...Clive Lennox; Xi Wu ABSTRACT Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important way for non-Big 4 accounting firms to grow their businesses. Non-Big 4 firms also account for the vast majority of PCAOB inspections. Consistent with negative inspection reports signaling low quality at inspected...

...Zachary Kaplan; Gerardo Pérez-Cavazos ABSTRACT We provide evidence that dividends signal sustainable earnings generated by assets-in-place for firms with weak investment opportunities. In the cross-section, both dividend levels and changes contain more earnings information among firms with weaker...

... the Institute of Management Research at Seoul National University. Supplemental material can be accessed by clicking the link in Appendix B. income smoothing managerial ability earnings informativeness signaling A primary purpose of financial reporting is to provide information...

... accruals to credibly signal positive prospects, enabling it to raise capital to make the investments. We examine a large panel of firms during 1987 to 2009 and find that financially constrained firms with good investment opportunities have significantly higher discretionary accruals prior to investment...

... to employers significantly increase as the level of corporate giving increases. We also find a signaling effect. When employees can be remunerated for their actions, employee contributions initially increase as the level of corporate giving increases. Thus, even though corporate giving to charity decreases...