Corporate cash holdings and disclosure violations: an empirical investigation of Jordanian listed companies

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of low-quality financial statements; that is, disclosure violations reported by the Securities Exchange Commission related to the level of cash holdings (CH) of firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). Design/methodology/approach Using panel data from 107 ASE-listed companies from 2009 to 2018, the study uses generalized method of moment estimation to examine the research hypothesis. This study hypothesize that disclosure violations can affect the level of CH and control for several variables that affect this level. Findings The results show that disclosure violations significantly affect the level of CH and that cash flow, capital expenditure and debt issues have a significantly positive impact on corporate CH. On the other hand, the market to book ratio and sales growth were found to be insignificant. Research limitations/implications The limitations of the research include the fact that information on research and development and equity issues were not available, so were not included in the examination. Practical implications It is recommended that managers enhance the quality of disclosures since this allows them to hold lower levels of cash and exploit more investment opportunities. Policymakers are recommended to supervise firm disclosures closely and create ratings for disclosure quality. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical research on the association between proven low-quality disclosures and the level of corporate CH among Jordanian listed companies.

Correlation Analysis between Stock Price and Accounting Profit Based on a Vector Autoregressive Model

The study of accounting profitability was initiated by the famous American scholars Ball and Brown in the 1960s. In recent years, with the continuous development of market economy, the continuous improvement of the accounting legal system and accounting standards for enterprises has promoted the research on accounting profit in capital market in China. Due to the restriction of some objective conditions, there are not many valuable research results on the relationship between accounting earnings and stock price changes, and the research methods suitable for the study of accounting earnings still need to be explored and summarized. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has required listed companies to publish quarterly financial and accounting reports since 2002, and the condition of using the regression analysis method to study the accounting profit of listed companies is available. In this context, this paper designs a vector autoregressive model to study the correlation between stock price and accounting profit. First, combining the literature and the research results of accounting profit at home and abroad, this paper expounds the statistical analysis of accounting profit. Then, this paper analyzes the accounting profitability of listed companies in China from static and dynamic perspectives. Finally, according to the accounting profit status and profitability statistical analysis of accounting information, accounting profit and growth relationship, and accounting profit information and the relationship between stock prices, this paper is concluded. Also, this paper shows how to improve the profitability of listed companies and how can investors effectively use the accounting earnings information of listed companies for stock investment and put forward corresponding policy suggestions.

Is conditional conservatism a source of deviations of financial statements from Benford's Law?

PurposeIn this paper, the authors examine the association between conditional conservatism and deviations of the first digits of financial statement items from what are expected by Benford's Law.Design/methodology/approachThis research uses data of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. The authors measure deviations of first digits from Benford's Law following Amiram et al. (2015) and firm-year conditional conservatism following previous studies (Basu, 1997; Khan and Watts, 2009; García Lara et al., 2016). The authors use multiple regressions to provide evidence for their hypothesis.FindingsThe results show that conditional conservatism is positively associated with deviations from Benford's Law. The findings are robust across different measures of deviations and conditional conservatism. Also, the authors find that the relationship between deviations from Benford's Law and conditional conservatism is more pronounced for firms with debt issuance, and for leveraged firms facing financial distress. Next, the authors’ analyses confirm previous evidence by showing that the first digits of financial statement items of UK listed companies conform to Benford's Law at the firm-specific level and the market level, and deviations of income statements are larger than those of balance sheets and cash flow statements.Research limitations/implicationsThe research makes significant contributions to the literature. First, this is the first study that provides empirical evidence suggesting that conditional conservatism may be a source of deviations from Benford’s Law. Second, the authors provide evidence confirming previous US findings (e.g. Amiram et al., 2015) showing that the distributions of first digits of financial statement items of UK listed companies also conform to Benford's Law.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings have implications for auditors. Auditors should be aware of “false positive” for material misstatements when using Benford's Law as a risk assessment procedure. While both conditional conservatism and earnings management are related to deviations from Benford's Law, conservatism-related biases could indicate less audit risks.Originality/valueThe authors provide new and original evidence suggesting that conditional conservatism is related to deviations from Benford's Law.

Does Overseas Investment Raise Corporate Environmental Protection? Evidence from Chinese A-List Companies

This paper uses the relevant data of China’s listed companies from 2010 to 2018 to test the impact of overseas investment on corporate environmental protection and further examines whether the heterogeneity of the company and the heterogeneity of the host country changes this effect. The research results show that the environmental protection of overseas investment companies is significantly higher than that of other companies. The impact of overseas investment on corporate environmental protection is dynamic, and it only helps improve corporate environmental protection after three years of investment. This article is conducive to causally identifying the logical relationship between overseas investment and corporate environmental protection. The policy significance is that the government can rationally guide companies to invest abroad, and oversea investment will help enhance corporate environmental protection.