Vol. 11 No. 2 (2025)
June

Articles

Twitter/X activity and financial performance: Evidence from European listed companies

Published 2025-06-30

  • Katarzyna Byrka-Kita
    • ,
  • Renata Gola
    • ,
  • Jacek Cypryjański
    • ,
  • Christophe J. Godlewski

Katarzyna Byrka-Kita
University of Szczecin

Renata Gola
University of Szczecin (Szkoła Doktorska)

Jacek Cypryjański
University of Szczecin

Christophe J. Godlewski
University of Strasbourg

Abstract

Objective: The study aims to investigate the adoption level of Twitter/X for corporate communication in the European context, specifically aspects such as the creation of Twitter accounts, follower number, and tweet frequency. We expand the data analysis framework to provide a comprehensive description of the different types of businesses using Twitter. The article’s ultimate goal is to provide insight into their financial characteristics, including profitability, growth options, and leverage.

Research Design & Methods: Using a large novel dataset (nearly 5.5 million tweets) from 41 European stock exchanges, we provide a comprehensive picture of the social media activity of 21 319 listed companies. We applied box plots, data visualisation, and exploratory data analysis to provide a concise visual summary of the data’s distribution to compare multiple datasets or identify any potential outliers or skewness.

Findings: Our findings indicate that growth companies are more likely to use Twitter/X for corporate communications. However, the relationship between profitability and Twitter adoption is not clear. The level of Twitter/X adoption for corporate communication in companies listed in Europe is lower than in the Northern American ones.

Implications & Recommendations: Companies should consider adopting social media as part of their communication strategy to enhance their financial performance. Our study contributes to the understanding of social media’s role in corporate communication and its potential impact on the financial performance of European listed firms.

Contribution & Value Added: The literature review reveals that the predominant focus of Twitter research has been on samples derived from the US market, whereas studies pertaining to Europe tend to concentrate on specific markets or sectors. To our knowledge, there is no comprehensive research on listed Twitter-using firms in the EU.

Keywords

stock markets, Twitter, social media, corporate communication, financial performance

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Author Biography

Katarzyna Byrka-Kita

Associate Professor at the University of Szczecin. Her research interests include business valuation, financial strategy, corporate finance and corporate governance. Project Investigator and Project Co-investigator in several projects financed by the National Science Center. Author of several monographs and over 90 scientific articles.

Renata Gola

PhD student at the University of Szczecin. She holds a master’s degree in economics and an engineering degree in production management from her home university. Her research focuses on the impact of behavioural factors on the valuation of companies on European markets. Her main specialization is Business Intelligence Analysis for SME companies.

Jacek Cypryjański

Associate Professor in the Institute of Economics and Finance at the University of Szczecin, Poland. He received a PhD from his home university and defended the habilitation thesis at the Collegium of Economic Analysis of the Warsaw School of Economics. His current research interests include exploratory data analysis of large databases and public registers in the areas of economics and demography. In addition to his academic activities, he acts as a business intelligence consultant.

Christophe J. Godlewski

Full Professor of Corporate Finance & Banking, University of Strasbourg, France. His research interests include financial intermediation, financial contracting, corporate finance, and emerging markets. He has published more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed journals (such as Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Financial Management) and presented at more than 100 international conferences. He is the Editor of Finance, the scientific journal of the French Finance Association.

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