The effect of financial reporting quality on CEO compensation structure: Evidence from accounting comparability

This study examines the effect of accounting comparability on the design of CEO compensation structure. After controlling for firm-specific attributes, we find that accounting comparability is positively associated with CEO equity-based compensation intensity and pay-performance sensitivity. This suggests that the improved comparability increases the usefulness of equity-based compensation and a firm is willing to offer more equity-based compensation contracts to CEOs and increase their pay-performance sensitivity. Further, we find that the impact of comparability on the CEO’s compensation contract increases with information asymmetry, which is consistent with the notion that accounting comparability is a quality of financial reporting that facilitates the use of equity-based compensation in a poor information environment. Our analysis also reveals that the effect of accounting comparability on CEO compensation structure is greater when a firm’s corporate governance is strong, consistent with the complementary relation between comparability and the exiting corporate governance in determining CEO compensation schemes. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms utilize more equity-based compensation as a proportion of total compensation under greater accounting comparability and enhance the alignment between equity-based compensation and firm performance.     

The effects of disclosure type and audit committee expertise on Chief Audit Executives’ tolerance for financial misstatements

This study involves an experiment where 73 Chief Audit Executives and deputy Chief Audit Executives determine the amount of adjustment required to correct a misstatement. We manipulate the financial reporting location of the misstatement (recognized vs. disclosed) and the level of audit committee expertise (high vs. low). The results indicate that financial reporting location has significant effects on internal auditors’ decisions to correct misstatements. Specifically, internal auditors are more willing to waive disclosed misstatements relative to recognized misstatements. Contrary to expectations, the results do not indicate that increased audit committee expertise and associated increases in audit committee members’ perceived powers cause internal auditors to be less willing to waive misstatements.     

I know something you don't know!: The role of linking pin directors in monitoring and incentive alignment

Increasing regulatory pressures have created specialization within boards, with more requirements and responsibilities being refocused to the committee level. Using data from S&P 1,500 firms, we find that board committee overlap associated with linking pin directors (i.e., those serving simultaneously on the audit and compensation committees) is an important conduit for knowledge transfer between boards' monitoring and incentive alignment functions. These directors are associated with lower executive compensation and influence pay mix. In studying the dynamics behind this process, we find that newly created linking pins improve monitoring effectiveness whereas recently dissolved linking pins decrease it. We also find that linking pins are all the more important when managers make less conservative accounting choices. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of parent firms in business groups’ internal capital markets

Using a unique dataset of unconsolidated financial statements, we investigate the investment and financing policies of parent firms in South Korea's business groups over the period 2003–2016. Parent firms add to their equity-stake holdings substantially each year to support affiliated firms’ capital expenditures. Parent firms finance their equity-stake investment primarily with external funds. These tendencies are more pronounced if parents sit high in the pyramidal chain or are central to controlling other group firms and if parents belong to large business groups. Overall, parent firms prioritize their role as capital raisers and distributors for affiliated firms, and business groups’ internal capital markets are supported by external finance.     

Implementation with coalition formation: A complete characterization

The basic difference between Nash and strong (Nash) implementations originates from the possibility of coalition formation. The results of Nash implementation are applicable when agents in no group can cooperate (or form a coalition) and those of strong implementation are applicable when agents in every group can cooperate. In the present paper we consider an environment where agents in some groups can cooperate and agents in other groups cannot. We completely characterize the set of correspondences that are implementable in such a general environment, and we provide an algorithm which enables us to verify whether a correspondence satisfies the condition that appears in the characterization results. By applying the algorithm in an exchange economy, we show that the core, the definition of which depends on the possibility of cooperation, is implementable in the equilibrium corresponding to the cooperation possibility.     

A multi-agent bilateral bargaining model with endogenous protocol

People do bargain over how to bargain. We examine the role of individuals’ ability to pursue certain bargaining protocols in a multi-agent bilateral bargaining model. Bargaining protocols are not completely settled, but will emerge endogenously in equilibrium. We show that players’ ability to partially influence bargaining protocols plays a crucial role in determining equilibrium outcomes. When discounting is not too high, there are multiple subgame perfect equilibria, including inefficient ones. As the number of players increases, both the set of discount factors that support multiple equilibrium outcomes and the set of the first proposing player’s equilibrium payoffs expand. The maximum loss of efficiency increases with respect to the discount factor. We would like to thank Hongbin Cai, John Conlon, Andrew Daughety, Taiji Furusawa, Byoung Heon Jun, Akira Okada, Ping Wang, and two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions. Both authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.     

Modelling roles of task‐technology fit and self‐efficacy in hotel employees' usage behaviours of hotel information systems

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between hotel information system (HIS) users' personal perceptions and beliefs of the given system and their daily routine usage intention via the technology acceptance model (TAM), considering the two external variables (motivational variables) of the model — ‘task‐technology fit’ (extrinsic motivation; system feature) and ‘self‐efficacy’ (intrinsic motivation; personal feature). Data were collected from hotel employees of 13 upscale hotels in Jeju, South Korea, and path analysis was utilised to test structural model and hypotheses. The results provided empirical support for an extended TAM, and verified its robustness in predicting hotel employees' intention to use a HIS. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finding diamonds in the rough: Analysts’ selective following of loss‐reporting firms

Investors face greater difficulty valuing loss‐reporting than profit‐reporting firms: losses may be due to very different reasons (e.g., poor operating performance or investments in intangibles, and financial accounting information is of more limited use for valuing loss‐making firms than profit‐making firms. Because of increased uncertainty about loss firms’ future financial and business viability, we hypothesize that financial analysts will be more selective when choosing to follow loss firms than profit firms, with the result that “abnormal” analyst following will be more informative to investors regarding the future performance of loss firms than profit firms. Consistent with this prediction, we find that abnormal analyst coverage is useful for predicting firms’ future prospects, and is more strongly associated with future performance (stock returns and ROA) for loss firms than for profit firms. The market, however, does not seem to use this useful information when pricing loss firms: for loss firms a portfolio investment strategy based upon abnormal analyst following can generate positive excess returns over 1‐ to 3‐year holding periods. These results are stronger for persistent‐loss firms than for occasional‐loss firms. We conclude that abnormal analyst following contains useful information about firms’ future prospects, and even more so for loss firms than for profit firms.     

Matter over mind: When specific asset investment affects calculative trust in supply chain partnership

This study, using the concept of trust defined as calculative, risk-related, and relationship-based, examines the relationships between bilateral specific asset investments and after-investing trust. The findings indicate that a firm's trust in their supply chain partner is highly associated with both sides' specific asset investments. It also signifies that the replaceability of a respondent firm moderates the positive relationship between the partner's specific asset investment and trust. Our data has proven that the calculative-based trust theory has better explaining power with the transaction cost analysis (TCA) variables than the knowledge-based trust theory.     

Identifying critical supply chain paths and key sectors for mitigating primary carbonaceous PM2.5 mortality in Asia

Total mortality attributable to PM_2.5 is highest in the Asian domain, estimated as 2.3 million deaths annually. We apply consumption-based accounting to identify the key sectors responsible for primary carbonaceous PM_2.5 mortality. The study combines an input–output model with an atmospheric transport model and fully links consumer demand to final pollutant fate and health impact. We find the following: (1) considering atmospheric transport changes the distribution of demand-induced impact as compared to conventional emissions footprinting, (2) the supply chain paths with the greatest impact on PM_2.5-induced human health problems in the region are centered around agricultural technologies in China, and (3) the transportation sector of China plays a major role in the supply chain paths that generate relatively large impacts on human health. We conclude that Japan is responsible for PM_2.5 mortality in Asia and should take leadership in changing key high-priority technologies and critical supply chain paths into greener ones.