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Full-Text Articles in Corporate Finance

Chief Financial Officer Demographic Characteristics And Fraudulent Financial Reporting In China, Jinghui Sun, Pamela Kent, Baolei Qi, Jiwei Wang Dec 2019

Chief Financial Officer Demographic Characteristics And Fraudulent Financial Reporting In China, Jinghui Sun, Pamela Kent, Baolei Qi, Jiwei Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate whether management's cognitions, values and perceptions are associated with fraud for 18 863 firm-years for Chinese listed firms from 2000 to 2014. Demographic characteristics of the chief financial officer (CFO) are used as proxies for management's cognitions, values and perceptions. We find that fraudulent financial reporting is higher when CFOs are younger, male, and have lower education backgrounds. An analysis of inflated earnings, fictitious assets, material omissions and other material misstatements provide similar results, with the exception that CFOs with higher education levels are associated with more inflated earnings. Accounting and Finance


Peer Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Jie Cao, Hao Liang, Xintong Zhan Dec 2019

Peer Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Jie Cao, Hao Liang, Xintong Zhan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate how firms react to their product-market peers' commitment to and adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a regression discontinuity design approach. Relying on the passage or failure of CSR proposals by a narrow margin of votes during shareholder meetings, we find the passage of a close-call CSR proposal and its implementation are followed by the adoption of similar CSR practices by peer firms. In addition, peers that have greater difficulty in catching up with the voting firm in CSR experience significantly lower stock returns around the passage, consistent with the notion that the spillover effect of the …


Corporate Governance And Institutional Investors: Proxy Voting Behavior After The Stewardship Code (コーポレートガバナンスと機関投資家―スチュワードシップコード改訂後の議決権行使の状況について), Mari Yamauchi, Toru Yoshikawa Dec 2019

Corporate Governance And Institutional Investors: Proxy Voting Behavior After The Stewardship Code (コーポレートガバナンスと機関投資家―スチュワードシップコード改訂後の議決権行使の状況について), Mari Yamauchi, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

本稿では,日本版スチュワードシップコードの改訂により始まった機関投資家 による議決権行使の結果について,投資家のタイプごとに分析し,どのような投 資家がどのような会社提案議案についてより多くの反対票を投じているかについ て検討した。先行研究に従えば,資産運用会社のように投資先企業とアームズレ ングスの関係を持つ投資家は,保険会社のように投資先企業とビジネス上の関係 を持つ投資家と比較すると,会社側提案に対して異議を唱える可能性が高いとさ れる。また,株式持ち合いなど日本的背景を考慮すると,日本においては,外資 系投資家の方が国内の投資家に比べて,会社提案に対して反対票を投じる可能性 が高いことも予想される。2018年度の議決権行使の結果を分析したところ,ほぼ 先行研究と同じ結果が得られ,業種で分類した場合,資産運用会社の方が生損保 のような保険会社より反対票の比率が高いこと,資本国籍で分類すると,外資投 資家の方が買収防衛策の導入や退任役員への退職慰労金の支給など特定の項目に ついて,日系の投資家に比べて反対率が高いことが確認された。


That Could Have Been Me: Director Deaths, Mortality Salience And Ceo Prosocial Behavior, Guoli Chen, Craig Crossland, Sterling Huang Nov 2019

That Could Have Been Me: Director Deaths, Mortality Salience And Ceo Prosocial Behavior, Guoli Chen, Craig Crossland, Sterling Huang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Mortality salience—the awareness of the inevitability of death—is often traumatic. However, it can also be associated with a range of positive, self-transcendent cognitive responses, such as a greater desire to help others, contribute to society, and make a more meaningful contribution in one’s life and career. In this study, we provide evidence of a link between chief executive officer (CEO) mortality salience—triggered by the death of a director at the same firm—and a subsequent increase in firm-level prosocial behavior or corporate social responsibility (CSR). We further show that this core relationship is amplified in situations where the death of the …


Understanding The Connection Of Performance And Z-Scores For Manufacturing Firms In South Korea, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak Oct 2019

Understanding The Connection Of Performance And Z-Scores For Manufacturing Firms In South Korea, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

South Korea is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. South …


More Than The Bottom Line, Edmund Keung, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho Oct 2019

More Than The Bottom Line, Edmund Keung, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In the second instalment of a three-part series on financial literacy, SMU Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy, NUS Associate Professor of Accounting Edmund Keung and SIT Associate Provost and Professor of Accounting Ho Yew Kee discussed three important accounting concepts that investors need to understand in order to know how a company is performing financially.


Will A Broader Use Of Auditing Standards Increase Trust?, Singapore Management University Sep 2019

Will A Broader Use Of Auditing Standards Increase Trust?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Getting non-financial professionals on board may be a double-edged sword


Political Connections And The Value Of Cash Holdings, Yuanto Kusnadi Sep 2019

Political Connections And The Value Of Cash Holdings, Yuanto Kusnadi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines how political connections influence the value of cash holdings in an international setting. The main finding reveals that political connections are not associated with the value of cash holdings in the overall sample. However, further analysis demonstrates that political connections are negatively associated with the value of cash holdings for firms inemerging markets and in countries with high levels of corruption. Moreover, the negative valuation of cash holdings is driven by firms that are connected through large shareholders. Overall, the findings provide new insights into the value relevance of cash holdings, especially for politically connected firms.


Deciphering Financial Statements In Annual Reports, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho, Edmund Keung Sep 2019

Deciphering Financial Statements In Annual Reports, Themin Suwardy, Yew Kee Ho, Edmund Keung

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In the first of a three-part weekly series on financial literacy, SMU Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy, SIT’s Professor Ho Yew Kee and Associate Professor Edmund Keong from NUS discussed the importance of learning to read and analyse financial statements. They opined that being able to decipher financial statements is critical if an investor wants to have a real understanding of a company's profitability, liquidity and cash position. This will equip them with useful information to make informed decisions.


An Examination Of Corporate Performance And Altman Z-Scores Of Indian Manufacturing Firms, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak Sep 2019

An Examination Of Corporate Performance And Altman Z-Scores Of Indian Manufacturing Firms, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

India is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. India registered …


Studying The Relationship Between Japanese Firms' Corporate Health And Results, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak Sep 2019

Studying The Relationship Between Japanese Firms' Corporate Health And Results, See Liang Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Japan is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market (the Tokyo Stock Exchange). A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for …


Momentum And Reversal: The Role Of Short Selling, Zhaobo Zhu, Xinrui Duan, Licheng Sun, Jun Tu Jul 2019

Momentum And Reversal: The Role Of Short Selling, Zhaobo Zhu, Xinrui Duan, Licheng Sun, Jun Tu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper investigates the relation between short selling and momentum. We document that a consistent momentum strategy that buys lightly shorted winners and sells heavily shorted losers exhibits strong short-term momentum and no long-term reversal. In contrast, an inconsistent momentum strategy that buys heavily shorted winners and sells lightly shorted losers experiences weak short-term momentum and persistent long-term reversal. Our results are robust after controlling for firm characteristics, proxy for short-sale constraints, and investor sentiment, as well as an exogenous shock (the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997). These findings present a new challenge to existing theories of momentum that rely …


Auditor Choice And Information Asymmetry: Evidence From International Syndicated Loans, Zhiming Ma, Derrald Stice, Rencheng Wang Jun 2019

Auditor Choice And Information Asymmetry: Evidence From International Syndicated Loans, Zhiming Ma, Derrald Stice, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Analyzing a large sample of non-US public firms from 31 countries that obtain private loans, we find that loan syndicates that lend to borrowers that employ Big N auditors are larger and less concentrated and that the lead arrangers and largest investors of these syndicates are able to hold a lower proportion of the loan after issuance. Further analysis demonstrates that this effect exists only in countries with strong creditor rights and in those countries with high levels of societal trust, suggesting that both sound formal and informal institutional factors are prerequisites for lenders and borrowers to benefit from differential …


The Effects Of Corporate Reputation And Compensation Disclosure On Investor Judgments, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan Jun 2019

The Effects Of Corporate Reputation And Compensation Disclosure On Investor Judgments, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Regulators have increased the disclosure requirements of top executives as part of corporate governance reform. This study examines how trust arising from a firm’s corporate reputation will interact with top executive compensation disclosure to influence investor judgments. This study used a 2 X 2 between subjects experimental design, with corporate reputation (good versus bad) and pay ratio (high versus low) as independent variables to test the hypotheses. The key findings show that if the firm with a good corporate reputation discloses a high pay ratio, participants punished the good reputation firm more than the bad reputation firm, demonstrating a negative …


Crossed Wires: Endorsement Signals And The Effects Of Ipo Firm Delistings On Venture Capitalists’ Reputations, David Gomulya, Kyuho Jin, Peggy M. Lee, Timothy G. Pollock Jun 2019

Crossed Wires: Endorsement Signals And The Effects Of Ipo Firm Delistings On Venture Capitalists’ Reputations, David Gomulya, Kyuho Jin, Peggy M. Lee, Timothy G. Pollock

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Signaling theorists have paid a great deal of attention to the costs of acquiring characteristics that can serve as signals, such as endorsements from reputable third parties. However limited attention has been devoted to the penalty costs associated with providing inaccurate signals and the factors that can exacerbate or attenuate the penalties. In this study, we examine the effect of negative feedback loops on venture capital firms’ reputations that result from the failures (delistings) of the newly-public firms they once endorsed. Drawing on signaling and attribution theories, we argue that endorsements by reputable VC firms create high expectations that, when …


Readability Of 10-K Reports And Stock Price Crash Risk, Chansog (Francis) Kim, Ke Wang, Liandong Zhang Jun 2019

Readability Of 10-K Reports And Stock Price Crash Risk, Chansog (Francis) Kim, Ke Wang, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study shows that less readable 10‐K reports are associated with higher stock price crash risk. The results are consistent with the argument that managers can successfully hide adverse information by writing complex financial reports, which leads to stock price crashes when the hidden bad news accumulates and reaches a tipping point. Cross‐sectional analyses show that the effect of financial reporting complexity on crash risk is more pronounced for firms with persistent negative earnings news or transitory positive earnings news, greater chief executive officer stock option incentives, or lower litigation risk. Finally, accrual manipulation appears to be positively related to …


Marginal Cost Of Risk-Based Capital And Risk-Taking, Tao Chen, Jing Rong Goh, Shinichi Kamiya, Pingyi Lou Jun 2019

Marginal Cost Of Risk-Based Capital And Risk-Taking, Tao Chen, Jing Rong Goh, Shinichi Kamiya, Pingyi Lou

Research Collection School Of Economics

We explore the impact of capital adequacy requirements on financial institutions' risk-taking behavior from a novel perspective. Specifically, we show that an important feature of the risk-based capital (RBC) system a built-in diversification benefit in aggregating risk categories induces moral hazard. We find that insurers that face lower marginal RBC costs of fixed-income (FI) investment tend to purchase riskier Fl securities. This relationship holds even when lower marginal RBC costs result from increased risk in other risk categories, which is an unintended consequence of the RBC's square root rule. Using Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy as exogenous shocks to the RBC …


Opinion Shopping To Avoid Going Concern Audit Opinion And Subsequent Audit Quality, Heesun Chung, Catherine Heyjung Sonu, Yoonseok Zang, Jong-Hag Choi May 2019

Opinion Shopping To Avoid Going Concern Audit Opinion And Subsequent Audit Quality, Heesun Chung, Catherine Heyjung Sonu, Yoonseok Zang, Jong-Hag Choi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Despite regulatory concerns over opinion shopping (OS) behavior, there exists little systematic evidence on the prevalence and consequences of OS to avoid a going concern opinion (GCO). Using Lennox's (2000) framework to identify OS, we find that distressed firms successfully engage in OS to avoid a GCO. Moreover, clients engaging in OS exhibit a higher ex post Type II error rate in audit opinions than clients that do not, and the higher Type II error rate is salient for clients switching auditors for OS but not for clients retaining auditors for OS. We continue to find this asymmetric effect of …


Recommendations From Sec’S Plain English Handbook: Perspectives From Behavioral Research, Clarence Goh May 2019

Recommendations From Sec’S Plain English Handbook: Perspectives From Behavioral Research, Clarence Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The SEC published the plain English handbook in 1998 with the objective of providing preparers of financial disclosures with a guide to using well-established techniques to create clearer and more informative disclosure documents. The handbook provides various recommendations to preparers of disclosure documents. In this study, I examine and systematically synthesize the extent behavioural research literature that investigates the impact of implementing these recommendations on investors. I do so by developing a framework to systematically examine relevant studies. Overall, the analysis provides important insights from a behavioural perspective into how and why investors react to various recommendations in the SEC’s …


Debt Heterogeneity And Covenants, Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto May 2019

Debt Heterogeneity And Covenants, Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Coordination failure among owners of heterogeneous debt types increases distress costs. Covenants reduce expected distress costs by lowering the probability of liquidity shortages, increasing liquidation values, and incentivizing creditor monitoring. We predict and find that new debt contracts include more covenants when borrowers' existing debt structures are more heterogeneous. Our findings suggest that covenants are not only used to address creditor-shareholder conflicts but also to reduce the expected costs of coordination failure among creditors. Further, our results indicate a dynamic component missing from static debt structure models: Debt heterogeneity entails additional covenants (i.e., constraints) when raising future debt.


Much Ado About Audit Opinions, Themin Suwardy May 2019

Much Ado About Audit Opinions, Themin Suwardy

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) and Dean of Postgraduate Professional Programmes Themin Suwardy opined that with a better understanding of the various types of modified audit opinions, investors can react appropriately to the news of companies failing to get a clean opinion. He added that investors should ask tougher questions about key audit matters at annual general meetings in order to get a more rounded and informed picture of a company’s financial and operating status.


Informed Options Trading Prior To Bankruptcy Filings, Li Ge, Jianfeng Hu, Mark Humphery-Jenner, Tse-Chun Lin May 2019

Informed Options Trading Prior To Bankruptcy Filings, Li Ge, Jianfeng Hu, Mark Humphery-Jenner, Tse-Chun Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prior evidence on pre-bankruptcy-filing informed trade is mixed. The inconclusive findings might result from the sole focus on stock trading. We reassess the presence of pre-filing informed and insider trades by examining the information content of options trading before bankruptcy announcements. We find that bankruptcy filing returns are not significantly related to pre-filing insider stock trading. However, filing returns are significantly negatively related to pre-filing insider and informed options trading. The informational content of options trading reduces with options illiquidity and the amount of information impounded into pre-filing stock prices.


An Analysis Of Z-Scores And Performance: Manufacturing Companies In Hong Kong, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak Apr 2019

An Analysis Of Z-Scores And Performance: Manufacturing Companies In Hong Kong, S.L. Foo, Shaakalya Pathak

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Hong Kong is a key leading economy in the Asia Pacific region. This study examines the relationship between the financial health, as measured by the Altman Z-Score, and corporate performance, as measured by the Return on Equity (ROE), of listed manufacturing companies in this market. A linear regression has been conducted between these variables to determine the magnitude and direction of their relationships. The trends of Z-Scores over a five-year period have also been analysed. The analysis covers the period from 2013 to 2017 (inclusive) and yields a statistically positive correlation between ROE and the Z-Score for the market. Hong …


Disclosure Of Pending Lawsuits And Bond Terms, Yun Lou Apr 2019

Disclosure Of Pending Lawsuits And Bond Terms, Yun Lou

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

I examine the effect of the disclosure of pendinglawsuits in 10-K/Q filings on the contractual terms of newly issued bonds. Ifind that firms’ decision to disclose pending lawsuits and the amount ofdisclosed information (i.e., the level of disclosure) have opposite effects.Specifically, firms that disclose a higher proportion of their pending lawsuitsface higher yields and are more likely to include default clauses pertaining tocourt judgments in the bond prospectuses. However, within the subsample offirms that disclose their lawsuits, I find that firms with a higher level of disclosureregarding their pending lawsuits are rewarded with lower yields. This evidencesuggests that bond investors …


Corporate Governance: Avoid The Groupthink Pitfall, Themin Suwardy Mar 2019

Corporate Governance: Avoid The Groupthink Pitfall, Themin Suwardy

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Consensus due to similar personal backgrounds, lack of diversity in views and failure to see things from others’ perspective can lead to bad decisions.


Scaled Pca: A New Approach To Dimension Reduction, Dashan Huang, Fuwei Jiang, Guoshi Tong, Guofu Zhou Mar 2019

Scaled Pca: A New Approach To Dimension Reduction, Dashan Huang, Fuwei Jiang, Guoshi Tong, Guofu Zhou

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The notion that bond risk premium varies with business cycles is challenged once real time macro data are used. In this paper, we argue that the macro factors extracted by using the standard PCA are not the most relevant for forecasting bond risk premium, because the PCA factors are designed to explain the most variation of macro data instead of the variation of bond risk premium. With the latter objective in mind, we propose a scaled PCA (sPCA) approach, which incorporates the information in bond risk premium in the factor extraction procedure. The real time macro sPCA factors have much …


Do Corporate Site Visits Impact Stock Prices?, Qiang Cheng, Fei Du, Brian Yutao Wang, Xin Wang Mar 2019

Do Corporate Site Visits Impact Stock Prices?, Qiang Cheng, Fei Du, Brian Yutao Wang, Xin Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the stock price impact of corporate site visits using a unique dataset of site visits to listed firms in China. Our main findings are as follows. First, the market reaction around corporate site visits is statistically and economically significant and is stronger for group visits, visits conducted by mutual fund managers, visits covering accounting and finance topics, visits to firms with poor information environments, and visits to manufacturing firms. Second, the stock returns around site visits are positively associated with firms’ future performance. Third, the changes in visiting funds’ holdings are more predictive of firms’ future performance than …


Corporate Tax Aggressiveness And Insider Trading, Sung Gon Chung, Beng Wee Goh, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Terry Shevlin Mar 2019

Corporate Tax Aggressiveness And Insider Trading, Sung Gon Chung, Beng Wee Goh, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Terry Shevlin

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the association between corporate tax aggressiveness and theprofitability of insider trading under the assumption that insider tradingprofits reflect managerial opportunism. We document that insider purchaseprofitability, but not sales profitability, is significantly higher on average inmore tax aggressive firms. We also find that the positive association between taxaggressiveness and insider purchase profitability is attenuated for firms withmore effective monitoring and is accentuated for firms with a more opaqueinformation environment.In addition, we provide empirical evidence that tax aggressiveness issignificantly associated with greater insider sales volume in the fiscal yearprior to a stock price crash. Finally, we find that the association …


A One-Size-Fits-All Approach To Corporate Governance Codes And Compliance By Smaller Listed Firms: An Examination Of Companies Listed In Hong Kong And Singapore, Christopher C. H. Chen Feb 2019

A One-Size-Fits-All Approach To Corporate Governance Codes And Compliance By Smaller Listed Firms: An Examination Of Companies Listed In Hong Kong And Singapore, Christopher C. H. Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the impact of a one-size-fits-all corporate governance code on smaller listed firms, which should have fewer resources to hire more qualified independent directors for their boards and board committees. After examining data from a sample of companies listed in Hong Kong and Singapore, we find some limited support for these resources-based arguments. While smaller firms do not necessarily have a lower proportion of board members who are independent directors, some evidence suggests that smaller firms do pay less to independent directors and that these directors have to serve on multiple board committees. Although many larger firms also …


Not Clawing The Hand That Feeds You: The Case Of Co-Opted Boards And Clawbacks, Sterling Huang, Chee Yeow Lim, Jeffrey Ng Jan 2019

Not Clawing The Hand That Feeds You: The Case Of Co-Opted Boards And Clawbacks, Sterling Huang, Chee Yeow Lim, Jeffrey Ng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine how board co-option, defined as the fraction of the board comprising directors appointed after the CEO assumed office, is related to clawback adoption. We find that co-opted boards have a lower probability of adopting clawback provisions. Further, the negative association between board co-option and clawback adoption is more pronounced when at least one co-opted member is on the compensation committee and when there is a higher likelihood that a clawback provision will be triggered. Finally, we find that board co-option is an important mechanism through which longer-tenured CEOs reduce the likelihood of clawback adoption.