{"title":"The Korean Spotlight: The Effect of Culture on Stock Returns Through Investor Attention*","authors":"Kyung Hee Park, Sanghoon Lee","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12483","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajfs.12483","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study empirically examines the relationship between “investor attention” and aggregate stock returns, seeking to determine whether interest in South Korea can predict the returns of the Korean stock market. The results confirm a positive relationship between interest in Korea and future stock market returns. Furthermore, this relationship is observed to have emerged with the widespread dissemination of Korean culture starting in 2017. This impact is found to be more significant on the KOSDAQ market compared to the KOSPI market. Within the KOSPI market, the influence of interest on stock returns is particularly pronounced in the case of small-cap stocks. It is also observed that since 2017, as interest in South Korea has increased, information related to the improvement of Korea's corruption index has begun to significantly affect stock returns.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 4","pages":"416-435"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141968004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring Nonlinear Linkage between Corporate Financialization and Innovative Efficiency: Identification and Governance of Excessive Financialization*","authors":"Shan Xu","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajfs.12482","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the underlying causes of the nonlinear link between financial asset holdings and innovative efficiency. It identifies an inverted U-shaped pattern linking corporate financialization to innovation, with financing restrictions, agency costs, and business risk serving as some of the relationship's partial mediating factors. By categorizing financial assets into short-term monetary and long-term nonmonetary types, it reveals heterogeneous effects on innovative efficiency, suggesting that the impact is not solely crowding out or a pulling effect but varies based on asset type and proportion. Additionally, it argues for continual adjustment of proper corporate financialization levels based on firm-specific factors and changing external conditions. Notably, excessive financialization appears less prevalent among Chinese firms, with internal governance and external environmental enhancements recommended to optimize financialization for innovation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 4","pages":"467-503"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141967379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comprehensive Asset Pricing Tests in the Korean Stock Market","authors":"Jaewan Bae, Jangkoo Kang, Jun Park","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12475","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12475","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We examine the empirical performance in the Korean stock market of three new asset pricing factor models: the Stambaugh–Yuan (2017) mispricing factor model, the Daniel <i>et al</i>. (2020) three-factor model, Barillas-Shanken (2018) six-factor model and the Hou <i>et al</i>. (2021) q5-factor model. We find that all factors in these factor models have significantly positive risk premiums and are not explained by the Fama–French six-factor model. Compared to other prevalent models, the q5 model shows the highest maximum Sharpe ratio, mainly due to its profitability and expected growth factors. Further, the q5 model exhibits superior performance in explaining the returns of 97 anomaly portfolios in the Korean market.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 4","pages":"436-466"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajfs.12475","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140976430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special Issue on FinTech and Related Issue","authors":"Hyun-Soo Choi","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajfs.12473","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 2","pages":"125"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140651163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Voice of Risk: Wall Street CEOs' Voice Pitch and the 2008 Financial Crisis*","authors":"Andy Kim, Min Jung Kang, Sijia Cao, Soohyun Park","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12471","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12471","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The pitch of a male voice is an honest signal of his threat potential coming from testosterone. Recognizing endogenous matches between firms and CEOs, we propose to use voice pitch of the CEO as a proxy for the unobservable risk-taking strategy of the firm. Using digitally analyzed male CEO voice pitch in 167 CNBC interviews during the 2008 global financial crisis, we find that deep-voiced Wall Street CEOs (i) managed riskier firms, (ii) received more equity-based compensation before the crisis and (iii) were more likely to be fired after the crisis, controlling for economic incentives, overconfidence, and narcissism.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 2","pages":"200-237"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajfs.12471","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140608873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Employee Characteristics and Corporate Risk-Taking: Focusing on Tenure","authors":"Hyungjin Cho, Sera Choi, Dae-Hyun Kwon","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12465","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12465","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates whether employee characteristics are associated with corporate risk-taking activities. The analysis shows that employee tenure is negatively associated with corporate risk-taking. This association remains robust to the instrumental variable approach and propensity score matching method. Furthermore, the negative relation between employee tenure and corporate risk is stronger for firms offering lower wages and for more labor-intensive firms. Overall, this study highlights the importance of considering the interaction between managers and stakeholders such as employees when understanding corporate risk-taking.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 3","pages":"282-303"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajfs.12465","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140595230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does the Textual Tone of Analyst Reports Have Valuable Information? Korean Evidence*","authors":"Su-Ji Cho, Ki-Kwang Lee, Cheol-Won Yang","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12469","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12469","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We investigate whether the text of analyst reports can provide additional information beyond the recommendation and target price. Positive and negative word lexicons are generated through an automated Bayesian learning method applied to Korean analyst reports spanning from 2016 to 2018. Then, the textual tone of an analyst report is quantified as the difference between the frequencies of positive and negative words in the text. The announcement returns of portfolios sorted by textual tone exhibit significant differences ranging from 1.14% to 2.82% within the same recommendation or target price revision group. Regression analysis also reveals significant association between the textual tone of analyst reports and stock announcement returns, even when controlling for the recommendation and target price. Notably, the text proves to be more informative in negative tones and within firms with limited analyst coverage. Our results indicate that textual analysis can unveil nuanced analyst opinions not captured by numerical information.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 3","pages":"349-389"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140595228","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation in Financial Inclusion Policies with Digital Transformation: Evidence from South Korea*","authors":"Kiwoong Byun, Jusung Hong, Baeho Kim, Jehyun Park","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12467","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12467","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study aims to provide economic insights to enhance the implementation of financial inclusion policies by advancing credit analytics through financial digital transformation. To this end, we examine whether integrating financial analytics innovation with large-scale financial data can boost the effectiveness of financial inclusion policies and ultimately contribute to better economic outcomes for financially vulnerable individuals. According to our analysis, the government funding program of KRW 200 billion (approximately USD 155 million) can potentially assist an additional 46.56% of financially excluded individuals in South Korea who struggle to obtain loans due to their current credit ratings.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 2","pages":"128-154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140595074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Interactions Between Investors and Management Result in More Conservative Accounting Information?*","authors":"Yaoyao Li, Tianmei Wang, Yang Zhao","doi":"10.1111/ajfs.12468","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ajfs.12468","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Within the context of the investor–management interaction platforms “E-Interaction” and “Interaction Easy,” this paper investigates the influence of investor and management interaction on accounting conservatism and explores the strategic response behavior of management. The findings indicate that both the intensity and depth of investor inquiries contribute to the enhancement of accounting conservatism. Moreover, compared to “template” responses, management's “targeted” responses to investors significantly increase the accounting conservatism of companies. Mechanism tests reveal that investor–management interaction, by enhancing investor monitoring capabilities and increasing the litigation and reputational risks faced by companies, subsequently enhances the accounting conservatism of companies. Further analysis shows that in cases where companies are audited by non-Big Four auditor and have lower analyst coverage, indicating a weaker external information environment, investor–management interaction can yield better governance effects.</p>","PeriodicalId":8570,"journal":{"name":"Asia-Pacific Journal of Financial Studies","volume":"53 2","pages":"155-199"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140594943","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}