盈余管理、关联交易与审计师特征

上市公司利用关联交易进行盈余管理必须得到会计师事务所的"配合"才有可能顺利实施,而与之"配合"的审计师因承担更高的审计风险,必以收取更高的审计费用作为补偿.实证研究表明,关联交易是上市公司盈余管理的重要手段,上市公司关联交易量越大,会计师事务所的品牌、规模越有利于抑制公司盈余管理行为,审计任期过长不利于抑制公司盈余管理行为.上市公司关联交易量越大,就越倾向于选择非国际"四大"和国内非"十大"会计师事务所,即小规模会计师事务所是上市公司的选择目标,因盈余管理进行关联交易的上市公司支付了更高水平的审计费用.     

Company reputation and its influence on consumer trust in response to ongoing CSR communication

There is considerable disagreement in academic scholarship and beyond as to whether, in cases of bad reputations, companies will want to communicate corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities because this kind of communication is likely to increase consumers’ skepticism. In this regard, the two empirical studies discussed in this article examine the influence of prior company reputation on consumers’ trust in response to CSR communication in general and the development in response to continuous CSR activities and their ongoing communication by companies as well as by the media in particular. The two studies show that consumers’ trust in companies’ CSR activities increases after a second presentation of information by companies even in instances when companies had prior negative reputations. The second study in particular fills a gap in the literature on underlying mechanisms of consumers’ reactions to CSR communication. The results suggest that companies with prior negative reputations do not need to remain silent about their CSR activities; instead, CSR communication can help improve consumers’ trust in companies. However, the findings of these two studies also suggest that this positive development is short-lived. Consumers’ developing trust in companies’ CSR activities decreases significantly if they are exposed to negative information on these companies.     

Environmental proactivity,competitive strategy,and market performance: The mediating role of environmental reputation

This article examines the impact of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) proactive environmental strategy on market performance through the mediating mechanism of environmental reputation. In addition, we investigate the potential moderating role of competitive strategies on the environmental reputation-market performance nexus. Data were collected from 223 SMEs. Using the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, the results show that a proactive environmental strategy positively enhances environmental reputation. Also, the influence of proactively environmental strategy on market performance is mediated by environmental reputation. In addition, our findings show the relationship between environmental reputation and market performance is greater for firms that adopt the differentiation strategy but not significant for firms adopting the low-cost and integrated strategies. Our study offers several theoretical and practical implications.     

The impact of CSR on corporate reputation perceptions of the public—A configurational multi‐time,multi‐source perspective

This study investigates the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate reputation among the public using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). To examine complex processes underlying the reactions of this influential stakeholder group, hypotheses are drawn from the category diagnosticity approach. Thereby, a psychological model of perceived (im)morality is transferred to the CSR context. In line with these hypotheses, positive/negative CSR activities influence reputation in the expected directions (H1a, b), while the effects of specific configurations of CSR activities reveal an asymmetry suggesting a negativity bias (H2). Further analyses confirm that positive effects require a consistent positive performance regarding prior reputations (H3a) and the aggregated CSR activities of several previous years (H3b, c). Moreover, the relevant patterns vary between industries (H4). The present study thus contributes to CSR research by investigating a powerful but hitherto understudied stakeholder group through a category diagnosticity lens combined with a configurational approach to analysis.     

Debt contract strictness and auditor specialization

The conflicts of interest among managers, shareholders and creditors resulting in agency costs, can be mitigated by restricting managers’ adverse behavior, through financial covenants to better align the various stakeholder interests. Thus, debt contract strictness represents an important aspect of agency costs between creditors, shareholders, and management that is not always captured by interest rates. The contract setting provides a unique opportunity to investigate how creditors may rely on auditors to alleviate information uncertainty stemming from reliance on management's financial reporting and thus alleviate the creditor's potential loss of invested capital. After controlling for borrower risks, loan characteristics, and audit factors, we show that auditor industry specialization is significantly associated with a reduction in the strictness of debt contracts, consistent with creditors viewing certain industry expert auditors as effective monitors against financial reporting manipulation aimed at the avoidance of debt covenant triggers that protect creditors against potential loss. Further, we find that the association between loan strictness and auditor specialization is attenuated by stronger corporate governance systems, external monitors, and prior lender relationships.     

Why do auditors fail? What might work? What won’t?†

Auditing failures and scandals have become commonplace. In response, reformers (including the Kingman Review in the U.K. and a recent report of the U.K.’s Competition and Market Authority) have proposed a variety of remedies, including prophylactic bans on auditors providing consulting services to their clients in the belief that this will minimize the conflicts of interest that produce auditing failures. Although useful, such reforms are already in place to a considerable degree and may have reached the point of diminishing returns. Moreover, this strategy does not address the deeper problem that clients (or their managements) may not want aggressive auditing, but rather prefer a deferential and perfunctory audit. If so, auditors will realize that they are marketing a ‘commodity’ service and cannot successfully compete based on their quality of services. Rationally, they would respond to such a market by seeking to adopt a cost-minimization strategy, competing by reducing the cost of their services and not investing in new technology or higher-priced personnel.

What could change this pattern? Gatekeepers, including auditors, serve investors, but are hired by corporate management. To induce gatekeepers to better serve investors, one needs to reduce the ‘agency costs’ surrounding this relationship by making gatekeepers more accountable to investors. This might be accomplished through litigation (as happens to some degree in the U.S.), but the U.K. and Europe have rules that discourage collective litigation. Thus, a more feasible approach would be to give investors greater ability to select and remove the auditor. This paper proposes a two part strategy to this end: (1) public ‘grading’ of the auditor by the audit regulator in an easily comparable fashion (and with a mandatory grading curve), and (2) enabling a minority of the shareholders (hypothetically, 10%) to propose a replacement auditor for a shareholder vote. It further argues that both activist shareholders and diversified shareholders might support such a strategy and undertake it under different circumstances. Absent such a focus on agency costs, however, reformers are likely only re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.     

How do tourists' attribution of destination social responsibility motives impact trust and intention to visit? The moderating role of destination reputation

Through the lenses of attribution theory, signal theory, and social exchange theory, this study proposed and tested a conceptual model that investigates how tourists' attribution of destination social responsibility (DSR) motives impact destination trust and intention to visit a destination. The moderating effects of destination reputation (good vs. average) were particularly examined in the proposed model. The results of three experimental studies revealed that the impact of DSR motive attributions on destination trust and intention to visit vary under different conditions of destination reputation. In particular, when a destination has a good reputation, the positive impact of intrinsic DSR motive attribution tends to be stronger than that of extrinsic DSR motive attribution. However, when a destination's reputation is average, the impact of the two types of DSR motive attributions become insignificant. The findings of this study provide theoretical and practical implications for destination marketing and DSR campaigns.     

Strategic consequences of being unsympathetic: For‐profit companies benefit more than individuals from focusing on responsibility

Previous research has found that consumers ascribe mental states to for‐profit companies that enable them to elicit anger more easily than sympathy. The current study applies these findings to demonstrate how this evaluative asymmetry in consumer perceptions favor different strategies for individuals and companies managing conflicts and crises. First, it is shown that the mental states consumers ascribe to for‐profit companies enable them to elicit anger and admiration more easily than sympathy. Second, due to their ability to elicit anger more easily than sympathy, it is found that in conflicts between for‐profit companies and individuals, companies are evaluated more favorably when they focus attention on which side perpetrated the most harm, while individuals are evaluated more favorably when they focus on which side was most victimized. Third, due to their ability to elicit admiration more easily than sympathy, it is found that for‐profit companies derive greater benefits than individuals do from proactively taking responsibility to resolve crises rather than deflecting responsibility through claims of victimhood. Discussion focuses on marketing applications for companies managing conflicts and crises.     

平台经济视域下的商家投机行为治理——基于平台主动治理视角

平台型网络市场的虚拟性与隐蔽性导致商家隐瞒、欺骗消费者的行为愈演愈烈，衍生了新的治理难题。基于交易成本理论和社会交换理论，立足平台主动治理视角，文章探索平台主动治理中的事前商家规范机制、事中交易保障机制和事后争议处理机制对商家强、弱投机行为的影响，以及平台声誉对其影响的调节作用。基于消费者视角开展问卷调查，对数据进行结构方程模型分析和分层回归分析，结果表明：弱投机行为对强投机行为具有显著正向影响；商家规范机制和争议处理机制对强、弱投机行为均具有抑制作用；而交易保障机制对弱投机行为具有促进作用；平台声誉对交易保障机制、争议处理机制和弱投机行为之间的关系具有负向调节作用。