Using data from Chinese listed companies between 2011 and 2024, we develop a dual-channel financing demand-supply analytical framework to examine the impact of generalist CEOs on corporate over-indebtedness. The findings reveal that generalist CEOs, driven by their heightened risk preference, create substantial financing demand through expansionary investment strategies. On the supply side, financial institutions price generalist CEOs as risk factors, elevating debt costs, while their social networks secure expanded trade credit, creating parallel financing channels. This dual demand-supply dynamic ultimately leads to over-indebtedness. The research provides novel theoretical perspectives for understanding the formation mechanisms of corporate over-indebtedness and offers important implications for improving corporate governance mechanisms.
This study investigates the impact of connected analysts - those who follow a firm and are socially connected to the firm's managers - on the firm's persistent innovation. We show that connected analysts significantly promote the persistence of innovation output, particularly in terms of invention and exploitative innovation. Specifically, connected analysts promote persistent innovation input by alleviating information asymmetry and foster persistent innovation output by facilitating access to external knowledge. Notably, the effect is more salient when a firm is in a region with strong intellectual property protection or high levels of trust, and the connection is derived from education and business relationships.
This study examines the impact of data assets disclosure on stock price crash risk. Using a large sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2007 to 2023, we find that data assets disclosure can help reduce crash risk. Mitigating information asymmetry, limiting management's ability to hoard bad news and reducing agency costs are potential mechanisms. The effect of data assets disclosure on reducing crash risk is more pronounced for firms with larger size, more intense industry competition, and weaker internal governance. Collectively, our results reveal that data assets are valuable in reducing crash risk by facilitating the transmission of information.
This study reveals the critical role of financial analysts in enhancing the information environment of innovative firms following the strengthening of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. Leveraging staggered rollouts of specialized Intellectual Property (IP) tribunals in China as exogenous shocks, we find that stronger IPR protection prompts financial analysts to shift attention from non-innovative to innovative firms, improving innovative firms' information environment (higher forecast accuracy, lower bid-ask spreads). Further, the reallocation is driven by innovative firms' better prospects, more patent disclosures, and higher investor demand. Finally, analysts who increase their attention to affected innovative firms are more likely to attain star status.
Data assets are the most competitive key strategic assets formed by firms during the process of digital transformation. It can play a role in value creation and conversion, which is of great significance to high-quality economic development. Using a sample of listed firms in China from 2011to 2022, we find that firms with data assetization have a higher level of risk-taking. Mechanism analysis shows that data assetization enhances corporate risk-taking by improving commercial credit financing and boosting innovation capability. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of data assetization on corporate risk-taking is more pronounced when the type of data asset is private, when the firm is located in a region with a higher level of digital financial development, when the firm faces a higher degree of product market competition, and when the firm has a greater accumulation of technological capital. Our study enriches the research on the economic consequences of data assets and offers insights for how listed firms can better promote data assetization and manage data assets.
This study examines factors considered in investor decisions to invest in physical and tokenized real estate in Vietnam using discrete choice modeling on data from 413 participants in Ho Chi Minh City. Results show that legality, transparency, transaction fees, and expected returns are key determinants of investment consideration. Older and higher-income investors exhibit lower preference for tokenized assets, while female, more educated, and blockchain-familiar investors show greater adoption tendencies. The findings highlight how legality and institutional quality shape emerging digital asset markets, underscoring the need for legal clarity, transparent data, and targeted education to foster tokenized real estate development.
We examine the impact of industry-classified information disclosure (IID) on managerial learning from peers in emerging markets, using a sample of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2021. With the help of the external policy of Industry Information Disclosure Guidelines (IIDG), we discover that investment-to-peers' stock price sensitivity declines with the introduction of the IIDG, suggesting that IID reduces management's reliance on peer stock prices. This is because IID increases public information and crowds out the private information in peer stock prices, weakening managers' incentives to learn from them. We further find that the decline in sensitivity is concentrated for focal firms with high industry concentration, growth, and low financing constraints, those listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and non-SOEs, as well as peer firms with high analyst attention, where management depends more on peer stock prices to make investment decisions. Further analysis illustrates that IID reduces the future performance of firms with more peer-informed trading. Overall, our findings suggest that policies aimed at 'creating a fair competition environment' by disclosing insider information may have unforeseen consequences, namely altering the composition of price information relevant to firms' actual decisions by discouraging the production of private information.
Given the importance of product scarcity, this study employs an iterative algorithm to more precisely measure the export sophistication of 200 countries over the period from 2002 to 2020. Furthermore, the study investigates the underlying mechanisms and transmission pathways through which technological innovation influences export sophistication. The empirical findings indicate that technological innovation significantly enhances export sophistication. Moreover, the impact of technological innovation on export sophistication exhibits heterogeneity across countries with different income levels, with a more pronounced effect in high-income countries. Additionally, technological innovation fosters export sophistication by increasing total factor productivity.
This study explores the relationship between bank profitability and credit risk in Indonesia, focusing on conventional and Islamic banks. Using data from 2013 to 2022, it examines variables like Pre-Provision Operating Profit (PPOP), Return on Asset (ROA), Allowance for impairment losses (AFIL), Non-Performing Loan Ratio (NPLR)/Non-Performing Financing Ratio (NPFR), Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR)/Financing to Deposit Ratio (FDR), Loan to Total Asset Ratio (LTAR)/Financing to Total Asset Ratio (FTAR), Net Interest Margin (NIM)/Net Operating Margin (NOM), and Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) to assess long-term trends. Findings show Islamic banks struggle with excessive lending, higher Non-Performing Financing, and reduced profitability, while conventional banks demonstrate strong capital and liquidity but need better profit margin optimization. The study highlights differences in credit risk management both models, offering insights to enhance risk practices and performance. Islamic banks must improve risk assessment, while conventional banks should refine lending and capital strategies.
Prior research suggests that investor monitoring via corporate site visits improves accounting quality in Chinese public firms, but these investors' small stakes and short investment horizons limit their influence. We hypothesize that managerial willingness drives these visits. Analyzing 2011-2023 Chinese stock market data, we find that firms with better accounting quality accept more visits, robust after accounting for endogeneity. High sales growth increases earnings management and visits, but firms with poorer accounting quality accept fewer visits when sales growth is high. Thus, managers permit corporate site visits when confident in accounting quality.
This study examines the relationship between stock price informativeness and corporate risk-taking level using a large sample of non-financial Chinese firms over the period 2008-2023. We find compelling evidence that stock price informativeness is positively related to corporate risk-taking level. Further analysis shows that this positive relation is achieved through two plausible channels, namely, the learning hypothesis and the governance mechanism. Our study also shows that the positive relationship between stock price informativeness and corporate risk-taking level is more pronounced among small firms, non-state-owned firms, and financially constrained firms.
This paper examines how risk factors disclosed in bond prospectuses affect corporate bond issuance costs. We find that bonds with lower credit ratings disclose more risk factors in their prospectuses, which in turn is associated with higher issuance costs. This effect is especially pronounced for firms with higher default risk, greater stock volatility, and lower profitability, particularly after the first default event in the corporate bond market. These findings are robust after addressing endogeneity and conducting robustness tests. Furthermore, sufficient risk disclosure makes bonds less likely to trade below the offering price on their first trading day.
As HSR reduces geographical constraints on resource allocation, we examine whether audit firms engage in inter-office client realignment to optimize resource allocation. Our results indicate that the possibility of inter-office client realignment significantly increases after HSR introduction. The realignment enhances audit quality and occurs more frequently for economically important or high-risk clients. Mechanism tests show that the realignment effect is driven by audit firms' optimization of resource allocation, rather than audit market competition, human capital constraints, or auditor switching. Overall, this paper provides valuable insights into understanding how audit firms adjust client allocation strategies in response to external shocks.
This study examines the impact of common institutional ownership (CIO) on excessive leverage in Chinese listed firms. The results show that CIO significantly reduces excessive corporate leverage. Mechanism analysis indicates that CIO mitigates excessive leverage by improving equity financing and enhancing corporate governance. This effect is more pronounced in firms with more stable institutional investors and lower analyst coverage, and holds for both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the deleveraging effect of CIO also helps reduce inefficient investment and lower debt default risk.
