The nonlinear value relevance of advertising expenditure in listed Korean stock markets

Abstract

This paper investigates the nonlinear value relevance of advertising expenses in firms listed on Korean stock markets from 2003 to 2011. This study also categorizes the sampled data into several groups to examine the value relevance function of advertising expenses. The empirical findings of this paper show that advertising expenses has an inverted U-shaped relationship with enterprise value in various subgroups belonging to KOSPI markets, big firms, small and medium firms, and low technology firms classified by Himmelberg and Petersen (1994). The empirical results also provide the evidence that advertising expenses is nonlinearly associated with enterprise value with a U-shaped function in total sample firms, KOSDAQ firms, high technology firms classified by Himmelberg and Petersen (1994), and the high and low technology firm groups divided by RandD intensity. These results support the hypothesis of this study (H: Advertising expenses has nonlinear value relevance in Korean stock markets). The empirical findings of this study reveals that the value relevance shape of advertising expenses differ in accordance with the characteristics of individual firms.