IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v60y2020is1p587-627.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Operating cash flow asymmetric timeliness in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Meiting Lu
  • Yaowen Shan
  • Sue Wright
  • Yimeng Yu

Abstract

Operating cash flow (CFO) asymmetric timeliness occurs when CFO reflects bad news more quickly than good news. We examine the presence and determinants of CFO asymmetric timeliness in Australia, where substantial differences in reporting requirements of cash flow components, in characteristics of listed companies and in the degree of conservative financial reporting produce contrasting findings to those in the United States. We find supportive evidence for the novel ‘sticky cost behaviour’ explanation and also the product‐pricing strategy, but not the life cycle hypothesis. These findings are useful for investors and analysts concerned with forecasting the future values of companies.

Suggested Citation

  • Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Sue Wright & Yimeng Yu, 2020. "Operating cash flow asymmetric timeliness in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 587-627, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:60:y:2020:i:s1:p:587-627
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12349
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12349
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12349?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. Collins, Daniel W. & Hribar, Paul & Tian, Xiaoli (Shaolee), 2014. "Cash flow asymmetry: Causes and implications for conditional conservatism research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 173-200.
    2. Kamran Ahmed & Darren Henry, 2012. "Accounting conservatism and voluntary corporate governance mechanisms by Australian firms," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(3), pages 631-662, September.
    3. Mark C. Anderson & Rajiv D. Banker & Surya N. Janakiraman, 2003. "Are Selling, General, and Administrative Costs “Sticky”?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 47-63, March.
    4. Gopal V. Krishnan & James A. Largay III, 2000. "The Predictive Ability of Direct Method Cash Flow Information," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1&2), pages 215-245.
    5. Cheng Lai & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan, 2013. "Has Australian financial reporting become more conservative over time?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(3), pages 731-761, September.
    6. Banker, Rajiv D. & Basu, Sudipta & Byzalov, Dmitri & Chen, Janice Y.S., 2016. "The confounding effect of cost stickiness on conservatism estimates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 203-220.
    7. Iain Clacher & Alan Duboisée Ricquebourg & Allan Hodgson, 2013. "The Value Relevance of Direct Cash Flows under International Financial Reporting Standards," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 49(3), pages 367-395, September.
    8. JULIAN LOWE & JOHN McKENNA & GARRY TIBBITS, 1991. "Small Firm Growth And Failure: Public Policy Issues And Practical Problems," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 10(2), pages 69-81, June.
    9. Nigar Sultana & J-L. W. Mitchell Van der Zahn & Steven Cahan, 2015. "Earnings conservatism and audit committee financial expertise," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(1), pages 279-310, March.
    10. Cheng Lai & Stephen L. Taylor, 2008. "Estimating and validating a firm‐year‐specific measure of conservatism: Australian evidence," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(4), pages 673-695, December.
    11. Andrew Ferguson & Greg Clinch & Stephen Kean, 2011. "Predicting the Failure of Developmental Gold Mining Projects," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(1), pages 44-53, March.
    12. Christos A. Grambovas & Begoña Giner & Demetris Christodoulou, 2006. "Earnings conservatism: panel data evidence from the European Union and the United States," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 42(3‐4), pages 354-378, September.
    13. Ball, Ray & Shivakumar, Lakshmanan, 2005. "Earnings quality in UK private firms: comparative loss recognition timeliness," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-128, February.
    14. Ray Ball & Lakshmanan Shivakumar, 2006. "The Role of Accruals in Asymmetrically Timely Gain and Loss Recognition," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 207-242, May.
    15. Harishankar Balkrishna & Jeffrey J. Coulton & Stephen L. Taylor, 2007. "Accounting losses and earnings conservatism: evidence from Australian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(3), pages 381-400, September.
    16. Nelson, Karen K. & Barth, Mary E. & Cram, Donald, 2001. "Accruals and the Prediction of Future Cash Flows," Research Papers 1594r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    17. Michael Bradbury, 2011. "Direct or Indirect Cash Flow Statements?," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(2), pages 124-130, June.
    18. 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.
    19. Gopal V. Krishnan & James A. Largay III, 2000. "The Predictive Ability of Direct Method Cash Flow Information," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1‐2), pages 215-245, January.
    20. Wu, Hai & Fargher, Neil & Wright, Sue, 2010. "Accounting for investments and the relevance of losses to firm value," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 104-127, March.
    21. Givoly, Dan & Hayn, Carla, 2000. "The changing time-series properties of earnings, cash flows and accruals: Has financial reporting become more conservative?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 287-320, June.
    22. Anthony, Joseph H. & Ramesh, K., 1992. "Association between accounting performance measures and stock prices : A test of the life cycle hypothesis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2-3), pages 203-227, August.
    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. Yan, Kai & Zhang, Ziyi & Yang, Lisi & Cao, Yuqiang & Shan, Yaowen, 2024. "Capital generates green: Evidence from China's national innovation system policy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Xiaomeng Chen & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2023. "Securities class actions and conditional conservatism: Evidence from two legal events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2441-2471, June.
    3. Yuqiang Cao & Weiming Liang & Guocheng Yang & Jun Yin, 2022. "Judicial Independence and Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Jun, Xiao & Huang, Wenwei & Guo, Yiting & Cao, Yuqiang & Lu, Meiting, 2023. "Why does economic policy uncertainty increase firm-level pollutant emission?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    5. Liu, Lihua & Cao, Lele & Cao, Yuqiang & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2024. "VAT credit refunds and firm productivity: Evidence from China's VAT reform," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Yan, Kai & Chen, Zhiwu & Wang, Jingang & Wang, Peipei & Liang, Weiming, 2023. "The power from folk monitoring: Leading Officials’ Natural Resources Accountability Audit (NRAA) and corporate ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).
    7. Can Huang & Yuqiang Cao & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan & Yizhou Zhang, 2023. "Messages in online stock forums and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 3011-3041, September.
    8. Chen, Jing & Liu, Xinghe & Ou, Fenghao & Lu, Meiting & Wang, Peipei, 2023. "Green lending and stock price crash risk: Evidence from the green credit reform in China," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. Naoum, Vasilios-Christos & Ntounis, Dimitrios & Papanastasopoulos, Georgios & Vlismas, Orestes, 2023. "Asymmetric cost behavior: Theory, meta-analysis, and implications," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    10. Deli Wang & Ke Peng & Kaiye Tang & Yewei Wu, 2022. "Does Fintech Development Enhance Corporate ESG Performance? Evidence from an Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-21, December.
    11. Chada, Swechha & Saravanan, Palanisamy & Varadharajan, Gopal, 2024. "Socioemotional wealth and cash flow sensitivity of cash: Evidence from India," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(PA).
    12. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Raffaela Casciello & Fiorenza Meucci, 2022. "Firm life cycle stages and earnings management," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 1019-1049, October.
    13. Xijia Huang & Yiting Guo & Yuming Lin & Liping Liu & Kai Yan, 2022. "Green Loans and Green Innovations: Evidence from China’s Equator Principles Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.

    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. Dmitri Byzalov & Sudipta Basu, 2016. "Conditional conservatism and disaggregated bad news indicators in accrual models," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 859-897, September.
    2. Ha, Joohyung & Feng, Mingming, 2018. "Conditional conservatism and labor investment efficiency," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 143-163.
    3. Moy, Melissa & Heaney, Richard & Tarca, Ann & van Zyl, Warrick, 2020. "Conditional accounting conservatism: Exploring the impact of changes in institutional frameworks in four countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    4. Haider, Imran & Singh, Harjinder & Sultana, Nigar, 2021. "Managerial ability and accounting conservatism," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    5. Richard Kent & Jacqueline Birt, 2021. "IAS 7 and value relevance: the direct method versus the indirect method," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1532-1586, December.
    6. Henry Jarva & Matthijs Lof, 2024. "Identifying accounting conservatism in the presence of skewness," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 553-577, February.
    7. Jinhan Pae, 2007. "Unexpected Accruals and Conditional Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5‐6), pages 681-704, June.
    8. William Bradford & Chao Chen & Song Zhu, 2017. "Conservative Accounting, IFRS Convergence and Cash Dividend Payments: Evidence from China," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), pages 376-414, June.
    9. Li Cui & Pamela Kent & Sujin Kim & Shan Li, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and firm performance during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5543-5579, December.
    10. Basu, Sudipta & Vitanza, Justin & Wang, Wei, 2020. "Asymmetric loan loss provision models," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).
    11. Cheng Lai & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan, 2013. "Has Australian financial reporting become more conservative over time?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(3), pages 731-761, September.
    12. Khalifa, Mariem & Trabelsi, Samir & Matoussi, Hamadi, 2022. "Leverage, R&D expenditures, and accounting conservatism: Evidence from technology firms," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 285-304.
    13. S. P. Kothari & Charles Wasley, 2019. "Commemorating the 50‐Year Anniversary of Ball and Brown (1968): The Evolution of Capital Market Research over the Past 50 Years," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(5), pages 1117-1159, December.
    14. Walid Guermazi, 2023. "International financial reporting standards adoption in the European Union and earnings conservatism: a review of empirical research," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(2), pages 200-211, June.
    15. Richard Anthony Kent & Di Bu, 2020. "The importance of cash flow disclosure and cost of capital," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 877-908, April.
    16. Hilary, Gilles & Hsu, Charles & Segal, Benjamin & Wang, Rencheng, 2016. "The bright side of managerial over-optimism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 46-64.
    17. Fabio B. Gaertner & Asad Kausar & Logan B. Steele, 2020. "Negative accounting earnings and gross domestic product," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 1382-1409, December.
    18. Amneh Alkurdi & Munther Al-Nimer & Mohammad Dabaghia, 2017. "Accounting Conservatism and Ownership Structure Effect: Evidence from Industrial and Financial Jordanian Listed Companies," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(2), pages 608-619.
    19. Shadi Farshadfar & Reza Monem, 2013. "The usefulness of operating cash flow and accrual components in improving the predictive ability of earnings: a re-examination and extension," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(4), pages 1061-1082, December.
    20. Wittenberg-Moerman, Regina, 2008. "The role of information asymmetry and financial reporting quality in debt trading: Evidence from the secondary loan market," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2-3), pages 240-260, December.

    More about this item

    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:bla:acctfi:v:60:y:2020:i:s1:p:587-627. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.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.