We analyze corporate acquisition announcements and the feedback of credit rating agencies by placing the acquirer’s issuer rating under formal review for a potential change. We show that acquisitions are 42.8% more likely to be withdrawn if the firm’s rating is placed on review for downgrade. Focusing on completed acquisitions, deals associated with reviews for downgrade need approximately 40% more

This article suggests new possibilities to nurture diversity, disrupt heteronormativity and create space for voices of LGBTIQA+ people in accounting. Whilst past research focuses on and challenges heteronormativity in the accounting workplace, we argue that accounting education plays a key role in shaping sexual norms in accounting. We begin by providing insights into how current accounting education

Our findings reveal that asset specificity significantly enhances corporate tax avoidance, with firms exhibiting lower cash effective tax rates. Firms with higher asset specificity also engage in more aggressive tax avoidance strategies, including tax dodging and long-term tax planning. Additionally, our analysis indicates that the positive impact of asset specificity on tax avoidance is less pronounced

This paper examines the price impact of large block trades in cryptocurrency markets by using a natural experiment in Bitcoin provided by the Gemini exchange. The exchange introduced a block trading facility in 2018, but in December 2019, it changed the minimum size threshold that allows market participants to trade a block and report it with a delay. Consistent with theoretical predictions and earlier

The search for predictive financial factors in stock pricing of companies has long been a key focus in accounting and finance, but traditional methods often require complex, subjective inputs. This paper introduces a method using ChatGPT-4 to generate financial factors based on the structure of financial statements and key variables, eliminating the need for numerical data. Leveraging GPT’s natural

We examine the impact of performance management (PM) and metric quality on trust and performance in healthcare organizations. Prior research found that PM can elicit feelings of distrust, as healthcare professionals can perceive control as curbing their autonomy. We examine whether the quality of metrics (i.e., their accuracy, sensitivity, and verifiability) can help PM to enhance interpersonal trust

We investigate and find a significant and positive relation between share pledging by controlling shareholders and the likelihood of corporate misconduct. The results remain robust after classifying misconduct into accounting and non-accounting misconduct, and misconduct receiving severe and light penalties. Alleviation of financial constraints, inflation of stock prices, mitigation of margin calls

Visual cues are increasingly used in financial disclosures to improve information dissemination. While prior research has primarily focused on the informational value of linguistic attributes in financial disclosures, we draw on dual coding theory and investigate how infographics in disclosures affect fundraising success. Exploiting the high level of information asymmetry of Initial Coin Offerings

Based on a unique hand-collected dataset of CEO succession events in US bank holding companies (BHCs), we find that prior CEO experience of the newly appointed CEO improves bank profitability post-CEO succession, but primarily in underperforming banks. We distinguish prior CEO experience based on where the experience was obtained and find that the performance effect is driven by the experience gained

This paper investigates the consequences of stock price crashes. I find that stock price crash risk subsequently reduces managerial confidence levels, as proxied by the CEO's option-based and earnings call transcript's text-based measures. I also find that stock price crash risk reduces CEO compensation and equity incentives, suggesting that a firm seeks to adjust managerial incentives after its stock

The way filings of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) are written might depend on investor reactions to initial public announcements of the deal. We examine this investor feedback hypothesis by focusing on the readability and timing of a large sample of SEC documents. We show that acquirers write documents with lower readability and file them faster when investors

We investigate whether female lead auditors are associated with higher audit fees and audit quality. We expect female lead auditors to have a significant influence on these audit outcomes for two reasons. First, female auditors are more risk averse and less tolerant of opportunistic behaviours than their male counterparts. Second, lead auditors perform more numerous and varied tasks and spend more

This study investigates whether the degree of cost stickiness depends on the divergence between control and cash-flow rights of ultimate owners using data from 22 countries. Firms with a large divergence between control and cash-flow rights are known to take more opportunistic actions at the expense of minority shareholders. The empirical results show that the magnitude of cost stickiness decreases

This study investigates the influence of client protection principles (CPPs) in lending practice on the economic and social performance of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). The demand for ethical and fair treatment of microfinance borrowers has increased in recent years after several incidences of exploiting clients in different parts of the world. In response to this call, many MFIs adopted CPPs in

Despite the growing importance of science-based targets (SBTs), our knowledge of their impact on corporate decarbonisation commitment is extremely limited due to inadequate research. To address this gap, we investigate the relationship between SBTs and corporate carbon reduction. Our empirical results reveal the following insights: First, the adoption of an SBT leads to significant subsequent carbon

This study examines the impact of deposit insurance coverage on credit union earnings opacity. For identification, we employ the provisions outlined in Section 136 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which raised the upper limit of deposit insurance coverage from $100,000 to $250,000. Using variation in insured deposits brought about by the differential impact of the change to deposit insurance

Previous studies have highlighted the importance of policy interventions in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there is limited understanding within accounting literature about strategies to enhance sustainable development initiatives and address the challenges faced in varieties of capitalism. This study investigates the influence of accounting practices and public financial

Our study reveals that companies with higher Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ratings exhibit superior stock returns compared to their counterparts with lower ratings during periods of political uncertainty. This phenomenon is more pronounced in a closely contested election with a higher degree of unpredictability. Our results remain robust after addressing potential endogeneity issue and are

Hybrid organisations are organisational forms that use different resources, governance models and institutional logics derived from public, private, for-profit and nonprofit. Hybridity can be referred to on multiple levels of analysis: macro-level related to the society, meso-level related to specific organisational fields or organisations, or micro-level related to groups or individual actors. This

This paper examines the effect of awareness regarding climate change risks and opportunities on the proactive carbon management systems of U.S. S&P 500 companies. We develop our hypotheses based on institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and prospect theory. Our findings indicate a significant positive association between our self-constructed measurement of company risk and opportunity awareness

In this paper, considering the difference in the energy demand level, we utilize the daily pricing data from 10/01/2019 to 06/30/2023 to construct mimicking crypto portfolios with 12 clean cryptocurrencies to replace the dirty cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). With a monthly rebalancing strategy, the mimicking portfolio closely matches the exposures to the risk factors of the BTC but with fewer specific

This research examines the intricate relationship between trade and bank credit, with a specific focus on family and nonfamily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our analysis of a sample of 3690 US SMEs reveals a distinctive pattern: Trade credit and bank credit act as substitutes for each other for family firms, but they serve as complements to each other for nonfamily firms. Furthermore,

Using a large sample of U.S. firms from 2002 to 2020, we investigate the relationship between corporate culture and the extent of carbon emissions. We provide evidence that the quantum of carbon emissions is negatively associated with corporate cultural attributes manifested by integrity, teamwork, innovation, and respect. These results hold after controlling for potential endogeneity issues using

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an extremely rare instance of a shock to global product markets. Using quarterly data for a sample of 7397 firms from 54 countries over the period 2017–2020, we study the causal impact of this shock on trade credit. Employing a difference-in-difference analysis, we find that, in contrast to findings in the literature on financial market shocks, low-credit quality firms

This study tests the information leakage hypothesis prior to the public announcement of firms switching between the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and the Main Market (MM) in the UK. We find significant abnormal stock returns 60 trading days prior to the announcement of these switches. The results are robust after controlling for switching anticipation, rumors, other major corporate announcements

This paper explores the translation of the global decarbonization goal into net-zero organizational targets. Building on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework developed by Ostrom and focusing on the case of the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), we study how accounting mediates in this translation. The study consists of an in-depth examination of SBTi's publicly available

This study investigates the relationship between the anticipated digitalization of the finance and control function and management accountants' (MAs') role conflict and ambiguity. Drawing on role theory, we argue that digitalization is associated with increases in MAs' role conflict and ambiguity because digitalization leads to adaptations in the established role templates of MAs and also introduces

This paper explores how the uncertainty surrounding economic policies affects the decisions managers make, particularly with reference to carbon emissions. Notably, this is a pioneering effort as very few studies have examined the influence of economic policy uncertainty on decisions about either carbon emissions or renewable energy, and, in turn, the impact of these decisions on firm value. From a

This study has two primary objectives. Firstly, it enhances the reliability and transparency of machine-learning-based models for predicting future changes in environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Secondly, it explores the relationship between ex-ante expected changes in ESG and future stock returns. This study collects 3258 STOXX Europe 600 firm-year observations. In the ESG prediction

We investigate the effect of Third-Party Auditor Liability (TPAL) risk on firms' trade credit policies. Exploiting the staggered state-level changes to TPAL in the US as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that firms in states with a higher risk of TPAL increase their use of trade credit. This relationship is more pronounced for firms with a more enhanced information environment, those with greater

This study examines senior finance professionals' experiences and responses to digitalization tensions by applying a boundary-work theoretical lens. Based on interview data, we find that individuals use six boundary work strategies to respond to digitalization, namely, 1. Expansion into business partner roles; 2. Expansion into other specialisms; 3. Defensive boundary work; 4. Cross-functional collaborative

This paper investigates the extent to which the regional credit market structures, characterized by the presence and lending capacity of traditional banks, shape the growth of online lending marketplaces using peer-to-peer (P2P) lending data. Using an instrumental variables (IV) approach, our study suggests that areas underserved by traditional banks witness more significant growth in P2P lending.

This study investigates the influence of bank interventions following breaches of debt covenants on workplace safety. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find robust evidence indicating a substantial decrease in employee injuries after covenant violations. Our channel analysis reveals that the impact of bank interventions is more pronounced when banks perform well in ESG-related employee relationships

Previous studies indicate that prior period investor protection, quality of government/institution and ownership have little to no influence on bank risk-taking around crisis periods. Using contemporaneous data for 40 countries, we show that institutional mechanisms, investor protection, bank regulation and supervision (BRS) rules, and ownership, reduced bank risk-taking around the Global Financial

Using an unsupervised topic modelling methodology, we construct a cross-firm similarity measure based on the various topics extracted from Management Discussion and Analysis texts. Our findings indicate that the returns of firms with similar textual topics predict the focal firms’ future stock returns. A long-short portfolio constructed on this basis yields an annualised alpha of 17.03%. Further analyses

We investigate the effect of cross-border regulatory cooperation on the cash holdings of firms cross-listed on US stock exchanges. The staggered adoption of the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) facilitates cooperation among securities regulators around the world and expands their enforcement capabilities against foreign firms. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that US-listed

Over 74% of US banks share common ownership with other banks. Our analysis of a large sample of US banks reveals that those with greater common ownership demonstrate heightened transparency. This manifests as reduced discretion in loan loss provisions, improved financial statement readability, and enhanced comparability. We pinpoint three underlying mechanisms: decreased private information gathering

To date, the literature has not discovered diversification to be a firm policy that shareholders can influence through their proposals at annual meetings but has explained contexts in which diversification can defend. I contemplate and test diversifying responses to shareholder proposals made in the context of climate change. By following 440 shareholder-initiated proposals in the United States that

Audit committees in the U.S. oversee risk management within organizations, including oversight of the disclosure of risk factors in periodic filings. Because audit committees have become increasingly over-burdened, we examine the impact of the busyness of audit committee members, measured via members’ service on other boards, on risk factor disclosures. We find firms with busy members issue disclosures

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) contracting incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related measures in executive compensation plans. Current research on this practice is limited to a US setting, despite global adoption. We investigate heterogeneity in CSR contracting using data from 59 countries between 2002 and 2019. We find that besides firm-level past ESG performance and

Many jurisdictions are establishing requirements for corporations to disclose climate-related risks, and for those disclosures to be audited. One of the first jurisdictions to do so is Australia, where the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) issued a Joint Bulletin in 2018 stating that both preparers and auditors should consider the impact

We examine the relationship between analysts' task-specific experience in the context of ESG information and the informativeness of their stock recommendation revisions. While sell-side analysts incorporate ESG information in their valuation process and research reports, previous studies have indicated that the increased availability of ESG information in the market poses challenges for analysts to

This paper examines the information content in Moody's rating action reports, which Moody's releases concurrently with its rating actions. Using a topic modeling approach, we identify two informative topics after controlling for rating characteristics and report tones. We find that unfavorable discussion of the topic (about issuers' financial performance) generates a significant positive market reaction

This paper examines the role of cultural diversity in bank boardrooms for the acquisition of innovation financial technology – or “FinTech” – firms. Using a sample of 808 banks from 2008-18 in 65 countries, we find that culturally diverse boards are more likely to pursue the acquisition of FinTech firms. We also show that bank-, country- and corporate governance-specific characteristics matter for

This study examines the relationship between abnormal tone and project performance of reward-based crowdfunding (RBC) using the Kickstarter data from 2009 to 2020. We document a negative relationship between abnormal tone and the success of a project in the RBC campaign section, while a positive impact in the Risks and Challenges section. This outcome remains robust to a variety of sensitivity tests

This study examines the relationship between firms’ political sentiment (PSENT) and their credit ratings. Using US public firms as the sample, we reveal that PSENT is positively associated with corporate credit ratings. Furthermore, we find evidence indicating that a positive PSENT leads to higher credit ratings, while a negative PSENT results in lower credit ratings. We also demonstrate that PSENT

The US Securities and Exchange Commission implemented Exchange Act Rule 12h-6 in 2007, which made it considerably easier for cross-listed firms in the US market to deregister and terminate their regulatory obligations as US exchange listings. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we predict and find that in the period after the implementation of Rule 12h-6, cross-listed firms have significantly

We examine whether tone management in different aspects of forward-looking statements (FLSs) is related to managers' self-serving overinvestments. Using data for U.S.-listed firms between 2003 and 2019, we provide novel evidence that the abnormal tone of nonearnings-related qualitative FLSs' is significantly and positively related to firms' overinvestments but that other aspects of FLSs are insignificant

The research comprises a case study focussed on the wording of 34 audit reports of the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which Cecil Rhodes established by Royal Charter to colonise Rhodesia from 1889 to 1924. The accounts were audited by Cooper Brothers & Co., now PricewaterhouseCoopers. The research analyses three audit-report characteristics that influenced audit-report wording. Of the 34 audit

Capitalisation of development costs mandated under IAS 38 is an important accounting issue conveying a signal to users of accounting information regarding future economic benefits. Using a longitudinal sample of UK firms, firstly, we examine the adverse effect of CEO overconfidence levels on the association between capitalised development costs and future economic benefits, proxied by cash flows. Secondly

Entrepreneurs manage the capital structure of their start-ups to align the assumption of financial risk with their risk appetite. We focus on the ways in which management control systems (MCS), categorized as financial and non-financial MCS, serve as determinants of financial leverage in start-ups. Of particular interest is the influence of entrepreneurs' financial literacy on this relationship. We

Measurement, verification, and reporting of carbon emissions is essential for climate management. However, research on carbon assurance is limited. To address this gap, we investigate the association between climate uncertainty and voluntary carbon assurance. We conceptualize and operationalize four dimensions of micro-level climate uncertainty: innovation, management and performance, supply chain

We examine the impact of climate change uncertainty on supply chain financing. We find that firms significantly curtail trade credit provision during periods of high climate change uncertainty. The cross-sectional variations of this effect with firm-specific factors such as vulnerability to climate change, asset redeployability, and pollution severity suggest that it is primarily driven by managerial

In this study, we examine the impact of rank-and-file employee stock options on audit fees. We document compelling evidence that option grants to rank-and-file employees are positively related to audit fees. Further analyses show that this positive relation is more pronounced when a firm's real earnings manipulation risk is higher and when rank-and-file employees are more sensitive to monetary incentives

This study examines whether connected boards of directors restore their reputation via conservative accounting after financial misstatements. Using a sample of restating firms from 2004 to 2020, we find central boards of directors are positively related to accounting conservatism in the post-restatement period. More importantly, we find accounting conservatism has positive effects on the reputation

Business Rates (BR) are key to the interaction between national, devolved, regional and local institutions of government in the UK. A liability to the tax can make the difference between the life and death of a business, and the design and implementation of business rates interacts with areas of policy concern as disparate as devolution, planning, charity regulation and digitalisation. We examine how

The establishment of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the endorsement by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) foundation of the principles underlying the Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework, attest to a regulatory intent to develop a disclosure framework better connecting sustainability-related financial disclosures with financial disclosures. Strategic

This study examines the effect of political lobbying on firms' short-term resource adjustment decisions. Controlling for a wide range of known determinants of managerial cost behaviour, our results suggest that U.S. lobbying firms exhibit significantly less cost stickiness than non-lobbying firms. Lobbying reduces managers' "wait-and-see games" as they obtain preferential access to information on political

Panel data from publicly listed US industrial firms is used to investigate how firm-specific cost of debt (COD) determinants impact COD at different quantiles during a financial crisis. Six COD determinants: firm size, firm age, profitability, leverage, liquidity, and firm value, and advanced estimators: robust and bootstrapped fixed effects, bias-corrected least square dummy variable (LSDVC), and