Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Integrating Big Data and Intellectual Capital: Resource Complementarity in Business Value Creation

Intellectual capital is gaining increasing attention, especially through the adoption of innovative technologies such as big data. Literature has scrutinized the impact of big data and intellectual capital independently and reveals a positive influence on the value of business from their utilization. Nevertheless, relying on the theory of based-view resource and the experience of practitioners in the field, this study proposes that the effects of their complementary and shared utilization should be much bigger. Such a proposal has not been discussed and empirically examined so far. This paper discusses how to deploy big data and intellectual capital concurrently in the framework of accounting and information systems, with a discussion of the interaction of big data and intellectual capital as resources that could pull out the most complementary value for companies and establish a future research agenda.
Do Personal Taxes Affect Investment Decisions and Stock Returns?

I study the causal effects of personal investment taxes on stock demand, stock returns, and the dividend policy of companies. I exploit a change in legislation in 2013 which allowed stocks listed on the Alternative Investment Market, a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, to be held in a capital gains and dividend tax-exempt investment account for the first time. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I find that after the tax cut, stock demand increased, stock returns decreased, and dividends increased. I rationalize my results by introducing a life-cycle model which incorporates two risky assets with varying taxes. My results demonstrate the importance of personal taxes for both investors and companies.
Austerity, Economic Vulnerability, and Populism

Governments have repeatedly adjusted fiscal policy during the past decades. We examine the political effects of these adjustments in Western countries since the early 1990s using both district-level election outcomes and individual-level voting data. We expect that austerity increases populist votes, but only among economically vulnerable voters, who are hit most by austerity. Following the political economy literature, we identify economically vulnerable regions, looking at the share of low-skilled workers and share of manufacturing production. The results from a difference-in-differences analysis show that austerity increases support for populist parties in economically vulnerable regions, but austerity has little effect on voting in economically less vulnerable regions. These findings are confirmed by the analysis at the individual level. Our results suggest that the success of populist parties across Europe critically hinges on the governments failure to protect the losers of structural economic change. The economic origins of populism, therefore, are not purely external, but the populist backlash is triggered by internal factors, notably public policies. <br>
The Real Effects of Corruption on Corporate Takeover Activity: Evidence From China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign

This paper examines how political corruption affects M&amp;A activities. By exploiting the public enforcement of the anti-corruption campaign across different regions in China, we find in a difference-in-difference (DID) setting that the reduction in corruption increases cross-region takeover activities by 40% and deal volume more than doubles. Further analysis reveals that the reduction in market entry barriers and the decreased potential for political rent extraction are two plausible economic channels behind these real effects on corporate investments. Reduction in corruption also leads to higher bidder returns and improves post-acquisition performance. Furthermore, such a campaign significantly strengthens local economic development (higher GDP per capita growth, higher general government revenue per capita, and lower unemployment rate).
Last to Come and Last to Go? On the Complex Role of Gender and Ethnicity in the Reputational Penalties for Directors Linked to Corporate Fraud

Scholars have found consistent evidence that directors who served on boards of firms accused of misconduct face reputational penalties in the director labor market. While this is often interpreted in terms of an ex post settling-up process that penalizes directors for failing in their role as monitors of management, the fundamentally social basis of the director labor market suggests that the ex post settling-up process may also incorporate a resource-provisioning role for directors as conferrers of legitimacy. We analyze how growing socio-economic pressures that aim to redress the longstanding underrepresentation of female and ethnic minority directors may lessen—for these sought-after directors—the penalties typically imposed by the labor market in the aftermath of corporate misconduct. Using a rich proprietary dataset on financial misconduct and directors’ demographic characteristics, we find strong support for our hypotheses regarding a possible “reputational immunity” effect. We also provide supplementary analyses demonstrating the specific mechanisms underlying our predictions, and establishing the robustness of the results to a variety of alternative explanations. We discuss the implications of our theoretical perspective and empirical findings for future research on corporate governance, corporate misconduct, and the duality of minority status as it relates to discriminatory outcomes in modern labor markets.
A CEO Value Perspective of Corporate Innovation Strategy: Evidence from China

This paper theorizes and tests how chief executive officer (CEO)’s value of self-enhancement and self-transcendence, influence corporate innovation activities. We hypothesize that CEOs’ values of self-enhancement — focusing on the leader’s own benefit — would relate negatively to corporate innovation strategy and outcomes, whereas self-transcendent values — focusing on others’ benefits — would relate positively to corporate innovation. Using a longitudinal archival data of publicly listed companies in China during 2010 — 2014, we tested our hypotheses and found supportive evidences, further analyses show different combination of the two types of fundamental values predicts different corporate innovation activities and outcomes. By addressing the question of why some Chinese companies are lack of innovation and some other are devoted to innovative activities, this paper offers a new lens of corporate leader’s personal characteristics on a firm's business strategy, and explain how CEO’s value orientation of self-transcendence and self-enhancement can be manifested in the corporate innovation strategy and innovation performance.
Investor Attention and Topic Appearance Probabilities: Evidence from Treasury Bond Market

Motivated by the category-learning behavior, we propose to use Topic Appearance Probability (TAP) in the financial news as an alternative measure of investor attention. We then investigate the relationship between the investor attention, measured by the widely used the Google Search Volume Index and our proposed TAP, and the short-term 3-month and long-term 10-year Treasury yields using daily and weekly data. Our empirical findings are: <br><br>(1) there exists a contemporaneous relationship between investor attention and the return of the Treasury yields for daily data, but not weekly data; <br><br>(2) The investor attention has a more pronounced predictive power on the return of the 3-month Treasury yield than that of 10-year, which is in terms of adjusted R2 and the number of significant terms. <br><br>(3) Investor attention has certain predictive power over the volatility.
The “15 Days” Debate: The Value of an Early Release of Information (Evidence from 10-K Submissions)

We analyze the long-term effects of accelerating the 10-K deadline by 15 days. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that accelerated firms are more likely to issue a restatement when their 10-K deadline is binding. 10-Ks submitted by accelerated firms have a larger market reaction. Accelerated firms have lower information asymmetry, which is consistent with our finding that EDGAR filing search traffic is lower for the accelerated filers.
COVID-19 Effects on the US Stock Index Returns: An Event Study Approach

This paper aims to measure the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the US stock market.It applies Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH), Vector Autoregressive (VAR) and Event study Method (ESM) models. The ESM follows three different timelines, such as pre-event, event-day, post-event windows. Data comes from the major US stock indices. We find that the US stock market reacts negatively toward confirmed and death cases due to COVID-19, while death cases have a significant impact on stock market volatility. This study bridges the research gap and adds significant insights to the existing literature.
Employee Sentiment and Stock Return Predictability

We propose a new measure of investor sentiment based on predictions of firms' near-term prospects, disclosed in online platforms by their employees. By aggregating this forward-looking information, we construct an Employee Sentiment Index (ESI) and find that it is a strong predictor of stock market returns with lower future returns following high employee sentiment. Its predictive ability is superior compared to existing measures of investor sentiment and commonly-studied macroeconomic variables. Further, it predicts cross-sectional returns from difficult to value and costly to arbitrage stocks. The predictive power of the ESI is explained by investors' biased beliefs about expected cash flows.
No-Arbitrage Priors, Drifting Volatilities, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates

We derive a Bayesian prior from a no-arbitrage affine term structure model and use it to estimate the coefficients of a vector autoregression of a panel of government bond yields, specifying a common time-varying volatility for the disturbances. Results based on US data show that this method improves the precision of both point and density forecasts of the term structure of government bond yields, compared to a fully fledged term structure model with time-varying volatility and to a no-change random walk forecast. Further analysis reveals that the approach might work better than an exact term structure model because it relaxes the requirements that yields obey a strict factor structure and that the factors follow a Markov process. Instead, the cross-equation no-arbitrage restrictions on the factor loadings play a marginal role in producing forecasting gains.
The Use of Relative Performance Evaluation at the Business Unit Manager Level

Relative Performance Evaluation is a widely studies topic in the theoretical and analytical literature. Also the empirical literature addresses this topic, with its main focus on executive compensation, and using archival data. This study assesses the of RPE in the performance evaluation of business unit managers. Survey data on 325 business unit managers indicate that RPE is used extensively. Also, the findings suggest that RPE improves the quality of the performance evaluation, reducing noise and risk in the performance contacts.
Cultural Value Orientation and Stock Trading Behavior: A Study of Individual Investors from India

Cross-cultural studies in finance have often used country-wise data for cultural values. Our objective was to understand how individual differences in cultural values affect an investor's stock trading behavior in an emerging market. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we conceptualized a model for intention to participate in the stock market. A structured questionnaire was designed and used to collect primary data for 259 respondents from India. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to estimate path coefficients. <br><br>Perceived financial efficacy and risk tolerance are the key factors that positively affected the intention to participate. Among cultural variables, uncertainty avoidance positively affected long term orientation, which in turn positively affected financial efficacy. Thus their effect on participation was indirect but positive. Power distance and social influence had direct positive effects. Males, younger adults, high-income individuals, and those living outside India were more likely to participate in the stock market. <br><br>We estimated a second model to see how cultural values affect stock market engagement. Unlike the participation model, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation negatively affected engagement. Collectivism had a positive effect when mediated through perceived financial efficacy and a negative effect when mediated through risk tolerance. <br><br>Our final research question was to understand how cultural values affect the motives for investing. Individuals with long term orientation invested for high returns, while those high on uncertainty avoidance looked for portfolio diversification. Individuals who scored high on power distance or masculinity invested for thrill-seeking and social motives. <br><br>Our results provide interesting and new insights into how intra-cultural variations affect participation and engagement in the stock market of an emerging economy.
Analyzing the Effects of Financial Development on Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan through PCA Approach

The study examines the relationship between financial sector development and economic growth of Pakistan for a period from 1981 to 2015.Using annual time series data, an econometric model is developed on the basis of theoretical frame work in line with previous research . To capture various dimensions of financial development an index is constructed by PCA technique through utilizing relevant proxies of financial sector development. ARDL bound testing approach is applied to identify long run relationship and short run dynamics between financial development and economic growth. Other econometric tests conducted to test stability and reliability of the model. Findings of the econometric estimation reveal that a significant long run association exists among the variables while financial depth and rate of investment have positive significant effect on economic performance of the country. Results reflect the importance of financial sector development for economic growth of Pakistan and draw attention of policy makers for further strengthening the financial sector of Pakistan.
The Using of Technology Acceptance Model in Understanding the Application Process of Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities in SMEs in Pontianak

This study aims to analyze the application of Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities in SMEs in Pontianak City using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study was conducted in the Pontianak City area using primer data in a form of questionnaire. The total sample in this research was 50 SMEs that were randomly selected. Statistic test used in the data management was Partial Least Square (smartPLS 3.0). The finding of this research shows that the perceived ease of use significantly affects the perceived usefulness and attitude toward using the Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities, while the perceived usefulness significantly affects the attitude towards using IndonesianAccounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities. Moreover, the attitude toward using the Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities significantly affects the behavioural intention to use Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities.Keywords : Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Indonesian Accounting Standards for Non-Publicly-Accountable Entities, SMEs
Corporate Governance, Earnings Quality and Idiosyncratic Crash Risk During the 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

This study focuses on the cross-sectional determinants of idiosyncratic crash risk. In specific, we verify the role of financial disclosure quality and internal corporate governance mechanisms associated with the board of directors, executive compensation and audit committee as buffers of crash risk upsurge during financial turmoil. A sample of 1398 firms, mostly from developed countries, is analyzed covering two different periods: July 2005 to June 2007 (the pre-crisis period) and July 2007 to June 2009 (the crisis period). While our results reveal that accounting opacity before the crisis fueled crash risk during the crisis, we fail to find strong evidence of an association between pre-crisis internal corporate governance metrics and crash risk variation during the crisis. Crucially, our results also reject the hypothesis that internal corporate governance mechanisms alleviated earnings opacity or mediated the relationship between internal corporate governance mechanisms and crash risk variation. Finally, robustness tests indicate that these conclusions hold when controlling for selection bias in the definition of the utilized sample.
Firm Value and Its Size: A Model of Cooperation and Agency Costs

An important variable absent in agency cost analyses is the extent of cooperation among the manager and the investors. Two types of cooperation are studied: 1. ) generalized cooperation, a concept close to social capital; and 2. ) discriminating cooperation, a concept close to cooperation with relatives. These types of cooperation affect managerial private benefits differently; while generalized cooperation reduces agency costs, discriminating cooperation may enlarge them, until the manager becomes highly close toward his cooperating investor.
Preparation of electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) from two types of electrospun lignin fibers

Abstract Electrodes has been prepared for application in an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) based on polyethylene glycol lignin (PEGL) and soda lignin (SL) derived from cedar wood. Fibers with a diameter of 23 μm were prepared by direct melt electrospinning of PEGL. Much finer fibers of 3.6 μm diameter were obtained by dry electrospinning of 70% PEGL in a dimethyl formamide (DMF) solution at 145°C. The dry electrospinning of SL alone in an alkaline aqueous solution was not achievable, but this was possible of a mixture of SL and polyethylene glycol (Mw=500 000) at a ratio of 99/1, which resulted in thin SL fibers with a diameter of 0.85 μm. These fibers were converted into activated carbon fibers (ACFs) by thermostabilization, carbonization, and steam activation. The specific Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface areas of the resulting PEGL-ACFs and SL-ACFs were 1880 m2 g-1 and 1411 m2 g-1, respectively. PEGL-ACFs electrodes with an organic electrolyte exhibited an impedance of 1.6 Ω and a specific capacitance of 92.6 F g-1 at a scan rate of 1 A g-1, and the SL-ACFs electrodes had an impedance and specific capacitance of 4.5 Ω and 55.6 F g-1, respectively.
Insights From Narrative Disclosures Regarding Integrated Thinking in Integrated Reports in South Africa and Japan

Purpose This study aims to provide insights into the poorly understood concept of integrated thinking by comparing and contrasting disclosures related to integrated thinking provided in integrated reports in two different institutional settings. Design/methodology/approach The study uses content analysis of the narrative sections of integrated reports to explore similarities and differences in the way the concept of integrated thinking is portrayed. It uses a matched sample of financial services companies in two different institutional settings, South Africa (where integrated reporting (IR) is mandatory and IR practices are world-leading) and Japan (where IR is voluntary and interest in IR is still developing). IR adoption is viewed through the lens of institutional theory, focussing on isomorphic forces which affect companies’ structure, policies and practices. Findings Even though the conceptualisation of integrated thinking differs between South Africa and Japan, in both settings there is a strong association between integrated thinking disclosures and corporate governance practices, materiality assessments and the pursuit of an industry leadership position, suggesting a link between these concepts and the underlying level of integrated thinking. Japanese disclosures appear to mimic South African disclosures, highlighting South Africa’s leading role in IR, although Japan shows more varied interpretations of integrated thinking. Originality/value This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the poorly understood concept of integrated thinking, responding to calls from both academics and practitioners for more research in this area. It shows the potential for integrated thinking to develop through a process of mimicry and highlights South Africa’s leading role in the dissemination of best practice in the field. Its findings relating to the fluid conceptualisation of integrated thinking in different institutional settings will be of interest to regulators and practitioners. To the knowledge this is one of the first studies to consider disclosures relating to integrated thinking in the financial services sector. Focussing on the financial services sector, with its unique features and regulatory frameworks, allows for deeper analysis, free from the potential distortions inherent in studying a broader cross-section of industries. The study also highlights the importance of corporate governance to integrated thinking, suggesting future research avenues.
The Anatomy of Government Bond Yields Synchronization in the Eurozone

We investigate the synchronization of the Eurozone’s government bond yields at different maturities. For this purpose, we combine principal component analysis with random matrix theory. We find that synchronization depends on yield maturity. Short-term yields are not synchronized. Medium- and long-term yields, instead, were highly synchronized early after the introduction of the Euro. Synchronization then decreased significantly during the Great Recession and the European Debt Crisis, to partially recover after 2015. We interpret our empirical results using portfolio theory, and we point to divergence trades as a source of the self-sustained yield asynchronous dynamics. Our results envisage synchronization as a requirement for the smooth transmission of conventional monetary policy in the Eurozone.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Shock on Labour Income Inequality: Evidence from Italy

The spread of the pandemic and the consequent adoption of lockdown measures to prevent infections had severe consequences for business activity and employment. By using data from the Italian Labour Force Survey, this paper simulates the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the dynamics and distribution of equivalized labour income in the first two quarters of 2020. Moreover, it assesses the effectiveness in smoothing labour income losses of the social insurance benefits that were in place before the crisis and of the temporary measures adopted by the Italian Government to face it. We find that the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 shock impacted low-income households more heavily than higher income families, implying a substantial increase in labour income inequality. However, our results show that the social insurance benefits temporarily introduced by the Italian Government were able, at least in the short term, to compensate for these income losses and for the increased inequality significantly more than the pre-crisis measures.