IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v39y2014i4p497-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Criminal convictions and risk taking

Author

Listed:
  • Eli Amir

    (Tel Aviv University, Israel; City University London, UK)

  • Juha-Pekka Kallunki

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Henrik Nilsson

    (Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden)

Abstract

An analysis of a proprietary dataset reveals that non-trivial proportions of directors, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers in Swedish listed companies have been convicted or suspected of crimes. Based on prior literature, we argue that directors and senior executives who have been convicted or suspected of crimes are more prone to take risk. Consistent with this argument, we find that firms with more criminally convicted/suspected directors and CEOs report more volatile earnings, engage more in goodwill writeoffs due to more unsuccessful acquisitions, and recognize bad news in earnings in a less timely manner. We also find that these firms are, on average, smaller and less profitable. These findings highlight the role personal characteristics of directors and senior management play in managerial decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Eli Amir & Juha-Pekka Kallunki & Henrik Nilsson, 2014. "Criminal convictions and risk taking," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(4), pages 497-523, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:39:y:2014:i:4:p:497-523
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896213513276
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896213513276
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896213513276?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    2. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    3. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Hans K. Hvide, 2002. "Tournament Rewards and Risk Taking," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 877-898, October.
    5. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December.
    7. Leuz, Christian & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter D., 2003. "Earnings management and investor protection: an international comparison," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 505-527, September.
    8. Nuno Garoupa, 2003. "Behavioral Economic Analysis of Crime: A Critical Review," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 5-15, January.
    9. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    10. Anne Beatty & Joseph Weber, 2006. "Accounting Discretion in Fair Value Estimates: An Examination of SFAS 142 Goodwill Impairments," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 257-288, May.
    11. Mark Grinblatt & Matti Keloharju, 2009. "Sensation Seeking, Overconfidence, and Trading Activity," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 549-578, April.
    12. 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.
    13. Robert Libby & Kristina Rennekamp, 2012. "Self‐Serving Attribution Bias, Overconfidence, and the Issuance of Management Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 197-231, March.
    14. Alvaro Sandroni & Francesco Squintani, 2007. "Overconfidence, Insurance, and Paternalism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1994-2004, December.
    15. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Puri, Manju, 2015. "Capital allocation and delegation of decision-making authority within firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 449-470.
    16. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1973. "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 521-565, May-June.
    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. Raudah Siman & Rina Fadhilah Ismail* & Zanariah Aziz@ Omar & Zuraidah Mohd Zam, 2018. "Board of Directors and Environmental Reporting: Evidence From Plantation Industry," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 916-925:5.
    2. Karen Benson & Peter M Clarkson & Tom Smith & Irene Tutticci, 2015. "A review of accounting research in the Asia Pacific region," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 36-88, February.
    3. Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2016. "Problem directors on the audit committee and financial reporting quality," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 121-144, February.
    4. Jennifer Gippel & Tom Smith & Yushu Zhu, 2015. "Endogeneity in Accounting and Finance Research: Natural Experiments as a State-of-the-Art Solution," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 143-168, 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. Karampinis, Nikolaos I. & Hevas, Dimosthenis L., 2011. "Mandating IFRS in an Unfavorable Environment: The Greek Experience," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 304-332, September.
    2. Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2006. "International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital: Do Legal Institutions and Securities Regulation Matter?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 485-531, June.
    3. Srinidhi, Bin & Lim, Chee Yeow & Hossain, Mahmud, 2009. "Effects of country-level legal, extra-legal and political institutions on auditing: A cross-country analysis of the auditor specialization premium," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 34-46.
    4. Barton, Jan & Waymire, Gregory, 2004. "Investor protection under unregulated financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 65-116, December.
    5. Hu, Jinshuai & Li, Annie Yuansha & Zhang, Feida (Frank), 2014. "Does accounting conservatism improve the corporate information environment?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 32-43.
    6. Hegde, Shantaram P. & Mishra, Dev R., 2017. "Strategic risk-taking and value creation: Evidence from the market for corporate control," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 212-234.
    7. Cheng, Louis T.W. & Wang, Jacqueline Wenjie, 2021. "Equity ownership and corporate transparency: International evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 143-165.
    8. Kandel, Eugene & Massa, Massimo & Simonov, Andrei, 2011. "Do small shareholders count?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 641-665, September.
    9. Guermazi, Walid & Halioui, Khamoussi, 2020. "Do differences in national cultures affect cross-country conditional conservatism behavior under IFRS?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Kallunki, Jenni & Kallunki, Juha-Pekka & Nilsson, Henrik & Puhakka, Mikko, 2018. "Do an insider's wealth and income matter in the decision to engage in insider trading?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(1), pages 135-165.
    11. Khalifa, Maha & Zouaoui, Haykel & Ben Othman, Hakim & Hussainey, Khaled, 2019. "Exploring the nonlinear effect of conditional conservatism on the cost of equity capital: Evidence from emerging markets," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 1-1.
    12. Benjamin T. Albersmann & Reiner Quick, 2020. "The Impact of Audit Quality Indicators on the Timeliness of Goodwill Impairments: Evidence from the German Setting," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 66-103, March.
    13. Hu, Juncheng, 2021. "Do facilitation payments affect earnings management? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Jannis Bischof & Ulf Brüggemann & Holger Daske, 2012. "Fair Value Reclassifications of Financial Assets during the Financial Crisis," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2012-010, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    15. Kim, Incheol & Miller, Steve & Wan, Hong & Wang, Bin, 2016. "Drivers behind the monitoring effectiveness of global institutional investors: Evidence from earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 24-46.
    16. Lee, Kuan-Hui & Yang, Cheol-Won, 2022. "The world price of tail risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Pevzner, Mikhail & Xie, Fei & Xin, Xiangang, 2015. "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 190-223.
    19. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2016. "Audit quality, investor protection and earnings management during the financial crisis of 2008: An international perspective," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 73-101.
    20. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2006. "What Works in Securities Laws?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(1), pages 1-32, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Accounting conservatism; corporate governance; criminal convictions; earnings volatility; goodwill writeoffs; risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    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:sae:ausman:v:39:y:2014:i:4:p:497-523. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.