Category Archives: Accounting & Finance

Executives’ horizon and trade credit

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Abstract

Using executives' decision horizon as a measure of internal governance, this study examines the association between customer's internal governance and supplier's extension of trade credit. Suppliers may extend more trade credit to customers with strong internal governance because of their lower operational risk, higher firm performance, and better information environment. However, firms with better internal governance may have easier access to other sources of financing, and thus may need less trade credit. Using a sample of US listed firms between 1992 and 2021, we find that suppliers extend more trade credit to customers with strong internal governance. We also find that the association between internal governance and trade credit is more pronounced for financially, and informationally constrained firms. Our results are robust to alternative measures and specifications. Incremental to prior studies, we show that effectiveness of customers' internal governance affects suppliers' lending decisions.

Are accounting standards understandable?

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Abstract

There is concern that accounting standards are difficult to understand by those who use them. We investigate factors that enhance and inhibit the ability of the standards' users to comprehend their meaning and requirements. Readability statistics reveal that Australian accounting standards are difficult or very difficult to read. Interviews with experienced financial statement preparers and auditors from the for-profit, not-for-profit private, and public sectors reveal that ‘understandability’ is a function of many inter-related factors, only some of which relate to how standards are written and presented. We offer recommendations to standards-setters about how the understandability of standards could be improved.

An examination of self‐efficacy and sense of belonging on accounting student achievement

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Abstract

Student success is impacted by many factors, both individual and institutional. We examine Tinto's (Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 2017, 19, 254) theoretical model of achievement by surveying students enrolled in an introductory accounting subject (n = 132) at a New Zealand university twice and relating their responses to their levels of achievement in the subject. We find that both self-efficacy beliefs and a sense of belonging to the university are significantly related to academic success. This study builds on the body of work examining non-cognitive factors in accounting education and provides practical implications for accounting educators.

The interplay of episodic power in enabling and coercive budgetary designs in universities: A case study

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Abstract

This paper explores how power exercised at the individual level within existing power relations in a university influences its enabling and coercive budgeting forms. A qualitative case study in a Sri Lankan university involved interviews and document analysis. Findings demonstrate the dominance of coercive controls over enabling controls in the university due to the power and influence of dominant individuals stemming from ongoing struggles among those pursuing diverse interests and strategic actions. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating how power is mobilised by actors and its impact on the variations of the enabling and coercive budgetary forms and practice.

Group budget‐based bonus scheme and group cooperation: The role of social value orientation, goal alignment, and group identity

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Abstract

In a workgroup setting, we use a quasi-experiment to examine whether and why proself rather than prosocial employees benefit more from high group identity to foster group cooperation. We validate the goal-transformation hypothesis that proself rather than prosocial employees benefit more from high group identity. Consistent with the goal-expectation hypothesis, we show that goal alignment explains why proself rather than prosocial employees benefit more from high group identity. The main implication of our results is that, when group identity is high, proself employees reinforce their strategic behaviour to cooperate with the group to obtain higher individual payoffs through greater goal alignment.

CFO facial beauty and bank loan contracting

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Abstract

We examine whether the facial attractiveness of borrower firms' chief financial officers (CFOs) influences bank loan contracting terms. Using a machine learning-based algorithm to measure facial attractiveness, we document that firms led by CFOs with greater facial attractiveness receive more favourable loan contracts from their banks. We further show that the relation between CFO facial attractiveness and bank loan contracting terms is significantly influenced by the characteristics of both the borrower and the lender. Collectively, our results suggest that loan contracting is not an entirely rational process, as the ‘beauty premium’ is at least partly driven by taste-based discrimination.

The disciplinary role of unsuccessful takeovers and changes in corporate governance

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Abstract

This study examines if unsuccessful takeovers trigger the replacement of directors and changes in other governance attributes and result in improvements in target firm performance. Using an Australian sample this study finds that following failed bids, target firms are more likely to remove directors and experience an increase in director ownership, board independence, and block ownership. In contrast, target firm director expertise and prestige decrease following failed bids. We also find that post-bid accounting and stock performance of targets are largely unrelated to changes in governance attributes after the unsuccessful takeover.

Investigating performance implications of intra‐family ownership successions: Equity transfers with versus without debt creation

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Abstract

We relate two routes of intra-family ownership succession (i.e., succession financed with versus without debt) to post-succession financial performance. Investigating a sample of 203 privately-held family businesses, our results show that the succession-induced performance paths of the two subgroups are significantly different. When debt is used to fund the intra-family share transfer, financial performance significantly increases in the post-succession period. This phenomenon is absent when no debt is used to fund succession. We attribute the performance gap to a governance device characterising the debt-financed succession route: debt creation at succession leads to firm-level efficiency gains.

The impact of post‐retirement financial market participation on retirement income sufficiency in Australia

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Abstract

Using HILDA survey data, we document a strong positive relationship between post-retirement financial market participation and retiree income sufficiency in Australia. We find a 17% improvement in the income replacement ratio and a 3.26 times higher annuitised net wealth for financial market participants compared to non-participants. We further investigate how age, residence area, relationship status, education, health, and employment affect the main finding in all and female retirees. The results highlight the value of financial market participation in facilitating household retirement security and provide further support for the active promotion of household financial market participation, both in Australia and globally.

Pressure from words: The tone of investors in Chinese earnings communication conferences and managerial myopia

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Abstract

This study examines whether and how the negative tone of investors in earnings communication conferences (ECCs) held by Chinese listed companies influences managerial myopia. We use the bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model to construct sentence-level emotional tone and find that the negative tone of investors in ECCs leads to greater myopic behaviour by managers. The positive relationship between the negative tone of investors and managerial myopia is stronger when more investors participate in ECCs, investors ask more questions, and managers respond with longer statements. However, this positive relationship becomes weaker when managers have positions in other companies, managers are more competent, and managers display a more positive tone in ECCs. Additionally, this positive relationship weakens when listed companies that hold ECCs have more institutional investors and strengthens when the media reports these companies more frequently. Our results prove that individual investors can have a voice and influence the decision-making behaviour of managers through ECCs.