I investigate the way in which Australian managers issue their earnings forecasts, and the impact this has on the reaction of equity investors and security analysts. Using a sample of 233 management earnings forecasts issued from 1994 to 2001, I find that managers are more likely to issue earnings forecasts when they have bad earnings news than good earnings news. I find that a vast majority of forecasts are ???framed??? by the use of an accompanying earnings benchmark. Forecasts are issued with varying degrees of specificity (or precision) and also with variation in additional accompanying disclosures. Forecasts issued with negative framing (forecast earnings less than benchmark earnings) are more likely to be accompanied by statements about factors external to the firm in explaining performance, while forecasts issued with positive framing (forecast earnings greater than benchmark earnings) are more likely to be accompanied by additional verifiable forecasts of components of earnings. I find the market reaction to earnings forecasts released with positive framing is higher than for forecasts released with negative framing, after controlling for forecast news and other forecast properties. I also examine security analysts??? forecasts around the release of management earnings forecasts and find that after the release of a management earnings forecast, analyst activity increases, but that analysts??? forecasts become less accurate and more biased. Neither the extent of analyst activity nor changes in analysts??? forecast accuracy or bias is related to forecast framing.

This study investigates the impact of IT investments and several contextual variables on the volatility of future earnings. We find evidence that IT investments strongly increases the volatility of future earnings and that four contextual factors - industry concentration, sales growth, diversification, and leverage - strongly moderate IT's effect on earnings volatility. It is notable that while the main effect of IT spending on earnings volatility is strongly positive, not all of the moderators are. This suggests that there are conditions under which the positive risk-return relation can be either offset or even reversed. Taken together, these results suggest an explanation for what has recently been termed the "new productivity paradox", i.e. the apparent under-investment in information technology despite evidence of highly positive returns for doing so.

<p>Lic.-avh. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2013</p>

Bakgrund och problem: Årsredovisningar har till syfte att redovisa information om företagets finansiella situation. Om det finns felaktigheter i denna information påverkar det företagets intressenter. Idag finns det möjligheter för vd:n att påverka resultatet via olika tekniker i den riktning som han/hon anser är lämplig.  Det kan finnas olika anledningar bakom dessa aktioner och en som uppmärksammats är att vd:ns relation till styrelsen kan ha inverkan på användandet av earnings management. I denna studie har vår avsikt varit att undersöka om det finns något samband i användandet av earnings management och vd:ns inblandning i styrelsen. Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka om earnings management förekommer i större omfattning i företag där vd:n är invald i styrelsen än företag där vd:n inte är med i styrelsen Metod: Studien har använts sig av en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi, där utgångspunkten har varit en deduktiv forskningsansats. I insamlandet av data har vi använt oss av en metod som heter innehållsanalys. Studiens undersökningsdesign har varit longitudinell design Resultat och slutsats: Studien visade att det inte finns något samband mellan större användning av earnings management och vd:ns inblandning i styrelsen. Vi valde att diskutera detta resultat med utgångspunkt i agent- och stewardshipteorin om hur förhållanden mellan styrelse och vd kans se ut. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Intressanta aspekter att fortsätta forska om är att få en förståelse bakom till varför olika vd:s agerar som de gör, och på så sätt få fler svar inom ämnet. Även att utöka denna studie i liknande former för att få svar på frågan i andra segment.

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The objective of this dissertation is to identify both individual and contextual characteristics that may affect the wage earnings of Chinese in the U.S. labor market. The major individual characteristics include education, labor experience, and English ability; the contextual factors include percent of Chinese Americans, percent of Asian Americans, percent of nonwhites, percent of Chinese-owned businesses, occupational and residential segregation between Chinese and whites, and unemployment rate. Using the combined data of one percent and five percent 2000 Public Use Microdata Samples for 70 metropolitan areas, hierarchical linear models (HLM) were run for three groups of Chinese: native-born, foreign-born U.S. citizens, and foreignborn non-U.S. citizens. The results show that the returns to education are highest for the native-borns but lowest for the non-U.S. citizens. A command of good English benefits recent immigrants more than the native-borns. Labor experience tends to bring positive gains to both native-born and foreign-born U.S. citizens but shows no effects on earnings of foreign-born non-U.S. citizens. The results support both the human capital and assimilation perspectives. The HLM results indicate that occupational segregation from majority whites tends to impose a strong and negative effect on the earnings of native-born Chinese; a higher percentage of Chinese-owned businesses tends to increase the earnings of only foreign-born U.S. citizens; unemployment rate is likely to depress the wage earnings of the foreign-borns but not the native-borns. This suggests that Chinese workers with a different immigration history face the labor market differently. Residential segregation, percent of Chinese Americans, percent of Asian Americans, and percent of nonwhites, do not show any direct effects. Occupational segregation, the percent of Chinese-owned businesses, and the representation of the Chinese population are found to impact earnings indirectly through the individual characteristics. All these findings suggest that contextual factors do not necessarily impose direct effects on wage earnings; however, they may transfer their effects onto earnings via individual characteristics. This study represents an attempt to bring new insights into earnings attainment models and an addition to the meager body of knowledge concerning both individual and contextual factors that may affect the earnings process of a minority group in the United States. The strengths of using the HLM techniques, the limitations of the study, as well as issues for future study, were also discussed.

Executive Stock Option (ESOs) is the most prevailing encouragement system in the United States. Until the amended Securities Law £i28-¢º and III in July, 2000, the most popular encouragement system in Taiwan is Employee Stock Bonus (ESBs). After introducing the ESOs in 2000, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation (VIS) is the first company to implement the ESOs in February, 2001. Taiwan¡¦s Companies start to implement the ESOs one after another after VIS¡¦s adoption. ESOs are an encouragement system for companies. However, the company management might use earnings management on account of self-interests to increase the value of stock options they owned. The issuance of ESOs can¡¦t increase the profit of the corporate in this situation. On the contrary, it becomes a motivation of the management to manipulate the earnings. This research is about three topics between ESOs and earnings management and the targets are the Taiwan listed electronic companies from year 2001 to year 2005. This study is mainly about three issues of the relations about ESOs and Earnings Management in Taiwan listed companies in the time between 2001 and 2005. First, if companies that grant ESOs would come up more earnings management over time in the lock-up period. Second, if companies that grant ESOs would come up more earnings management than those that don¡¦t grant ESOs when the lock-up period ends. Finally, this study is about the relations between the volume of ESOs and the earnings management. The experiment findings conclude that companies that issue ESOs have the lowest earnings management level at the year of issuance and the highest level at the year of the end of the lock-up period. Comparing with the companies that don¡¦t issue ESOs, companies that issue ESOs have higher earnings management level. Finally, this study concludes that the amount of the ESOs doesn¡¦t affect the earnings management significantly.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-154). Print copy also available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-96). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

This thesis investigates real earnings management behaviors in the context of open market share repurchase. I use three proxies developed by Roychowdhury (2006) to measure real earnings management behaviors, including abnormal cash flow from operations (DCFO), abnormal production costs (DPROD) and abnormal discretionary costs (DDISX). In comparison to existing literature that documents the impact of accrual earnings management on post-repurchase performance, this thesis endeavors in investigate thoroughly both methods of earnings management. I find that repurchasing firms not only engage in accrual earnings management as is documented in Gong, Louis and Sun (2008) but also engage in real earnings management. Empirically, repurchasing firms have significant positive DCFO and negative DPROD in the year of announcements, both of which are earnings-reducing real activities. Repurchasing firms do not exhibit significant evidence of earnings-reducing DDISX in the year of announcements, but they experience earnings-reducing DDISX in all the three years prior to announcements. As predicted, the operating performance and stock performance of a repurchasing firm can be explained by pre-announcement earnings-reducing accrual manipulations and pre-announcement earnings-decreasing real earnings management. Specifically, the pre-repurchase downward DPROD makes the most important explanatory variable in both repurchasing and actual repurchasing samples whether controlling for DACC or not. The pre-repurchase upward DCFO is most relevant in determining the post-repurchase stock performances. / published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy