Seemingly inconsistent analyst revisions

In about 20%–30% of cases where an analyst revises two outputs (namely, earnings estimates, target prices, or stock recommendations) simultaneously, the two estimates are revised in opposite directions. Existing literature notes that these inconsistent outputs are widespread, and concludes that they are lower-quality, driven by strategic bias, and are viewed as less valid by investors. We find that these characterizations are generally inaccurate. Apparent inconsistency is largely driven by accounting and economic factors, with only limited evidence that investment banking-related conflicts play a role. Moreover, inconsistent outputs are neither less accurate than consistent outputs nor do they resolve less investor uncertainty upon their release. Overall, our results suggest that researchers should be cautious in interpreting the correlation between analyst outputs as a measure of bias or quality, and in using a single analyst output as a proxy for an analyst's overall views.     

Corporate social responsibility and social capital

When corporations make an effort to be socially responsible beyond what is required by the law, this effort is often described as strategic—made mainly for the shareholders’ or managers’ benefit. A large body of literature corroborates this belief. But, could the incentives for corporate social responsibility (CSR) come from an altruistic inclination fostered by the social capital of the region in which the firm is headquartered? We investigate whether this phenomenon exists by examining the association between the social capital in the region and the firm’s CSR. We find that a firm from a high social capital region exhibits higher CSR. This result suggests that the self-interest of shareholders or mangers does not explain all of the firm’s CSR, but the altruistic inclination from the region might also play a role.     

Hedge funds and their prime broker analysts

Are sell-side analysts reluctant to go against the investment views of their hedge funds when these hedge funds are their prime brokerage clients? We show that prime broker analysts tend to upgrade stocks recently bought by their clients. For stocks with upgraded recommendations, post-announcement cumulative abnormal returns are significantly lower for those purchased by the prime brokerage clients. Our results are stronger with high-dollar-turnover clients who generate more trading commissions. We also find that a hedge fund with a large bet on a stock has a stronger incentive to pressure the fund’s prime brokers to issue a favorable recommendation on the stock. Results are not driven by stocks of firms with low analyst coverage or small size.     

公司治理模式与国家文化的关联性研究

人们已经越来越多地认识到,文化因素是建立或完善公司治理模式中不可或缺考虑因素.文化的因素到底在多大的程度上影响了各国公司治理模式的选择?各国文化模式与公司治理模式之间存在着怎样的关联?本文以霍夫斯特德文化模式模型为出发点,分析了文化因素与公司治理模式选择之间的关系,并试图探讨前者对于后者的影响,从而对我国公司治理模式的选择提供有益的路径.     

儒家传统与企业创新:文化的力量

在创新型国家建设进程中,传统文化到底具有怎样的时代价值和功能？这是一个值得研究的重要问题。本文从非正式制度视角考察了儒家传统文化对当代企业创新行为的影响效应及机理。结果表明,儒家文化对企业创新具有明显的“促进效应”,即企业受到儒家文化的影响程度越强,其专利产出水平显著越高。进一步检验揭示,儒家文化主要通过缓解企业代理冲突、提高人力资本投资水平和降低专利侵权风险等三条渠道影响企业创新。我们还发现,非正式制度的儒家文化和正式制度的法律环境在促进企业创新方面存在相互替代功能。特别是儒家文化的全员辐射效应有利于激发全体员工创新热情,进而提升技术创新成果的实际转化效率,增强专利技术对企业经营绩效的边际贡献。本文从微观企业层面揭示了儒家思想促进创新的内在逻辑,纠正了部分学者对儒家文化价值的消极认知偏见,同时丰富了“文化与企业决策”国际前沿文献,贡献了东方文化情境的经验证据。     

Corporate social responsibility culture and international M&As

We examine the role of corporate culture in M&As by utilizing a unique corporate social responsibility (CSR) dataset, providing in-depth information on multiple dimensions of organizational culture in 22 developed markets. In accordance with the prediction of the culture clash theory, a wider divergence between the CSR corporate cultures of the acquiring and target firms is associated with lower acquirer announcement and long-run returns as well as synergistic gains for the combined firm. Cultural misalignment also increases the time required to finalise a deal, reduces the likelihood of deal completion and the percentage of stock payment. Our results are robust to alternative explanations (e.g., similarities in national culture, acquirer CSR performance, institutional configurations), different regression specifications, and additional cultural misalignment measures. Our findings highlight the importance of the need for a deeper understanding of the role of CSR for the target selection process, integration planning, and financing choice of M&As to corporations and their investors.     

Corporate fraud culture: Re‐examining the corporate governance and performance relation

We analyse the corporate governance and performance relation, when conditioning on corporate fraud, for fraud firms during 2000 – 2007. Fraud firms are identified as either self‐ reported fraud events, or subject to regulatory investigation. We use the inverse Mills ratio procedure to account for firms' (unobservable) fraud culture in the dynamic system GMM model of the performance‐ governance relation. We find that corporate governance is an endogenously determined characteristic that has no causal impact on firm performance when conditioning on fraud. Fraud is a significant regulatory event but its overall economic impact at the firm level is highly variable.     

董事会规模与公司价值关系的进一步检验——基于公司规模门槛效应的分析

对于董事会规模与公司价值之间的关系,以往的研究得出了完全不同的两种结论,分析原因可能是因为公司在确定董事会规模时很大程度上取决于公司规模大小。本研究通过检验发现,公司规模对董事会规模具有门槛效果,通过使用门槛自回归模型可以更好地解释董事会规模和公司价值之间的关系,实证研究的结果表明,在公司规模相对较小的门槛区间,董事会规模和公司价值之间存在显著的正相关关系,而在公司规模较大的门槛区间,董事会规模与公司价值之间的关系在统计上不显著,但符号上表现为负相关关系。     

公司治理的内在逻辑与企业改制

本文沿着委托代理理论和不完全合同理论这一分析框架,探讨了企业改制的任务和若干指导原则,并着重指出:(1)现行公司治理理论的逻辑框架是不完整的;(2)控制权格局的设计是企业改制的首要任务和逻辑起点;(3)不只国有企业,民营企业也需要改制;(4)"现代企业制度"是指企业治理的静态和动态逻辑,而不是指某种具体的治理模式.     

建立独立董事制度 完善公司治理结构

为了规范上市公司的法人治理结构，使董事会更公正地代表股东利益尤其是中小股东的利益，借鉴国际市场经验，笔者认为，在上市公司中引入独立董事制度是完善中国上市公司治理结构的重要步骤。     

农村法人金融机构利率定价机制现状调查——以江苏省镇江市8家法人金融机构为例

利率市场化进程加速对地方法人金融机构利率定价能力提出了更高的要求。通过对镇江辖内8家农村法人金融机构调查发现,农村法人金融机构初步建立了利率定价管理机制,定价能力逐步提升,但在定价方式、客户信用评级体系应用、定价效果评估、经济资本管理制度、内部资金定价机制等方面仍较为薄弱,适应利率市场化改革的能力还有待进一步增强。     

Corporate governance and firm performance

How is corporate governance measured? What is the relationship between corporate governance and performance? This paper sheds light on these questions while taking into account the endogeneity of the relationships among corporate governance, corporate performance, corporate capital structure, and corporate ownership structure. We make three additional contributions to the literature:First, we find that better governance as measured by the Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick [Gompers, P.A., Ishii, J.L., and Metrick, A., 2003, Corporate governance and equity prices, Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(1), 107–155.] and Bebchuk, Cohen and Ferrell [Bebchuk, L., Cohen, A., and Ferrell, A., 2004, What matters in corporate governance?, Working paper, Harvard Law School] indices, stock ownership of board members, and CEO-Chair separation is significantly positively correlated with better contemporaneous and subsequent operating performance.Second, contrary to claims in GIM and BCF, none of the governance measures are correlated with future stock market performance. In several instances inferences regarding the (stock market) performance and governance relationship do depend on whether or not one takes into account the endogenous nature of the relationship between governance and (stock market) performance.Third, given poor firm performance, the probability of disciplinary management turnover is positively correlated with stock ownership of board members, and board independence. However, better governed firms as measured by the GIM and BCF indices are less likely to experience disciplinary management turnover in spite of their poor performance.     

Corporate governance and family firm performance during the Global Financial Crisis

We investigate the impact of corporate governance on accounting and market performance relationships of family firms during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). We expect the monitoring aspects of corporate governance to complement the long-term orientation of family firms, improving the value relevance of accounting and market performance during times of exogenous financial shocks such as the GFC. We find that the family-firm value is more sensitive to book value than earnings changes. We also find better corporate governance, irrespective of whether it is a family firm or non-family firm, is associated with better accounting and market performance during the GFC.     

公司治理结构存在问题及对策

在经济全球化进程日趋加快的新形势下 ,加强公司治理已成为国际潮流 ,受到国际企业界的普遍高度重视。本文从简述目前公司治理结构存在的问题着手 ,在此基础上 ,提出几点完善设想 ,以期对公司治理问题展开进一步讨论。     

Corporate governance and the probability of default

We employ Merton's probability of default as a continuous ex‐ante measure of the likelihood of firm failure and dynamic panel generalised method of moments to better characterise the relationship between corporate governance and the chance of default. In doing so, we overcome limitations of discrete proxies widely used in previous studies and more completely account for endogeneity issues permeating this area of research. While initial testing designed to facilitate comparison with previous studies suggests a significant relationship between the probability of default and executive pay, board structure and ownership structure, once endogeneity concerns are accounted for, no such relationship remains.     

The consequences to analyst involvement in the IPO process: Evidence surrounding the JOBS Act

The JOBS Act allows certain analysts to be more involved in the IPO process, but does not relax restrictions on analyst compensation structure. We find that these analysts initiate coverage that is more optimistically biased, less accurate, and generates smaller stock market reactions. Investors purchasing shares following these initiations lose over 3% of their investment by the firm's subsequent earnings release. By contrast, issuers, analysts, and investment banks appear to benefit from this increased bias, as optimism is more positively associated with proxies for firm visibility and investment banking revenues when analysts are involved in the IPO process.     

Corporate financial structure and financial stability

Drawing on a unique dataset of flow-of funds and balance sheet data, this paper analyzes the impact of financial crises on aggregate corporate financing and expenditure in a range of countries. Investment and inventory contractions are the main contributors to lower GDP growth after crises, with a much greater effect in emerging market countries. The debt–equity ratio is correlated with investment and inventory declines following crises. Econometric analysis suggests that financial crises have a greater impact on expenditure and the financing of corporate sectors in emerging markets than in industrial countries. Industrial countries appear to benefit from a pick-up in bond issuance in the wake of banking crises. Although companies in emerging market countries hold more precautionary liquidity, this is evidently not sufficient to prevent a greater amplitude of response of expenditure to shocks.     

Corporate social responsibility and dividend policy

This study outlines and tests two corporate social responsibility (CSR) views of dividends. The first view argues that firms are likely to pay fewer dividends because CSR activities lower the cost of equity, encouraging firms to invest or hoard cash rather than to pay dividends. The second view suggests that CSR activities are positive NPV projects that increases earnings and hence dividend payouts. The first (second) view predicts that firms with a stronger involvement in CSR activities should be associated with a lower (higher) dividend payouts. The finding supports the second view and is robust.     

内部审计功能与公司价值

本文基于内部审计价值增值功能,考察内部审计质量对公司价值的影响。以2007—2009年A股上市公司为研究对象,从内部审计部门的独立性、规模、制度规范和设立动机四方面合成内部审计质量以作为内部审计功能发挥的代理变量,以Tobins'Q作为公司价值的代理变量,以ROA作为公司经营绩效的代理变量。研究表明,内部审计对公司价值的影响主要是通过公司经营绩效实现的;在考察样本中的中小企业板上市公司,内部审计质量与公司价值和公司价值增值显著正相关,研究假设部分获得验证;就样本整体而言,暂未发现内部审计质量与公司价值和公司价值增值的直接证据,这可能是由于我国内部审计制度整体不够健全、功能发挥不够充分所导致的。本文的研究结果不仅有利干推动上市公司进一步强化内部审计功能,也为监管机构知悉内部审计改革的政策效应提供了新的证据。     

政策不确定性对公司投融资行为的影响研究

本文以2003-2013年中国A股上市公司的财务数据和31个省市自治区地方官员的变动数据为样本,采用地方官员变动率作为地方政策不确定性的代理变量,研究了政策不确定性对企业投融资的影响。研究发现,政策不确定性显著降低企业的债权融资,但是对股权融资影响不显著。政策不确定性对企业投资的影响存在两种渠道,一是通过降低企业融资来影响投资,二是通过企业资本运作降低融资对投资的影响系数,即政策不确定性越高,企业债权和股权融资对投资的正向作用会越小,这种作用机制在国有企业、大企业等与政策联系紧密的企业中作用更为显著。融资可获得性是政策不确定性影响投资的重要前提之一,融资可获得性较小时,政策不确定性显著降低了企业投资;在融资可获得性较大时,政策不确定性影响不显著。加强长期制度建设,降低政策不确定性,对于稳增长具有重要意义。