The Effect of Platform-Based Markets on Firm Security Prices

Abstract

With respect to retail trade in the United States, the platform-based market share has come at the expense of traditional brick and mortar stores. This study focused on two specific areas of retail trade: 1. assessing the stock performance of the industry in each of the past four decades; and 2. assessing the rise of platform-based firms in the industry and their stock performance. The significance of the analysis was to view the dynamics of this industry’s shift from an accounting perspective. Results indicate that when correlating the historical measure of unexpected earnings to stock prices, platform-based firms outperform the industry, in some instances by a margin of two to one. When correlating a wealth measure, proxied by book value, to stock prices, platform-based firms again out-perform the industry by as much as a four to one margin