Foreword; Preface; Executive Summary; Table of Contents; List of Abbreviations; List of Figures; List of Tables; List of Symbols; List of Formulas; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Problem Definition and Objective; 1.2 Scope of Work; 2 Financial Communication in the Context of Information Economics; 2.1 Introduction to New Institutional Economics; 2.2 Introduction in the Principal-Agent Problem; 2.3 Financial Communication as Consequence of Information Asymmetry; 3 Financial Communication in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises; 3.1 Characteristics of German Small and Mid-Caps; 3.2 Financing in SMEs

3.3 Financial Communication Partners for SMEs4 Patents in Financial Communication; 4.1 Types of Patents; 4.2 Process of Patent Application; 4.3 Relevance of Patents for Investors; 5 Empirical Analysis of Patent's Relevance for Financial Communication; 5.1 State of Research; 5.2 Hypotheses; 5.3 Data and Methodology; 5.3.1 Data Collection; 5.3.2 Event Study Approach; 5.3.3 Criteria for Choosing an Event; 5.3.4 Descriptive Statistics; 5.3.5 Calculation of Abnormal Returns; 5.3.6 Significance Tests; 5.4 Results of Empirical Analysis

5.4.1 Results of Empirical Analysis per International Patent Classification5.4.2 Results of Empirical Analysis per Industry Sector; 5.4.3 Results of Empirical Analysis per Publication Years; 5.4.4 Results of Empirical Analysis per Sales; 5.4.5 Results of Empirical Analysis per Employees; 6 Conclusion and Outlook; Bibliography; Appendix 1: Empirical Analysis