IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v68y2021ics0929119921000353.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Behavioral spillover between firms with shared auditors: The monitoring role of capital market investors

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, Viet Nga
  • Pham, Anh Viet

Abstract

This paper examines the monitoring role of investors in the behavioral spillover between firms with shared auditors. Our context involves firms receiving U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission comment letters on issues relating to the recognition of revenue, gains, or losses (RRGL) in their 10-K filings and subsequently engaging in a higher degree of accounting conservatism. Investors of firms who did not receive a comment letter but share auditors with RRGL comment letter recipients react adversely to the release of these comment letters. Through the threat of downward stock price pressure on the value of Chief Financial Officers' equity compensation, investors induce the nonrecipients to also engage in a higher degree of accounting conservatism. When exposed to higher reputation and litigation risks, the shared auditors further contribute to the behavioral spillover between their clients by acting as informational intermediaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Viet Nga & Pham, Anh Viet, 2021. "Behavioral spillover between firms with shared auditors: The monitoring role of capital market investors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:68:y:2021:i:c:s0929119921000353
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.101914
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119921000353
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.101914?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gus De Franco & S.P. Kothari & Rodrigo S. Verdi, 2011. "The Benefits of Financial Statement Comparability," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 895-931, September.
    2. Feng, Mei & Ge, Weili & Luo, Shuqing & Shevlin, Terry, 2011. "Why do CFOs become involved in material accounting manipulations?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 21-36.
    3. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 755-793, September.
    4. Alex Edmans, 2009. "Blockholder Trading, Market Efficiency, and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(6), pages 2481-2513, December.
    5. Miguel A. Ferreira & Paul A. Laux, 2007. "Corporate Governance, Idiosyncratic Risk, and Information Flow," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(2), pages 951-989, April.
    6. Zhan Shu, Susan, 2000. "Auditor resignations: clientele effects and legal liability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 173-205, April.
    7. JOSEPH A. McCAHERY & ZACHARIAS SAUTNER & LAURA T. STARKS, 2016. "Behind the Scenes: The Corporate Governance Preferences of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2905-2932, December.
    8. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:65-105 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Lauren M. Cunningham & Bret A. Johnson & E. Scott Johnson & Ling Lei Lisic, 2020. "The Switch‐Up: An Examination of Changes in Earnings Management after Receiving SEC Comment Letters†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 917-944, June.
    10. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    11. Anat R. Admati & Paul Pfleiderer, 2009. "The "Wall Street Walk" and Shareholder Activism: Exit as a Form of Voice," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(7), pages 2445-2485, July.
    12. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    13. Miguel Duro & Jonas Heese & Gaizka Ormazabal, 2019. "The effect of enforcement transparency: Evidence from SEC comment-letter reviews," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 780-823, September.
    14. Joseph H. Zhang, 2018. "Accounting Comparability, Audit Effort, and Audit Outcomes," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(1), pages 245-276, March.
    15. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini, 2008. "Economic Links and Predictable Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1977-2011, August.
    16. Andrew Ang & Robert J. Hodrick & Yuhang Xing & Xiaoyan Zhang, 2006. "The Cross‐Section of Volatility and Expected Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 259-299, February.
    17. Alex Edmans & Xavier Gabaix & Dirk Jenter, 2017. "Executive Compensation: A Survey of Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 23596, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    19. Jayaraman, Sudarshan, 2012. "The effect of enforcement on timely loss recognition: Evidence from insider trading laws," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 77-97.
    20. Christopher S. Armstrong & Alan D. Jagolinzer & David F. Larcker, 2010. "Chief Executive Officer Equity Incentives and Accounting Irregularities," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 225-271, May.
    21. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    22. Dhaliwal, Dan S. & Lamoreaux, Phillip T. & Litov, Lubomir P. & Neyland, Jordan B., 2016. "Shared auditors in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 49-76.
    23. Rick Johnston & Reining Petacchi, 2017. "Regulatory Oversight of Financial Reporting: Securities and Exchange Commission Comment Letters," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 1128-1155, June.
    24. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2014. "Information Consequences of Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 173-198, June.
    25. Peter MacKay & Gordon M. Phillips, 2005. "How Does Industry Affect Firm Financial Structure?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1433-1466.
    26. Cong Wang & Fei Xie & Xiangang Xin, 2018. "CEO Inside Debt and Accounting Conservatism," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 2131-2159, December.
    27. Mark T. Leary & Michael R. Roberts, 2014. "Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 139-178, February.
    28. Denis, David J. & Hanouna, Paul & Sarin, Atulya, 2006. "Is there a dark side to incentive compensation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 467-488, June.
    29. Ettredge, Michael & Huang, Ying & Zhang, Weining, 2012. "Earnings restatements and differential timeliness of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 489-503.
    30. Kadan, Ohad & Madureira, Leonardo & Wang, Rong & Zach, Tzachi, 2012. "Analysts' industry expertise," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 95-120.
    31. Jacob Thomas & Frank Zhang, 2008. "Overreaction to Intra‐industry Information Transfers?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 909-940, September.
    32. Rongbing Huang & Zhaoyun Shangguan & Gopala Vasudevan, 2009. "Do firms become more conservative after financial restatements?," International Journal of Accounting and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(4), pages 375-394.
    33. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    34. Efendi, Jap & Srivastava, Anup & Swanson, Edward P., 2007. "Why do corporate managers misstate financial statements? The role of option compensation and other factors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 667-708, September.
    35. Stephen V. Brown & Xiaoli (Shaolee) Tian & Jennifer Wu Tucker, 2018. "The Spillover Effect of SEC Comment Letters on Qualitative Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from the Risk Factor Disclosure," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(2), pages 622-656, June.
    36. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    37. Merle Erickson & Michelle Hanlon & Edward L. Maydew, 2006. "Is There a Link between Executive Equity Incentives and Accounting Fraud?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 113-143, March.
    38. Cai, Ye & Kim, Yongtae & Park, Jong Chool & White, Hal D., 2016. "Common auditors in M&A transactions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 77-99.
    39. Lee, Charles M.C. & Ma, Paul & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2015. "Search-based peer firms: Aggregating investor perceptions through internet co-searches," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 410-431.
    40. Jared Harris & Philip Bromiley, 2007. "Incentives to Cheat: The Influence of Executive Compensation and Firm Performance on Financial Misrepresentation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 350-367, June.
    41. Hui, Kai Wai & Matsunaga, Steve & Morse, Dale, 2009. "The impact of conservatism on management earnings forecasts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 192-207, June.
    42. repec:cup:jfinqa:v:46:y:2011:i:06:p:1917-1946_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    44. Penman, Stephen & Zhang, Xiao-Jun, 2020. "A theoretical analysis connecting conservative accounting to the cost of capital," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    45. Jan Barton, 2005. "Who Cares about Auditor Reputation?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 549-586, September.
    46. Bardos, Katsiaryna Salavei & Golec, Joseph & Harding, John P., 2011. "Do Investors See through Mistakes in Reported Earnings?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(6), pages 1917-1946, December.
    47. Philip Bond & Alex Edmans & Itay Goldstein, 2012. "The Real Effects of Financial Markets," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 339-360, October.
    48. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Penalva, Fernando, 2016. "Accounting conservatism and firm investment efficiency," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 221-238.
    49. Miles B. Gietzmann & Angela K. Pettinicchio, 2014. "External Auditor Reassessment of Client Business Risk Following the Issuance of a Comment Letter by the SEC," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 57-85, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jian Zhang & Ningzhi Wang & Xinyu Zhu & Xiao Yi, 2024. "Does the supply of tax information affect financial restatements? Evidence from the launch of Taxation Administration Information System III in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Baxamusa, Mufaddal & Jha, Anand & Raman, K.K., 2024. "Strategic alliances and shared auditors," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Wen, Fenghua & Lin, Diyue & Hu, Lei & He, Shaoyi & Cao, Zhiling, 2023. "The spillover effect of corporate frauds and stock price crash risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Umair Bhutta & Jéssica Nunes Martins & Mário Nuno Mata & Ali Raza & Rui Miguel Dantas & Anabela Batista Correia & Muhammad Rafiq, 2021. "Intellectual Structure and Evolution of Accounting Conservatism Research: Past Trends and Future Research Suggestions," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    2. Lars Helge Hass & Monika Tarsalewska & Feng Zhan, 2016. "Equity Incentives and Corporate Fraud in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(4), pages 723-742, November.
    3. Martin Nienhaus, 2022. "Executive equity incentives and opportunistic manager behavior: new evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 1276-1318, December.
    4. Zhou, Fangzhao & Zhang, Zenan & Yang, Jun & Su, Yunpeng & An, Yunbi, 2018. "Delisting pressure, executive compensation, and corporate fraud: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 17-34.
    5. Hong, Yun & Yao, Youfu, 2024. "Can comment letters impact excess perks? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Fu, Zheng & Ma, Yechi & Li, Suyang & Qiao, Lu, 2023. "Peer performance and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings recognition," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    7. Clive Lennox & Petro Lisowsky & Jeffrey Pittman, 2013. "Tax Aggressiveness and Accounting Fraud," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 739-778, September.
    8. Davidson, Robert H., 2022. "Who did it matters: Executive equity compensation and financial reporting fraud," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    9. Haß, Lars Helge & Müller, Maximilian A. & Vergauwe, Skrålan, 2015. "Tournament incentives and corporate fraud," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 251-267.
    10. Abdul Ghafoor & Rozaimah Zainudin & Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan, 2019. "Factors Eliciting Corporate Fraud in Emerging Markets: Case of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions in Malaysia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 587-608, December.
    11. Li, Frank Weikai & Sun, Chengzhu, 2022. "Information acquisition and expected returns: Evidence from EDGAR search traffic," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Dasgupta, Amil & Fos, Vyacheslav & Sautner, Zacharias, 2021. "Institutional investors and corporate governance," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112114, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Dan Amiram & Zahn Bozanic & James D. Cox & Quentin Dupont & Jonathan M. Karpoff & Richard Sloan, 2018. "Financial reporting fraud and other forms of misconduct: a multidisciplinary review of the literature," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 732-783, June.
    14. Li, Jie & Wang, Lidan & Zhou, Zhong-Qiang & Zhang, Yongjie, 2021. "Monitoring or tunneling? Information interaction among large shareholders and the crash risk of the stock price," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Bryan, David B. & Mason, Terry W., 2016. "Extreme CEO pay cuts and audit fees," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-10.
    16. Zhang, Zhuang & Ntim, Collins G. & Zhang, Qingjing & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2020. "Does accounting comparability affect corporate employment decision-making?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    17. Li, Xingli & Pukthuanthong, Kuntara & Glenn Walker, Marcus & Walker, Thomas John, 2016. "The determinants of IPO-related shareholder litigation: The role of CEO equity incentives and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 81-126.
    18. Yangyang Chen & Rui Ge & Henock Louis & Leon Zolotoy, 2019. "Stock liquidity and corporate tax avoidance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 309-340, March.
    19. Longhao Xu & Zhijian James Huang & Fenghua Wen, 2022. "Comment letters and stock price synchronicity: evidence from China," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1387-1421, November.
    20. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Larcker, David F. & Ormazabal, Gaizka & Taylor, Daniel J., 2013. "The relation between equity incentives and misreporting: The role of risk-taking incentives," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 327-350.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Investors; Auditors; Spillover; SEC comment letters; Accounting conservatism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M42 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Auditing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:68:y:2021:i:c:s0929119921000353. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.