{"title":"Contemporary insights on corporate guidance: A discussion of Call, Hribar, Skinner, and Volant (2024)","authors":"William J. Mayew","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101710","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101710","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Guidance is an important and long-studied topic in the accounting literature. Call, Hribar, Skinner, and Volant (this issue) survey managers who provide guidance and those that do not to generate insights on the costs and benefits of providing guidance. For managers who do provide guidance, perceptions regarding guidance characteristics are elicited. Firm responses are connected to archival data sources, enabling cross-sectional analysis of survey responses and facilitating comparison of self-reported guidance with common guidance proxies in the archival literature. I discuss key insights from the survey, considering the limitations inherent in the survey method. I also clarify what is meant by the term guidance, how it differs from other forward-looking information and how researchers operationalize the guidance construct. I conclude by offering six research questions for future consideration based on the survey evidence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101710"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141615131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting and innovation: Paths forward for research","authors":"Mary E. Barth , Kurt H. Gee","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101733","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101733","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Glaeser and Lang (2024; GL) reviews the accounting literature on innovation, which has increased substantially in recent years. GL makes an important contribution to accounting research by bringing into the literature the implications of Romer's Nobel Prize winning endogenous growth theory and by explaining how accounting research addresses questions related to innovation. We contribute to accounting research by building on GL's foundation to suggest three main paths forward for future innovation research. First, focus on innovation's three defining attributes: novelty, nonrivalry, and partial excludability. Second, determine the needs of various users of information about a firm's innovation activities and how to meet those needs; we focus on the needs of investors. Third, address questions our discussion highlights as potentially important for future research on financial reporting and innovation, including the crucial question of an innovation's identifiability.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101733"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141994711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrew C. Call , Paul Hribar , Douglas J. Skinner , David Volant
{"title":"Corporate managers’ perspectives on forward-looking guidance: Survey evidence","authors":"Andrew C. Call , Paul Hribar , Douglas J. Skinner , David Volant","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101731","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101731","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We survey corporate managers of both guiding and non-guiding firms. We find that managers of firms that provide guidance say that they: (1) primarily provide guidance to satisfy analyst and investor demands and manage analysts’ earnings expectations; (2) are relatively unconcerned about proprietary or litigation costs (managers of <em>non-guiding</em> firms are more likely to see litigation risk as a concern); (3) predominantly issue guidance that is conservative relative to their internal expectations; (4) are concerned that guidance induces analysts and investors to focus on the short-term but <em>not</em> that it induces managers themselves to make myopic decisions internally. We also find that managers are miscalibrated about the accuracy of their guidance and that significant quantities of guidance that managers say their firms issue are not captured by conventional sources. We offer several other new insights relevant to the voluntary disclosure literature.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101731"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141910788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Retail investors and ESG news","authors":"Qianqian Li , Edward M. Watts , Christina Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101719","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101719","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An important debate exists around the extent to which retail investors make sustainable investments and, if they do, why. We contribute to this debate by investigating the aggregate trading patterns of retail investors around a comprehensive sample of key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) news events for U.S. firms. We show that ESG news events appear to be an important factor in retail investors’ portfolio allocation decisions. Yet, inconsistent with arguments about retail investors’ nonpecuniary preferences, our evidence shows that retail investors mainly trade on this information when they deem it financially material to a company’s stock performance. We also find their net trading demand predicts abnormal returns in the subsample of financially material events, consistent with retail traders benefiting from incorporating ESG-related information into their decision-making when it influences firm value. Overall we conclude that the average U.S. retail investor cares about firms’ ESG activities but primarily to the extent these activities matter for company financial performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101719"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141891654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Retail investors and ESG news: A discussion","authors":"Richard G. Sloan","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101730","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101730","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Li, Watts, and Zhu (2024) provide evidence that retail investors trade in response to financially material ESG news. This evidence is consistent with retail investors trading in response to the financial implications of ESG-related information in much the same way that they trade in response to the financial implications of other information. The authors suggest that their evidence is inconsistent with retail investors making investment decisions based on their nonpecuniary preferences. I suggest that their research design is constructed to identify financially motivated trading and is not well suited to drawing inferences about retail investors’ nonpecuniary investment decisions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101730"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141994714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financial statements vs. FinTech: A discussion of Minnis, Sutherland, and Vetter","authors":"Peter Demerjian","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101716","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101716","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Minnis, Sutherland, and Vetter (MSV) documents a sharp decline in lenders’ collection of attested financial statements (including unqualified audits, reviews, and compilations) over the period 2002 to 2017. They attribute this change to lenders adopting new technology and new non-bank lenders entering the lending market. In this discussion, I explore several dimensions of their findings. First, I provide a framework for usefulness of financial statement information in debt contracting. Using this framework, I consider how financial statements may be useful for the small and medium loans the authors study, and how this role could be disrupted. Second, I consider how financial technology (FinTech) has disrupted traditional lending and potentially changed the role of financial statements. Finally, I consider the implications for this change on the accounting profession.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 2","pages":"Article 101716"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141768936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fraudulent financial reporting and the consequences for employees","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101673","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101673","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>We combine U.S. Census data with SEC enforcement actions to examine employees' outcomes, such as wages and turnover, before, during, and after periods of fraudulent financial reporting. We find that fraud firms’ employees lose about 50% of cumulative annual wages, compared to a matched sample, and the separation rate is much higher after fraud periods. Yet, employment growth at fraud firms is positive during fraud periods; these firms overbuild and hire new, lower-paid employees concurrent with the fraud, unlike firms in distress which tend to contract. When the fraud is revealed, firms shed workers, unwinding this abnormal growth and resulting in most of the negative wage consequences. Wage outcomes are particularly unfavorable in thin labor markets, and lower-wage employees, though unlikely to have perpetrated the fraud, experience more severe wage losses compared to higher-wage employees.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 1","pages":"Article 101673"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016541012400003X/pdfft?md5=056cb210ed7bf1b9b8a7c97ffc07bea4&pid=1-s2.0-S016541012400003X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139573899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Institutional trading, news, and accounting anomalies","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101686","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101686","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Previous studies find mixed evidence on whether institutional investors exploit capital market anomalies. Examining a large sample of accounting-based anomalies, we find that institutions trade in the wrong direction of overreaction anomalies, but in the right direction of underreaction anomalies. These heterogenous trading patterns, rather than reflecting institutions' differential anomaly trading skills, can be simply explained by institutions’ tendency to trade in the same direction as the sentiment of news. Examining earnings news and a comprehensive sample of newswire releases, we find strong support for this explanation. Finally, institutional trading appears to exacerbate (mitigate) mispricing associated with overreaction (underreaction) anomalies.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 1","pages":"Article 101686"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140279272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quants and market anomalies","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jacceco.2024.101688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Sell-side quantitative equity research analysts (Quants) conduct econometric analyses of stock returns to uncover market anomalies and assist equity analysts and institutional clients with stock selection. We present novel evidence that establishes their role in helping analysts and mutual fund clients discover market anomalies and capital markets evolve toward greater pricing efficiency. Specifically, we find that analysts and mutual fund clients with greater access to Quants make recommendations and trades that reveal greater knowledge of anomalous cross-sectional return predictability. More importantly, cross-sectional return predictability is weaker in stocks that have higher coverage (ownership) by analysts (mutual fund clients) with access to Quants, and strengthens when quasi-exogenous brokerage house closures reduce the availability of Quants.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48438,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Accounting & Economics","volume":"78 1","pages":"Article 101688"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165410124000181/pdfft?md5=e3e6567b1a00a6539f00c03388ffc452&pid=1-s2.0-S0165410124000181-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140280343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}