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Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Prior research suggests that quarterly reports released concurrently with earnings depress trading due to information overload. In this study, we predict that concurrent reports help investors trade when they face uncertainty about how to interpret earnings news. We rely on the implementation of ASC 606 as a quasi-exogenous increase in uncertainty about how to trade in response to earnings news. Specifically, we find that when uncertainty is high in the first quarter of ASC 606 implementation, 10-Qs released concurrently with earnings are associated with increased trading around the earnings announcement. We find the relation is more pronounced when investors face greater uncertainty about earnings and when firms increase disclosure in their revenue recognition footnote. We also find some evidence that our results hold in a broader sample of accounting standard changes and generalize to other proxies for investor uncertainty. Our results suggest that concurrent quarterly reports are informative to investors when uncertainty about earnings is especially high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: This study examines whether the presence of high-quality auditors (Big 4 or industry specialist auditors [ISAs]) in an industry facilitates accounting information transfer among industry peers and enhances investment decisions of firms not audited by high-quality auditors (non-Big 4-ISA client firms). Consistent with the prediction of informational influence theories, we find that non-Big 4-ISA client firms that belong to an industry with a greater presence of high-quality auditors are associated with lower investment inefficiency. The effect is more pronounced for firms with less precise private information. Path analysis shows that the association between high-quality auditor presence and learning firms' investment inefficiency is explained via a direct path of source credibility and an indirect path mediated by peer firms' accounting information quality. Finally, we find that firms in industries with larger reductions in Big 4 presence following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 incur more investment inefficiency. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text. JEL Classifications: M40; M41; M42. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to aid original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to model, analyze, evaluate, and benchmark potential design and manufacturing suppliers based on respective product engineering teams' efficiencies. The product engineering efficiency in this study is modeled in terms of product engineering-related attributes such as commercial lead time, number of parts, number of green features, number of end products developed, and so forth. Essentially, these parameters capture more complex interactions than simple traditional supplier selection criteria such as cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility. Due to the presence of information uncertainty in terms of bounds related to the suppliers' related parameters, a number of data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency measurement models have been deployed. The proposed decision support system is novel because it models both the self-assessment type and cross-efficiency type using DEA such that maximum discrimination can be achieved amongst suppliers in the presence of interval data. The study is demonstrated for ten different sheet-metal cabin suppliers. Comparison with some well-known, relevant methods is also carried out to illustrate the validity of the proposed method. The research can specifically help supply chain managers to align the evaluation of potential suppliers with their firm's commercial considerations in the presence of information uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anomalous negative relationship between left‐tail risk measures and future returns has recently attracted the attention of finance researchers. We examine the role of the derivatives market in attenuating left‐tail risk anomaly in India, where derivatives trade only for a subset of stocks. We find that the negative association between left‐tail risk measure and future return is absent only in stocks having derivatives, indicating that derivatives trading hastens the diffusion of negative information into the stock prices. We find evidence that the information generation role of derivatives markets plays a primary role compared to investor inattention and limits to arbitrage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust Risk Quantification via Shock Propagation in Financial Networks Despite the significance of risk contagion in financial networks, uncertainties arise in interbank network structures because of limited information. To address this, proposed is a robust optimization approach to estimate worst-case default probabilities and capital requirements for a specific group of banks (e.g., systemically important financial institutions). By applying this tool, we analyze the impact of different incomplete network information structures and gain regulatory insights into gathering actionable network information. Given limited network information, we consider robust risk quantification under the Eisenberg–Noe model for financial networks. To be more specific, motivated by the fact that the structure of the interbank network is not completely known in practice, we propose a robust optimization approach to obtain worst-case default probabilities and associated capital requirements for a specific group of banks (e.g., systemically important financial institutions) under network information uncertainty. Using this tool, we analyze the effects of various incomplete network information structures on these worst-case quantities and provide regulatory insights into the collection of actionable network information. All claims are numerically illustrated using data from the European banking system. Funding: The work of D. Ahn was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [Early Career Scheme Grant 24210420]. N. Chen acknowledges funding support from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [General Research Fund Grant 14207918 and General Research Fund Grant 14208620]. The work by K.-K. Kim was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea [Grant NRF-2019R1A2C1003144]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2020.0722. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leveraging information in aggregate data from external sources to improve estimation efficiency and prediction accuracy with smaller scale studies has drawn a great deal of attention in recent years. Yet, conventional methods often either ignore uncertainty in the external information or fail to account for the heterogeneity between internal and external studies. This article proposes an empirical likelihood‐based framework to improve the estimation of the semiparametric transformation models by incorporating information about the t‐year subgroup survival probability from external sources. The proposed estimation procedure incorporates an additional likelihood component to account for uncertainty in the external information and employs a density ratio model to characterize population heterogeneity. We establish the consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator and show that it is more efficient than the conventional pseudopartial likelihood estimator without combining information. Simulation studies show that the proposed estimator yields little bias and outperforms the conventional approach even in the presence of information uncertainty and heterogeneity. The proposed methodologies are illustrated with an analysis of a pancreatic cancer study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how the public formed their need for information in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. Exploring the formation of information needs can reveal why the public's information needs differ and provide insights on targeted information service during health crises at an essential level. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 46 participants and analyzed using the grounded theory approach. Concepts, sub-categories and categories were developed, and a model was built to examine how the public formed the need for information about the pandemic. Findings: The authors found that participants were stimulated by information asymmetry, severity of the pandemic and regulations to control the pandemic, which triggered their perceptions of information credibility, threat and social approval. After the participants perceived that there was a threat, it activated their basic needs and they actively formed the need for information based on cognitive activities. Moreover, information delivered by different senders resulted in a passive need for information. Participants' individual traits also influenced their perceptions after being stimulated. Research limitations/implications: Long-term follow-up research is needed to help researchers identify more detailed perspectives and do comparative studies. Besides, this study conducted interviews through WeChat voice calls and telephone calls, and might be limited compared with face-to-face interviews. Practical implications: The findings of this study provide theoretical contributions to the information needs research and practical implications for information services and public health management. Originality/value: There is little systematic research on how the public formed information needs in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document strong evidence that CEO incentive compensation can predict the significance of stock price momentum through discretionary accrual and real activities manipulation. The profit of momentum strategy increases with CEO pay‐for‐performance incentive, but decreases with CEO risk‐taking incentive. It also evaluates the effects of information uncertainty on such relationship. The evidence is more significant for firms with older and longer tenured CEOs and firms with more informed traders. The relationship between the profit of momentum strategy and CEO pay‐for‐performance incentive is stronger among CEOs without the risk‐taking incentive. Our results are robust for different sub‐samples based on before and after Reg FD and Sarbanes–Oxley Act, even after controlling for the potential endogeneity. Further, our findings are consistent with the information diffusion explanation of momentum and the agency theory that incentivised CEOs tend to manipulate information by smoothing good news, concealing mildly bad news and accelerating the disclosure of extremely bad news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of accounting comparability as an intra-organizational factor on pricing considerations of information environment issues such as information uncertainty and information asymmetry. In this study, two criteria have been used to measure information uncertainty. Based on the standard deviation of cash flows by the matched company (MF) method, the first criterion of information uncertainty on the model presented by Larson and Risatek is based. To measure the second criterion three different indicators were used, and then factor analysis method was used to convert these indicators into a single criterion. Information asymmetry is also measured based on the two indicators of accruals quality and sales gap. Also, the expected return of shareholders has been calculated based on the 5-factor model of Fama and French, for pricing these issues. For this purpose, data related to companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange have been extracted, for the period 1388 to 1397 and a combined regression model has been used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that the comparability of profits and cash flows leads to changes in returns due to information uncertainty and information asymmetry.Thus, investors and users of financial information in the Iranian capital market as well as standard formulators should pay special attention to the importance of comparability of financial reports as a qualitative factor among organizations; this is because it reduces the effects of information environment interference on the decision-making of users of financial information.

Stakeholders' uncertainty about firms' value drives their urge to get information, as well as managerial disclosure choices. In this study, the authors examine whether and how an important source of uncertainty – the recent COVID-19 pandemic's effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure – is beyond managerial and stakeholders' control. The authors develop a novel construct for daily CSR disclosure by employing computer-aided text analysis (CATA) on the press releases issued by 125 New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) listed from 28 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. To capture COVID-19 intensity, the authors use the growth rate of the population-adjusted cumulative sum of confirmed cases in New Zealand on a specific day. To examine the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and companies' CSR disclosure, the authors employed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression by clustering standard error at the firm level. The authors find a one standard deviation increase in the COVID-19 outbreak leads to a 28% increase in such disclosures. These results remained robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continue to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. In the channel analysis, the study demonstrates that the positive relationship between COVID-19 and CSR disclosure is more pronounced in the presence of a well-structured board (i.e. a large, more independent board and with a higher proportion of women on it). In further analysis, the authors find the documented relationship varies over the pandemic's life cycle and is moderated by government stringency response, peer CSR pressure and media coverage. This paper is the first study that contributes to the scant literature examining the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on CSR disclosure. Prior research either investigates the relationship of the CSR-stock return during the COVID-19 market crisis or examines the relationship between corporate characteristics including the quality of financial information and the reactions of stock returns during COVID-19. The authors extend such studies by providing empirical evidence that managers respond to COVID-19 by increasing CSR disclosure.

We examine and compare the extent to which the reaction of investors to earnings announcements is influenced by a firm's governance profile and prevailing market conditions. We find that firms with better governance characteristics experience a larger initial reaction to both good and bad earnings announcements regardless of the prevailing sentiment and uncertainty conditions. However, the influence of governance is constrained to the announcement period. We demonstrate that changes in market uncertainty and/or investor sentiment are related to the post-earnings announcement drift. We also find that a major channel through which greater corporate governance influences the market response to unexpected earnings news is by lowering information uncertainty and so providing greater clarity of the implication of the news for firm value. Finally, we establish that two types of uncertainties (market and information) have very different influence on investor's response to information signals. JEL Classification: D81, G10, G14, G30, G32 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms engaging in innovative practices have patents to prevent competitive forces from eroding the resulting economic rents; however, there is limited evidence regarding the impact of innovation on risk. We shed new light on how firms' involvement in innovation activities impacts their volatility, particularly their idiosyncratic volatility. In this paper, we empirically examine the effect of innovation on idiosyncratic volatility. To do so, we empirically examine the impact of innovation, measured by patents weighted by citations and R&D expenditure, on the idiosyncratic volatility of firms. Using a large sample of 8256 US firms, we find that more innovation is associated with lower idiosyncratic volatility. We also find that information uncertainty is the channel through which innovation affects idiosyncratic risk. The results are robust for different measures of idiosyncratic volatility. These results have empirical implications for investors, managers, and firms engaging in innovation-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management international / International Management / Gestiòn Internacional is the property of Management International and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Introduction. Meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection are important indicators of the regulation of personal meanings. In a modern rapidly changing society, individuals do not fully manage their lives due to the influence of various uncertainty factors. The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 and swept across the world is considered a global factor of uncertainty. The increased uncertainty of life associated with the pandemic is an additional stressor. This paper represents a first effort in obtaining empirical data on gender characteristics of teachers’ meaning-based regulation in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. This paper reports the results of an empirical study of differences in meaning-in-life orientations and self-reflection among teachers before and during the pandemic as different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. Methods. The study was conducted among female teachers of secondary schools in the Rostov region in March 2017 (n = 53) and in October 2020 (n = 43), i.e. before and during the pandemic, which can be considered different conditions of information uncertainty in their lives. We used the following psychological assessment tools: (a) the Meaning-in-Life Orientations test by D. A. Leont'ev and (b) the Self-reflection Questionnaire by I. A. Stetsenko. Results. We observed an increase in all means of both tests during the pandemic, compared to the pre-pandemic values. Differences in all parameters are statistically significant (according to the Mann–Whitney U test). Discussion. Our findings indicate that the pandemic represents a surmountable stressor for the homogeneous acmeological category of female teachers surveyed in this study. Information uncertainty contributes to constructive restructuring of the processes of meaning-based regulation and psychological adaptation, which leads to an increase in the level of meaningfulness of life orientations and self-reflection among the respondents.

We suggest that dispersion in news sentiment, representing the dispersion in informative M&A performance forecasts, effectively captures M&A information uncertainty, disseminates information about transaction risks, and enhances investors' ability to discern high-risk acquisition attempts. We find that consistent with the information uncertainty perspective, dispersion in news sentiment is associated with higher change in the acquirer's information uncertainty, lower M&A announcement return, and lower M&A completion probability. Examining the underlying channel, we show that media reduces information asymmetry between managers and investors and managers listen to the market due to the loss of reputational capital. Our findings are robust to additional analysis, endogeneity test, and robustness check. Overall, we argue that media can function as an alternative channel for corporate governance through dispersion in news sentiment. [Display omitted] • Dispersion in news sentiment (DNS) increases the acquirer's information uncertainty. • DNS reduces M&A announcement return and M&A completion probability. • This negative link is strong for acquirers with low average in news sentiment and larger size. • Acquirer's political connection can suppress DNS when the M&A deal is covered by government-controlled media. • Acquirer's political connection can suppress DNS when the M&A deal is covered by local media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The trend factor performs significantly better following high market volatility periods. • Results remain robust under different asset price models and after controlling for various macroeconomic state variables. • Stock market volatility serves as an important time-series determinant of trend factor performance. This paper investigates how stock market volatility predicts trend factor profits. We find that the trend factor performs significantly better following high market volatility periods. From 1931 to 2022, the average monthly risk adjusted return following high volatility periods is 2.47 %, significantly higher than that following low volatility periods. We hypothesize that fundamental signals are more likely to be imprecise when the stock market is more volatile, leading investors to rely more heavily on trend signals. Consequently, the trend factor could deliver higher profits. Collectively, our paper suggests that market volatility is an important time-series determinant of trend factor performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy budget of open system is a critical aspect of its existence. Traditionally, at applying of energy continuity equation (ECE) for description of a system, ECE is considered as a declaration of local balance in the mathematical (infinitesimal) vicinity for the only point of interest and as such it does not contribute to entropy. In this paper, we consider transformation of ECE to account the effects in the physical (finite) vicinity with infinite number of energy links with environment. We define parameters of appropriate phase space and calculate Shannon's, differential, and thermodynamic entropy. Shannon's and differential entropies look sufficiently close while thermodynamic entropy demonstrates close character of variation in its functionality being different in its mathematical form. Physical applications to confirm contribution of a new concept to the real-world processes are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the constant growth of cities in terms of population and territory, the volume of passenger traffic is sharply increasing. A lot of attention is paid to the study of transport infrastructure in scientific works, but the current problems of the functioning of various types of transport in large cities remain not fully covered. First of all this concerns the great uncertainty in the current information about the movement of transport and their work in the event of emergency situations. The article proposes to use the mathematical apparatus of the theory of queuing systems for the analysis of passenger traffic on urban transport. As an example, a graph of states for fixed-route taxis is constructed and ratios are obtained for evaluating the main indicators of the quality of their work. In the conditions of frequent changes in road situations and uncertainty of the conditions for obtaining information about the current situation, it is proposed to carry out traffic management using intelligent decisionmaking support tools. In this regard, it is advisable to use an approach based on fuzzy situational management. For this purpose, the article proposes an algorithm for fuzzy situational management, which is the basis of intelligent IDSS. . For an optimal transition from the current situation to a situation that meets the new operating conditions, in the sense of the selected criterion, it is proposed to use the dynamic programming method. Ref. 12, pic. 4.

We propose a timing momentum strategy by incorporating moving‐average signals in the price momentum and show that the proposed strategy substantially outperforms the buy‐and‐hold strategy. The performance of the timing momentum is better than that of Barroso and Santa‐Clara's (2015) constant‐volatility momentum and is identical to that of Daniel and Moskowitz's (2016) dynamic momentum. One advantage of the timing momentum is that its weights on winner and loser portfolios are lower than the other two strategies, thus leading to lower transaction costs. Further, we show that the profitability of the timing momentum is enhanced when information uncertainty is high. More importantly, the timing momentum has time‐invariant profitability across various time‐series predictors and during periods of momentum crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility and expediency of estimation of risk factors based on fundamental positions of information and entropy are grounded. In accordance with the principle of addiction, the possibility of using the H-criterion as an indicator of business uncertainty is shown. The algorithm of risk estimation of these investments is offered.

• There is a U-shaped relationship between the performance of carbon neutrality and firm value. • The U-shaped relationship is weaker in state-owned firms and firms operating in B2C industries. • The U-shaped relationship is stronger when information uncertainty is higher. Carbon neutrality is critical in addressing the climate crisis. Using the data of Chinese listed firms from 2018 to 2022, this paper shows a significant U-shaped association between the performance of carbon neutrality and firm value. Our key findings hold after a battery of robustness tests and endogeneity concerns. The U-shaped relationship is weaker in state-owned firms and those operating in B2C industries, and stronger when information uncertainty is higher. This paper has implications for the promotion of carbon-neutral practices in enterprises and the realization of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Individuals’ stress in responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by information uncertainty driven by inconsistent, unverified, and conflicting news from various sources. The current study aims to test if information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak was related to acute stress disorder (ASD) over and above other psychosocial stressors. Methods An anonymous online survey was conducted with 7800 college students throughout China from January 31 through February 11, 2020. Existing scales were modified to measure ASD and six potential stressors including information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to assess the unique association of information uncertainty with ASD. To minimize the effect of large sample size and also to get a sense of whether the effects of information uncertainty were similar to people at the center of the epidemic, we repeated the hierarchical regression among 10% of the students who were randomly selected from the entire sample (“10% random sample”; n = 780) and 226 students from Hubei Province where the outbreak started. Results Information uncertainty was highly prevalent among the respondents (64%). It was significantly associated with ASD beyond other key variables and potential stressors across three samples. In the hierarchical regression among the entire sample, demographic variables accounted for 9.4% of the variance in ASD. The other five stressors added 5.1% of the variance. The information uncertainty (β = .159; p

Using market microstructure data, this study analyzes intraday market responses to corporate disclosures subject to Regulation Fair Disclosure in Korea and examines whether the intraday market responses are affected by information uncertainty. We show that corporate news is incorporated into stock prices in an efficient and timely manner. We further document that positive stock returns and trading volume to good news disclosures are stronger for firms with higher information uncertainty. Overall, our evidence suggests that information uncertainty plays an important role in investors' reactions to corporate disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a social media perspective, this study explores the phenomenon of opportunistic behaviour in supply chain finance (SCF). Based on research into the factors that drive opportunistic behaviour in the context of SCF and the associated effects, this study conceptualises and empirically examines a research model by leveraging social media data related to the 'Noah event'. The data was collected from Sina Weibo, the biggest Chinese microblog platform. A text mining approach utilising Python programming and R technique was employed for data analysis. The results reveal interesting findings. Opportunistic behaviour had negative effects on all the SCF participants involved in the study. Information uncertainty was the factor that induced opportunistic behaviour, whereas information governance played a moderating role that could mitigate information uncertainty and, thus, opportunistic behaviour. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research endeavour investigating opportunistic behaviour in SCF. The insights provided by the study are of significance for both academia and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main technical types of military intelligence of Ukraine, which is constantly carried out (conducted) in peacetime, a special period, in the interests of national security and defense of the state and the fulfillment of tasks in operations (military operations) is electronic intelligence. Electronic intelligence extracts intelligence information by opening up the operation of electronic equipment and systems used to control troops (forces) and weapons, and also collects, processes, analyzes, and brings the intelligence obtained to specific consumers on time. For the continuous and timely provision of consumers with certain information, information (information and analytical) bodies, a set of measures is undertaken for intelligence and information activities, intelligence and information work. In the conditions of dynamism, versatility of the processes of processing, analysis, storage of large volumes of information, the key task remains to reduce the uncertainty of information caused by factors of evolutionary development, factors of the use of complex information systems in various conditions of a complex electronic and operational environment.

This article explores instinctive frames of human decision-making in environmental and resource economics. Higher-moment asset pricing combines rational, mathematically informed economic reasoning with psychological and biological insights. Leptokurtic blindness and skewness preference combine in particularly challenging ways for carbon mitigation. At their worst, human heuristics may generate perverse decisions. Information uncertainty and the innate preference for bonds-and-bullets portfolios may impair responses to catastrophic climate change.

Innovative firms confront potential lenders with various risks, including possible innovation failure, uncertain R&D investment payoffs, cash flow volatility, and low collateral value of hard‐to‐value intangible assets. As a result, these firms might struggle to obtain financing. More readable financial disclosures could mitigate the informational risk around innovative firms' fundamentals, ease their monitoring by lenders, and thus ultimately reduce these firms' cost of debt. In this regard, we find that while all firms can overcome information uncertainty about their firm fundamentals and reduce their spreads by having more readable financial disclosures, there is an additional benefit in terms of readability further lowering the cost of debt for innovative firms. The additional benefit that innovative firms can achieve from having more readable financial disclosures, however, is limited to situations of more pronounced information asymmetry where there is no previous lending relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility and expediency of estimation of risk factors based on fundamental positions of information and entropy are grounded. In accordance with the principle of addiction, the possibility of using the H-criterion as an indicator of business uncertainty is shown. The algorithm of risk estimation of these investments is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of institutional investors on firm value, concentrating specifically on the role of institutional monitoring by nationality in long-term investor-value appropriation (LIVA). The findings reveal a significant positive correlation between domestic institutional ownership and LIVA. Moreover, the presence of independent domestic institutional investors accentuates the strength of this relationship. Notably, this study demonstrates that domestic institutional monitoring significantly impacts firms with high information asymmetry, thus underscoring the monitoring costs associated with geographic distance. In summary, it reinforces the existing body of evidence supporting the monitoring function of domestic institutional investors in influencing firm decisions. It elucidates the variations in long-term firm value by delineating the distinct monitoring roles of domestic and foreign institutional investors. • This study revisits whether institutional investors play a role in enhancing firm value. • We focus on the effect of institutional monitoring by nationality on long-term investor value appropriation (LIVA). • We document the significantly positive relationship between domestic institutional ownership and LIVA. • The results is more evident when firms are owned by more independent domestic institutional investors. • This study highlights the monitoring role of domestic institutional investors on long-term firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rittel and Webber boldly challenged the conventional assumption that ‘scientific’ approaches to social policy and planning provide the most reliable guidance for practitioners and researchers who are addressing complex, and contested, social problems. This provocative claim, that scientific-technical approaches would not ‘work’ for complex social issues, has engaged policy analysts, academic researchers and planning practitioners since the 1970s. Grappling with the implications of complexity and uncertainty in policy debates, the first generation of ‘wicked problem’ scholars generally agreed that wicked issues require correspondingly complex and iterative approaches. This tended to quarantine complex ‘wicked’ problems as a special category that required special collaborative processes. Most often they recommended the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in exploring the relevant issues, interests, value differences and policy responses. More than four decades later, however, there are strong arguments for developing a second-generation approach which would ‘mainstream’ the analysis of wicked problems in public policy. While continuing to recognize the centrality of complexity and uncertainty, and the need for creative thinking, a broader approach would make better use of recent public policy literatures on such topics as problem framing, policy design, policy capacity and the contexts of policy implementation.

The main elements of the statistical model of packed hole assemblies (PHA) design for drilling holding sections in conditions of information uncertainty are formalized and described. A constraint system has been given for the angle maintenance conditions of wellbore direction and dynamic stability of bottom hole assembly (BHA) lateral vibrations. The influence of the information uncertainty of some factors (angle, parameters of the drilling practice, presence of local caverns, etc.) on risk indicators has been analyzed according to the results of the numerical calculations. It has been determined that the risks of angle maintenance disturbance are significantly influenced by the angle and weight on the bit (WOB), and dynamic stability conditions, such as angle and rotation frequency. Risks of multi-supported BHAs which have been designed for conditions of minimizing bit side force, dynamic stability and include 4-6 stabilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Individuals' stress in responding to the current COVID-19 pandemic may be exacerbated by information uncertainty driven by inconsistent, unverified, and conflicting news from various sources. The current study aims to test if information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak was related to acute stress disorder (ASD) over and above other psychosocial stressors.Methods: An anonymous online survey was conducted with 7800 college students throughout China from January 31 through February 11, 2020. Existing scales were modified to measure ASD and six potential stressors including information uncertainty during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to assess the unique association of information uncertainty with ASD. To minimize the effect of large sample size and also to get a sense of whether the effects of information uncertainty were similar to people at the center of the epidemic, we repeated the hierarchical regression among 10% of the students who were randomly selected from the entire sample ("10% random sample"; n = 780) and 226 students from Hubei Province where the outbreak started.Results: Information uncertainty was highly prevalent among the respondents (64%). It was significantly associated with ASD beyond other key variables and potential stressors across three samples. In the hierarchical regression among the entire sample, demographic variables accounted for 9.4% of the variance in ASD. The other five stressors added 5.1% of the variance. The information uncertainty (β = .159; p < .001) explained an additional 2.1% of the variance. Likewise, the information uncertainty explained an additional 2.1 and 3.4% of the variance in ASD beyond all other variables among the 10% random sample (β = .165; p < .001) and the Hubei sample (β = .196; p < .01), respectively.Conclusion: Information uncertainty is a unique correlate of psychological stress during the COVID-19 outbreak. Reducing information uncertainty is essential not only for halting virus transmission but also for mitigating negative impacts of the pandemic on people's psychosocial wellbeing. Transparent, timely, and accurate communication can reduce public confusion, fear, and stress. Capacity building in governments, communities, and media outlets to prevent, reduce and manage information uncertainty should be a critical part of the response to an emerging global health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to theoretical expectations and empirical evidence in developed markets, the Chinese stock market reacts positively (negatively) to interest rate increases (cuts) by the central bank. During the period from January 1996 to December 2016, the Shanghai Composite Index had an average abnormal return of 1.07% (−1.85%) in reaction to interest rate increases (cuts) over the two‐day announcement window. We further demonstrate that short‐term market reactions are transitory and have no permanent effect. Finally, we reveal that short‐term market reactions cannot be explained by market frictions or information uncertainty. Rather, such reactions are likely driven by investor sentiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the development of behavioral financial theory, the experimental literature in this domain has been exclusively oriented toward investigating the relationship between investors’ inclinations and variations of stocks' price. There hasn’t been any independent research on investigating factors contributing to behavioral mistakes of investors and how they can be moderated. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of accounting information quality and information uncertainty on investor sentiment. To achieve this goal, the data of 560 companies during the financial periods from 2009 to 2016 is used. The results of this study showed that accounting information quality and lack of confidence in information have a significant negative and significant positive relationship with investors’ inclinations. Furthermore, the results showed that increase in the quality of accounting information and reduction of confidence in information does reduce investors’ affective behavior in racing stocks. In addition, the results of analyses showed that investors are inclined more toward more optimistic predictions for stock price with lower information quality and confidence when investors are more optimistic.

The purpose of this study is investigating the role of accounting information uncertainty on investors’ reaction to earnings announcement, as well as investors’ reaction to good earnings news. For doing so, a sample of 162 listed companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange in the period 1384 to 1394 have been selected. Three criteria including information quality, cash flows’ uncertainty (traditional and matched- firm method) were used for calculating the information uncertainty. The results of hypotheses test indicated when there is high information uncertainty (compared to low uncertainty), investors’ reaction to earnings announcement is less. Also, under high uncertainty, investors display less reaction to good news that this response is consistent with the conservatism approach.

Many companies adopt concurrent engineering in their product-development projects in order to reduce time to market. Concurrent engineering requires careful management, since the uncertainty of transferred information leads to rework and renders a development process complex. Most of the existing studies on concurrent engineering have analyzed overlapping between two activities. The present study expanded the research scope by modeling the developmental process of the concurrent execution of multiple activities as the result of management decisions, the overlapping ratio, and the information transfer frequency. When multiple activities are overlapped, it is more difficult to model a development process, since the uncertainty of cascaded information has impacts on many activities. The quantitative model developed in the present study provides insights into the uncertainty of information and the product-development process. Based on the generalized process model for multiple-activity overlapping, the optimal decision to minimize project duration was considered. As a solution to the dilemma of the high computational burden of considering all feasible decision sets, this paper proposes a myopic heuristic. The project management heuristic proposed in this paper is intended to assist managers in the decision-making process, as well as reducing the intermediate deadlines in project main plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2009, the Securities Exchange Board of India allowed qualified institutional investors to anchor initial public offerings (IPOs) by participating in the issue at a price and allocation publicly disclosed preceding the issue. We study anchor investors (AIs) in Indian IPOs during 2009–2017. We find the share allotment and the number of AIs separately have significant impacts on valuation and underpricing; however, the net effect is nonsignificant. Further, AIs significantly influence other institutional investors' participation in the IPO and induce lower aftermarket volatility. Overall, our evidence suggests that AIs boost demand for and mitigate ex ante information uncertainty of IPOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two potential key drivers of the financial strength (F-Score) investment strategy: information uncertainty and liquidity. We use novel, direct measures of information uncertainty related to the variability of financial strength signals themselves. However, financial strength strategy returns are not generally strongly related to these information uncertainty proxies. We also examine two proxies for liquidity. Financial strength strategy returns are generally substantially larger for illiquid firms. A zero-cost arbitrage strategy based on F-Score generates a 20% return in illiquid UK stocks and 12% in liquid UK stocks. The enhanced F-Score effect is driven by a flight from illiquidity amongst financially weak stocks. Overall, the profitability of the F-Score investment strategy appears more closely related to liquidity than to information uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the determinants of goodwill overstatement at the time of mergers in a Korean setting. In the Korean M&A market, there are two types of mergers: mergers between independent companies (non‐affiliated mergers) and mergers between companies under common control (affiliated mergers). This study extends the literature by examining the factors likely to cause goodwill overstatement in both types of mergers. The results reveal that in affiliated mergers, goodwill at the time of a merger tends to be overstated when controlling owners have higher equity ownership in the target than in the acquirer. By contrast, information uncertainty in the target value causes initial goodwill overstatement in non‐affiliated mergers. We also find that monitoring of independent institutional investors with concentrated holdings against overpaying for the target is more pronounced when controlling owners in affiliated mergers have incentives to overpay for the target. In affiliated mergers, acquirers tend to write off goodwill more frequently when controlling owners have higher equity ownership in the target than in the acquirer. In non‐affiliated mergers, information uncertainty in the target value is significantly associated with subsequent goodwill write‐offs. These results suggest that the type of merger has important consequences for initial goodwill recognition and subsequent impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how firms use information technology (IT) implementation to mitigate an anomaly in capital markets: investors underreacting to new public information. The theory of information uncertainty (IU) suggests that the anomaly is amplified with IU; that is, with ambiguity in information about firm value. We theorize that a firm's IT in general—and enterprise systems (ES) in particular—can mitigate IU, thus reducing the IU-induced underreaction anomaly. Based on a difference-in-differences analysis of a sample of 572 ES implementations, our main finding is that ES implementation does reduce IU-induced underreaction anomaly. This is achieved through a reduction in the firm's fundamentals volatility and an improvement in information quality. We also find that firms with greater IT capability are better positioned to realize the anomaly-reducing benefits of ES implementation and that ES's anomaly-reducing effect is most pronounced when high levels of both functional and operational ES modules are implemented. We obtain remarkably consistent results when using alternate empirical design, samples, and measures of news. Such IT impacts are economically highly consequential because they improve capital market efficiency. This paper was accepted by Anandhi Bharadwaj, information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The authors examine whether a cognitive bias influences dividend policy. They find that managers use a heaping heuristic when choosing the amount of their firm's dividend. Heaping is a human error or bias to round numbers even though precise values are desired. This bias leads to dividend distributions clustered at specific amounts. Dividend size and the level of information uncertainty faced by management help explain the likelihood of heaping. The authors also observe that heaped dividends are "sticky" and altered less frequently, and when there is a dividend change, heaped dividends are more often switched to another heaped amount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a problem of source data uncertainty concerning the technical state of gas supply systems. Decision-making in the region of managing and development planning of the gas supply systems (production, transport, distribution, storage), as a rule, occurs by lacking of information, and the validity of some data is questionable. We propose to formalize the information uncertainty in terms of membership functions of the fuzzy sets. Mathematical models and algorithms for solving the various modelling and optimization problems of the natural gas transport are worked out. The results of calculations demonstrate the potential of the technique. • Fuzzy models for the technical state parameters of pipelines and compressors. • An algorithm for calculating the maximum flow capacity of a gas-transport system with fuzzily-assigned parameters. • An optimization algorithm of the operation modes of a gas transport system with fuzzily-assigned parameters. • Application of the proposed models and algorithms to the illustrative and real-world gas transport systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]