Category Archives: Accounting & Finance

Vintage capital and trade credit

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Abstract

This paper examines whether and how capital age influences trade credit extended by suppliers. We find that firms with older capital are associated with a reduction in trade credit offered by suppliers, which is consistent with the view that vintage capital, with outdated technology, is detrimental to firms. Employee outside opportunity, labour mobility and organisational capital are important factors that moderate the association between capital age on trade credit. Our findings are not driven by specific industry sectors or periods and remain robust to alternative measures of trade credit and to endogeneity concerns. In addition, we show evidence that shareholders view vintage capital as value-destructive. In sum, this study reveals that risk exposure associated with capital age matters for corporate trade credit decisions.

Managerial inclusiveness and corporate innovation in China

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Abstract

This study explores how managerial inclusiveness affects corporate innovation. Using an annual dataset of A-share Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2021, we find that managerial inclusiveness is positively related to corporate innovation. Market competition and team heterogeneity positively moderate the relationship between managerial inclusiveness and innovation. In addition, managerial inclusiveness in state-owned enterprises plays a more significant role in promoting corporate innovation than it does in non-state-owned enterprises. By investigating the mechanism of influence, we found that inclusive managers can promote corporate innovation by relaxing internal controls and increasing corporate risk-taking.

Transitory and permanent shock transmissions between real estate investment trusts and other assets: Evidence from time‐frequency decomposition and machine learning

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Abstract

We evaluate asset returns and volatility connectedness using the time-frequency connectedness model and machine learning approaches. Using 48 years of monthly indices of equity real estate investment trusts (EREITs), mortgage real estate investment trusts (MREITs), stocks, commodities, and bonds, we find that shocks to EREIT, and MREIT returns have a transitory impact on other assets. However, asset volatility connectedness among assets occurs at lower frequencies as markets slowly process pricing information. Therefore, shocks to EREIT and MREIT decay gradually and spill over to the other three assets for long periods. We also find that the intensity of the time-frequency connectedness of returns and volatility varies with business cycles and significant domestic and global non-recession events. We attribute the dominance of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in destabilising the financial system through long-term volatility transmission to the heavy linkage of REITs to highly illiquid underlying direct real estate markets and high REITs leverage, making them more sensitive to real estate fundamentals, monetary shocks and macroeconomic risks than stocks and bonds. The result of the algorithm-based GA2M machine learning model broadly supports the dominance of EREITs in the transmission of returns and volatility and shows that commodities have more explanatory power in the transmission of volatility than in returns. The empirical findings have implications for strategic and tactical asset allocation and policy design for market stability.

The effect of auditor experience on stock price crash risk

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Abstract

In this study, we explore whether auditor experience has an effect on stock price crash risk. Using a sample of Chinese firms, we find a negative association between auditor experience and stock price crash risk, especially in firms with high client importance. The path analysis shows that accounting information transparency plays a mediating role in the relationship between auditor experience and stock price crash risk. And the effect of auditor experience on clients' stock price crash risk is dominant when auditor tenure is short and when the firm is audited by non-Big Four audit firms.

New bottle or new label? Distinguishing impact investing from responsible and ethical investing

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Abstract

A common topic of debate in academic scholarship on impact, ethical, and responsible investing is definitional clarity around the motivations and applications of each form of investment strategy. We ask, how does the subfield of impact investing differentiate itself from more established ethical and responsible investing – and do these differences necessitate yet another field of study? Adopting a combination of bibliometric and content analyses, we identify four distinct features of impact investing – positive impact targeting, novelty of governance structures, long time horizons, and the importance of philanthropy.

Supply chain concentration and cost of capital

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This study examines the impact of supply chain concentration on a firm's financing costs. We show purchasing firms with multiple supplier relationships are subject to higher information asymmetry and cost of equity. This effect is more pronounced when the supplier's financial performance deteriorates. We also find that lower supply chain concentration increases a firm's cost of debt. We believe that the purchaser's supply chain represents a source of material private information and that investors require a higher rate of return as compensation for increased information asymmetry. Our results are robust to combining the suppliers producing similar output and endogeneity issues.

Career concerns and earnings management in government‐owned banks

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We examine how government ownership in banks affects earnings management to determine whether competing political or agency interests prevail. Using bank ownership data for 171 Chinese commercial banks from 2006 to 2018, we find more accruals management in government-owned banks, especially to reduce earnings. This effect is stronger in banks with less influence from controlling shareholders, more concentrated ownership structures, and in more developed provinces. Overall, our results find support for the agency view, where managers in government-owned banks use accruals management to reduce social and political responsibilities, leading to increases in their promotion prospects.

The fatter the tail, the shorter the sail

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Guided by the extreme value theory, this study empirically investigates the impact of tail risk measures on financial distress of publicly traded bank holding companies (BHCs) in the United States. Our results show that tail risk measures namely, value-at-risk and expected shortfall, are significantly and positively related to banks distress risk. Implying that BHCs with more frequent extreme negative daily equity returns induce higher tail risks, thereby increasing their likelihood of experiencing financial distress. Our results also show that tail risk measures enhance the explanatory power of traditional models explaining banks distress risk based on accounting information. These results indicate that market discipline is generally beneficial in managing and regulating banks, bolstering claims of the importance of macro-prudential supervision of financial institutions.

Customers’ stock price crash risk and suppliers’ investment inefficiency: Evidence from China

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This paper explores whether customers' stock price crash risk affects their suppliers' investment efficiency. Using a supply-chain sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2020, we find that suppliers' investment inefficiency is positively associated with their customers' stock price crash risk. Moreover, the impact of customers' stock price crash risk is more pronounced for suppliers with lower investment efficiency, weaker bargaining power, weaker innovation capability, and fewer investment opportunities. Our results suggest that information asymmetry along supply chains deteriorates the investment decision making of upstream firms from the perspective of capital market.

Employer ratings in social media and firm performance: Evidence from an explainable machine learning approach

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This study examines the ability of crowdsourced employee opinions about their workplace to reveal value-relevant information about corporate culture. We investigate the employee-friendly (EF) corporate culture values that are strongly associated with firm value and operating performance using a unique social media dataset of approximately 250,000 crowdsourced employee reviews to evaluate 18 distinct characteristics of a firm's corporate culture. The explainable machine learning model is used to examine the nonlinear associations and relative importance of employee-friendly cultural values. We find that several employee-friendly corporate culture features are associated with firms' value (Tobin's Q) and operating performance (ROA). Our findings reveal two features whose association is clearly superior to other EF culture variables in our explainable machine learning model: pride in the company for Tobin's Q and job security for ROA. Based on the SHAP values, their effects are positive, significant, and relatively linear.