IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v87y2023ics1057521923000923.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The spillover effect of customers' financial risk on suppliers' conservative reporting: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Zeyu
  • Yang, Ge
  • Bai, Haichen

Abstract

This study examines how customer firms' financial risk affects supplier firms' conservative reporting. Customers' high financial risk increases suppliers' uncertainty in future performance. We find that suppliers, in response to investors' demand, become more conservative in financial reporting when their customers' financial risk is higher. In support of the contracting explanation, we show that this spillover effect is salient for supplier firms in need of bank loans and for those with better corporate governance. In addition, this effect disappears for suppliers in regions with weak protection of investor rights and when customers are state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, we find the effect intensified by the extent of suppliers' dependence on their customers. Our study provides insights into the externality of customers' risk on the suppliers' financial reporting policy in the emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Zeyu & Yang, Ge & Bai, Haichen, 2023. "The spillover effect of customers' financial risk on suppliers' conservative reporting: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:87:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923000923
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102576
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521923000923
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102576?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. Anwer S. Ahmed & Scott Duellman, 2013. "Managerial Overconfidence and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 1-30, March.
    2. Inder K. Khurana & Changjiang Wang, 2015. "Debt Maturity Structure and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-203, January.
    3. Huang, Henry He & Lobo, Gerald J. & Wang, Chong & Xie, Hong, 2016. "Customer concentration and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 184-200.
    4. Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2008. "The role of information asymmetry and financial reporting quality in debt trading: Evidence from the secondary loan market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2-3), pages 240-260, December.
    5. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    6. Hanwen Chen & Jeff Zeyun Chen & Gerald J. Lobo & Yanyan Wang, 2010. "Association Between Borrower and Lender State Ownership and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 973-1014, December.
    7. Pan, Jianping & Yu, Manjiao & Liu, Jiayuan & Fan, Rui, 2020. "Customer concentration and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    8. Ting Luo & Jianqiao Yu, 2019. "Friends along supply chain and relationship-specific investments," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 895-931, October.
    9. Joel F. Houston & Chen Lin & Zhongyan Zhu, 2016. "The Financial Implications of Supply Chain Changes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(9), pages 2520-2542, September.
    10. Joshua Madsen, 2017. "Anticipated Earnings Announcements and the Customer–Supplier Anomaly," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 709-741, June.
    11. Juan Manuel Garcia Lara & Beatriz Garcia Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2007. "Board of Directors' Characteristics and Conditional Accounting Conservatism: Spanish Evidence," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 727-755.
    12. Lian, Yili, 2017. "Financial distress and customer-supplier relationships," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 397-406.
    13. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy: A Discriminant Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 193-194, March.
    14. Wen, Wen & Ke, Yun & Liu, Xuejiao, 2021. "Customer concentration and corporate social responsibility performance: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    15. Lili Dai & Phong Ngo, 2021. "Political Uncertainty and Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 277-307, March.
    16. Xianjie He & T.J. Wong & Danqing Young, 2012. "Challenges for Implementation of Fair Value Accounting in Emerging Markets: Evidence from China," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 538-562, June.
    17. Shimin Chen & Serene Xu Ni & Feida Zhang, 2018. "CEO Retirement, Corporate Governance and Conditional Accounting Conservatism," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 437-465, May.
    18. Hui, Kai Wai & Klasa, Sandy & Yeung, P. Eric, 2012. "Corporate suppliers and customers and accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 115-135.
    19. Ryan Lafond & Sugata Roychowdhury, 2008. "Managerial Ownership and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 101-135, March.
    20. Shail Pandit & Charles E. Wasley & Tzachi Zach, 2011. "Information Externalities along the Supply Chain: The Economic Determinants of Suppliers’ Stock Price Reaction to Their Customers’ Earnings Announcements," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(4), pages 1304-1343, December.
    21. Lauren Cohen & Andrea Frazzini, 2008. "Economic Links and Predictable Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1977-2011, August.
    22. Can Chen & Jeong‐Bon Kim & Minghai Wei & Hao Zhang, 2019. "Linguistic Information Quality in Customers' Forward‐Looking Disclosures and Suppliers' Investment Decisions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(3), pages 1751-1783, September.
    23. 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.
    24. Hertzel, Michael G. & Li, Zhi & Officer, Micah S. & Rodgers, Kimberly J., 2008. "Inter-firm linkages and the wealth effects of financial distress along the supply chain," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 374-387, February.
    25. Lee, Sang Mook & Jiraporn, Pornsit & Song, Hakjoon, 2020. "Customer concentration and stock price crash risk," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 327-346.
    26. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    27. Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2011. "Accounting disclosures, accounting quality and conditional and unconditional conservatism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 88-102, April.
    28. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Song, Byron Y. & Zhang, Yue, 2015. "Earnings performance of major customers and bank loan contracting with suppliers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 384-398.
    29. Raymond Fisman & Shang-Jin Wei, 2004. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from "Missing Imports" in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 471-500, April.
    30. Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2003. "Boards of directors as an endogenously determined institution: a survey of the economic literature," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 7-26.
    31. Ling Cen & Sudipto Dasgupta & Redouane Elkamhi & Raunaq S. Pungaliya, 2016. "Reputation and Loan Contract Terms: The Role of Principal Customers," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 20(2), pages 501-533.
    32. 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.
    33. Zhang, Jieying, 2008. "The contracting benefits of accounting conservatism to lenders and borrowers," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 27-54, March.
    34. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    35. Oliveira, Mauro & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan & Beyhaghi, Mehdi, 2017. "Effects of customer financial distress on supplier capital structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 131-149.
    36. Wei‐Ru Chen & Kent D. Miller, 2007. "Situational and institutional determinants of firms' R&D search intensity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 369-381, April.
    37. Jinghua Wang & Ning Mao, 2021. "Customer and tax behaviour: how customer concentration affect suppliers’ tax avoidance," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(4), pages 363-388, October.
    38. Cen, Ling & Maydew, Edward L. & Zhang, Liandong & Zuo, Luo, 2017. "Customer–supplier relationships and corporate tax avoidance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(2), pages 377-394.
    39. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    40. Li, Yuanhui & Li, Xiao & Xiang, Erwei & Geri Djajadikerta, Hadrian, 2020. "Financial distress, internal control, and earnings management: Evidence from China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    41. Ray Ball & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2006. "The Role of Accruals in Asymmetrically Timely Gain and Loss Recognition," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 207-242, May.
    42. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    43. Ahmed, Anwer S. & Duellman, Scott, 2007. "Accounting conservatism and board of director characteristics: An empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 411-437, July.
    44. Jesse A. Ellis & C. Edward Fee & Shawn E. Thomas, 2012. "Proprietary Costs and the Disclosure of Information About Customers," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 685-727, June.
    45. Titman, Sheridan & Wessels, Roberto, 1988. " The Determinants of Capital Structure Choice," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 43(1), pages 1-19, March.
    46. Chen Chen & Ting‐Chiao Huang & Mukesh Garg & Mehdi Khedmati, 2021. "Governments as customers: Exploring the effects of government customers on supplier firms’ information quality," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(9-10), pages 1630-1667, October.
    47. Mohamed Khalil & Aydin Ozkanc & Yilmaz Yildiz, 2020. "Foreign institutional ownership and demand for accounting conservatism: evidence from an emerging market," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-27, July.
    48. Robert A. Jarrow & Fan Yu, 2008. "Counterparty Risk and the Pricing of Defaultable Securities," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Financial Derivatives Pricing Selected Works of Robert Jarrow, chapter 20, pages 481-515, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    49. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    50. Dhaliwal, Dan & Judd, J. Scott & Serfling, Matthew & Shaikh, Sarah, 2016. "Customer concentration risk and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 23-48.
    51. Ball, Ray & Robin, Ashok & Wu, Joanna Shuang, 2003. "Incentives versus standards: properties of accounting income in four East Asian countries," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 235-270, December.
    52. Tzu‐Ting Chiu & Jeong‐Bon Kim & Zheng Wang, 2019. "Customers’ Risk Factor Disclosures and Suppliers’ Investment Efficiency," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(2), pages 773-804, June.
    53. Joachim Gassen & Rolf Uwe Fulbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2006. "International Differences in Conditional Conservatism - The Role of Unconditional Conservatism and Income Smoothing," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 527-564.
    54. Wang, Qian & Wong, T.J. & Xia, Lijun, 2008. "State ownership, the institutional environment, and auditor choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 112-134, September.
    55. 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.
    56. Shi, Jinyan & Liu, Xu & Li, Yanxi & Yu, Conghui & Han, Yushan, 2022. "Does supply chain network centrality affect stock price crash risk? Evidence from Chinese listed manufacturing companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lian, Yili, 2017. "Financial distress and customer-supplier relationships," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 397-406.
    2. Feng Chen & Qingyuan Li & Li Xu, 2021. "Universal demand laws and the monitoring demand for accounting conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(7-8), pages 1246-1289, July.
    3. Ma, Xiaofang & Wang, Wenming & Wu, Jiangang & Zhang, Wenlan, 2020. "Corporate customer concentration and stock price crash risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Ha, Joohyung, 2019. "Agency costs of free cash flow and conditional conservatism," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Obaid Ur Rehman & Xiaoxing Liu & Kai Wu & Junfeng Li, 2023. "Customer concentration, leverage adjustments, and firm value," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2035-2079, June.
    6. Araceli Mora & Martin Walker, 2015. "The implications of research on accounting conservatism for accounting standard setting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(5), pages 620-650, August.
    7. Tri Tri Nguyen & Chau Minh Duong & Nguyet Thi Minh Nguyen & Hung Quang Bui, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and banking expertise on board of directors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 501-539, August.
    8. Pan, Xiaofei, 2017. "Accounting conservatism, bank lending and firm investment: Evidence from a quasi-experiment of China's stimulus package," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 64-79.
    9. Agnes C. S. Cheng & Wenli Huang & Shaojun Zhang, 2020. "Major government customer and management earnings forecasts," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Shiang Liu & Mingming Qiu & Shiyi Zhang, 2022. "Customer Concentration and Corporate Real Estate Holdings," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 492-523, October.
    11. 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.
    12. Dan Dhaliwal & Paul N. Michas & Vic Naiker & Divesh Sharma, 2020. "Greater Reliance on Major Customers and Auditor Going‐Concern Opinions," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 160-188, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Yingying Xin & Xiao Zeng & Zhengying Luo, 2022. "Customers' tone in MD&A disclosure and suppliers' inventory efficiency: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3833-3853, December.
    15. Manh Cuong Nguyen & Viet Anh Dang & Tri Tri Nguyen, 2023. "The transfer of risk taking along the supply chain," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1341-1378, November.
    16. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E. & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    17. Chengru Hu & Wei Jiang, 2019. "Managerial risk incentives and accounting conservatism," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 781-813, April.
    18. William Bradford & Chao Chen & Song Zhu, 2017. "Conservative Accounting, IFRS Convergence and Cash Dividend Payments: Evidence from China," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), pages 376-414, June.
    19. Cao, Feng & Zhang, Xueyan & Yuan, Rongli, 2022. "Do geographically nearby major customers mitigate suppliers’ stock price crash risk?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(6).
    20. Dan Zhang & Shiguang Ma & Xiaofei Pan, 2023. "How do institutional investors influence accounting conservatism in China?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S2), pages 2719-2754, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Customer-supplier relationship; Accounting conservatism; Financial risk; Spillover effect; Institutional environment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:finana:v:87:y:2023:i:c:s1057521923000923. 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/inca/620166 .

    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.