Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting最新文献

This study uses bibliometric analysis to assess Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting (JIFMA's) evolution between 1989 and 2021. In this retrospective review, we investigate the journal's performance, authorship trends, and intellectual structure. The journal's international focus is primarily on cross-country studies and the effects of country-level factors on various accounting and finance outcomes. The collaborative network of JIFMA's authors has also grown substantially consistent with rise in research collaboration in general across the world. We identify nine major themes making up JIFMA's knowledge structure: (1) value relevance of accounting information relating to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards, (2) voluntary corporate disclosure, (3) corporate use of financial derivatives, (4) corporate governance, (5) equity valuation, (6) stock return seasonalities, foreign equity ownership, and cost of capital, (7) earnings announcements and pecking order behavior, (8) triple-bottom-line disclosures, and (9) managerial ownership and earnings management. Our findings will likely benefit JIFMA's editorial board and other journal stakeholders including future researchers.

We examine the impact on corporate cash holdings of international merger and acquisition (M&A) laws, which facilitate corporate takeovers. We use the staggered enactment of M&A laws from 1992 to 2005 and a sample spanning 34 jurisdictions, and find that levels of corporate cash holdings increase after passage of M&A laws. We also find that firms with better operating performance, higher earnings volatility, higher P/E ratio, and in jurisdictions with high M&A intensity hoard more cash after the enactment of M&A laws. These firms decrease dividends and capital expenditure and increase cash-based acquisitions in the post-M&A law period. Additional analysis shows that the effect is manifested in the subsample of firms in jurisdictions with better institutional environments. Lastly, we find that investor valuations of cash holdings decrease after the enactment of M&A laws. Collectively, our results suggest that managers hoard cash to finance M&A activities after the enactment of M&A laws, driven by the motive of empire-building, and that cash hoarding behaviors are viewed by investors as value-decreasing.

This paper investigates the impact of institutional investors' corporate site visits on financial reporting aggressiveness. While prior research has shed light on the monitoring impact of institutional shareholding on firms' financial reporting practices, institutional investors' preference regarding financial reporting remains unclear. Using a sample of Chinese firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019, we find that institutional investors' on-site visits significantly increase financial reporting aggressiveness of hosting firms. The on-site visit effect is more salient in firms that are more sensitive to the influence of institutional investors, for example, firms with a less powerful chief executive officer, financially constrained firms, and firms operating in competitive industries. Our study highlights that under a setting of weak minority shareholder protection such as in China, managers are likely to recognize revenue aggressively to please powerful shareholders who paid intensive attention to them.

We show that ethnic diversity of CEOs of merging firms has been increasing and report evidence of ethnic homophily effect in M&As transactions. Specifically, M&As perform better when the CEOs of the merging firms share a common ethnic background. In a sample of 444 US mergers completed between 2000 and 2018, we find that ethnic homophily improves the probability of deal completion. Furthermore, we report mild variation of performance across ethnic groups. White CEOs exhibit better postmerger performance while Asian CEOs instigate a better market reaction (announcement return). Subsequent analyses show that White CEOs tend to have longer tenure and longer experience while Asian CEOs tend to be more transparent. We discuss our findings in light of a few extant theories and show that our findings are robust to several additional tests including instrumental variables, Heckman's selection bias correction, and several variations in the model specifications and definitions of key variables.

This article examines the relationship between modern health pandemic crises and financial stability. Specifically, it collects data on 250,223 firms in 43 countries (or regions) during five modern pandemic crises, SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola (2014), and Zika (2016), and finds that pandemic crises significantly increase the default risk of enterprises. Further analysis shows that formal and informal institutions acted as a “cushion” against the pandemic crisis. The earlier a country adopts IFRS, the more unimpeded access to information, and the more stable religious and ethnic relations within the country can reduce the negative impact of a pandemic on financial stability. This article addresses the hitherto inadequacy of COVID-related data. In addition, this article argues that governments should build sound state institutions to withstand macroeconomic shocks and highlights the heterogeneity of default risk for enterprises operating in countries with different institutions.

This paper provides an overview of two interviews conducted with Andreas Barckow where he reflected on his outlook for the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and his role as Chair. The interviews included (1) a discussion of the IASB′s Third Agenda Consultation Feedback Statement, (2) key areas for future collaborations of the IASB and the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) directed primarily at building the IASB's Research Capacity, (3) strategic challenges facing the IASB, (4) the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) including the emerging model for the coexistence of the IASB and the ISSB and (5) the unique position the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation holds as the only global organization to house both financial accounting reporting and sustainability disclosure standard-setting boards. The interviews also addressed areas where the IAAER can encourage academic research to inform both the IASB and the IAASB and perhaps also the ISSB.

A corporate site visit is an effective way to obtain information on a firm. Most studies focus on the information advantages of corporate site visits, but evidence of their impact on firm operations is limited. In this paper, we investigate whether investors’ corporate site visits affect cost stickiness. Using data on investor corporate site visits to Chinese listed firms from 2013 to 2018, we find that these visits can inhibit cost stickiness. This finding holds in robustness tests and when controlling for endogeneity, including firm fixed effects, and using the Heckman selection model and the instrumental variables method. Further analyses reveal this inhibition is more pronounced for nonstate-owned enterprises and the results are more significant regarding cost stickiness in firms consuming nonlabor materials and firms visited by institutional investors. Moreover, we explore plausible mechanisms through which corporate site visits inhibit cost stickiness, such as through a monitoring channel and a learning channel. Our study contributes to academic evidence on the benefit and value of corporate site visits to firm operations, showing these visits can be a useful way to build connections between investors and firms.

This study examines whether and how the famine experiences of board chairs influence the innovation of their firms. Results using a sample comprising 8882 firm-year observations from Chinese firms during the period 2003 to 2017 reveal that the board chair's famine experience has a negative effect on innovation. This negative effect is strengthened by famine intensity and high uncertainty. The obtained results are robust to alternative measures, endogeneity issues, omitted variables, and sample selection bias. Additional analyses showed that the relationship between board chair's famine experience and innovation is mediated by cash holdings and R&D investment. The overall results contribute to imprinting theory by explaining that early-life famine experiences of board chairs create survival threat imprints among them, eventually affecting their later-life behaviors. The findings also provide implications by highlighting how the early-life traumatic experiences of executives adversely influence their firms outcomes.

Focusing on a sample of 9387 observations in China over the period 2016−2019, this paper empirically examines whether the presentation reform of R&D expenses that is changed from notes to income statements, mitigates corporate financial constraints of Chinese listed companies. Findings offer evidence that the financial constraints of firms decrease after the policy change, which is owing to the alleviation of information asymmetry. Further analysis reveals that the effect of the presentation reform on financial constraints is less prominent among companies that are state-owned, audited by the “Big four” and of higher institutional ownership. Overall, our study provides evidence supporting the influences of the format reform of financial reports and has implications for information users, regulators, and standard setters.

We examine the environmental impact of the staggered adoption of universal demand laws by 23 U.S. states between 1989 and 2005. Universal demand laws impede derivative lawsuits and thus undermine shareholder oversight of corporate environmental performance. We find that weakened litigation rights for shareholders are positively associated with the release of toxic chemicals by firms. The effect is stronger for firms with weak governance, and environmental mismanagement by firms after the passage of the laws lead to poorer financial performance. Overall, our findings imply that derivative lawsuits by shareholders are not frivolous, as is often asserted. Rather, they act as an effective mechanism of corporate governance.