We examine whether and how language barriers influence a country’s decision to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Our findings reveal that as the distance between a country’s official language and English (i.e., linguistic distance) increases, the likelihood and speed of a country adopting IFRS decrease. Our evidence is consistent with the notion that language barriers impose significant information costs on preparers and users of financial reporting, making IFRS costlier to adopt for countries with severe language barriers. In further analysis, we find that such information costs materialize when these countries eventually adopt IFRS. Specifically, firms in countries with the most severe language barriers experience a worsened post-adoption information environment, as evidenced by increased analyst forecast errors and widened bid-ask spreads. Overall our study suggests that language barriers impede achievement of international accounting harmonization by increasing the costs associated with adopting, understanding, and applying IFRS.

We analyze a unique set of Chinese firms to isolate the impact of accounting standards on financial reporting comparability and capital markets. From 2001 to 2006, these companies simultaneously maintained two sets of financial statements because of their dual-class share structure: statements for A-shares followed Chinese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), whereas those for B-shares followed International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find a disparity in financial reporting comparability between these two accounting standards: IFRS produce less comparable information than Chinese GAAP. We also find that the disparity in comparability is related to fair value accounting, especially when corporate governance is weak.

We examine whether firms engage in classification shifting to meet performance targets during mergers and restructuring.Using a sample of listed firms that complete major asset restructuring and sign performance commitment agreements from 2008 to 2019,we find that during the commitment period,nearly 39％of firms'step on the line'to achieve net income before non-recurring items.Compared to control firms,firms that'step on the line'to meet the target are more likely to achieve this by misclassifying recurring expenses as non-operating losses.Furthermore,this effect is more pro-nounced in firms with larger committed amounts,firms using stock to compensate for non-performance,and firms audited by non-Big 4 auditors.Overall,our paper extends the research on incentives for classification shifting and has implications for regulators to strengthen the regulation of accounting treatment in performance commitments.

SynopsisThe research problemThis paper explores the association between postmaterialistic culture and corporate tax-avoidance behavior.MotivationAlthough corporate tax avoidance is prevalent, the degree of tax avoidance varies across countries. Previous studies have suggested that national culture is associated with the level of tax avoidance (e.g., corruption culture in [DeBacker, J., Heim, B. T., & Tran, A. (2015). Importing corruption culture from overseas: Evidence from corporate tax evasion in the United States. Journal of Financial Economics, 117(1), 122–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2012.11.009 ], and societal trust in [Kanagaretnam, K., Lee, J., Lim, C. Y., & Lobo, G. J. (2018). Societal trust and corporate tax avoidance. Review of Accounting Studies, 23(4), 1588–1628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-018-9466-y ], among others). Unlike prior studies focusing on longstanding cultural factors, this paper examined the association between corporate tax avoidance and an important current culture trend, i.e., postmaterialistic culture.The test hypothesesThere is no association between postmaterialistic culture and corporate tax avoidance.Target populationVarious stakeholders that care about corporate tax avoidance including the government, policymakers, investors, auditors, and firm managers.Adopted methodologyLinear Probability Model and Ordinary Least Squares regressions.AnalysesWe examined the association between postmaterialistic culture and corporate tax-avoidance behavior. We used a proprietary dataset of China tax audits spanning the 2011–2014 period and tested the moderating effect of tax enforcement. We also examined the external validity of our results using a cross-country sample from 21 countries over the 1993–2014 period.FindingsUsing a proprietary dataset of China tax audits, we found that firms owned by investors from countries with higher postmaterialism values were less likely to engage in tax-avoidance behavior in China. In addition, we found some evidence that the negative association between postmaterialism and tax avoidance is more pronounced when tax enforcement is stronger, indicating that national culture and formal institutions act as complements. To check the external validity of our main results, we further used a cross-country sample from 21 countries over 22 years. The evidence from the cross-country sample was consistent with the findings obtained from the China tax audits setting.

There is an ongoing debate over uniformity versus flexibility in accounting regulation. This study examines the financial reporting consequences of a rigid accounting rule in China under which the fiscal year-end is uniform for all companies. Using extensive interviews together with large-sample archival analyses, we find that "mismatched" firms-those whose mandated financial reporting cycles are not aligned with their business cycles- exhibit higher levels of absolute abnormal accruals than their nonmismatched counterparts. Further analyses suggest that the negative association between mismatching and financial reporting quality is mainly driven by unintentional estimation errors rather than intentional earnings manipulation.

We use a quasi-natural experiment wherein the Shanghai Stock Exchange requires listed companies in certain industries to disclose operational information and a staggered difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of mandatory information disclosure on corporate innovation. We find that companies subject to mandatory operational information disclosure show significantly increased innovation. This effect is pronounced for companies classified as non-state-owned enterprises, facing severe financing constraints and a high degree of shareholder tunneling behavior and in competitive and high-tech industries. Although mandatory operational information disclosure reduces their competitive advantage, companies appear to compensate by increasing innovation. Our study highlights the positive impact of mandatory operational information disclosure, indicating that it contributes to the high-quality development of both capital markets and companies.

数字技术引发了传统产业的变革、催生了新兴产业,同时也促进了产业间的融合发展.特别是新冠肺炎疫情暴发以来,数字技术、数字经济在支持抗击新冠肺炎疫情、恢复生产生活方面发挥了重要作用.数字技术支撑的新产品、新服务、新业态、新商业模式,成为经济增长的主要贡献力量.透过数字经济相关现象,洞悉背后的本质和规律,在数字经济顶层设计层面提出可行的对策建议,属于较为前沿的学术领域,也是青年学者的责任.刘西友的《新治理:数字经济的制度建设与未来发展》(以下简称本书)这本书,在这方面做出了创新性研究,成为新时代提升数字经济治理能力的重要探索.

本文探讨了海尔如何通过构建共赢增值表来衡量并管理其商业生态平台的价值创造行为.共赢增值表是海尔应物联网战略转型需要而开发的价值管理工具.研究表明:共赢增值表通过以用户价值为核心,以资源方、小微单元、支持平台等各相关方的共创共赢共享为价值创造逻辑,放宽了传统财务报表的基本假设,弥补了经济增加值、平衡计分卡等绩效评价工具的不足,推动了企业生态战略的实施与贯彻,促进了资源方的聚集与合作,强化了员工激励,从而更加适应生态平台企业的价值管理过程.共赢增值表把新时代下价值创造的驱动因素纳入财务报告,以扭转在实现决策有用性和评价受托责任过程中会计信息相关性下降的趋势.研究结论对互联网时代背景下企业如何运用新工具进行价值管理具有启示意义.

We examine whether and how insiders trade on government subsidies, a major instrument through which the governments intervene in the economy. Using a novel dataset of government subsidies of Chinese listed firms, we find that net insider purchase increases significantly during the month of subsidy receipt. The effect of subsidies on insider trading is weaker in firms with a more transparent information environment and when subsidies are granted in a more predictable manner. In contrast, the effect is more pronounced for politically connected firms. Further analysis shows that the subsidy-trading relation may reflect both insiders' informational advantage concerning subsidies and their superior ability to detect mispricing-related opportunities. Our findings provide new insights into the capital market consequences of government subsidies through the lens of insider trading.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

虽然传统经济学往往假定个体能够在给定约束条件下做出最优选择,然而,行为经济学的研究进展表明,个体决策行为并非如传统经济学所假设的那样理性.文章探讨了会计作为一种决策辅助系统在缓解个体决策有限理性、提高个体决策质量方面的若干作用,包括:(1)基于公允价值计量原则缓解沉没成本对个体决策的干扰;(2)通过信息综合防止个体过度关注一次性损失;(3)基于现代会计原理矫正个体心理账户的不当之处;(4)基于预先设定的投入回报率缓解预算专款专用对消费行为的扭曲.研究表明,会计能够在提高个体决策质量中发挥积极作用,优化个体决策行为,进而促进社会整体决策质量的提升.

中国经济已经进入高质量发展时代,企业也需要实现高质量发展.基于文本分析方法,文章构建了企业高质量发展的概念内涵,并指出中国企业在高质量发展方面还存在若干不足.当前会计业绩评价存在的若干缺陷,包括不够微观、不够宏观、不够及时、不够长期等,制约了中国企业的高质量发展.为此,文章提出改进会计业绩评价的若干建议:通过要求企业报告更加微观、更加及时的财务信息,有助于提高企业内部资源配置效率和外部资本市场的资源配置效率;通过要求企业报告更加宏观、更加长期的财务信息,有助于引导企业从整个生态圈系统和更加长期主义视野进行管理决策,从而促进中国企业成为更加负责任、更加可持续的经济主体.

We examine the effect of strategic deviation on the relative amount of firm-specific information incorporated into stock prices, measured by stock return synchronicity. Strategic deviation is conceptualized as the extent to which the pattern of a firm’s resource allocation deviates from that of its industry peers. We find that strategic deviation is negatively associated with stock return synchronicity. Using a path analysis, we document that firms following deviant strategy issue more frequent managerial forecasts and have a higher level of block ownership than nondeviant firms, and that both managerial forecasts and block ownership partially mediate the relationship between strategic deviation and stock return synchronicity. Our study contributes to accounting and finance literature by documenting the role of firms’ strategic positioning in the stock price-formation process.

现有企业财务舞弊识别模型主要基于企业披露的财务信息,而对非财务信息利用不足.本文借助我国上市公司强制披露的销售量、生产量、库存量等非财务信息,考察非财务信息是否有助于识别企业的财务舞弊行为.研究发现,当财务指标增长率(主要指营业收入增长率)与非财务指标增长率(包括销售量增长率、生产量增长率和库存量增长率)之间差异的绝对值越大,企业存在舞弊行为的可能性越高.进一步,我们区分差异的方向,发现无论是正向差异还是负向差异,营业收入增长率与非财务指标增长率之间的差异程度越大,企业存在舞弊行为的可能性都越高.我们的研究还表明,二者的正向差异程度与企业的操纵性收入存在显著的正相关关系,负向差异程度与企业的真实活动盈余管理存在显著的正相关关系.本文提供了非财务信息有助于识别企业财务舞弊行为的经验证据,为审计师、投资者、监管者等利益相关者验证财务业绩真实性、降低资本市场信息不对称、提高资源配置效率等提供了重要的决策参考.

本文主要考察决策者经历多样性对企业创新的具体效应及其影响机制.基于中国上市企业董事长和总经理工作、学习及其他经历指标体系,我们采用主成分分析法构造决策者经历多样性综合指数,研究发现:决策者经历多样性对企业创新绩效存在显著的正向促进效应.决策者经历多样性通过提高失败容忍度、促进协同创新、识别并激励高水平发明家等途径促进企业创新.决策者经历多样性对企业创新的影响在高科技企业、成长性企业以及国有企业中更加明显.

业财融合的关键在于经营分析要从财务动因深入到业务动因,这有助于真正洞察财务信息背后的驱动因素,为成本核算和定价提供有益信息,有助于明确管理责任,有助于控制成本并实现战略成本管理.这就要求财务人员必须打破财务与业务的隔阂,主动参与各项业务活动,真正实现通过财务分析驱动企业价值创造.