scholarly journals Rhetorical impression management in the letter to shareholders and institutional setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 404-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Aerts ◽  
Beibei Yan
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Litigation Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Linguistic Style ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Institutional Differences

Purpose Using composite style measures of the letter to shareholders, the purpose of this paper is to elaborate dominant rhetorical profiles and qualify them from an impression management (IM) perspective. In addition, the paper examines how institutional differences affect rhetorical profiles by comparing intensity and contingencies of rhetorical profiles of UK and US companies. Design/methodology/approach The authors use automated text analysis to capture linguistic style characteristics of a panel of UK and US companies and employ factor analysis to determine rhetorical profiles. Next, the authors investigate company-level and country-level determinants of a company’s rhetorical stance. Findings The authors document three prominent rhetorical profiles: an emphatic acclaiming stance, a cautious plausibility-based framing position, and a logic-based rationalizing orientation. The profiles represent distinct self-presentational logics and have different readability effects. Rhetorical IM is stronger in US companies, but higher expected scrutiny in the US institutional environment affects sensitivity of rhetorical postures to message credibility and litigation risk, while marginally increasing the less litigation-sensitive defensive framing style in US letters. Originality/value The authors develop replicable archival-based measures of prominent rhetorical IM traits of the shareholder letter, based on composite style features. The authors argue that they are qualitatively different from content-based IM proxies. The authors investigate their institutional and organizational relevance by examining how company features and country-level differences affect incentives and constraints for style-based rhetorical IM.

What drives credit risk of microfinance institutions? International evidence

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 541-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naima Lassoued
Keyword(s):  
Credit Risk ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Microfinance Institutions ◽  
Group Lending ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Random Effects Models ◽  
Credit Quality ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Enforcement Cost ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the factors that affect microfinance institutions’ (MFI) credit risk. These factors include MFIs’ characteristics and country-level indicators. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study uses an unbalanced panel data of 638 MFIs from 87 countries observed over a period ranging from 2005 to 2015. Random-effects models are used to estimate the models. Findings The results reveal that group-lending methodology, percent of loan granted to women and diversification activities reduce credit risk; credit quality is enhanced by the relevance of the information published by public or private bureaus and law enforcement cost increases credit risk. Finally, credit risk tends to be limited in a good institutional environment. Practical implications Several implications can be drawn in light of these findings. For MFIs’ managers, using group lending or granting more credit to women and diversifying their activities enhance their credit quality. Furthermore, authorities need to strength debt repayment institutions and reinforce institutional environment to help MFIs to limit their credit risk. Originality/value Previous studies focus on specific MFIs’ practices that enhance repayment rate or on country-level indicators. One of the contributions of this paper is the use of both types of indicators.

Financial analysts' reaction to voluntary integrated reporting: cross-sectional variation in institutional enforcement contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Rossignoli ◽  
Riccardo Stacchezzini ◽  
Alessandro Lai
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Eu Directive ◽  
Sustainability Disclosure ◽  
Moderating Role

PurposeEuropean countries are likely to increasingly adopt integrated reporting (IR) voluntarily, after the 2014/95/EU Directive is revised and other initiatives are implemented. Therefore, the present study provides insights on the relevance of IR in voluntary contexts by exploring analysts' reactions to the release of integrated reports in diverse institutional settings.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on voluntary disclosure theory, a quantitative empirical research method is used to explore the moderating role of country-level institutional characteristics on the associations between voluntary IR release and analyst forecast accuracy and dispersion.FindingsIR informativeness is not uniform in the voluntary context and institutional settings play a moderating role. IR release is associated with increased consensus among analyst forecasts. However, in countries with weak institutional enforcement, a reverse association is detected, indicating that analysts rely largely on IR where the institutional setting strongly protects investors. Although a strong institutional setting boosts the IR release usefulness in terms of accuracy, it creates noise in analyst consensus.Research limitations/implicationsAcademics can appreciate the usefulness of voluntary IR across the institutional enforcement contexts.Practical implicationsManagers can use these findings to understand opportunities offered by IR voluntary release. The study recommends that policymakers, standard setters and regulators strengthen the institutional enforcement of sustainability disclosure.Originality/valueThis study is a unique contribution to recent calls for research on the effects of nonfinancial disclosure regulation and on IR “impacts”. It shows on the international scale that IR usefulness for analysts is moderated by institutional patterns, not country-level institutional characteristics.

The global entrepreneurship index as a benchmarking tool? Criticisms from an efficiency perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmundo Inacio Junior ◽  
Eduardo Avancci Dionisio ◽  
Bruno Brandão Fischer ◽  
Yanchao Li ◽  
Dirk Meissner
Keyword(s):  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Global Entrepreneurship ◽  
National Systems ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Entrepreneurial Dynamics

PurposeBased on an efficiency analysis of the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI), the purpose was to demonstrate that the Key Performance Indicators’ analysis leads to a misinterpretation of the dynamics of National Systems of Entrepreneurship (NSEs). This might hamper the formulation of sound initiatives in other economies, with relevant implications for developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThis study categorized GEI indicators into output and input indicators. Following this procedure, each dimension was analyzed separately and then compared to each other, considering countries’ productivity rates. The main focus is given to the case of the US, the usual benchmark for NSEs and leader in the GEI Index. Lastly, a taxonomy of NSEs according to their efficiency levels was developed.FindingsThe findings of the analysis demonstrates that innovation-driven economies with lower positions in GEI ranking often have higher productivity rates when compared to economies with higher positions in GEI ranking. Specifically, the US appears not to be a good benchmark in terms of NSE efficiency.Research limitations/implicationsThe study’s approach is limited in scope by data availability on NSEs and the use of GEI, a representation of aggregate patterns of country-level entrepreneurial dynamics. More refined data are needed in order to clarify some insights from this research.Practical implicationsThe perception of systemic efficiency should be considered more thoroughly when designing dedicated entrepreneurship-oriented policies in other countries that aim at establishing a more vibrant entrepreneurial system while facing resource constraints.Social implicationsSimplistic views of systemic aspects may hamper the formulation of sound entrepreneurship-oriented initiatives with particularly relevant implications for public policy in laggard economies.Originality/valueThe value of this article relies on applied a simple metric – efficiency ratio – order than, e.g. data envelopment analysis to portray a key issue related to the interpretation of supranational rankings related to the entrepreneurship ecosystem make mainly by policymakers and scholars that is: pick the 1st one, follow the leader.

scholarly journals A dynamic model for housing price spillovers with an evidence from the US and the UK markets

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alper Ozun ◽  
Hasan Murat Ertugrul ◽  
Yener Coskun
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Housing Markets ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Estate Markets ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Us

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce an empirical model for house price spillovers between real estate markets. The model is presented by using data from the US-UK and London-New York housing markets over a period of 1975Q1-2016Q1 by employing both static and dynamic methodologies. Design/methodology/approach The research analyzes long-run static and dynamic spillover elasticity coefficients by employing three methods, namely, autoregressive distributed lag, the fully modified ordinary least square and dynamic ordinary least squares estimator under a Kalman filter approach. The empirical method also investigates dynamic correlation between the house prices by employing the dynamic control correlation method. Findings The paper shows how a dynamic spillover pricing analysis can be applied between real estate markets. On the empirical side, the results show that country-level causality in housing prices is running from the USA to UK, whereas city-level causality is running from London to New York. The model outcomes suggest that real estate portfolios involving US and UK assets require a dynamic risk management approach. Research limitations/implications One of the findings is that the dynamic conditional correlation between the US and the UK housing prices is broken during the crisis period. The paper does not discuss the reasons for that break, which requires further empirical tests by applying Markov switching regime shifts. The timing of the causality between the house prices is not empirically tested. It can be examined empirically by applying methods such as wavelets. Practical implications The authors observed a unidirectional causality from London to New York house prices, which is opposite to the aggregate country-level causality direction. This supports London’s specific power in the real estate markets. London has a leading role in the global urban economies residential housing markets and the behavior of its housing prices has a statistically significant causality impact on the house prices of New York City. Social implications The house price co-integration observed in this research at both country and city levels should be interpreted as a continuity of real estate and financial integration in practice. Originality/value The paper is the first research which applies a dynamic spillover analysis to examine the causality between housing prices in real estate markets. It also provides a long-term empirical evidence for a dynamic causal relationship for the global housing markets.

scholarly journals Increasing small- and medium-enterprise contribution to local and regional economic growth by assessing the institutional environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leyla A. Gamidullaeva ◽  
Sergey M. Vasin ◽  
Nicholas Wise
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Regional Economic Growth ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Managerial Practices ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Medium Enterprise

PurposeA neo-institutional methodology defines the entrepreneurial environment for SMEs as a multidimensional set of interacting formal/informal institutions influencing regional economic growth. Acknowledging the multidimensional nature of SME growth, this study tests an approach to measure SME institutional environment quality through the identification of regional-level determinants.Design/methodology/approachThe method used in this paper is based on Bruns et al.’s (2017) model and is tested on 81 Russian Federation regions. The approach seeks to determine variation in entrepreneurial ecosystems based on quality and estimated marginal effects of difference across geographical regions.FindingsThe most severe obstacle to SME development in Russia is its shadow economy and corruption. Access to finance, high transportation fees, and instability in the political and economic field ranks second and third, respectively. Results suggest governments should eliminate main obstacles at country-level, which hampers the SME sector's development. While this is noted for this case looking at Russia, this is a common argument found in SME research.Practical implicationsFindings from this study are useful in managerial practice, aimed at increasing innovative development and increasing the competitiveness of Russian SMEs. A neo-institutional approach is one of the theoretical strands with the emphasis on enhanced understanding of organizational behavior and social capital, including cultural norms and beliefs.Originality/valueUtilizing an extended empirical approach to assess the institutional environment for SMEs addresses a research gap – offering novel insight on SME growth useful for policy makers. The results can inform managerial practices to increase SME contribution to economic growth.

scholarly journals Are IPO underwriters paid for the services they provide?

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Meoli ◽  
Andrea Signori ◽  
Silvio Vismara
Keyword(s):  
Stock Price ◽  
Financial Intermediation ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Going Public ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Italian Market ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to relate the fees paid to IPO underwriters to the nature and quality of the services they provide. Design/methodology/approach – Controlling for the characteristics of the firm going public, the risk associated with the offering, and the reputation of the underwriter, the authors study on a sample of Italian IPOs whether a formal commitment by underwriters to provide ancillary services allows them to charge higher fees. Findings – The authors document that asking underwriters to stabilize stock price is costly to the issuer, while to support liquidity is not. The authors’ also show that underwriters stabilize IPOs that really need it, whereas the provision of liquidity support does not seem to be always aligned with the issuer’s interest. Originality/value – Investigating the Italian underwriting market is instructive for two main reasons. First, the institutional setting in IPOs is similar to most continental European countries, but significantly different from the US market. For instance, allocation policies in US IPOs are discretionary for both retail and institutional investors, while in Europe shares cannot be discretionarily allocated to retail investors. Second, the Italian market offers the opportunity to study the going-public decision outside the typical Anglo-Saxon financial systems. This is of interest because while both the UK and the USA have well-developed equity markets and a related industry of financial intermediation centered on providing equity, our analysis sheds light on financial intermediation of IPOs in a bank-centered system.

scholarly journals A chronological review of the Australian litigation risk environment surrounding IPO earnings forecasts

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy C. Artiach ◽  
Gerry Gallery ◽  
Kimberley J. Pick
Keyword(s):  
Initial Public Offering ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Earnings Forecasts ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Regulatory Change ◽  
Litigation Risk ◽  
Risk Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Offering ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to provide a chronological review of changes in the institutional setting regulating Australian initial public offering (IPO) firms’ earnings forecasts over the period from 1994 to 2012. The changing forecasting environment covers both IPO firms’ prospectus earnings forecasts and post-listing updates to those forecasts. Design/methodology/approach This historical analysis reviews the changes in corporate regulation and enforcement, Australian Securities Exchange listing requirements and the outcomes of securities class actions (SCA) that affect IPO firms’ earnings forecasts. Findings A review of the institutional setting regulating Australian IPO firms’ earnings forecasts reveals two inter-temporal shifts in (increasing) litigation risk over 1994-2012 period which have arisen from more onerous regulations, stronger regulatory enforcement and a more active SCA market. The authors document the corporate responses to those shifts. Originality/value This is the first study to comprehensively document research of an inter-temporal litigation risk shift on IPO firms’ earnings forecasting behaviour. It therefore provides a formative base and a useful resource for researchers, practitioners and investigators (regulators, forensic accountants, etc.) when examining the impact of the changes on IPO firms’ forecasting behaviour following regulatory change and enforcement.

scholarly journals Does the Relation between Information Quality and Capital Structure Vary with Cross-Country Institutional Differences?

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 131-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Zeyun Chen ◽  
Chee Yeow Lim ◽  
Gerald J. Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Capital Structure ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Investor Protection ◽  
External Financing ◽  
Financial Leverage ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Accruals Quality ◽  
Institutional Differences ◽  
Cross Country

ABSTRACT Prior research based on U.S. data finds that firms with better information quality raise more equity whereas firms with poorer information quality prefer to issue debt when they seek external financing. Little is known about whether the same conclusion holds outside the U.S. and how the country-level institutional environment influences the relation between information quality and capital structure choices. We examine the relation between accounting information quality (measured by earnings precision, accruals quality, and analyst consensus) and financial leverage across 24 countries and whether that relation varies systematically with country-level investor protection and financial orientation. We document a lower financial leverage for firms with better information quality. More importantly, we find a stronger relation between information quality and financial leverage in countries with weaker investor protection and more market-oriented economies. These cross-country results suggest that information quality is especially important in shaping a firm's capital structure decision when investor demand for information is greater. JEL Classifications: G32; G38; M41.

scholarly journals Deployment of whistleblowing as an accountability mechanism to curb corruption and fraud in a developing democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1335-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Nnamdi Okafor ◽  
Festus A. Adebisi ◽  
Michael Opara ◽  
Chidinma Blessing Okafor
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Corporate Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Accountability Mechanism ◽  
Program Institutionalization ◽  
Loss Of Dignity ◽  
Survey Protocol

PurposeThis paper investigates the challenges and opportunities for the deployment of whistleblowing as an accountability mechanism to curb corruption and fraud in a developing country. Nigeria is the institutional setting for the study.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an institutional theory perspective and a survey protocol of urban residents in the country, the study presents evidence on the whistleblowing program introduced in 2016. Nigeria’s whistleblowing initiative targets all types of corruption, including corporate fraud.FindingsThis study finds that, even in the context of a developing country, whistleblowing is supported as an accountability mechanism, but the intervention lacks awareness, presents a high risk to whistleblowers and regulators, including the risk of physical elimination, and is fraught with institutional and operational challenges. In effect, awareness of whistleblowing laws, operational challenges and an institutional environment conducive to venality undermine the efficacy of whistleblowing in Nigeria.Originality/valueThe study presents a model of challenges and opportunities for whistleblowing in a developing democracy. The authors argue that the existence of a weak and complex institutional environment and the failure of program institutionalization explain those challenges and opportunities. The authors also argue that a culturally anchored and institutionalized whistleblowing program encourages positive civic behavior by incentivizing citizens to act as custodians of their resources, and it gives voice to the voiceless who have endured decades of severe hardship and loss of dignity due to corruption.

Gender gap in technology will take decades to trim

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Participatory Approaches ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Education And Employment

Subject Tech gender gap. Significance The US tech sector has more than 500,000 unfilled positions but women make up just one-quarter of the tech workforce and less than 20% of computer science students. Western Europe and Japan show a similar trend in education and employment, as do developing countries with sufficiently detailed data. Attitudes unintentionally reinforce the structural and cultural obstacles faced by women at the country level. Impacts Curricula helping to convey gender-sensitive and participatory approaches in technology will be developed and integrated into education. Monitoring, reporting and accountability systems will aim to cut gender bias in the workplace. Performance and results-based scorecards assessing gender balance gains will grow in sophistication, and women will help to design them. Studies find that many roles and tasks that women disproportionately work in will be especially vulnerable to disruption from tech advances.

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