLPNXUPDYHLOLùNLJHOLùWLUPHGHNXOODQ×ODELOHFHNGLQDPLNYHVWUDWHMLN ELUDUDoVDöODP×ùW×U%XoDO×ùPD÷0.%ùLUNHWOHULQLQZHEVLWHOHULQGH\HUDODQ\DW×U×PF×LOLùNLOHULOLQNOHULQLQ .HQWYH7D\ORU WDUDI×QGDQJHOLùWLULOHQGL\DORMLNLOHWLùLPSUHQVLSOHULEDöODP×QGDDQDOL]HGLOPHVLQH GD\DQPDNWDG×UdDO×ùPD÷QWHUQHWLQ\DW×U×PF×LOLùNLOHULQGHGL\DORMLNLOHWLùLPNXUPD\DoRNX\JXQELUPHFUD ROPDV×QDUDöPHQùLUNHWOHUWDUDI×QGDQVDGHFH\DVDORODUDNVXQPDN]RUXQGDROGXNODU×ELOJL\LSD\ODùPDN DPDF×\ODNXOODQ×OG×ö×Q×RUWD\DNR\PXùWXU Anahtar Sözcükler: )LQDQVDOKDONODLOLùNLOHU\DW×U×PF×LOLùNLOHULLQWHUQHWGL\DORMLNLOHWLùLP LOHWLÁLPDUDÁW¿UPDODU¿ 112LOHWLÁLPDUDÁW¿UPDODU¿ Investor Relations on the Internet: Dialogical Communication Capacities of the Top 100 ISEM (IMKB/Istanbul Stock Exchange Market) Companies for Investor Relations in Turkey Investor relations are based on enhancing relationships and sharing information in between the actors that are categorized in the financial community (Marston, 1996: 477; Tench and Yeomans, 2006: 468- 470; quoted from Marston and Straker by Dolphin, 2004: 25). It is suggested that the communication established with financial public categories about future strategies and the current situation of the organization shall have a positive influence on the status of the organization and this positive influence will be the marker of both equity market valuation and the future evaluation of the investors (quoted Dolphin, 2004: 27). Therefore, companies tend to share more and higher quality information with different public categories nowadays, especially in investor relations. The Internet plays a significant role in this tendency as it is being widely used as an investor relations tool (Rowbottom et al., 2006: 32). The Internet provides the opportunity both to spread knowledge and, regarding investor relations, to establish two-way communication and mutual relationships. The Internet plays a crucial role for most organizations, both for non-governmental organizations and government organizations, but if we focus on the subject especially regarding the companies with shares on sale, the diversifying structure of the public categories increases the significance of this course even more. The Internet’s structure which allows companies to fulfill their needs for relationships and diversifying communications with different public categories makes it more useful than conventional public relations tools for investor relations. g]GHPLU,QYHVWRU5HODWLRQVRQWKH,QWHUQHW 113 Due to these advantages of the Internet, investors started using it more frequently and both academics and regulatory bodies became more interested. Most of the studies analyzing the relationship between investor relations and the Internet bring forward the financial side of the investor relations and focus on the universalization of the financial information through the Internet (Bollen et al., 2006: 274). The contribu- tions of the Internet in promoting relationships are rarely mentioned in these studies. This study, which is based on Internet mediated investor relations, places the investor relations into the financial public relations context and analyzes the consideration of the dialogical principles as a theo- retical frame developed by Kent and Taylor (1998) in order to guide its continuity and development of the relations between organization and public categories through the Internet. In this study, the dialogical principals developed by Kent and Taylor have been made measurable in order to determine the dialogical capacities of the companies that are traded in the ISEM (IMKB/Istanbul Stock Exchange) in an investor relations context. A total of 25 dialogical characteristics is determined that can identify each of the dialogical principals in a measurable man- ner. These 25 dialogical characteristics have been organized as a ques- tionnaire and investor relations links at the main pages of the companies that are traded in the ISEM 100 index has been analyzed at a spe- cific date in this context. 114LOHWLÁLPDUDÁW¿UPDODU¿ ,QYHVWRU5HODWLRQV While Investor Relations Society UK, a leading investor relations professional body, describes investor relations as “…the communication of information and insight between a company and the investment community. This process enables a full appreciation of the company’s business activities, strategy and prospects and allows the market to make an informed judgement about the fair value and appropri- ate ownership of a company” (IRS, 2011) for United States National Investor Relations Institute, another leading professional institute, investor relations is “a strategic management responsibility that inte- grates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compli- ance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company’s securities achieving fair valuation”(NIRI, 2011). This study regards investor relations as a pre- planned, continuous communication activity aiming not only to com- municate with present investors of the organization but also with other financial stakeholders as well and aiming to establish relationships and maintain their continuity. The importance of the investor relations gained recently origi- nates from sophistication of the world’s capital markets. “In a complex business environment increasingly sophisticated information is need- ed in order to make investment decisions” (Marston, 1996: 479). In addition, the current economic conditions that are the result of wide- spread market failures and the recession that began in 2008 have inten- sified attention to investor relations (Kelly et al., 2010: 184). Addition- ally, due to the tendency to loan, by applying to non-organization sources in order to expand their activities within its resources, the financial recognition of the companies become more important regarding to financial stakeholders and emphasizes the importance given to investor relations. Especially in Turkey, companies have recently begun to pay attention to investor relations due to similar pressures. Also, current legal g]GHPLU,QYHVWRU5HODWLRQVRQWKH,QWHUQHW 115 regulations require management to be more attentive to investor relations. In Turkey, there are legal regulations regarding the information that management can share with its financial stakeholders and a law regulating which financial information is required to be shared with the public. Within the consideration of the responsibility of Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISEM) companies to enlighten the public, public notifications required by regulations of Capital Markets Board (SPK) and ISEM (monthly notifications, portfolio tables, statements of profit appropriation, merger and demerger, etc.) within the frame of special conditions or financial reports are examples of obligatory public dis- closures. Every piece of information and document shared with public must be sent to the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) and KAP announces the required notifications that need to be made public through an electronic system (IMKB, 2011). Besides, companies share this information through their own company web sites. Furthermore, the Turkish Trade Law numbered 6102 and issued at February 14, 2011 obliges every corporation to build its own website and assign a spe- cific part of the website to the legal announcements of the company, notifications that are important to stakeholders and shareholders, administrative board and preparations of annual meetings and requirements, announcement of documents required to be shared with shareholders, invitations to these boards and meetings, voting, sub- mission of all information and services

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