earticle

영어

This study empirically analyzed investor relations via corporate websites (Web IR) of Korean companies as a contemporary instance of strategic communication behaviors. Results of content analysis on Web IR adoption reported that Korean companies have mostly adopted Web IR. We regarded it as isomorphism of firms’ strategic communication behaviors. However, the level of implementation was mostly low. We assumed that the gap between Web IR adoption and implementation is related to the idea of decoupling. With this reasoning, we tested hypotheses which explain possible determinants of Web IR level. We posited two mechanisms of the common behavior of firms: (1) competitive isomorphism and (2) institutional isomorphism. Results of regression analysis demonstrated that Korean companies are more likely to increase Web IR level when they seek to win resource allocations for maintaining equity effect. Also, this study supported that Korean companies are more likely to increase Web IR level when they have coercive, mimetic, and normative mechanisms. More importantly, we found that IR adoption arising from the institutional isomorphic mechanism results in Web IR decoupling.