Voluntary Disclosure of Management Earnings Forecasts in IPO Prospectuses

Asymmetric information and mechanisms for its resolution in the initial public offering (IPO) process are subjects of extensive research and debate. In this paper, we investigate the impact of one such mechanism, namely voluntary disclosure of management earnings forecasts by issuers of IPOs, as a means of reducing asymmetric information as well as ex ante uncertainty. Our focus is on the relative importance of this voluntary disclosure mechanism on both IPO underpricing and post-issue return performance. Our results indicate that management earnings forecasts provide important and incremental information compared to other means of reducing asymmetric information, and these disclosures appear to improve the environment of IPO issuance. For example, our underpricing results show that firms that choose to provide forecasts leave 'less money on the table' with a lower degree of underpricing. In terms of post-issue performance, firms whose forecasts turn out to be optimistic are penalized significantly relative to other forecasters and non-forecasters. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2003.

The portrayal of women in Canadian corporate annual reports

We assess the inclusion of women in Canadian corporate annual report (CAR) photographs and on boards of directors at TSX100 firms and evaluate whether either is related to financial performance. We find that women are underrepresented in CAR photographs and on boards. In CAR photographs women are frequently portrayed as outsiders or less powerful organizational members than men. Higher return on equity (ROE) was found at companies that more frequently depicted women in their CAR photographs. However, no association was observed between the inclusion of women on the board and the ROE of the firm. The applied and theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Copyrigh

Income tax accounting policy choice: Exposure draft responses and the early adoption decision by Canadian companies

We extend prior literature through a detailed examination of the relationship between lobbying behavior and subsequent accounting standard adoption timing, using changes to a Canadian accounting standard with a prolonged transition period. We develop a model linking lobbying and adoption timing. We test hypotheses based on recontracting costs, information production costs, efforts to manage investor perceptions, and corporate governance practices to assess the ability of these factors to explain corporations' choice of adoption timing. We examine responses to the Income Taxes exposure draft using content analysis to identify trends in lobbying behavior. We evaluate the accounting standard adoption decision for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) 300 firms using a LOGIT model. Our findings indicate that early adoption appears to be most prevalent for firms that benefit from improved financial statement performance. In contrast, late adopters tend to be firms that have lobbied standard-setters regarding the out-of-pocket costs of the standard and that rate highly on certain corporate governance measures

Gendered interactions in corporate annual report photographs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the gendered nature of interactions in mixed sex Canadian corporate annual report (CAR) photographs. Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative content analysis of 106 CAR photographs is performed to evaluate, at the level of the photograph, how women and men interact in mixed sex photographs to reveal their relative prominence, power and status. Findings: Women in CAR photographs overall are under-represented. In mixed sex photographs, however, the relative proportions of women and men approximate those of women in the Canadian workforce, but men are more prominent in most photographs. Mixed sex photographs are relatively similar in composition (depicting largely passive, smiling subjects, few of whom are talking or in positions of authority). Where there are differences in mixed sex photographs, however, women are portrayed as less powerful than the men in the photographs. Supplemental testing suggests that the findings are persisting over time. Originality/value: This paper looks at gendered interactions in CAR photos in a Canadian context. It takes the photograph, rather than individual subjects in the photo, as the level of analysis. This research clearly situates the inclusion of photographs in CARs in the voluntary disclosure literature and explores the implications for management and readers of CARs

Productivity in Top-10 Academic Accounting Journals by Researchers at Canadian Universities at the Start of the 21st Century

We assess the research publication productivity of Canadian-based accounting researchers in highly ranked accounting journals for the 2001–13 period. Our research provides important benchmarks for use by individual researchers and universities for matters such as promotion and tenure decisions. For example, each Canadian-based faculty member had approximately 0.50 of a weighted article for the 13-year period, and 45 percent of all accounting faculty members published at least once in a top-10 accounting journal. We also provide an overview of the type of research being published by Canadian-based researchers in each of the top-10 journals (financial accounting, managerial, audit, tax or other) and we assess how productivity at top-10 journals has changed over time. In supplemental analysis, we compare and contrast the productivity of the 15 male and 15 female academics that publish most in top-10 accounting journals to assess the breadth of outlets being used beyond top-10 outlets (including FT 45 journals, accounting journals ranked “A”, “B”, and “non-A/B”; non-accounting peer-reviewed journals, non-peer-reviewed outlets). The supplemental analysis also helps to shed light on the finding from this paper, and prior research, that women are less likely to be represented on lists of those with most publications in highly ranked accounting journals, by comparing the two groups of researchers across a variety of institutional and other factors