Private communication and management forecasts : Evidence from corporate site visit

Using corporate site visit (CSV) data from 2009 to 2016, we find that the frequency of corporate site visits is positively related to management forecast accuracy. The positive relationship between corporate site visits and forecast accuracy is stronger when visitors have greater expertise and advanced industry knowledge, and when firms are visited during a period of high business uncertainty and are subject to high sensitivity to industry shocks. These findings are consistent with the managerial learning hypothesis. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns and alternative CSV measures