Fund Managers’ WeChat Behavior, IPO Underpricing, and Earnings Volatility

Utilizing the latest research results in the fields of psychology and sociology, this study examines the relationship among fund manager behavior on the Chinese WeChat social media service, IPO discounting, and earnings volatility. Based on the Big Five model, described by Costa and McCrae in 1992, and Amichai-Hamburger and Vinitzky's 2010 research, we collect data such as WeChat profile pictures, nicknames, and information transparency from the WeChat messages of fund managers and assess their “neurotic” tendencies. The results show that for single fund managers, IPO discounting is more common among those who post real photos, real names, and have relatively high personal information transparency, especially managers with a close-up headshot. However, when both single fund managers and multi-fund managers are considered, this effect is much less significant. Finally, we find that these “neurotic” managers' performance risk is lower than that of other managers