临时CEO与盈余管理——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

我国大部分企业缺乏接班人计划,现任CEO突然离职导致企业不得不任命临时CEO代为行使职权。本文以我国资本市场非金融类上市公司聘任的临时CEO为研究对象,发现出于转正预期,临时CEO有较强的动机进行盈余管理,并且更多地表现为正向盈余管理行为。进一步考察CEO个体特征后发现,临时CEO是内部委任和在上市公司领取薪水的情况下更倾向于进行盈余管理。此外,有效的公司治理机制对临时CEO的盈余管理行为存在抑制作用。研究结论对于我国企业制定接班人计划具有重要的指导意义。     

CEO tournament incentives and corporate debt contracting

This study examines the relation between CEO tournament incentives, proxied by the difference between CEO pay and the median pay of the senior executives of a given firm, and corporate debt contracting. We find negative relations between CEO pay gap and the cost of debt and default risk, and a positive relation between CEO pay gap and debt maturity. Further analysis indicates that the results are stronger for firms with near-retirement CEOs, which are more likely to run CEO tournaments. Our evidence suggests that creditors view tournament incentives favorably and are willing to provide better debt terms.     

The influence of incoming CEOs

We introduce a novel index capturing the power of an incoming CEO and explore the association between the appointment of a new CEO and turnover in the top management team (TMT). We document a statistically and economically significant relation between the level of new CEO power and the departure of senior executives. Specifically, we find that in addition to CEO origin, new CEO power is positively related to TMT turnover. We also find that in the post-SOX period, CEO power is more significant in affecting TMT turnover and that directorship and ownership of senior executives reduce departure.     

Investors’ perception of CEO overconfidence: evidence from the cost of equity capital

Prior literature documents that CEO overconfidence plays an important role in corporate financial reporting and accounting decisions. However, an unexplored issue is how investors perceive the risks associated with CEO overconfidence. This study examines the effect of CEO overconfidence on the cost of equity capital. We find that the association between CEO overconfidence and the cost of equity is nonlinear: a moderate level of CEO overconfidence results in the lowest cost of equity capital after controlling for other known determinants of the cost of equity. We also find an inverted nonlinear relation between CEO overconfidence and equity issuance, which corroborates our main conclusion of the nonlinear effect of CEO overconfidence on the cost of equity. Our results are robust to alternative overconfidence measures, cost of equity measures, and change analysis.     

The differential CEO dominance-compensation and corporate governance-compensation relations: Pre- and post-SOX

We examine the relationship between corporate governance (as measured by traditional corporate governance variables and a new measure of corporate governance, called CEO dominance) and executive compensation, pre- and post-SOX. We conceptualize CEO dominance as a measure of a CEO's power and define it as the difference between CEO pay and the next highest executive's pay divided by the CEO's pay. We argue that for traditional corporate governance variables, the inverse governance-compensation relation that exists pre-SOX will improve post-SOX. On the other hand, we expect a strong and positive CEO dominance-compensation relation to exist both pre- and post-SOX. Consistent with expectations, our results indicate that SOX has changed the relationship between CEO duality and compensation relation, but it has not changed the CEO dominance-compensation relation. This suggests that SOX regulatory reforms do not limit the ability of CEO power to obstruct traditional corporate governance mechanisms in extracting compensation-related rents.     

Corporate culture and CEO turnover

We study the effect of corporate culture on the relationship between firm performance and CEO turnover. Utilising a measure of cultural dimension developed in organisation behaviour research, we quantify corporate culture by assessing official documents using a text analysis approach. We employ this quantification to examine the impact of culture on CEO turnover, especially in the case of poor firm-specific performance. First, we find strong evidence of a negative relationship between firm-specific performance and CEO turnover. Second, we demonstrate that the probability of a CEO change, on average, is positively influenced by the competition- and creation-oriented cultures. The negative relationship between firm-specific performance and CEO turnover is reinforced by the control-oriented culture and reduced by the creation-oriented culture. Finally, we study the CEO insider or outsider succession and observe that the creation-oriented culture has a negative relationship with the probability of hiring an outsider. Moreover, the creation-oriented culture weakens the negative relationship existing between the firm-specific performance under the incumbent CEO and the probability of hiring an outsider.     

CEO与董事间的"老乡"关系、 内部控制质量与代理成本

以2000-2015年我国A股上市公司为样本,考察CEO与董事间的“老乡”关系、内部控制质量对代理成本的影响,研究发现：CEO与董事间的“老乡”关系能显著降低代理成本;随着公司内部控制质量的提高,CEO与董事间的“老乡”关系对代理成本的降低程度越来越低。进一步研究发现：CEO与董事间的“老乡”关系只在非国有企业、CEO为男性的样本中能显著降低代理成本。     

Analysts' Forecasts Following Forced CEO Changes

This paper examines analysts' earnings forecasts during the period of uncertainty following a change of chief executive officer (CEO). It distinguishes between forced and non‐forced CEO changes, and examines whether analysts utilize their information advantage to reduce the heightened uncertainty of a forced change of CEO. Examining a sample of Australian companies followed by analysts between 1999 and 2009, we find that forecasting accuracy is lower and earnings forecasts are more optimistic for firms experiencing forced CEO turnover compared to firms not undergoing such a change. However, dispersion is not statistically different. The results suggest that forced CEO turnover events provide a challenge to the forecasting environment for analysts. During CEO changes, investors should be aware that forecasts are less accurate and have an optimistic bias.     

CEO权力、董事会稳定性与盈余管理

基于CEO和董事会相对权力的视角,研究了CEO权力和董事会稳定性对盈余质量的影响。研究发现,CEO权力越大,上市公司盈余管理程度越高;而稳定的董事会能够有效削弱CEO权力与盈余管理之间的正相关关系。区分企业产权性质后发现,上述研究结论主要体现在民营企业中。进一步研究发现,CEO任期较短时,CEO相对董事会的权力较小,稳定的董事会能够有效削弱CEO权力与盈余管理之间的正相关关系。但随着CEO任期的增长,CEO相对于董事会的权力越强,董事会并不能有效监督CEO操纵盈余管理行为。     

Effects of dialect connectedness between chairperson and CEO on corporate innovation in China

This paper examines the effects of dialect connectedness between the chairperson and CEO (DCCC) on corporate innovation activities. We find a negative association between DCCC and corporate innovation for China's listed firms. This negative relationship is more pronounced when the chairperson and CEO work in a different dialect-spoken city. Regarding corporate nature, we observe clear restrictions of DCCC on the innovation activities of non-state-owned enterprises, whereas the innovation of state-owned enterprises is less affected. We further investigate three mechanisms through which DCCC reduces corporate innovation. Our results suggest that DCCC restrains innovation by strengthening perceptions and trust between the chairperson and CEO and weakening the supervisory role of the chairperson. Further analysis indicates that emotional closeness between the chairperson and CEO cannot restrain corporate innovation in the short term if the CEO is pressured to be fired. In other words, DCCC cannot mitigate CEO career concerns within a short period.     

A path analysis investigation of the relationships between CEO pay ratios and firm performance mediated by employee satisfaction

We posit that information about CEO pay ratios is important to investors because employees' perceived fairness of their firm’s CEO pay ratio has consequences for firm performance. We use path analysis to examine the association between firm performance and (1) the predicted CEO pay ratio as determined by economic factors (the fair component of CEO pay ratio) and (2) the predicted CEO pay ratio as determined by non-economic factors (the unfair component of CEO pay ratio). We test for the existence and relative importance of direct and indirect paths using two measures of employee satisfaction and two measures of firm performance. We find that pay equity, a larger CEO pay ratio driven by economic factors, is associated with employee contributions to better firm performance. Conversely, we show that pay inequity, a larger CEO pay ratio driven by non-economic factors, is associated with employees' contributions to poorer firm performance. Consistent with the view that managerial entrenchment may amplify the negative effects of the CEO pay ratio, we find that the negative indirect path between pay inequity and firm performance, mediated by employee satisfaction, is more pronounced in firms with entrenched CEOs. Our findings contribute to the accounting compensation literature because they are consistent with CEO pay ratio information having economic consequences.     

CEO职业关注与企业会计信息披露质量

依据2001-2019年沪深两市A股上市公司数据,以C EO年龄水平作为职业关注水平的代理变量,考量CEO职业关注对企业会计信息披露质量的影响.结果表明:CEO职业关注降低了企业的会计信息披露质量,CEO职业关注水平较高时,企业盈余管理倾向更强,应计质量更差,发生盈余粉饰的可能性更高.进一步分析发现,企业正向盈余管理倾向是C EO职业关注影响会计信息披露质量的渠道,职业关注与会计信息披露质量的关系受到财务业绩压力的干扰.     

CEO power and the structure of CEO pay

This paper fleshes out the rent extraction view of CEO compensation put forward by the managerial power theory (Bebchuk, Fried, & Walker, 2002), and tests its main implications on the relation between CEO power and the structure of CEO pay. For a measure of CEO power most relevant to managerial power theory, we use the CEO pay slice due to Bebchuk, Cremers, and Peyer (2011). Based on the sample of S&P 500 firms for the period of 1999–2008, we find that the implied relation between power and pay is largely supported. Our findings suggest that the managerial power theory has relevance in explaining the relation between power and pay when the focus is on managerial bargaining power. Given the multiple dimensions of CEO power, however, the scope of power may need to be broadened for a better understanding of how managerial power affects firm performance.     

Earnings Management Surrounding CEO Turnover: Evidence from Korea

This article examines the empirical relation between chief executive officer (CEO) turnover and earnings management in Korea using a sample of 403 CEO turnovers and 806 non‐turnover control firms during the period 2001–2010. We classify CEO turnovers into four types depending on whether the departure of the outgoing CEO is peaceful or forced and whether the incoming CEO is promoted from within or recruited from outside the firm. We measure earnings management by both discretionary accruals and real activities management. We also control for the endogeneity of CEO turnover and a potential selection bias using 2SLS and Heckman's two‐stage approach. After controlling for corporate financial performance and governance structure, we find upward earnings management by the departing CEO only when the departure is forced and the new CEO is an insider. In this case, the new CEO also engages in downward earnings management using both discretionary accruals and real activities management. We also find some evidence that the new CEO recruited from outside the firm manages discretionary accruals upward following the peaceful departure of his predecessor. In all other types of CEO turnover, we do not find evidence of significant earnings management by either CEO.     

CEO Turnover and Retention Light: Retaining Former CEOs on the Board

Prior CEO turnover literature characterizes the board's decision as a choice between retaining versus replacing the CEO. We focus instead on the CEO's decision rights and introduce a third option in which the incumbent CEO is removed but retained on the board for an extended period, which we call Retention Light. Firms may benefit from Retention Light because former CEOs possess unique monitoring and advising abilities, but the former CEO could also exploit available decision rights for personal benefit. A Retention Light CEO's decision rights generally exceed those of CEOs who exit the firm entirely but fall short of the rights of a retained CEO. We find that when prior firm performance is better, the former CEO is more likely to be retained on the board (Retention Light) than to exit the firm. However, this relation is weaker when the CEO reaches normal retirement age at which time CEO power becomes more important. We also provide evidence on how the nature of the CEO's bargaining power varies with his personal attributes and board characteristics in its influence on the Retention Light decision. Retention Light firms are more likely than CEO‐exit firms to select a successor CEO with relatively weaker bargaining power. Finally, Retention Light involving a nonfounder CEO is negatively associated with the firm's postturnover financial performance. Overall, Retention Light is a distinct CEO turnover option that has important consequences for board decisions and firm performance.     

Excessive managerial entrenchment,corporate governance,and firm performance

This paper investigates the differential impact of positive and negative excessive managerial entrenchment on the CEO turnover-performance sensitivity, CEO compensation, and firm performance. We measure the degree of managerial entrenchment using the E-index introduced by Bebchuk et al. (2009). Our findings suggest that an increase in excess CEO entrenchment reduces the likelihood of CEO turnover due to poor performance. We also show a positive association between excessive entrenchment and CEO compensation as managers gain more power and authority when they are entrenched. On the other hand, excess CEO entrenchment has an inverse correlation with firm performance and firm value. Overall, we propose that excessive managerial entrenchment has a converse impact on board monitoring and shareholders’ welfare.     

Do banks really monitor? Evidence from CEO succession decisions

We demonstrate that banks play an important monitoring role in CEO succession that is not observed for other types of lenders, particularly public bondholders. There is a stronger relation between cash flow performance and forced CEO turnover for firms issuing bank debt during the year of CEO turnover than for firms not issuing bank debt, and bank debt issuance increases the likelihood of external CEO succession. The stock price reaction to CEO succession is higher when bank monitoring is prevalent. Our results are consistent with theories of relationship banking that propose a valuable monitoring role for well informed, incentivized bank lenders.     

AIA submission: CEO overconfidence and the incidence of financial restatement

The role of the Chief Executive Officer (hereafter, CEO) in financial reporting is almost universally assumed to be significant (Carcello, Neal, Palmrose & Scholz, 2011; Cohen, Krishnamoorthy, & Wright, 2002; Connelly, 2005; Paredes, 2004). While academics and regulators agree that the CEO can have a large impact on financial reporting decisions, there is very little research on how individual CEO characteristics actually influence the financial reporting process. This paper examines the impact of one such CEO characteristic – CEO overconfidence – on the incidence of financial restatement. We utilize a matched-pairs research design consisting of 75 restatement firms (obtained through the GAO restatement sample) and a set of 75 non-restatement control firms. Using an options-based measure of CEO overconfidence developed by Malmendier and Tate (2008), we document a statistically significant positive relation between CEO overconfidence and financial statement restatement.     

银行董事会特征、CEO报酬与银行绩效——基于对11家股份制银行的数据分析

本文通过采集2005～2008年11家已上市的全国股份制商业银行的数据,实证分析了银行董事会独立性与CEO报酬之间的关系,并在考虑银行CEO报酬内生性基础上,进一步检验了银行董事会独立性、CEO报酬和银行绩效的关系。研究结果显示:长任期的CEO、CEO兼任董事长、较大比例的内部董事和较大的董事会规模构成了中国上市银行的监管障碍。银行CEO的高薪酬是不足为奇的,因为高薪酬对应的是银行业绩的显著增长。CEO报酬是银行公司治理的强化机制,授予银行CEO合理的激励报酬可以克服银行监管障碍,提高银行治理水平。     

Media coverage,board structure and CEO compensation: Evidence from Taiwan

This paper investigates the relationship between CEO cash compensation and media coverage of firms, analyst forecasts and board structure using data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange. We find that, other things being equal, CEO cash compensation is much higher for firms with greater media coverage, firms with more positive news, firms with more analyst forecasts, and firms with larger institutional holdings. There is little evidence that board size and board independence affect CEO cash compensation, and CEO duality is negatively associated with CEO cash compensation