The supply and demand for strategic information: A case study of a large medical device company

The purpose of this paper is to study the role of strategic information in the process of analyzing and understanding a specific company. Special emphasis is given to how forward‐looking information becomes important in relation to establishing a perception of market value by financial sell‐side analysts.

The empirical part of the paper is based on semi‐structured interviews with financial analysts, fund managers, and the top management team from a large medical device company listed on a Scandinavian Stock Exchange. The case company is internationally renowned for its state‐of‐the‐art business reporting.

It is shown how the three parties produce and consume strategic information and apply it in the process of analyzing and understanding the company and how strategic information plays markedly different roles across the groups participating in the market for information. It was specifically found that understanding the stock price and the company were two distinctly different issues. While management and the long‐term oriented sell‐side analysts' interests related to the company, fund managers and so‐called trigger‐oriented sell‐side analysts were primarily concerned with predicting the stock price.

This study motivates for a more nuanced understanding of how strategic information is applied in investment decisions, thereby extending existing research. As the case company is considered a best practice case, there are limitations to its generalizability.

The results of this study may help companies in their quest for creating transparency around their business model and how to address the different informational needs of the capital market.

This study provides new insights to further the understanding of how information is moved into investment decisions and thus may form the basis of further studies into this field.