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To emphasise the important role of financial communication strategies implemented by companies during critical public share issues and identify their main characteristics.

A review of the available literature on the subject (1991‐2003) describes the risks brought about by public share issues, the main roles of the financial communication strategy and its targets. A qualitative investigation conducted in Belgian bank companies (by interviews) details the different financial communication strategies implemented during mergers and acquisitions.

Financial communication is not only concerned with financial figures and data, but has also a specific role in building the company's image, reputation and confidence. This is particularly true in case of mergers and acquisitions since these events can strongly affect the company's identity. Internal as well as external communications have to be considered. Some managerial implications are proposed.

The investigation was conducted in Belgian bank companies, which are not necessarily representative of the practices in other countries. Quantitative studies should be conducted in order to isolate impact of financial communication on mergers and acquisitions success.

An interesting approach of financial communication and a description of its role in reducing the risks brought about during critical public share issues such as mergers and acquisitions.

Financial communication is less developed than the other types of communications, but is quite so important. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of the financial communication as part of the global communication strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of financial communication to investigate the process of communicating risk signals between listed companies and their individual retail investors in initial public offerings (IPOs).

A survey study on individual IPO investors (n=212) in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was conducted to examine how risk estimates of individual retail investors were affected by three factors of financial communication, namely organizational trust, organizational reputation and investors’ trust in the media specialists. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted.

Respondents’ perceived risks of below-target returns and perceived risks of losses of principals were significantly affected by their perceived market risks. Respondents relied significantly on organizational trust to estimate their amounts of target returns and mitigate their perceived risks of losses of principals. Organizational reputation, which could be possibly reinforced by respondents’ trust in the media specialists, could enhance organizational trust.

Corporate communications practitioners should pay attention to the effect of perceived market risk on risk estimate. As organizational trust is a significant precondition of risk taking in IPOs, practitioners should rethink the effectiveness of financial communication in which organizational trust, organizational reputation and investors’ trust in the media specialists are interrelated.

There is a lack of research in financial communication from the organization-stakeholders perspective. This paper conceptualizes financial communication and provides insights to both scholars and practitioners in corporate communications on how significant factors of financial communication affect risk estimate in the financial market.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a synthesis for investor relations (IR) research on how to understand, conceptualize and build trust relationships between companies and the financial community within the practice of IR. In doing so, a working definition of the role of trust for IR, a conceptual model as well as strategies on how to establish, maintain and foster trust relationships within IR are proposed. Furthermore, a brief research alley is sketched to inspire more corporate communication scholars to conduct empirical studies in this field of research.

The paper is based on a thorough literature review on empirical and theoretical work in the field of IR, strategic financial communication as well as related disciplines such as public relations, marketing and business research. Furthermore, the literature from other disciplines dealing with trust in the organizational context (economics, psychology, sociology) has been reviewed to develop a working definition for the role of trust in IR.

The following supposition for the role of trust in IR has been worked out: “Trust relationships within investor relations manifest themselves on a micro-, meso-, and macro-level and involve interactions with various individual actors, groups of people, organizations, institutions, and systems. Within these trust interactions, investor relations presents itself simultaneously three-fold: as a discipline, an organization and as individual practitioners.”

To support the establishment, maintenance and fostering of trust relationships, IR needs to provide honest, transparent, comprehensive and coherent information to be in continuous, direct and mutual contact with stakeholders (e.g. investors, analysts, CEOs) and to endeavor a fair representation of the company in the media and among the public.

Facing recent changes in the media, regulatory and corporate environment, this conceptual paper provides a thorough discussion of the role of trust in the field of IR. The working definition, the conceptual model as well as the practical strategies to build trust relationships provided in this paper might help IR to overcome these challenges. The call for more research in this area and the actual employment of the suggested trust building strategies might contribute to fostering trust relationships in the financial markets, thereby contributing to a more sustainable financial system in the long run.

The first public share offer represents a crucial step in the life of a company. When the firm places shares linked to its business activity on sale in the financial markets, it is taking a strategic decision of major importance because this is going to involve shareholders who will subsequently become real partners in the organisation. This paper attempts to determine the place of financial communication in the company with regard to its general situation.

Analyses the key role played by the financial communicator and the organisation he represents in determining the type of communication needed so as to prepare for the first public share issue. Examines the initial results of a quantitative analysis (carried out by means of a questionnaire) of the importance attached to financial communication by managers of firms present on the Belgian financial market.

Financial communication is a form of communication that is still growing. The appearance of new technological tools seems favourable to this development. It seems that the information obtained by means of the questionnaire confirms not only the theoretical approach concerning the various targets, but also the role played by some specific players such as the press. It also seems that the development of the internet allows one to devise elaborate new approaches to the question so that one can contact a lot of people (more often with the same message) everywhere in the world and at a price which is reasonable. It is also interesting to confirm the attention given to specific events in the financial life of a firm. As a matter of fact, the budget allocated to financial communication is almost doubled in the case of a public offering.

The initial results are not representative enough to allow the drawing of conclusions about the global population of firms concerned.

The present paper can be envisaged as a pilot study insofar as it allows one to highlight certain development axes which could be interesting, such as the impact of new technologies on financial communication or the influence of the various stakeholders on a share issue and in its future enhanced value on the market.