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This paper investigates the mathematical programming (MP) approach for decision making and cost allocation in the context of joint products. Through analysis of the MP approach to marginal‐value‐based cost allocations, an algorithm is developed to show that the allocations contain two elements: an element that is specific to individual joint products due to differences in demand elasticities, and an element based on relative adjusted sales values. If demand elasticities are identical for all joint products, then the traditional sales value method will generate the same cost allocation as the MP method. The new algorithm, the demand‐adjusted‐sales‐value algorithm (DASV), is especially helpful for solving the MP model with linear demand functions. The DASV algorithm provides an easy way to generate costs that are useful for optimal decision making.

ABSTRACTUse of the net realizable value approach for joint manufacturing cost allocations requires knowledge of selling prices of joint products. However, joint product selling prices themselves are functions of the allocated costs under a cost‐plus pricing policy. In this case, it is necessary to determine joint cost allocations and joint product prices simultaneously. This paper applies a nonlinear programming (NLP) approach to simultaneously determine the optimal joint production decision, joint product cost‐plus prices, and joint cost allocations using the net realizable value method. The NLP solution provides not only the optimal joint production and pricing decisions, but also the necessary conditions for such optimal decisions.

ABSTRACTMarketing communication intensity (i.e., the ratio of advertising and promotional expenditures to sales) has been an important topic for both business managers and academics. Here, we investigate cross‐sectional and time‐series variation of communication intensity due to: type of offering (product versus service) and type of market (consumer versus industrial). Overall, we find that both of these factors affect variation of communication intensity across industries and over time. However, the effect of market type is much more dramatic than the effect of offering type. Such knowledge about patterns in communication intensity levels helps managers make decisions about how much to spend on advertising and promotion.

ABSTRACTWe examine how information environment affects corporate cash policy by examining the change in cash holdings around two events that lead to exogenous change in information environment, namely the initial enforcement of insider trading laws (ITLs) and the mandatory adoption of IFRS in European Union (EU) countries. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that firms decrease their cash holdings after both events. The decrease in cash holdings is more pronounced for firms with higher precautionary savings demand and with more severe agency problems. Additional tests show that the sensitivity of investment to cash holdings declines after the two events, consistent with the notion that the benefit of cash holdings in mitigating underinvestment and the private benefit of overinvesting cash holdings reduce after the events. Overall, our findings provide evidence that information environment improvements have real decision effects.JEL Classifications: M41; M48; G31.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates earnings management by firms around their initial public offerings (IPOs) in domestic Chinese equity markets. Using a sample of 437 IPO firms, we find that Chinese firms tend to inflate earnings around their IPOs. We also show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) manage earnings to a lesser degree than non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs) do around IPOs. Furthermore, using path analysis, we find that two incentive factors, CEO shareholding and accessibility to bank loans, explain 48 percent of the correlation between state ownership and earnings management for IPO firms. In particular, accessibility to bank loans is a more important incentive factor that leads to less earnings management for SOEs than NSOEs.

AbstractResearch Question/IssueThis paper investigates whether the communication between managers and corporate site visitors facilitates managerial learning in improving management forecast accuracy.Research Findings/InsightsUsing corporate site visit (CSV) data from 2009 to 2016, we find that the frequency of corporate site visits is positively related to management forecast accuracy. The positive relationship between corporate site visits and forecast accuracy is stronger when visitors have greater expertise and advanced industry knowledge and when firms are visited during a period of high business uncertainty and are subject to high sensitivity to industry shocks. These findings are consistent with the managerial learning hypothesis. Our results are robust to endogeneity concerns and alternative CSV measures.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsPrevious literature on voluntary disclosure assumes that managers are endowed with a private set of information and decide how much of that to reveal. In this paper, we find that corporate site visits serve as a communication channel through which managers learn from investors. Overall, we provide evidence that private communication is a two‐way channel through which visitors learn useful information from managers and vice versa.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsWe provide evidence that the private information acquisition process is also a channel of information sharing that increases management forecast accuracy. Our results could be useful to policymakers who may care about the information acquisition cost of investors when evaluating the benefit of corporate site visits.

ABSTRACTWe apply the moderated confidence hypothesis (MCH) to investigate overreaction and underreaction in intra-industry earnings information transfers in an international setting. MCH predicts that late announcing firms' investors overreact (underreact) to early announcing industry peers' earnings news when early announcing peers' earnings news is imprecise (precise) signals of late announcing firms' earnings. Consistent with this notion, we find that late announcing firms' investors overreact to early announcing peers' earnings news in a large sample of international firms. To the extent that the country-level information environment and culture share the precision of peers' earnings as signals of each other's earnings, we find that late announcing firms' investors are more likely to underreact in countries with a richer information environment, are more likely to overreact in countries with higher individualism, and are less likely to overreact in countries with higher uncertainty avoidance.JEL Classifications: M41; G41; G15.

ABSTRACTThe China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) launched the Campaign for Strengthening Corporate Governance of Public Companies in 2007. As part of this pilot program, public firms were required to report to the CSRC whether their boards had established audit committees and whether these audit committees operated effectively. Using this unique one-time regulatory event in China, we examine whether it is informative for firms to certify the effectiveness of their audit committees. Through analyzing hand-collected data from the campaign reports filed with the CSRC, we find that firms with certified audit committee effectiveness are associated with less earnings management and are less likely to have modified audit opinions and delayed filings. Thus, our findings suggest that certification of audit committee effectiveness provides a firm an opportunity to credibly signal that its audit committee functions in substance rather than in appearance.JEL Classifications: M41; M42; M48.

ABSTRACTWe investigate whether the aggregated political relations of a firm's top management team (TMT) add value to the firm's performance. We distinguish between the political relations that arise from TMT's own work experience, which are termed direct political connections (DPC), and the relations that TMT develops from working for the same institution with the government officials, which are termed implicit political connections (IPC). We find that IPC are positively associated with firm performance and that they often have a stronger effect than DPC do. We also find that the effect of IPC on firm value is stronger in SOEs and in firms located in under-developed provinces. Moreover, we find that after the anti-corruption campaign, the effect of DPC decreases but the effect of IPC does not significantly change. Overall, our results suggest the importance of investigating a firm's aggregated political connections, especially its IPC.JEL Classifications: G32; D72; J33; L33.Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.