The world we live in is undergoing continuous change. Driven by globalization, technological innovation, and increasing regulation, markets and framework conditions are evolving at a rapid pace. This not only shapes our everyday lives but also affects the functioning of companies and financial markets. In this environment, clear and reliable capital market communication is becoming increasingly important to create transparency and build trust. A central instrument in this regard is ad-hoc publicity. It obliges listed companies to immediately disclose price-sensitive inside information. In doing so, information asymmetries are to be reduced, fair price formation ensured, and investors’ confidence in the integrity of the capital market strengthened.Despite its regulatory importance, little empirical research has so far been conducted on how ad-hoc announcements are actually perceived by investors and whether new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to analyze and evaluate these announcements. This thesis addresses this gap by comparing investors’ perception of ad-hoc announcements with the classification provided by ChatGPT.The thesis is divided into a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical section first deals with the legal and regulatory foundations of capital market communication. The focus lies on the provisions of the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) and its implementation in Austrian capital market law, which in particular governs the obligations of ad-hoc publicity. The empirical part conducts a quantitative analysis of ad-hoc announcements of Austrian listed companies. The aim is to investigate the perception of ad-hoc announcements and thereby draw conclusions about their informational impact. The methodological approach combines qualitative and quantitative elements of text analysis. While content-based categorization makes central topics and linguistic patterns visible, the statistical evaluation of frequencies and distributions allows for a well-founded interpretation of the results. In this way, both descriptive statements about the structure of ad-hoc announcements and analytical conclusions about their information content and relevance can be drawn.The analysis is based on a dataset of 168 ad-hoc announcements from Austrian companies in the ATX Prime segment between January 1, 2024, and June 20, 2025. The announcements were classified by ChatGPT as positive, neutral, or negative and were also evaluated in an online survey by 168 participants from the financial industry.In summary, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the perception and impact of adhoc announcements in the Austrian capital market. By comparing human assessment with automated classification, it becomes clear that AI-based approaches can serve as a valuable tool for analyzing and evaluating ad-hoc announcements. Thus, the study not only opens up new perspectives for capital market communication but also provides practical impulses for trust-building and future-oriented investor relations.
- Controlling, Accounting and Financial Management
Analyse von Ad-hoc-Meldungen in der Investor Relations
Hirschvogel, A. (Author). 2025
Student thesis: Master's Thesis