When Auditors Say ‘No,’ Does the Market Listen?

Previous research on whether the market responds to auditors’ opinions has provided mixed results. We revisit this issue in China, where individual investors who are more likely to neglect value-relevant information dominate the stock market. In addition to going concern opinions (GCOs), China permits modified audit opinions (MAOs) on violations of accounting standards or disclosure rules (GAAP/DISC MAOs), providing an opportunity not available in the literature to enrich the study of audit-opinion pricing. We find that, ceteris paribus, MAO recipients underperform in the future and have a higher incidence of adverse outcomes such as misreporting and stock delisting, and the market reacts negatively to MAOs during the short window around MAO disclosure. Importantly, MAO disclosure is not followed by negative long-term stock returns, suggesting stock price adjustments to MAOs are speedy and unbiased. These findings hold for both GCOs and GAAP/DISC MAOs. Together, our findings support the informativeness of audit opinions and cast doubt on the argument that investors inefficiently price audit opinions due to information-processing bias.     

集权式股权结构会影响信息技术企业创新吗——非执行董事的中介效应

中国企业普遍具有高股权集中度。基于双重委托代理理论，以Osiris和CSMAR数据库中国信息技术类全球上市公司为样本，研究不同集权式股权结构对企业创新的差异化影响，以及非执行董事在二者关系中的作用机制。结果显示，绝对集权式股权结构更易形成控股股东的“支持效应”和大股东间“同舟共济”，体现为保守的创新投入和较高的创新产出；相对集权式股权结构更易形成控股股东的“掏空效应”和大股东间“同床异梦”，体现为较高的创新投入和较低的产出。基于中介效应机制的研究表明，非执行董事对创新投入的决策效应不显著，但对创新产出的“监督效应”显著，且非执行董事具有显著中介效应。进一步分析表明，两职分离能够抑制相对集权式企业控股股东的“掏空”行为；家族企业在相对集权式股权结构下的“掏空效应”和“同床异梦”更明显。     

Can information and communication overload influence smartphone app users' social network exhaustion,privacy invasion and discontinuance intention? A cognition-affect-conation approach

Thanks to the expansion of network technologies and the coupling of smartphone hardware, younger generations have unparalleled access to a diverse range of information and interactive communication opportunities. Despite voluminous research on the causes of social network exhaustion and privacy invasion, limited academic attention has been devoted to understanding the driving forces and contributing factors for discontinuing usage of smartphone app. Drawing on the cognition-affect-conation paradigm, the present research proposes a conceptual research model to examine how information overload and communication overload effect social network exhaustion, privacy invasion, and ultimately, smartphone app users' intentions to discontinue usage. The study evaluates data from 442 smartphone app users, employing statistical analyses to demonstrate that both information overload and communication overload significantly impact users' exhaustion and privacy invasion. Additionally, social network exhaustion and privacy invasion are two major predictors of smartphone app discontinuance intention. By identifying the influential factors and causes of younger generations' discontinuous usage intention of smartphone app, this study meets the need for a thorough assessment of the social network exhaustion and privacy invasion phenomena. The findings may potentially enhance comprehension of the discontinuation intention phenomenon in the context of cognitive overload. Furthermore, they may provide novel insights for practitioners regarding effective strategies conducive to managing mobile social network adoption behavior, as well as the preservation of engagement levels among young users in mobile-saturated societies.     

How to get banks to take less risk and disclose bad news

There is wide agreement that before the recent financial crisis, financial institutions took excessive risk in their investment strategies. At the same time, regulators complained that banks did not reveal the extent of their difficulties in a timely fashion thus reducing the effectiveness of government intervention to prevent or mitigate the deleterious effects of the financial crisis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how regulators can best use certain tools at their disposal to motivate banks to take less risk and to provide adverse information to regulators early. We argue that two tools, namely (i) allowing bank payouts to equity holders even when banks report they are in trouble and (ii) constraining banks’ future investment strategy when they are in trouble can achieve both goals. We show that, in some cases, it is optimal to use both of these tools in combination. That is, in such cases it is optimal to allow equity payouts when banks report they are in trouble, even though such payouts increase the incentive for banks to take excessive risk and even though these payments are financed by taxpayers. We also show that the more socially costly is constraining the bank’s portfolio selection or the more complex are the bank’s assets, the more likely it is that allowing larger payouts and fewer constraints is optimal. Finally we discuss how changes in bank capital requirements interact with inducing disclosure and preventing excessive risk taking.     

Implementing COOL: Comparative welfare effects of different labeling schemes

Country-of-origin labeling (COOL) is being implemented in different forms and degrees in the United States and other countries across the world. The first implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) in the United States was for seafood in 2005. This is an example of partial MCOOL because it exempts the foodservice sector and excludes processed seafood from labeling. Using a conceptual framework, we analyze the welfare impacts of partial MCOOL when compared to no, voluntary, and total mandatory COOL, taking into account imperfect competition in the downstream markets, information asymmetry, and diversion of low-quality product to the unlabeled market. The model is general enough to apply to any incomplete regulation for which the perceived low-quality product is required to be labeled, such as the labeling of genetically modified food in the European Union. Our results show that when consumers have a strong enough preference for domestic relative to imported product, regulators can overestimate the gain in consumer welfare from partial mandatory labeling if they ignore the diversion of lower quality imports to the unlabeled sector. We show that if the preference for domestic product is large enough, total MCOOL benefits the home market the most overall, including domestic consumers and producers, but not the imperfectly competitive downstream agents. However, if total MCOOL is too costly to implement, partial MCOOL is the second-best solution, but only if consumers falsely believe the unlabeled product to be of higher quality than it truly is. Our results suggest more research is needed to determine the extent to which consumers value the information provided by MCOOL and to enable regulators to consider the welfare impact of diversion in evaluating incomplete mandatory labeling regulations.     

境外上市与企业投资效率

截至2021年11月,我国单独境外上市企业占到境外上市企业总数的88.32%,但单独境外上市的研究明显与该数据不匹配,研究数量缺乏。为扩充该方面研究,本文以2012~2020年单独在美国和中国香港上市的中资企业为研究对象,对境外上市与投资效率关系进行检验。实证结果发现,单独境外上市与境内上市企业相比投资效率更低,区分企业上市地点后发现,规模大、信息透明度低、存在代理成本的赴港上市企业比境内上市企业投资效率低,规模小、代理成本高、信息透明度低的赴美上市企业比境内上市企业投资效率低。通过机制分析发现,信息透明度、境外上市和非效率投资三者存在"遮掩效应",境外上市企业未能受到有效的信息约束。     

Outsourcing of Information Systems Functions in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: A Test of a Multi-Theoretical Model

In this paper determinants of information systems (IS) outsourcing are deduced from transaction cost economic theory, resource-based theory and power theory. They are summarized in a theoretical framework which is tested using a sample of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany. The results show that internal performance and know-how deficits vis-à-vis external service providers are key determinants that explain why different IS functions are outsourced to varying degrees in SMEs. Moreover, the determinants of IS functions were found to partially differ between IS functions. Revised reprint of an article from WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK 43(4)2001:339–350.

The Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Tourist Information and Promotion of the Polish Carpathians in Foreign Tourism Markets

The recent years have been a time of rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in tourism. The objective of this article is to analyse and assess the use of ICTs in tourist information and promotion of selected municipalities in the Polish Carpathians, the largest region of mountain tourism in Poland. Particular attention was paid to the activities taken by DMOs, local entrepreneurs and cultural institutions. The use of ICTs in the Polish Carpathians is at a relatively advanced level, but still not sufficient enough to make these solutions a fully effective tool in building a strong regional brand in the international tourism markets.     

The Relevance of Organization Theory to the Field of Business and Information Systems Engineering

Information and communication systems (ICS) impact their organizational environment in significant ways; hence, the design, implementation, and use of ICS are inseparably linked to fundamental issues of organizational design and behavior. Current research in the field of business and information systems engineering (BISE), however, is primarily technology- or practice-oriented and concerned with the construction and validation of prototypes, whereas little attention is paid to theoretical insights into organizational phenomena and relationships. In this paper, we argue that paying more attention to organization theory would provide valuable guidance in addressing the close links between ICS on the one hand, and organizational systems on the other. To support our argument, we refer to selected theoretical perspectives and highlight their potential relevance to the BISE field.

Investment opportunities and dividend omissions

This study examines the market's reaction to dividend omission announcements and finds that if dividends are skipped to preserve cash for good investments, investors do not necessarily regard the omission as negative information. Markets penalize firms for dividend omissions only in the absence of a good stream of investments. In addition, the positive relation between investment opportunity and abnormal stock returns around the announcements is stronger when the level of information asymmetry between management and the rest of the market participants is low. Additional tests reveal that good omitters overcome underperformance faster in the post period. Overall, the results suggest that financial markets interpret differently the information conveyed in the announcement of dividend omission depending on the firm's future prospects.