Purpose

While several extant studies have discussed the strategic importance of investor relations (IR) for listed corporations, few have tried to apply findings from strategic communication research to IR. Therefore, little is known about the planning and evaluation of IR programs, with even less data available on IR's involvement in top management decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to examine research on planning and evaluation practices in German Prime Standard corporations' IR departments.

Design/methodology/approach

The method entailed a survey of 51 heads of IR departments from the largest corporations listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange concerning the topic of measurement and evaluation.

Findings

The findings highlight an intermediate stage in the professionalization of the still-emergent IR function. While IR has been established as an independent function with some consideration in strategic leadership, strategic management of the function is still evolving. This study shows that while some form of planning is the norm, IR departments at smaller companies tend to focus more on departmental objectives than on deriving objectives from the corporate strategy. Also, systematic evaluation remains lacking in many smaller companies' IR departments. As a result, IR managers from smaller companies are consulted less frequently during top management meetings on corporate strategy.

Research limitations/implications

This study is based on data collected only from German Prime Standard corporations. While satisfactory in the context of quantitative IR studies, the response rate from the reported survey was only 32%. Furthermore, the average level of strategic IR management among German listed companies actually may be somewhat lower than reported in this paper, as large listed companies are somewhat overrepresented in the sample.

Originality/value

This study addresses an apparent research gap, i.e. to date, little is known about the strategic management of the IR function, especially in a non-US context. This analysis shows that theories and frameworks from strategic communication management can be applied to the IR function.

中文翻译：

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战略性投资者关系管理：对德国Prime Standard公司的计划和评估实践的见解

目的

尽管已有的一些研究讨论了投资者关系（IR）对上市公司的战略重要性，但很少有人试图将战略传播研究的发现应用于IR。因此，对于投资者关系计划的计划和评估知之甚少，关于投资者关系参与高层管理决策的数据甚至更少。本文的目的是审查德国主要标准公司的IR部门对计划和评估实践的研究。

设计/方法/方法

该方法需要对法兰克福证券交易所上市的最大公司的51个IR部门负责人进行有关测量和评估的调查。

发现

这些发现突显了仍处于新兴的IR功能专业化的中间阶段。尽管已将IR建立为独立的职能，并考虑了战略领导力，但该职能的战略管理仍在发展中。这项研究表明，虽然某种形式的计划已成为常态，但较小公司的投资者关系部门倾向于将重点更多地放在部门目标上，而不是从公司战略中得出目标。而且，许多小型公司的投资者关系部门仍然缺乏系统的评估。因此，在公司战略的高层管理会议上，来自较小公司的投资者关系经理的咨询频率降低了。

研究局限/意义

本研究基于仅从德国主要标准公司收集的数据。尽管在定量IR研究中令人满意，但报告的调查的回复率仅为32％。此外，德国大型上市公司中战略投资者关系管理的平均水平实际上可能比本文报道的要低一些，因为样本中大型上市公司的人数过多。

创意/价值

这项研究解决了一个明显的研究空白，即迄今为止，对IR功能的战略管理知之甚少，尤其是在非美国的情况下。分析表明，战略沟通管理中的理论和框架可以应用于投资者关系职能。