Improving the Effect of Guarantees: The Role of a Retailer's Reputation

This research examines the interaction of two cues, retailer reputation and guarantees on evaluations. Extending Mandler's (1982) incongruity framework, we illustrate across three studies how moderately incongruent signals can be combined to enhance evaluations. Unique to our application of moderate incongruity, however, is the fact that guarantee cues can be incongruent with the retailer's reputation, in terms of domain (e.g., price matching guarantee (PMG) offered by provider whose reputation is based on service, not pricing) or valence (e.g., PMG offered by retailer known for carrying expensive merchandize). This dual perspective on the source of incongruity (domain or valence) is important and highlights when guarantees enhance evaluations.     

市场化进程、内部控制与独立审计

与以往研究不同,文章借鉴制度环境与公司治理机制之间的共生互动理论,考察在我国转轨经济的特定制度背景下,市场化进程与内部控制对独立审计治理机制的影响。研究发现:内部控制质量差的上市公司,越可能选择"非十大"所进行审计,审计费用越高,越可能获得"标准"审计意见;而且在市场化程度低的地区,更高的审计费用和"标准"审计意见的获得,基本上都是本地小所的执业结果。研究表明,审计治理效应的充分显现,不仅需要有效的内部控制和完善的市场化水平,而且更需要两者的互动与协同。     

重大突发公共卫生事件背景下企业捐赠对股价的影响——基于企业异质性的分组检验

以2020年沪深A股上市公司为样本,探讨在重大突发公共卫生事件暴发后企业捐赠对股票价格的影响,并分别从公司自身性质（产权性质、行业性质）、内部特征（内部控制质量、信息披露质量）、外部环境（产品市场竞争、所在地区疫情严重程度）三个维度研究捐赠发挥的作用效果是否会因企业异质性而存在显著差异。实证结果显示,在重大突发公共卫生事件背景下,企业捐赠对股票价格有显著正向影响。进一步研究发现,此关系会受到企业异质性的影响。具体而言,国有企业、受疫情负面影响严重行业的企业、内部控制质量低的企业、信息披露质量低的企业、疫情严重地区所在企业、产品市场竞争度高的企业,捐赠对股价的提升作用不显著。     

Auditors' Fee Premiums and Low‐Quality Internal Controls*

We examine the relation between low‐quality internal controls and audit fee premiums. Using a novel data set of audit hours and audit fees we find, consistent with the audit risk model, that auditors increase their effort (hours) owing to low internal control quality. We find that auditors also charge a significant fee premium to clients with internal control weaknesses. This premium is observed for severe internal control weaknesses and companies with low‐quality alternative governance mechanisms. The results are robust to multiple methods to address endogeneity, including company fixed effects, difference‐in‐differences design, and a propensity score‐matched sample. Taken as a whole, low internal control quality leads to fee premiums, which are a deadweight loss to client companies.     

An Integrated Strategy to Reduce Monitoring and Enforcement Costs

A policy of effective environmental protection, inthe present political atmosphere, will requirelow-cost monitoring and enforcement (M&E) strategiesthat do not rely on draconian penalties. Infinite oreven very high penalties for environmental violationsare socially and politically unacceptable.Environmental violations are often classed as civiloffenses, and the occurrence of a violation may bethought insufficient to establish intent. If penaltiesare upper-bounded and each firm is inspected randomly,compliance cannot be maintained with arbitrarily smallinspection probabilities and, hence, small agencycosts. In this paper we examine possibilities forreducing agency M&E costs, including the requirementfor self-reports of effluents and the adjustment ofthe inspection probability to reflect a firm'scompliance or reporting reputation.     

Factors Influencing Successful Brand Extensions

Organisations frequently follow brand extension strategies. This paper investigates the impact of category similarity, brand reputation, perceived risk and consumer innovativeness on the success of brand extensions in FMCG, durable goods and services sectors. A set of hypotheses were developed and tested in a study amongst 701 consumers. The findings show that extensions into categories more similar to the original brand tend to be more readily accepted. Likewise, the reputation of the original brand is an important factor influencing the success of the extension. These findings are consistent across FMCG, durable goods and services brands. However, perceived risk about the extension category was only found to enhance acceptability of extensions for durable goods and services brands. Innovative consumers are more positively disposed towards service brand extensions than FMCG and durable goods brand extensions.     

个人信用保证机制的征信制度和诉讼制度比较研究

征信体系通过建立一种声誉制度,促进人类合作、提高群体成员效用和福利。个人信用保证机制的征信制度和诉讼制度哪个成本更低、相对价值更高需要客观分析。在完全竞争的信贷市场研究场景下,声誉机制有引致合作行为的能力;扩展博弈下,诉讼制度的威胁使得借贷者施加一个高的努力程度,提高了社会总剩余。基于现代信息技术的声誉机制出现以后,存在于每个银行内部的声誉就变成了一个统一、全范围扩展的声誉机制,所以声誉制度比诉讼制度可以获得更高的社会总剩余。     

Switching costs and implicit contracts

When firms can discriminate between old and new customers and when multiperiod binding commitments are too costly, the effects of switching costs may be mitigated thanks to implicit contracts offered (competitively) by firms in equilibrium and backed by reputation.     

Precision in auditing standards: effects on auditor and director liability and the supply and demand for audit services

Theoretical research suggests that large auditors have more incentive to issue accurate reports compared to small auditors (DeAngelo, 1981; Dye, 1993). Controlling for the client characteristics of large and small auditors, this paper shows that large auditors issue reports that are more accurate and more informative signals of financial distress. These findings are consistent with the theoretical prediction of a positive relationship between auditor size and auditor accuracy.     

战略联盟中的非正式治理机制:信任和声誉

战略联盟在迅速发展的同时也面临着高失败率的挑战,因此构建能够有效地应对伙伴机会主义风险的联盟治理机制至关重要。法律契约条款、专用资产投资、联盟治理结构、声誉体系和信任都可以作为控制联盟伙伴的治理机制。除此之外,联盟治理也可以依赖基于社会关系规范的非正式治理机制,即信任和声誉,它们不仅可以作为有效的进化选择机制避免资产专用性中的机会主义行为,还可以降低层级化治理结构的官僚成本。