This paper investigates how ownership concentration, equity incentives of
directors, executive compensation and board structure vary with inherent limitations
of firms’ information systems and with firms’ organizational complexity. We adopt
the perspective that observed governance structures represent optimal contracting
arrangements endogenously determined by firms’ contracting environments. We
proxy for the intrinsic governance usefulness of accounting information with
earnings timeliness, defined as the extent to which current accounting earnings
incorporate current economic income or value-relevant information. We empirically
document that only a small portion of the cross-sectional variation in earnings
timeliness can be explained by firms’ growth opportunities, return volatility, size,
industry and geographic diversification, and past performance. Our inability to
explain the cross-sectional variation in earnings timeliness is consistent with the idea
that timeliness is distinct from other fundamental firm characteristics. We capture
organizational complexity by utilizing segment revenue information to compute
Hirfindahl-Hirschman indices measuring within firm industry and geographic
concentration.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
194 R. Bushman et al. / Journal of Accounting and Economics 37 (2004) 167–201
We explore cross-sectional relations between corporate governance systems and
both earnings timeliness and organizational complexity of 784 firms in the Fortune
1000. As predicted, we find that ‘‘strong’’ governance systems characterized by high
ownership concentration, strong directors’ and executives’ equity-based incentives,
and the strong reputation (i.e., quality) of outside directors, vary inversely with the
timeliness of earnings. In addition, we find some evidence that ownership
concentration and directors’ equity-based incentives increase, as predicted, with
firm complexity. However, board size and the percentage of inside directors do not
vary significantly with either the timeliness of earnings or firm complexity.
We acknowledge that caution should be exercised in inferring causality. While we
take extensive efforts to address alternative explanations, it is possible that our
timeliness and complexity metrics are picking up the effects of omitted correlated
variables or that the direction of causality should be reversed.
This paper extends the capital market and stewardship literatures in accounting
(see, e.g., Bushman and Smith, 2001). Most existing research into the stewardship
relevance and research into the value relevance of accounting have proceeded
independently. We explore whether the relative importance of accounting numbers
in equity valuation appears to ‘‘matter’’ in the determination of corporate
governance systems of large public companies in the U.S. Although causal inferences
are problematic, associations between measures of the usefulness of accounting
numbers in valuation and governance structures are a necessary (although not
sufficient) condition for concluding that governance structures are influenced by the
limitations of accounting numbers for valuation purposes.
Finally, our evidence supports the notion that the firm-specific timeliness metrics
capture meaningful differences across large public U.S. companies in the
information properties of accounting numbers. This provides a basis for using such
firm-specific metrics to investigate other economic consequences of the information
properties of accounting, such as voluntary disclosures, corporate signaling, analyst
activity, corporate investment decisions, financing choices, and the cost of debt and
equity capital.
กระดาษนี้จะสำรวจวิธีการที่มีความเข้มข้นเป็นเจ้าของจูงใจหุ้นของกรรมการค่าตอบแทนผู้บริหารและโครงสร้างคณะกรรมการที่มีข้อ จำกัด ที่แตกต่างกันโดยธรรมชาติของบริษัท ที่' บริษัท ' ความซับซ้อนขององค์กร เรานำมุมมองที่สังเกตโครงสร้างการกำกับดูแลกิจการที่ดีที่สุดเป็นตัวแทนของการทำสัญญาการเตรียมการกำหนดendogenously ' เราพร็อกซี่สำหรับประโยชน์ที่แท้จริงของการกำกับดูแลข้อมูลทางบัญชีกับทันเวลาผลประกอบการกำหนดเป็นขอบเขตที่ผลประกอบการทางบัญชีในปัจจุบันรวมรายได้ทางเศรษฐกิจในปัจจุบันหรือค่าที่เกี่ยวข้องกับข้อมูล เราสังเกตุเอกสารว่ามีเพียงส่วนเล็ก ๆ ของการเปลี่ยนแปลงตัดกำไรทันเวลาสามารถอธิบายได้โดยบริษัท' การไร้ความสามารถของเราในการอธิบายการเปลี่ยนแปลงตัดทันเวลาในผลประกอบการมีความสอดคล้องกับความคิดที่ว่าทันเวลาที่แตกต่างจากลักษณะพื้นฐานของบริษัท อื่น ๆ เราจับความซับซ้อนขององค์กรโดยใช้ข้อมูลรายได้ส่วนในการคำนวณดัชนีHirfindahlทางภูมิศาสตร์และความเข้มข้นบทความใน 194 This paper investigates how ownership concentration, equity incentives of
directors, executive compensation and board structure vary with inherent limitations
of firms’ information systems and with firms’ organizational complexity. We adopt
the perspective that observed governance structures represent optimal contracting
arrangements endogenously determined by firms’ contracting environments. We
proxy for the intrinsic governance usefulness of accounting information with
earnings timeliness, defined as the extent to which current accounting earnings
incorporate current economic income or value-relevant information. We empirically
document that only a small portion of the cross-sectional variation in earnings
timeliness can be explained by firms’ growth opportunities, return volatility, size,
industry and geographic diversification, and past performance. Our inability to
explain the cross-sectional variation in earnings timeliness is consistent with the idea
that timeliness is distinct from other fundamental firm characteristics. We capture
organizational complexity by utilizing segment revenue information to compute
Hirfindahl-Hirschman indices measuring within firm industry and geographic
concentration.
ARTICLE IN PRESS
194 R. Bushman et al. / Journal of Accounting and Economics 37 (2004) 167–201
We explore cross-sectional relations between corporate governance systems and
both earnings timeliness and organizational complexity of 784 firms in the Fortune
1000. As predicted, we find that ‘‘strong’’ governance systems characterized by high
ownership concentration, strong directors’ and executives’ equity-based incentives,
and the strong reputation (i.e., quality) of outside directors, vary inversely with the
timeliness of earnings. In addition, we find some evidence that ownership
concentration and directors’ equity-based incentives increase, as predicted, with
firm complexity. However, board size and the percentage of inside directors do not
vary significantly with either the timeliness of earnings or firm complexity.
We acknowledge that caution should be exercised in inferring causality. While we
take extensive efforts to address alternative explanations, it is possible that our
timeliness and complexity metrics are picking up the effects of omitted correlated
variables or that the direction of causality should be reversed.
This paper extends the capital market and stewardship literatures in accounting
(see, e.g., Bushman and Smith, 2001). Most existing research into the stewardship
relevance and research into the value relevance of accounting have proceeded
independently. We explore whether the relative importance of accounting numbers
in equity valuation appears to ‘‘matter’’ in the determination of corporate
governance systems of large public companies in the U.S. Although causal inferences
are problematic, associations between measures of the usefulness of accounting
numbers in valuation and governance structures are a necessary (although not
sufficient) condition for concluding that governance structures are influenced by the
limitations of accounting numbers for valuation purposes.
Finally, our evidence supports the notion that the firm-specific timeliness metrics
capture meaningful differences across large public U.S. companies in the
information properties of accounting numbers. This provides a basis for using such
firm-specific metrics to investigate other economic consequences of the information
properties of accounting, such as voluntary disclosures, corporate signaling, analyst
activity, corporate investment decisions, financing choices, and the cost of debt and
equity capital.
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