Pokémon Go!: Stock valuation and disruptive innovation in entertainment industry

This research aims to analyze the impact of the announcement of the launch of the game Pokémon Go! on Nintendo's stocks. The study anchors itself on conceptual foundations of disruptive innovation and previous research that examined the stock market reaction to the announcement of innovations. This is an empirical research whose sample is made up of 4 Nintendo company assets traded in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, as well as the assets of companies comparable to Nintendo that made up the Detailed Stock Report available in the Refiniv® system (Thomson Reuters), at the time of the launch of the game. Through conducting a series of event studies, Nintendo's stocks traded in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Japan presented abnormal returns after one day of the game's launch. These findings proved to be specific of Nintendo corporation's assets, with no similar reactions observed in peer valuation analysis. Based on five variables of cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) for all entertainment companies listed in Japan and controlled by factors such as profitability, debt, size and market value, it was found that on average the cumulative abnormal returns of Nintendo were significantly higher than the other companies in all 5 models tested. In response, we hope to broaden the discussions listed in this survey to recognize the launch of Pokémon Go! as an innovation with typical traits of Disruptive innovation, which were not ignored by capital market when the game was launched in July 06th, 2016.