Outside Directors,Litigation Environment,and Management Earnings Forecasts

This study examines whether outside directors factor in litigation costs for the firm while monitoring optimal disclosure policy. It investigates the association of management earnings forecast disclosure and the proportion of outside directors across two regimes with unequal litigation costs, the United States and Canada. I find that the positive association between forecast frequency/ precision and the proportion of outside directors is stronger in Canada. This suggests that outside directors are more likely to encourage disclosure in less litigious Canada. I also find that firm‐level governance mechanisms such as outside directors and country‐level litigation environment act as governance substitutes in determining unbiased forecasts. Specifically, the negative association between forecast bias and the proportion of outside directors is stronger in Canada. I also revisit the effect of legal regime on forecast disclosure in a non‐U.S. context. Recent legislation has increased the likelihood of class‐action lawsuits in Canada. The passage of these laws has decreased the precision in forecasts by Canadian firms.     

Developing cross-cultural competencies through international corporate volunteerism

We propose three features of cross-cultural experiences, contextual novelty, project meaningfulness and social support, facilitate the development of cross-cultural competencies. Using a longitudinal design, the employees in Study 1 participated in an international corporate volunteerism program designed with all three features. These results found a positive change over time in cross-cultural competencies. Results of Study 2, also longitudinal, suggest that the participants’ post-assignment cross-cultural competencies are the highest: (1) when employees with higher baseline cross-cultural competencies work in high contextual novelty (i.e., international location) and (2) when employees with lower baseline cross-cultural competencies work in low contextual novelty (i.e., domestic location).     

股票期权风险承担激励、管理者权力与企业研发创新

以2006-2016年公布股票期权激励方案的上市公司为样本,探讨高管期权薪酬风险承担激励和管理者权力对企业研发创新的影响。研究表明,管理者期权薪酬风险承担激励和管理者权力均对企业研发创新具有促进作用;当二者同时存在时,期权薪酬激励与管理者权力之间会产生负向协同效应,反而会阻碍企业研发创新。其原因可能在于,管理者可以利用手中的权利影响薪酬合约制定过程而轻松获取租金,从而放弃风险较高的研发创新活动。研究结论丰富了企业创新、管理者权力和高管股权激励相关研究,对于提高企业创新能力、改进公司治理具有一定借鉴意义。     

Tax policy endogeneity: evidence from R&D tax credits

This paper estimates the causal effect of research and development (R&D) tax incentives on R&D expenditures using new data on U.S. states. Identifying tax variation comes from changes in federal corporate tax laws that heterogeneously and, due to the simultaneity of state and federal corporate taxes, automatically affect state-level tax laws. Instrumental variables regressions indicate that a 1% increase in R&D tax incentives causes a statistically significant 2.8–3.8% increase in R&D. Alternatively, ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions of R&D expenditures on R&D tax incentives, which do not correct for the policy endogeneity of R&D tax incentives, indicate that a 1% increase in R&D tax incentives causes a statistically insignificant 0.4–0.7% increase in R&D. One possible explanation for these results is that tax policies are implemented before an economic downturn.     

Reexamining dual-class stock

Snapchat’s initial public offering, which provided shares with no voting rights, is a culmination of the growing trend of dual-class shares. It contradicts the precept of one-share, one-vote that is essential for corporate democracy. Snapchat’s action caused an uproar among influential investors. In January 2017, a coalition of the world’s biggest money managers, which together control more than $17 trillion in assets, demanded a total ban on dual-class shares. We reason that the increasing prominence of dual-class stock is explained by the confluence of three economic trends: the growing importance of intangible investments, the rise of activist investors, and the decline of staggered boards and poison pills. A dual-class structure offers immunity against proxy contests initiated by short-term investors. It enables managers to ignore capital market pressures and to avoid myopic actions such as cutting research and development, which hurt companies in the long term. Thus, a dual-class structure is optimal in certain scenarios. We put forth alternatives to dual-class structure that enable managers to maintain control while retaining focus on sustainable value creation.     

Employee political affiliation as a driver of corporate social responsibility intensity

This article explores the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) intensity and the political affiliation of elite management and lower-level personnel and offers evidence that CSR initiatives are frequently driven from the bottom-up by employees actively expressing their sociopolitical views. While directors and CEOs play an important role within certain CSR dimensions, results suggest that employees are significantly more influential overall. A one-standard-deviation shift to the political left for directors, CEOs and elite executives yields gains in CSR of 5%, 9% and 3%, respectively, while a one-standard-deviation left-shift for employees produces a 33% increase. Findings may help to explain why similar firms engaging in comparable social initiatives can experience heterogeneous returns to CSR outlays and suggest that a corporate culture approach may be warranted in future studies.     

基于集体主义的企业科技向善：逻辑框架与竞争优势

新冠疫情对经济及社会运行造成了重大冲击,除了履行慈善捐赠等传统社会责任行为,一些企业还通过科技创新与善意的产品供给抗击疫情,企业与社会的融合互动更加紧密,据此引出企业科技向善概念。通过厘清企业科技向善概念,梳理了企业科技向善与竞争优势的关系,讨论了企业科技向善的未来研究方向,从企业与社会关系角度丰富和扩展了企业战略管理研究,并为企业管理实践与政府监管提供了新视角。     

卖空的事前威慑、公司治理与高管隐性腐败

本文以我国融资融券的分步扩容为准自然实验,考察卖空的事前威慑对高管隐性腐败的治理效应及其作用机制,并分析不同公司治理环境下卖空机制作用的差异。研究结果表明,卖空的事前威慑能够有效抑制高管隐性腐败行为,显著降低在职消费水平,尤其是超额在职消费,并且卖空机制对高管隐性腐败的治理效应在国有企业中更为显著。进一步地,通过剖析卖空治理效应的作用机制,发现卖空机制加强了外部投资者和股东的监督作用,并促使公司提高了高管权益薪酬比重,使得高管与股东共担卖空导致的股价下跌风险,从而有效约束了高管的隐性腐败。此外,卖空机制的治理效应依赖于成熟的市场化环境,即只有在市场化水平较高的地区,卖空机制才能更有效地发挥其治理作用。而卖空机制与公司内部治理之间具有“替代效应”,当公司内部治理失灵时,卖空机制能够代替内部治理来规制高管的隐性腐败。本文不仅拓宽了卖空机制治理效应的有关研究,为我国放松卖空管制提供了微观的经验证据,而且为治理高管腐败提供了新思路。