The extant academic literature considers enterprise risk management (ERM) to be the fundamental paradigm for managing the portfolio of risks confronting organizations. However, there is debate as to whether ERM actually enhances stakeholder value. This study investigates whether ERM is associated with increased earnings predictability and a lower risk of firm failure, two theoretical predications regarding ERM's impact on stakeholder value. My research utilizes the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) enhanced proxy statement disclosures as of February 28th, 2010 to measure ERM performance. Additionally, in order to quantify the operational construct, textual analysis is performed to develop a measure of ERM performance to be used in econometric analyses. The analyses presented in this paper investigate whether key predicted benefits of ERM are observable. Results support the proposition that ERM is associated with increased earnings predictability. Specifically, earnings and accruals are found to be more persistent for firms with better ERM performance. Additionally, analysts' earnings forecasts are more accurate in the presence of enhanced ERM performance. Results are inconclusive with regards to ERM's ability to influence the risk of firm failure during this study's sample period (i.e., 2007-2009). One explanation for this departure, the economic volatility during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, may make it difficult to empirically detect the relationship between ERM performance and the risk of firm failure. / Ph. D.

This dissertation examines the characterization of transient investors by financial analysts. Transient investors have been portrayed in the literature as either 1) informed investors or 2) poor monitors. No research to date, however, has examined how financial analysts, who are important information intermediaries, characterize transient investors. A view of transient investors through the lens of a financial analyst is obtained through examining how the presence of transient owners in a firm affects financial analysts' decision making. Specifically, this study examines how transient ownership affects both the propensity of analysts to herd when issuing earnings forecasts for a given firm as well as the incidence with which analysts revise their forecasts when the firm issues earnings guidance. Empirical tests show that financial analysts exhibit a greater propensity to herd when there are transient investors present. The proposed reason for this effect is analysts are herding due to reputational concerns. Further testing, however, does not show that the relation between transient ownership and analyst herding is owed to poor monitoring behavior of transient-owned firms. In contrast, evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the firm information environment of transient-owned firms is an important cause of analyst herding. In summary, evidence is consistent with the informed investor portrayal of transient investors and there is no evidence indicating financial analysts view transient owners as poor monitors. Finally, when the decision of analysts to issue revised forecasts is examined, it is found that having a higher percentage of the firm owned by dedicated or long-term investors increased the propensity of analysts to issue a revised forecast. Thus, while my analysis is inconsistent with a poor monitoring portrayal of transient investors, results suggest that a dedicated investor base can enhance the perceived credibility of firm disclosures. / Ph. D.

Annual university rankings produced by mainstream sources, such as U.S. News and World Report, are very popular and viewed as important by a variety of university stakeholders. Consequently, universities expend a great deal of effort in an attempt to ensure they appear in the best possible light. One major component of these ranking systems is the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which is partly based on the research expenditures reported by the university. This system provides incentives for administrators at institutions of higher education to make strategic accounting choices, with respect to the classification of research expenditures, to improve the prestige of the university. I first measure the amount of accounting discretion within a university's classification of research expenditures and then test whether discretionary research expenditures impact the prestige of a university. Results indicate that discretionary research expenditures are positively associated with university prestige. Specifically, universities within my sample that have positive discretionary research expenditures have an increased probability of subsequently being classified as a Doctoral University with moderate to high research activity by 5% and 7% respectively. In addition, universities within my sample that had positive discretionary research expenditures experienced increases in their ranking of federal funding received relative to other universities by an average of 20.4 positions. These results are consistent with the concept that universities can make certain discretionary accounting choices which can help improve the prestige of the institution with the goal of obtaining additional sources of funding. / Ph. D.

No / We examine how information risk and transaction costs influence the initial and subsequent market reaction to earnings news. We find that the initial market reaction is higher per unit of earnings surprise for higher information risk firms (information content effect). Furthermore, it is information risk that induces transaction costs that limit the initial market reaction and lead to higher subsequent drift (transaction costs effect). Information risk does not have an effect on drift beyond that achieved through transaction costs. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding the linkage between information risk and transaction costs in price discovery around public disclosure.

No / Using a unique dataset for Egyptian firms, we investigate the relationship between board independence, audit quality and earnings management. We test whether firm-level corporate governance provisions matter in an emerging market setting characterised by weak legal enforcement and inadequate external discipline by the market for corporate control. Our results cast doubt on the notion that a higher ratio of nonexecutive members is associated with lower earnings management. We find that the effect of board independence on earnings management practices is contingent on the levels of ownership held by executive directors and large shareholders, as well as the composition of audit committee. In addition, the results are consistent with the view that high-quality auditors are effective in reducing earnings management.

Yes / This paper examines whether major media advertising expenditures help in predicting future earnings. We consider the role of media advertising in firms’ marketing efforts and posit that persistent advertisers are more likely to benefit from advertising activities in creating long‐lived intangible assets. Employing a sample of persistent UK advertisers over the period 1997–2013, we find that advertising expenditures are significantly positively associated with firms’ future earnings and market value. We also report size and sector‐based differences in the association between advertising and firms’ future earnings. Our additional analysis provides support for the arguments that despite the recent rise in digital advertising budgets, traditional advertising media are still effective in positively influencing firms’ performance. Overall, the results of this study are consistent with the view that advertising expenditures produce intangible assets, at least for firms in certain sectors. These findings have implications for marketers in providing evidence of the value generated by firms’ advertising budgets, for investors in validating the relevance of advertising information in influencing future earnings, and for accounting regulators in relation to the provision of useful insights for any future deliberations on financial reporting policies for advertising expenditures.

Within the field of labor economics, there has been a lot of empirical work which has shown that married men earn more than unmarried men. Theoretically, this makes some sense in that men which earn more money than other men may be more attractive partners for marriage. Also, married men may work harder and longer in order to increase their earnings to support their family. Empirical evidence has shown that marital status is a statistically significant variable when performing a simple regression on earnings using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). However, OLS can produce biased estimates if one or more of the independent variables are determined endogenously, which is the contention made by Robert A. Nakosteen and Michael A. Zimmer. They found that after adjusting for the endogenous nature of the marital status dummy variable the variable was no longer significant in explaining the variation in earnings. However, two of their shortcomings were a narrowly defined age group for the data set and less than richly specified regression equations. But, using a different data set and additional explanatory variables in order to address the problems of the Nakosteen and Zimmer research I was able to show that even when adjusting for the endogenous nature of the marital status variable its effect on earnings was still significant / Master of Arts

This thesis examines if price momentum and momentum in firm fundamentals measured by earnings and revenue momentum are related on the Swedish stock market. Price momentum is measured through the 11-month prior performance (11MPM), Earnings Momentum through Standardized Unexpected Earnings (SUE), and Revenue Momentum through Standardized Unexpected Revenue Growth (SURGE). Using firm-level data from 2007 until 2024, zero-investment momentum strategies are established and show significant returns not explained by any conventional asset pricing model. There is a strong dominance of the earnings momentum strategy, by wide margin outperforming both price and revenue momentum. The abnormal price momentum profits disappear when controlling for earnings momentum returns, whereas the returns to earnings momentum remain robust after controlling for the price momentum. These results support the claim that price momentum is a weak manifestation of fundamental momentum. The revenue momentum returns are not explained by earnings momentum, which indicates that these performance metrics contain exclusive information about the fundamental performance of a firm.

證期會於民國九十一年十一月十四日公布「公開發行公司公開財務預測資訊處理準則」，該準則中規定已公開財務預測之公開發行公司，於年度終了後一個月內須公告申報預計損益表之達成情形並說明差異原因。而且若與嗣後經會計師查核之稅前損益間之差異超過一定門檻時，亦須一併公告差異金額及原因。 本研究預期，公司為了聲譽、股價、融資受阻及溝通成本等原因，可能不希望自結損益與查核損益差異過大。另外，公司管理當局為了避免上述差異超過門檻，在公告自結損益前可能洽請審計人員進行財務報表初查或過目自結損益表；而審計人員也可能為了避免查核時調整事項過多，造成與客戶間的衝突，亦可能希望客戶在公告自結損益前能先洽請審計人員進行初查或過目自結損益表。因此，實施自結損益規定可能造成審計人員先前涉入公司之自結損益。 本研究以四大會計師事務所之合夥會計師九名及資深審計經理六十六名為對象，採取實驗的方式，探討實施自結損益規定對審計人員審計判斷的影響。並進一步探討審計人員先前涉入公司自結損益的普遍程度，及此一情形對審計人員審計判斷的影響 實驗結果顯示實施自結損益的規定的確會使得審計人員普遍先前涉入公司自結損益；審計人員調整應計損失的幅度比實施前小，尤其在其有先前涉入公司自結損益的情形下，更為明顯；且發現因設有重大差異標準而造成的門檻效果。換言之，依本研究結果推論，實施公告自結損益規定會影響審計人員的專業判斷，壓縮審計人員調整損益的空間。 / This thesis experimentally examines the effects of a regulation on audit judgments. In November 2002, the Securities and Futures Commission announced a new measure requiring listed companies that have made their financial forecast to the public to release within a month after the year end their income statements (hereafter called “pre-announced earnings”) and explain the discrepancy from the forecasted earnings. This new measure requires that the above listed companies release their earnings information earlier than the deadline for filing audited financial statements (hereafter called “audited earnings”) by three months, aiming to ask the listed companies to provide more timely information to investors. It also sets some threshold beyond which the companies and auditors are required to explain the discrepancy. The threshold dictates, among others, that the differences between the pre-announced earnings and audited earnings cannot exceed 20 percent of pre-announced earnings. The current study predicts that due to the consideration of reputation, communication costs, and stock price reaction, companies will have incentives to keep the difference, if any, between the pre-announced earnings and audited earnings within the limit. The auditors will also have similar incentives to do so to avoid the loss of clients, and communication costs. In doing so, the companies will ask auditors to involve in the process prior to pre-announcing earnings (hereafter called “pre-announcement process”), which will help narrow down the difference between pre-announced earnings and audited earnings. This study recruits 66 senior managers and nine partners from Big 4 firms to participate in an experiment in which they make audit judgment as to the adjustment required for a client’s allowance for bad debts. They are also required to generalize the client’s case to the listed companies as a whole and make similar judgments. Their perception on the extent to which auditors’ involvement in the pre-announcement process is also solicited. The data based on the experiment are used to examine the following hypotheses: H1: The adjustments required by auditors will be smaller after this new regulation than before the new regulation. H2: The degree to which auditors are involved in the pre-announcement process will be high. H3: The adjustment required by auditors will be smaller when auditors are involved in the pre-announcement process than when they are not. The results show that the adjustment required by auditors is smaller after the new regulation than before the new regulation. But the difference is not statistically significant (p = 0.133). When generalizing the client’s case to the listed companies as a whole, the difference becomes marginally significant (p = 0.074). Thus, H1 is not supported. The auditors perceive that the extent to which auditors will be involved in the process prior to pre-announcement is significantly higher than 7 on a 1-9 scale (p = 0.002), supporting H2. The results also indicate that auditor’s prior involvement in the pre-announcement process has a significant effect on the required adjustment no matter it is a specific or general case (p < 0.001). Thus H3 is supported. Combining these findings suggests that the new regulation has an effect on constraining auditors in requiring adjustments to their client’s accounting estimates to the extent that the threshold permits. This new regulation therefore poses a trade off between relevance (timeliness) and reliability (representational faithfulness) of accounting information. Meanwhile, the role of auditors in attesting financial statements may also be adversely affected.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la gestion des résultats dans le cadre des entreprises innovantes. Elle est constituée de trois articles. Dans le premier, il s’agit d’examiner si les résultats des entreprises innovantes sont gérés et si le stade de développement des innovations influence cette gestion des résultats. Il apparaît que les résultats des entreprises innovantes sont gérés à la hausse. Cette gestion ne semble intervenir qu’au cours de l’activité d’innovation (c’est-à-dire lorsque les entreprises investissent en R&D) ; l’achèvement des innovations n’incitant pas les dirigeants à gérer les résultats. Partant de ce constat, nous nous demandons dans le deuxième article si (i) la comptabilisation des dépenses de R&D est utilisée comme une modalité de GR ou (ii) si l’activation de ces dépenses est une information comptable fiable. Nos résultats montrent que les dépenses de R&D sont activées pour gérer les résultats et plus précisément pour atteindre des résultats cibles. L’activation des dépenses de R&D est une information comptable fiable uniquement lorsque les dirigeants ne sont pas incités à atteindre des résultats cibles. Enfin, dans le troisième article, nous observons si les dirigeants des entreprises innovantes utilisent l’ajustement des dépenses de R&D en plus de leur activation pour atteindre les résultats cibles. Il apparaît que ces deux modalités de GR sont utilisées conjointement pour atteindre le bénéfice et les prévisions de résultat des analystes. En revanche, pour éviter une diminution du résultat, les dépenses de R&D sont soit ajustées soit activées. / This thesis deals with earnings management in the context of innovative companies. It consists in three articles. In the first, we examine whether the earnings of innovative firms are managed and if the stage of development of innovations influences this earnings management. Results show that the results of innovative firms are managed upward. This earnings management seems to occur only during innovative activity (i.e. when firms invest in R&D); the completion of innovations not incenting to manage earnings.Based on this observation, in the second article, we wonder whether (i) R&D expenditures are capitalized in order to manage earnings or (ii) whether the capitalization of these expenditures is reliable accounting information. Our results show that R&D expenses are capitalized in order to manage earnings and more precisely to meet earnings targets. R&D capitalization is reliable only when managers have no incentive to achieve earnings targets. Finally, in the third article, we examine whether managers use jointly the adjustment of R&D expenditures and their capitalization in order to beat earnings targets. Results show that managers use these two earnings management techniques to beat zero earnings and analysts earnings forecasts. However, R&D expenses are either capitalized or reduced to avoid a decrease of earnings.