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In this study, we examine the effect of firm-level governance on the firm's choice of an external auditor. Further, we test how the relation between corporate governance and auditor choice may be affected by the strength of legal environment. The results show that firm-level governance scores are positively related to the firm's auditor choice. This association is strengthened by country-level legal protection. Specifically, the positive association between auditor choice and the firm-level governance scores is weaker (stronger) in a low (high) legal environment. These findings are robust after controlling for determinants that were found to be significant in earlier research. Overall, our results suggest that the benefits arising from the employment of high-quality auditors are likely to be greater when legal environment is stronger because both auditors and firms are subject to more severe legal punishments for opportunistic behavior.

This study experimentally examines how the size of a profit-sharing contract offered to a pair of employees and a feedback system that provides information on individual employee cooperativeness affect the sustainability of cooperation. Both the larger profit-sharing contract and the feedback system do not provide explicit economic incentives for cooperation. We find that when there is no feedback system, a larger profit-sharing contract increases the sustainability of cooperation as well as employees’ self-reported reciprocity to the experimental firm and trust in fellow employee. Introducing the feedback system improves the sustainability of cooperation and employees’ self-reported trust in fellow employee. However, the feedback system reduces the positive impact of a larger profit-sharing contract on cooperation sustainability. Our results suggest that firms can rely on increased profit-sharing and feedback, rather than explicit economic incentives for cooperation, to motivate sustained cooperation and improve interpersonal trust.

This paper seeks to investigate how control-cash flow divergence of a firm's ultimate owner may affect the timeliness of accounting recognition of economic losses (TLR) relative to recognition of economic gains, and if engaging an audit industry specialist mitigates the reduced TLR arising from control divergence. Our results show that firms with greater divergence in control and cash flow rights are less timely in loss recognition (relative to gain recognition). We also find evidence that clients audited by industry specialists are associated with greater TLR. More important, we find that the negative association between control divergence and the TLR is moderated by the auditor industry specialization. The results are robust to controls for legal institutions, political economy, extralegal institutions, firm and industry characteristics, and the potential endogeneity between auditor choice and control divergence. Given that Bushman, Piotroski, and Smith (2006) provide evidence to suggest that TLR is a desirable attribute of accounting since it leads to significant positive economic consequences, the findings of our study suggest that hiring an audit industry specialist in the presence of control divergence can lead to positive economic consequences for the firm.

This paper extends prior studies in auditor industry specialization to an international setting and examines if the impact of industry specialist auditors on earnings quality is dependent on the legal environments. Using data for 28 countries over 20 industries from 1993 to 2003, we find that clients of industry specialist auditors have lower discretionary current accruals and higher earnings response coefficients than clients of nonspecialist auditors. In addition, we find that the impact of auditor industry specialization on earnings quality increases as the legal environment weakens. Collectively, the results suggest that the benefits from engaging the services of industry specialist auditors increase as a country's legal environment shifts from a strong to a weak environment. Our results are robust to the inclusion of additional control variables.

PurposeThis paper seeks to address the value relevance of summary accounting measures and fundamental income statement variables in the market valuation of biotech firms.Design/methodology/approachA biotech firm's stock price was related to its underlying financial accounting variables. Using the Ohlson model, the linear function of book value and earnings was employed, and the basic model was augmented with additional accounting variables. These accounting variables may provide information relevant for forming an approximation on the present value of expected future abnormal earnings.FindingsResults show non‐linearities in the pricing of accounting variables Both book value and earnings are value relevant, but positive earnings are positively priced while negative earnings are negatively priced. R&D spending and selling, general and administrative expenses are also priced as assets for loss‐reporting firms, and as expenses for profit‐reporting observations. Including analysts’ forecasts of future earnings and long‐term growth rate in the model results in an insignificant increase in the explanatory power of the regressions.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research could attempt to examine the role of non‐financial variables which can proxy for the soft variables and intangibles like strategic alliances and product pipeline. Decomposing revenue into product sales, interest income and collaborative research revenue may further enhance our understanding on the determinants of the market value of biotech stocks.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights into the valuation of biotechnology stocks. Results show non‐linearities in the pricing of summary accounting measures and fundamental income statement variables.

The SEC issued FRR No. 48 in 1997 to enhance public disclosure of firms’ exposures to market risk. We examine whether the quantitative value-at-risk (VAR) estimates disclosed by 81 non-financial firms during the period 1997–2002 are value-relevant using the earnings-returns relation. The empirical results indicate that high VAR is associated with weaker earnings-returns relation. Further analysis shows that VAR is positively and significantly associated with future stock return volatility. Our evidence suggests that investors perceive the earnings of firms with substantial market risk exposure to be less persistent, and adjust the future abnormal earnings for the higher risk exposure. Thus, this results in a lower expected rate of return.

This study extends prior studies by examining how managerial ownership and external unrelated blockholdings affect the informativeness of earnings. The results are in contrast to prior studies. A non–linear relation exists between managerial ownership and earnings informativeness. Earnings informativeness increases with managerial ownership at low levels but not at higher levels of managerial ownership where the entrenchment effect sets in. Consistent with the role of large shareholder monitoring, the evidence shows a strong positive relationship between external unrelated blockholdings and earnings informativeness. These results are supported when income–increasing and absolute discretionary accruals are used to measure the extent of earnings management

In this article, I use the principal-agent framework to examine the incentives of risk-and work-averse agents to work on projects that are long-term, multistage, and subject to abandonment. Periodic applications of effort by the agent are required. The agent also obtains private information as the project evolves, and he decides whether the project should be abandoned or continued. The principal not only seeks to provide incentives to induce the agent to take up such risky investments and work hard at them, but also seeks to provide incentives for the agent to abandon the project if the profit prospect is low. We show that the agent's decision to continue is not always aligned with the principal's desire. The result provides an economic rationale for the sunk cost phenomenon. There also exist conditions under which the agent chooses to prematurely abandon the project.

This study seeks to evaluate the stability of financial ratios across industry and over time. The sample comprises companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore from 1980 to 1991 over six industry groupings. A set of 29 most commonly used ratios was selected for the study. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and analysis of variance were performed. From the factor analysis results, eight representative ratios were identified. Analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were subsequently performed for each representative ratio to test if it is significantly different across industry and over time. The results indicate that financial ratio averages of the various industries are significantly different. This implies that the appropriate benchmark for evaluating company performance and position should be industry‐specific instead of economy based. Also, five of the representative ratios are significantly different over time and not all the industrial averages move consistently over time (i.e., interaction effects of industry and time exist). Thus, industry averages are not necessarily appropriate benchmarks for setting and evaluating performance through time.