Theory suggests that managers issue earnings forecasts to reduce information asymmetry. An earnings forecast is more effective in reducing information asymmetry if it contains earnings news that is relatively more informative about the firm’s value. We hypothesize that a manager is more likely to issue an earnings forecast if investors perceive that earnings are more informative. We measure ear...

Bushman and Smith (2001, this issue) provide a useful review of research on the role of accounting in management compensation contracts and an appealing future research agenda that builds on recent research using a cross-country approach. This paper rounds out their discussion by highlighting some limitations of their research agenda, providing a critical review of the contributions of accounti...

We use the occasion of a change in tax policy that raised the tax rate for many of the listed companies in China to examine tax-induced earnings management (TEM) from the perspective of political connections. We find that when the tax rate increased, only those affected firms with politically connected management engaged in TEM. This suggests that, in addition to motivation for managing earning...

Since observed audit opinions do not generally become more favourable after companies switch auditors, it has been argued that companies do not successfully engage in opinion-shopping. Rather than comparing observed preand post-switch audit reports, this study tests for opinion-shopping by predicting the opinions companies would have received had they made opposite switch decisions. My results ...

This paper investigates information disclosures made by the chairpersons of boards of directors in 120 failing UK companies. There are four main findings. Firstly, chairpersons excessively blame poor performance on exogenous factors rather than managerial decisions. Secondly, almost half of chairpersons do not candidly disclose problems that are apparent when they write their statements. Thirdl...

The aim of this article is to present the application of a strategic map for hospital management. The main hypothesis is, that strategic map for a hospital should differ from the classical one by Kaplan & Norton due to different priorities hospital work specificity as such. The main finding is that financial perspective is fundamental, basic for hospital activity. In hospital “X” strategic map,...

Instead of relying on accounting principles and illustrative accounting examples, this paper examines the rationale for ESO expensing from an economics perspective and has the following findings. In principle, while ESO expensing is justified under ESOs’ expense-postponing function, it is not under the employee-stimulating function. In practice, ESOs’ risk-sharing function poses a fundamental d...