After repeated financial crises a broad alliance of politicians, regulators and other stakeholders is working towards increased transparency on a company’s financial stability and its resilience against unforseen shocks. Many countries have implemented regulation mandating firms to disclose more and more detailed financial information. As much of this data is now available in digital files online, this opens up entirely new prospects to potential investors and lenders, to competitors and also to researchers. Not only does this digitization allow for much faster data consolidation and processing, it also becomes possible to track and analyze who uses this information. This is a major advancement because it enables companies as well as researchers to observe the usually private information consumption of relevant stakeholders. The German startup sector hat thrived in recent years, developing vibrant and innovative businesses. Due to this liveliness of the German entrepreneurship scene, media coverage and “buzz” constitute important drivers for success. This implies that there should be distinguishable fluctuations in demand for disclosures as interest in a firm grows until the hype has reached a climax and then gradually reverts back to a normal level. Moreover, in a startup environment, information can be considered one of the most important assets: Competitive advantages tend to arise from using information more affectively and reacting to changes faster than the competition. The survey aims to identity firm characteristics that are associated with abnormally high levels of demand for the disclosures of German startups. Specific events are identified that can be interpreted as cause for such demand anomalies – for example changes in management or ownership, financing rounds or impeding bankruptcy. Startup companies act and develop in a highly competitive environment. In contrast to the “buzz” generated around startups, they should therefore be more prone to delay information or to provide less information to the general public. According to this contradiction, the survey analyzes whether this is true when compared to the ordinary small German company.weiterlesen