Title: Possibilities of standardised evaluation of textual data of the management report in the context of qualitative creditworthiness analysis

Authors: Jörn Kerlin; Philippe Krahnhof; Alexander Zureck

Addresses: FOM University of Applied Science for Economics and Management, Essen, Düsseldorf, Germany; Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, 60177 Brno, Czech Republic ' Department of Finance, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, 60177 Brno, Czech Republic; FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management, Düsseldorf, Germany ' FOM University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Management, Düsseldorf, Germany

Abstract: Companies produce corporate publications due to legal requirements, but also in particular to reduce information asymmetries. Companies will have to prepare their financial statements taking sustainability aspects into account. This influence can be analysed in future analyses. The publication of this information often leads to a reaction from investors. Previously published studies have shown a correlation between the textual sentiment of corporate publications and securities returns. These studies have focused particularly on the US region. Consequently, this paper can selectively fill the research gap for the German-speaking region. Therefore, it is an academically relevant topic. In this study, companies from the Prime Standard stock market segment for 2018 were examined to determine whether there is a correlation between the textual sentiment of the management report and the company's credit rating. It is found that there is a significant relationship between the negative sentiment and the word count on credit risk.

Keywords: textual data; text mining; qualitative research; creditworthiness analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2022.126369

International Journal of Business Environment, 2022 Vol.13 No.4, pp.449 - 464

Received: 16 May 2021
Accepted: 11 Jan 2022
Published online: 24 Oct 2022 *

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