3 research outputs found

    More than Numbers: R&D-related Disclosure and Firm Performance.

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    This dissertation examines the relation between reported financial performance and qualitative disclosure in the research and development (R&D) disclosure setting. While the influence of performance on firms’ disclosure decisions is a fundamental issue in the accounting literature, prior studies generally focus on how performance relates to the disclosure of quantitative financial information that directly summarizes financial performance. However, a significant quantity of firms’ disclosure is not directly captured in the financial statements and is more qualitative in nature (e.g., narratives or text). Using a sample firms make R&D investments, I investigate whether reported earnings performance influences firms’ incentives to disclose qualitative R&D-related information. I hypothesize that as current earnings performance decreases, R&D firms’ incentives to provide more R&D-related disclosure increase because lower earnings performance is associated with less useful financial statements and higher information asymmetry. Based on a detailed analysis of R&D-related disclosures, I find, consistent with my hypothesis, that current earnings performance is negatively related to qualitative disclosure. I also find that this relation is more pronounced for firms that place more importance on R&D and for firms with higher outside monitoring. In addition, I examine whether the qualitative and quantitative disclosures of R&D firms relate differently to reported performance. While my main results suggest that reported earnings performance is negatively associated with R&D-related disclosure, I find that R&D firms’ decisions to provide earnings guidance, a more quantitative type of disclosure, are positively related to reported performance. These findings highlight the complexity of firms’ disclosure strategies and suggest that performance can influence different types of disclosures in different ways. Thus, these findings have important implications for future research that considers firms disclosure decisions.Ph.D.Business AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89743/1/kmerkley_1.pd

    Quantification in Narrative Disclosures: Effects on Non-Professional Investors’ Information Processing under Time Pressure

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    Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

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    In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field
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