SOX法案、内控制度与财务信息可靠性——基于中国石化第一手数据的调查研究

本文采用调查问卷研究方法,以第一手数据,考察内控制度和财务报告可靠性之间的关系,检验实施内控制度对财务报告可靠性的影响。研究中针对可靠性的各个特征、财务报表的不同类型、以及财务报告使用者在决策中对财务报表使用行为的检验,都表明实施内控制度后,相比实施内控制度前而言,财务报告可靠性有了显著的提高。本文分析、评价中国大型国有企业集团和海外上市公司实施内控制度的效果和影响,希冀对我国其他海外上市企业及大中型国有企业提供参考。     

中期财务报告自愿审计的动机和市场反应分析——基于中国上市公司的经验数据

作为外部治理机制的审计是公司信息披露质量的重要保证,目前法规对上市公司中期财务报告的审计并无强制性法规要求,许多上市公司选择中期财务报表自愿审计,其行为是一种主动传递信息的过程。本文通过对我国上市公司2007至2010年证券市场自愿中报审计的经验数据分析,对公司自愿中报审计的动机和市场反应进行了实证研究。研究发现:公司中期财务报表自愿审计与公司的成长性和公司规模显著相关,且公司的财务状况和股权性质对公司的自愿审计有一定影响;同时,市场对上市公司中期财务报告自愿审计行为有一定的正面反应,但这种反应效力不足,且持续力较低。     

政府控制、公司特征与网络财务报告系统质量研究——基于公司网站数据的分析

"互联网+"国家发展战略为企业利用网络技术改善管理带来了机遇和挑战,而公司网站是上市公司"互联网+"应用的最直接渠道。本文以截止到2014年12月31日上交所全部上市公司为样本,以样本公司网站为对象,对我国上市公司网络财务报告系统质量及影响它的因素进行了实证分析。研究发现,产权性质对公司网络财务报告系统质量具有一定影响,与政府控制企业相比,非政府控制企业的网络财务报告系统质量更差。公司盈利能力有助于提高公司的网络财务报告系统质量,债务资本比重、公司发展能力、公司资产管理能力与公司网络财务报告系统质量呈负相关关系,公司规模越大、上市时间越短网络财务报告系统质量越高,而管理层是否持股和管理层年龄对提高网络财务报告系统质量没有显著作用。     

财务报告问询函与上市公司融资约束北大核心CSSCI

本文以交易所发放的财务报告问询函为研究对象,检验交易所问询函制度对公司融资约束的影响。实证结果表明,上市公司收到财务报告问询函会加剧融资约束;检验其影响机理证实,问询函将公司推向聚光灯下,坏消息传播,降低收函公司声誉,并引起其股价波动性增加、违规风险提高,进而加剧公司融资约束;进一步研究发现,问询函提高公司的债务与股权融资成本;此外,问询函异质性特征对公司融资约束的影响程度存在差异。     

网络财务报告及其实现形式对会计信息质量特征的影响

因特网的出现与发展为公司提供了一条新的信息披露途径,就财务而言,公司可以在其网站上向顾客、供应商、尤其是投资者(包括现有的及潜在的)提供财务及其他信息。网络财务报告包括两种含义,一是公司利用互联网在公司网站上披露公司财务信息,即网络信息披露;二是网络上财务信息的内容,即以网络形式发布的财务报告。对于上市公司来说,包括两部分:一是官方指定网站上披露的信息,主要是公司年报和中报,即强制披露内容;二是公司主页上披露的信息,主要是年报、中报、临时公告和其他财务信息,即除强制披露内容外还有自愿披露内容。网络财务报告的出…     

机构投资者持股能提高上市公司会计信息质量吗?——兼论不同类型机构投资者的差异

本文以2006-2009年深圳A股上市公司为研究样本,实证检验了机构投资者总体以及各类型机构投资者持股对会计信息质量的影响。结果发现,机构投资者总体持股降低了财务报告可靠性,但能提高信息披露透明度。分类来看,证券投资基金、保险公司、社保基金和QFII等持股不影响财务报告可靠性,但能提高信息披露透明度;一般法人持股降低了财务报告可靠性,特别是加大了公司向下盈余管理程度,但不影响信息披露透明度;信托公司持股既不会影响财务报告可靠性,也不会影响信息披露透明度。结果表明,不仅机构投资者总体对上市公司会计信息质量影响的渠道不同,而且不同类型机构投资者对上市公司会计信息质量影响的渠道也存在差异。     

证券交易所一线监管与公司债务融资——基于财务报告问询函的证据

本文从债权人保护视角检验证券交易所一线监管对公司债务融资的影响.研究发现,上市公司收到财务报告问询函后新增银行借款和商业信用均减少,并且问询函所暴露出的问题越严重、公司信息环境或会计信息质量越差,新增银行借款和商业信用减少的幅度就越大.进一步研究发现,不同特征的财务报告问询函对债务融资的影响不同;财务报告问询函对公司债务融资的影响在民营企业和货币政策宽松的年度更明显.研究说明,证券交易所一线监管能够有效保护债权人的利益,维护资本市场的健康发展.     

董事长个人特征、代理成本与营收计划的自愿披露——来自沪深上市公司的经验证据

本文基于高层梯队理论和代理理论,研究了董事长个人特征和代理成本对公司营收计划自愿披露的影响。以2008—2010年度A股上市公司为样本,研究发现,公司董事长年龄、性别以及股权代理成本与营收计划自愿披露相关。董事长年龄越大、董事长为女性以及股权代理成本越小的公司,其自愿披露营收计划的可能性越大。研究还发现公司规模、董事长和总经理两职合一以及交叉上市对公司营收计划自愿披露也有显著影响。本文的研究丰富了相关文献,特别是为从管理者特征方面来解释我国上市公司的自愿披露行为提供了经验证据。     

治理机制、特殊治理水平与财务报告的稳健性

与以往的研究不同,我们将公司治理因素分成管理者可控的和不可控的两个部分,然后研究管理者可控部分即公司特殊治理水平对财务报告稳健性产生的影响。在整合了各种无条件公司治理机制的基础上,控制了其中管理者不可控的部分后得到了公司特殊治理变量。通过对我国A股上市公司2002—2006年的数据的分组检验和坏消息增量反应系数的显著性检验,发现特殊治理水平越高的公司其财务报告的稳健性水平也越高。     

财务报告问询函对公司现金持有的影响研究

财务报告问询函作为重要的一线监管措施，从多个渠道影响着公司财务决策。本文以2015-2021年中国A股上市公司为研究样本，检验财务报告问询函对公司现金持有的影响。研究发现：公司收到财务报告问询函，现金持有水平显著降低。机制检验结果表明，财务报告问询函通过发挥治理效应降低公司的现金持有，同时通过加剧融资约束提高现金持有，且治理效应渠道效果强于融资约束渠道。治理效应具体表现为收函企业投资不足现象得到改善，研发投入以及现金股利支付增加。异质性分析表明财务报告问询函对现金持有的影响在高收函频率、低公司治理水平情形下更明显。财务报告问询函降低现金持有水平的同时，显著提高了企业价值。文章将现金持有动机理论的应用范围拓展到了一线监管领域，揭示了财务报告问询函对企业现金持有的影响机制，为监管转型背景下的企业财务决策问题研究提供了经验证据。     

The determinants of Internet financial reporting

Responding to the widespread adoption of the Internet and the rapidly growing demands for information from stakeholders, corporations around the world are using the Internet for business and financial disclosures. Internet reporting has the benefits of low cost, wider reach, frequency and speed. Despite these benefits Internet reporting varies across companies and across countries. We study Internet financial reporting (IFR), in particular the presentation and content of IFR, of 660 large companies in 22 countries to identify the firm, and environmental determinants of IFR. The study revealed that firm size, listing on US stock exchanges and technology were firm specific determinants of IFR. Given that IFR is not just about the content of disclosure, but also about employing new presentation methods, the environment of disclosure was included in the research. The overarching disclosure environment of a country was found to be an important environmental driver for IFR presentation and less strongly for IFR content. The presentation aspect of IFR was more associated with the identified determinants than the content of IFR, which suggests that Internet presentation technologies were more related to the determinants than the content of the reports on the company Web sites.     

Voluntary Financial Disclosure By Australian Listed Companies

As Australia becomes an increasingly important equity market, the level of information disclosed by Australian listed companies is likely to be of interest to a growing audience of prospective investors. This study tests the relation between five firm-specific variables drawn from agency theory and the general level of financial information voluntarily disclosed by companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. The five variables are foreign listing status, firm size; leverage, assets-in-place and type of audit firm. The empirical evidence suggests that foreign listing status, firm size, and type of audit firm are significantly related to the level of information voluntarily disclosed by listed companies.     

Voluntary adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards by large unlisted companies in Portugal – Institutional logics and strategic responses

Common explanations for the voluntary adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been based on economic efficiency arguments. This paper introduces new theoretical arguments to explain how institutional pressures influence decisions to adopt IFRS voluntarily. Through recourse to an institutional theory context, we combine the analytical framework proposed by Oliver (1991) with the concept of institutional logics, and apply this framework to the financial accounting field for the first time. This combined model shows how multiple forms of rationality constrain company responses to pressures to adopt a new accounting regime.     

CAP Forum on E‐Business: The Management of Financial Disclosure on Corporate Websites: A Conceptual Model*

This paper addresses the impact of Internet financial reporting (IFR) on financial accounting theory by incorporating it into the general Gibbins, Richardson, and Waterhouse (GRW) (1990) disclosure‐management framework. The GRW model assumes that the firm has a relatively stable process of disclosure management. This process varies between two positions: one ritualistic and the other opportunistic. These dimensions can coexist in the same firm but, on average, the policy of a firm will be either more ritualistic or more opportunistic. Our survey of the financial information disclosed in traditional financial reporting (TFR) as compared with the website disclosures of a random sample of Canadian companies documents a significant difference between TFR and IFR, as well as a wide variability among the sample firms in their use of IFR content, format, and technology. We interpret this variability in the incremental difference of IFR over TFR as an indication that a firm's ritualistic or opportunistic behaviour under IFR is not different from its behaviour under TFR. Thus, the adapted GRW (1990) conceptual model appears to have the potential to support future research in the management of financial disclosure on corporate websites.     

Discretionary accounting choices: the case of IAS 19 pension accounting

Based on a sample of 3207 firm-year observations for the years 2005–2013, we investigate how stock-listed companies in France, Germany and the UK use two discretionary choices in their accounting for defined benefit pension plans under International Accounting Standard (IAS) 19 Employee Benefits. We first analyse companies’ decision whether to voluntarily early adopt the equity method of accounting for actuarial gains and losses. Second, we analyse companies’ choice to present pension interest cost and expected return on plan assets, or, in 2013, net pension interest cost, in operating or financial income. Our findings provide evidence that companies’ decisions to early adopt the equity method in 2005, the first year this accounting choice was available, were motivated by short-term effects on equity. Our analyses also indicate that the choice regarding where to present interest cost and expected return on plan assets in the income statement is associated with the resulting effect on Earnings before Interest and Tax. Finally, we document country-specific differences in the use of the discretion provided under IAS 19, suggesting that discretionary pension accounting choices may impede comparability.     

Characteristics of Organisations Using an Audit for Interim Financial Statements

This study examines the characteristics of companies that choose to have a full audit of their interim financial statements, as distinct from a review. A cross-section of 252 firms that had submitted interim financial reports to the Australian Stock Exchange were selected from the Business Review Weekly (BRW) list of top 1,000 companies. A direct logistic regression analysis was undertaken to assess whether voluntarily adopting an audit was related to size (assets), leverage, minority interest, profitability, industry, and whether the company had used a Big-6 audit firm. The results indicate that the level of leverage is a significant predictor of companies adopting a review, whereas use of a Big-6 audit firm was associated with conducting an audit. In addition, there is some evidence companies in the financial services industry were positively associated with conducting an audit.     

Information content of mandatory quarterly foreign sales data of U.S. multinational companies under SFAS 131

This paper investigates the information content of mandatorily disclosed quarterly foreign sales data of U.S. multinational companies under SFAS No. 131. We examine two types of companies. Predisclosing companies had voluntarily disclosed quarterly foreign sales data prior to implementation of SFAS No. 131. Non-predisclosing companies had not voluntarily disclosed quarterly foreign sales data prior to implementation of SFAS No. 131. We analyze the behavior of stock prices surrounding the filing date of the 10Q using short-window event study methodology and the market model for the initial years after enacting SFAS No. 131. We discover that the quarterly foreign sales data has information content to investors for both predisclosing firms and non-predisclosing firms except for 1 year. The data has no information content for non-predisclosing companies during the first year of implementation of SFAS No. 131. Except for the first year of implementation of SFAS No. 131, we find no difference in the information content of this data between predisclosing and non-predisclosing companies.     

Factors influencing corporate governance disclosures: evidence from Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies in the UK

This study examines the relationship between company and ownership characteristics and the disclosure level of compliance with Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) recommendations on corporate governance in Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies. We report clear evidence that compliance increases with company size, board size, the proportion of independent non-executive directors, the presence of turnover revenue, and being formerly listed on the Main Market. However, we find that shell and highly geared AIM companies disclose relatively lower levels of corporate governance than recommended under QCA guidelines. Our findings suggest that market regulators should review the potential impact of the quality of corporate governance in these companies on the future vibrancy of AIM. We find no evidence that ownership structure or the type of Nominated Advisor is related to disclosure of compliance with QCA guidelines. Overall, in a lightly regulated environment such as the AIM market, it seems that companies will ultimately pursue a cost–benefit strategy in voluntarily complying with good corporate governance practice.     

Evidence of assurance enhancing the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures: an empirical analysis

In response to investor and public concerns about harm to the environment, companies are increasingly disclosing environmental information. To enhance the quality of corporate environmental disclosures in a largely voluntary context, various stakeholders are also demanding independent assurance. This study uses a stakeholder‐agency theoretical perspective to examine whether the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures is enhanced when assured. This study also examines the difference in the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures when assurance is provided by either professional accountant assurers or private consultants. Our sample comprises listed companies voluntarily disclosing environmental information in stand‐alone reports, annual reports, and websites. We use an index based upon the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to measure the quality of company environmental reporting. Results of this matched pairs study show that the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures scores significantly higher for assured companies than unassured companies. For assured companies, the quality is no different when assured by accountants or consultants. Additional analysis provides preliminary evidence that experience improves the quality of environmental disclosures.