IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ems/eureri/10609.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Impact of Media Attention on the Use of Alternative Earnings Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Koning, M.
  • Mertens, G.M.H.
  • Roosenboom, P.G.J.

Abstract

The practice of reporting earnings measures that deviate from generally accepted accounting principles (non-GAAP measures) has received negative attention in the media. Regulators argue in favour of reporting GAAP earnings measures and utter their concerns that investors may be misled by the use of non-GAAP measures. In a period of increased regulatory concern for these reporting practices, we explore whether there has been a shift away from the use of non-GAAP metrics. We analyse a sample of earnings press releases in the period 1999-2004 from companies listed at Euronext Amsterdam. Our findings indicate that reporting non-GAAP measures is a common practice and that the frequency of reporting non-GAAP earnings measures has increased despite the concerns voiced by regulators. On the other hand, investors seem to have become more hesitant towards the use of alternative earnings measures for their decision-making. Our findings suggest that investors find non-GAAP measures informative before 2003, but they turn away from these measures in the following years and price GAAP earnings metrics instead. Together, these findings suggest that the negative media attention for non-GAAP measures has influenced the perception of investors, but not of managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Koning, M. & Mertens, G.M.H. & Roosenboom, P.G.J., 2007. "The Impact of Media Attention on the Use of Alternative Earnings Measures," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-073-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    • Handle: RePEc:ems:eureri:10609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repub.eur.nl/pub/10609/ERS-2007-073-F&A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander Dyck & Natalya Volchkova & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "The Corporate Governance Role of the Media: Evidence from Russia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(3), pages 1093-1135, June.
    2. Willem Buijink, 2006. "Evidence‐based financial reporting regulation," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 42(3‐4), pages 296-301, September.
    3. John C. Coates IV, 2007. "The Goals and Promise of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 91-116, Winter.
    4. Bhattacharya, Nilabhra & Black, Ervin L. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Larson, Chad R., 2003. "Assessing the relative informativeness and permanence of pro forma earnings and GAAP operating earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 285-319, December.
    5. Litvak, Kate, 2007. "The effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley act on non-US companies cross-listed in the US," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 195-228, June.
    6. Leuz, Christian, 2007. "Was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 really this costly? A discussion of evidence from event returns and going-private decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 146-165, September.
    7. Engel, Ellen & Hayes, Rachel M. & Wang, Xue, 2007. "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and firms' going-private decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1-2), pages 116-145, September.
    8. Foster, G, 1979. "Briloff And The Capital-Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 262-274.
    9. Roberta Romano, 2004. "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Making of Quack Corporate Governance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2653, Yale School of Management, revised 01 Jul 2005.
    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. Miriam Koning & Gerard Mertens & Peter Roosenboom, 2010. "The Impact of Media Attention on the Use of Alternative Earnings Measures," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 46(3), pages 258-288, September.
    2. Ahmed, Anwer S. & McAnally, Mary Lea & Rasmussen, Stephanie & Weaver, Connie D., 2010. "How costly is the Sarbanes Oxley Act? Evidence on the effects of the Act on corporate profitability," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 352-369, June.
    3. Etienne Farvaque & Catherine Refait-Alexandre & Dhafer Saïdane, 2011. "Corporate disclosure: A review of its (direct and indirect) benefits and costs," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 128, pages 5-31.
    4. Edward Lee & Norman Strong & Zhenmei (Judy) Zhu, 2014. "Did Regulation Fair Disclosure, SOX, and Other Analyst Regulations Reduce Security Mispricing?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 733-774, June.
    5. Stefan Arping & Zacharias Sautner, 2010. "Did the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 make Firms less Opaque? Evidence from Analyst Earnings Forecasts," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-129/2/DSF 5, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Lail, Bradley E., 2014. "Do cross-listers bond to U.S. markets? An examination of earnings quality around SOX," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 354-366.
    7. 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.
    8. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    9. Zhao, Qiuhong & Ziebart, David A., 2015. "SOX and bondholders' reliance on monitors," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 129-137.
    10. Jihad Dagher, 2018. "Regulatory Cycles: Revisiting the Political Economy of Financial Crises," IMF Working Papers 2018/008, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Craig Doidge & G. Andrew Karolyi & René M. Stulz, 2010. "Why Do Foreign Firms Leave U.S. Equity Markets?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(4), pages 1507-1553, August.
    12. Stefan Arping & Zacharias Sautner, 2013. "Did SOX Section 404 Make Firms Less Opaque? Evidence from Cross†Listed Firms," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1133-1165, September.
    13. Kate Litvak, 2008. "The Long‐Term Effect of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act on Cross‐Listing Premia," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(5), pages 875-920, November.
    14. Abdioglu, Nida & Bamiatzi, Vassiliki & Cavusgil, S.Tamer & Khurshed, Arif & Stathopoulos, Konstantinos, 2015. "Information asymmetry, disclosure and foreign institutional investment: An empirical investigation of the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 902-915.
    15. Kaserer, Christoph & Mettler, Alfred & Obernberger, Stefan, 2008. "The impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley act on the cost of going public," CEFS Working Paper Series 2008-07, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    16. Nejadmalayeri, Ali & Nishikawa, Takeshi & Rao, Ramesh P., 2013. "Sarbanes-Oxley Act and corporate credit spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2991-3006.
    17. Bruno Funchal & Daniel Gottlieb, 2011. "Corporate Governance And Credit Access:The Sarbanes-Oxley Act As A Natural Experiment," Anais do XXXVIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 38th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 053, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    18. Kim, Y. Han (Andy), 2013. "Self attribution bias of the CEO: Evidence from CEO interviews on CNBC," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2472-2489.
    19. Feng Gao & Joanna Shuang Wu & Jerold Zimmerman, 2009. "Unintended Consequences of Granting Small Firms Exemptions from Securities Regulation: Evidence from the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 459-506, May.
    20. Jackson, Gregory, 2010. "Understanding corporate governance in the United States: An historical and theoretical reassessment," Arbeitspapiere 223, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Event study; Information content; Non-GAAP earnings; Regulation; Value relevance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ems:eureri:10609. 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: RePub (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erimanl.html .

    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.