Media coverage and financial restatements: evidence from China

PurposeDrawing on the premise that the media play a vital corporate governance role, this paper aims to investigate the association between media coverage and financial report restatements.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of Chinese listed companies over the period 2011–2015, the authors use ordinary least squares regression as well as a number of additional tests. To mitigate the endogeneity issue, the authors use a two-stage Heckman test and a propensity score matching model.FindingsThe authors document a negative and significant association between media coverage and restatements, suggesting that firms with high media coverage engage less in financial restatements. The authors further explore the moderating effects of internal control quality and state ownership on the association between media coverage and restatements. Regression results reveal that the governance role of the media is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises than for private firms. However, no significant difference in the disciplining effect of media coverage is found for firms with high, versus low, internal control quality.Originality/valueThe role of the media in corporate governance and financial reporting quality has been well documented. In emerging economies, such a role has been overlooked. As a result, the purpose of this study is to fill that void. Furthermore, prior research ignores the impacts of state ownership and the internal control environment on the media's governance role.

Are CEO experience and financial expertise associated with financial restatements?

Este estudio examina si la experiencia del director general (CEO) y los conocimientos financieros afectan a las reformulaciones financieras (FR), y cómo lo hacen, investigando una muestra de empresas iraníes que cotizan en bolsa entre 2008 y 2017. Definimos a los consejeros delegados con experiencia como aquellos que son contratados desde dentro de la empresa y a los consejeros delegados expertos en finanzas como aquellos que poseen una cualificación contable o tienen experiencia laboral como auditor, director financiero (CFO), controlador u otros puestos relacionados con la contabilidad. Encontramos que FR está positivamente asociado a los CEOs con información privilegiada (CEOs con más experiencia interna), y negativamente asociado a la experiencia financiera del CEO. Además, encontramos que la experiencia del CEO se asocia negativamente con FR cuando el CEO es un experto financiero. Este resultado pone de manifiesto la importancia de la experiencia financiera de los altos ejecutivos. Además, nuestros resultados muestran que los directores generales con información privilegiada pueden mejorar la calidad de la información financiera reduciendo FR cuando tienen mayor poder de decisión. Este estudio contribuye a la literatura sobre las características de los directores generales y la información financiera. Los resultados ofrecen importantes implicaciones para los responsables políticos y los consejos de administración de las economías emergentes en lo que respecta a la exigencia de nombrar a altos directivos con conocimientos financieros. This study examines whether and how Chief Executive Officer (CEO) experience and financial expertise affect financial restatements (FR) by investigating a sample of Iranian listed companies from 2008 to 2017. We define experienced CEOs as those who are hired from inside the firm and financial expert CEOs as those who hold an accounting qualification or have work experience as an auditor, chief financial officer (CFO), controller, and or other accounting-related positions. We find that FR is positively associated with insider CEOs (CEOs with more internal experience), and negatively associated with CEO financial expertise. Moreover, we find that CEO experience is negatively associated with FR when the CEO is a financial expert. This result highlights the importance of financial background for senior executives. Further, our results show that insider CEOs can improve the financial reporting quality through reducing FR when they have higher decision-making power. This study contributes to the literature on CEO characteristics and financial reporting. The results provide important implications for policymakers and the board of directors in emerging economies regarding the requirement to appoint top managers with financial expertise.

Auditors' Responses to Classification Shifting: Evidence from U.S. Firms

This study examines how auditors react to clients' engagement in classification shifting which refers to the intentional misallocation of line items within the income statement. We find that classification shifting is positively associated with audit fees, audit report lags, the issuance of a modified audit opinion, and auditor resignations. Additional analyses show that auditors' responses to multiple-year classification shifting are similar to our main findings. We further find that classification shifting is associated with a higher likelihood of financial misstatements in the classification shifting year, and future announcements of financial restatements. We also find that the probability of future restatements is even higher when audit clients engage in both classification shifting and real earnings management. Overall, our results imply that auditors become more cautious in response to audit clients' classification shifting behavior.

Application of selected data mining techniques in unintentional accounting error detection

Research background: Even though unintentional accounting errors leading to financial restatements look like less serious distortion of publicly available information, it has been shown that financial restatements impacts on financial markets are similar to intentional fraudulent activities. Unintentional accounting errors leading to financial restatements then affect value of company shares in the short run which negatively impacts all shareholders. Purpose of the article: The aim of this manuscript is to predict unintentional accounting errors leading to financial restatements based on information from financial statements of companies. The manuscript analysis if financial statements include sufficient information which would allow detection of unintentional accounting errors. Methods: Method of classification and regression trees (decision tree) and random forest have been used in this manuscript to fulfill the aim of this manuscript. Data sample has consisted of 400 items from financial statements of 80 selected international companies. The results of developed prediction models have been compared and explained based on their accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision and F1 score. Statistical relationship among variables has been tested by correlation analysis. Differences between the group of companies with and without unintentional accounting error have been tested by means of Kruskal-Wallis test. Differences among the models have been tested by Levene and T-tests. Findings & value added: The results of the analysis have provided evidence that it is possible to detect unintentional accounting errors with high levels of accuracy based on financial ratios (rather than the Beneish variables) and by application of random forest method (rather than classification and regression tree method).

An Analysis of the Sources of Value Loss Following Financial Restatements

We decompose the total value loss around firms’ announcements of financial restatements into components arising from investors’ revisions in cash flows and discount rates. First, relative to population benchmarks, restatements represent circumstances in which the cash flow component becomes more important in explaining valuations. While we find significant contributions from both sources, with the cash flow component explaining more than 33% of the variation in stock returns surrounding restatement announcements, this component explains only 13% to 22% in comparable non-restating firms. When restatements are caused by underlying financial fraud, the discount rate impact becomes more important, explaining about 88% of return variation. On the contrary, the cash flow impact is relatively larger for firms with higher earnings persistence or restatements associated with errors. Our decomposition of the value loss helps explain returns in the post-announcement period. Firms with a higher relative discount rate impact experience a significant downward stock price drift after the initial announcement-related price decline. For firms with a higher relative cash flow impact, the evidence suggests the initial impact of the restatement announcement is more complete with no subsequent drift pattern. Our findings close gaps in the evidence on financial restatements and extend the literature on the drivers of stock price movements.