To compare the restated SFAS No. 131 segments with the historical SFAS No. 14
segments, we first utilize the segment ID (SID) available from Compustat. Because our initial sample of SFAS No. 131 segments (with segment names, SIDs, and SIC codes) is obtained from Compustat in the adoption year, we can determine whether the SFAS No.131 segments are new segments by matching the SFAS No. 131 SIDs to those of the SFAS No. 14 segments. If a match is found, then the segment is coded as an old segment;
otherwise it is coded as a new segment (see Example 1 in Appendix B). We then manually
examine all segments in our sample to identify any potential miscoding from Compustat.
We focus on the matching of two items, namely, segment names and segment sales, in this
second step. For any segment with identical segment names and sales under the two regimes,
we code it as an old segment. In some cases, the segment names are identical under
the two standards, but the restated sales figure is slightly different from the original SFAS
No. 14 sales figure. There are also cases in which the restated and original segments have
slightly different names (but share the same SIC code) and sales figures under the two
regimes, but the information content is essentially the same across the two sources. In these
two scenarios, we generally code the segment as an old segment (see Example 2 in Appendix
B). For any firms that reported as a single-segment firm under SFAS No. 14 and
became a multi-segment firm under SFAS No. 131, all SFAS No. 131 segments are by
definition new segments.