IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v83y2022ics1057521922002265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Under watchful eyes: Analyst site visits and firm earnings management

Author

Listed:
  • Gao, Zhan
  • Quan, Xiaofeng
  • Xu, Xingmei

Abstract

This paper investigates whether analyst site visits, where sell-side analysts visit corporate sites and interact with management, reduce earnings management by host firms. Taking advantage of the disclosure of analyst site visits by Chinese listed firms, we find that the intensity of analyst site visits is negatively associated with discretionary accruals, and this relation is robust to controlling for endogeneity. Furthermore, we find that site visits attended by star analysts and including factory tours are associated with lower levels of discretionary accruals than those without these features. We also report that the number and coverage of questions posed during site visits are negatively associated with discretionary accruals. Our results demonstrate that site visits by sell-side analysts perform a vital monitoring role and exert significant constraints on firms' opportunistic financial reporting.

Suggested Citation

  • Gao, Zhan & Quan, Xiaofeng & Xu, Xingmei, 2022. "Under watchful eyes: Analyst site visits and firm earnings management," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s1057521922002265
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102269
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521922002265
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102269?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chuan-Yang Hwang & Yuan Li, 2018. "Analysts’ Reputational Concerns, Self-Censoring, and the International Dispersion Effect," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(5), pages 2289-2307, May.
    2. Qiang Cheng & Fei Du & Brian Yutao Wang & Xin Wang, 2019. "Do Corporate Site Visits Impact Stock Prices?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 359-388, March.
    3. Joel Peress, 2014. "The Media and the Diffusion of Information in Financial Markets: Evidence from Newspaper Strikes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2007-2043, October.
    4. Hongwen Han & Jiali Jenna Tang & Qingquan Tang, 2021. "Goodwill Impairment, Securities Analysts, and Information Transparency," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 767-799, August.
    5. Bing Han & Dongmin Kong & Shasha Liu, 2018. "Do Analysts Gain an Informational Advantage by Visiting Listed Companies?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 1843-1867, December.
    6. Boris Groysberg & Paul M. Healy & David A. Maber, 2011. "What Drives Sell‐Side Analyst Compensation at High‐Status Investment Banks?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(4), pages 969-1000, September.
    7. William J. Mayew, 2008. "Evidence of Management Discrimination Among Analysts during Earnings Conference Calls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 627-659, June.
    8. Roychowdhury, Sugata, 2006. "Earnings management through real activities manipulation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 335-370, December.
    9. Chen, Tao & Harford, Jarrad & Lin, Chen, 2015. "Do analysts matter for governance? Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 383-410.
    10. Po-Hsin Ho & Yu-Chun Wang & Chih-Yung Lin, 2015. "Do political connections matter to bondholders? Evidence from China," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(15), pages 1240-1245, October.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Qiang Cheng & Fei Du & Xin Wang & Yutao Wang, 2016. "Seeing is believing: analysts’ corporate site visits," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1245-1286, December.
    13. Mark H. Lang & Karl V. Lins & Darius P. Miller, 2003. "ADRs, Analysts, and Accuracy: Does Cross Listing in the United States Improve a Firm's Information Environment and Increase Market Value?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 317-345, May.
    14. Alexander Dyck & Adair Morse & Luigi Zingales, 2010. "Who Blows the Whistle on Corporate Fraud?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(6), pages 2213-2253, December.
    15. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    16. Eugene Soltes, 2014. "Private Interaction Between Firm Management and Sell‐Side Analysts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 245-272, March.
    17. Clarke, Jonathan & Khorana, Ajay & Patel, Ajay & Rau, P. Raghavendra, 2007. "The impact of all-star analyst job changes on their coverage choices and investment banking deal flow," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 713-737, June.
    18. Christopher J. Malloy, 2005. "The Geography of Equity Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 719-755, April.
    19. Roberts, John & Sanderson, Paul & Barker, Richard & Hendry, John, 2006. "In the mirror of the market: The disciplinary effects of company/fund manager meetings," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 277-294, April.
    20. Berkowitz, Daniel & Lin, Chen & Ma, Yue, 2015. "Do property rights matter? Evidence from a property law enactment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 583-593.
    21. Chen, Deqiu & Ma, Yujing & Martin, Xiumin & Michaely, Roni, 2022. "On the fast track: Information acquisition costs and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 794-823.
    22. Bradley, Daniel & Gokkaya, Sinan & Liu, Xi & Xie, Fei, 2017. "Are all analysts created equal? Industry expertise and monitoring effectiveness of financial analysts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 179-206.
    23. Mitchell A. Petersen & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2002. "Does Distance Still Matter? The Information Revolution in Small Business Lending," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2533-2570, December.
    24. Hong, Xin & Zhuang, Zhuang & Kang, Di & Wang, Zhibin, 2019. "Do corporate site visits impact hedge fund performance?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 113-128.
    25. Irani, Rustom M. & Oesch, David, 2016. "Analyst Coverage and Real Earnings Management: Quasi-Experimental Evidence," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 589-627, April.
    26. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Liuchuang & Yu, Zhongbo & Zhang, Hao, 2019. "Local versus non-local effects of Chinese media and post-earnings announcement drift," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 82-92.
    27. Ramnath, Sundaresh & Rock, Steve & Shane, Philip, 2008. "The financial analyst forecasting literature: A taxonomy with suggestions for further research," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 34-75.
    28. Yu, Fang (Frank), 2008. "Analyst coverage and earnings management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 245-271, May.
    29. Su, Fei & Feng, Xu & Tang, Songlian, 2021. "Do site visits mitigate corporate fraudulence? Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    30. Allen H. Huang & Reuven Lehavy & Amy Y. Zang & Rong Zheng, 2018. "Analyst Information Discovery and Interpretation Roles: A Topic Modeling Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2833-2855, June.
    31. Kothari, S.P. & Leone, Andrew J. & Wasley, Charles E., 2005. "Performance matched discretionary accrual measures," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 163-197, February.
    32. Irani, Rustom M. & Oesch, David, 2013. "Monitoring and corporate disclosure: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 398-418.
    33. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    34. José María Liberti & Mitchell A Petersen, 2019. "Information: Hard and Soft," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41.
    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. Lin, Yuchuan & Xing, Xinpeng, 2024. "Supply chain spillover effect of media attention to customers from the perspective of real earnings management," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Tam, Lewis H.K. & Tian, Shaohua, 2023. "Language barriers, corporate site visit, and analyst forecast accuracy," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 68-83.

    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. Dai, Yunhao & Chao, Yang & Wang, Li, 2021. "The brain gain of CFOs in China: The case of analyst forecasts," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Akyol, Ali C. & Qian, Yiming & Yu, Frank, 2023. "How do experienced analysts improve price efficiency?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Chen, Kejing & Guo, Wenqi & Jiang, Lin & Xiong, Xiong & Yang, Mo, 2022. "Does time-space compression affect analyst forecast performance?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Marco Navone & Thomas To, 2020. "Corporate watchdogs," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(4), pages 925-947, December.
    5. Cui, Huijie & Liang, Shangkun & Xu, Canyu & Junli, Yu, 2024. "Robots and analyst forecast precision: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    6. Hongwen Han & Jiali Jenna Tang & Qingquan Tang, 2021. "Goodwill Impairment, Securities Analysts, and Information Transparency," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 767-799, August.
    7. Sun, Zeyu & Kong, Ningning & Wu, Lei & Bao, Yu, 2024. "Does contingent payment in M&As induce acquirers’ earnings management? Evidence from performance commitment," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Qi, Zhen & Chu, Chien-Chi & Zhou, Yixiao & Chen, Jian, 2022. "Corporate site visits and firm performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 598-608.
    9. Zhongwei Huang & Thomas Jeanjean & Daphne Lui, 2023. "Analyst independence and earnings management," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3-4), pages 598-621, March.
    10. Guo, Yingwen & Li, Jingjing & Lin, Bingxuan, 2023. "Corporate site visit and tax avoidance: The effects of monitoring and tax knowledge dissemination," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Minhang Deng & Yunyi Wang & Gaoliang Tian & Bozhi Xu & Yuyan Tang, 2023. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and resource extraction: Evidence from China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(5), pages 5211-5243, December.
    12. Alexandre Garel & Jose Martin-Flores & Arthur Petit-Romec & Ayesha Scott, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Post-Print hal-03096196, HAL.
    13. Chen, Tao & Harford, Jarrad & Lin, Chen, 2015. "Do analysts matter for governance? Evidence from natural experiments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 383-410.
    14. Lai, Shaojie & Li, Xiaorong & Liu, Shiang & Wang, Qing Sophie, 2022. "Institutional investors’ site visits and corporate employment decision-making," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    15. Kaijuan Gao & Chenglong Wang & Qi Su & Hanxiao Shen, 2020. "Do analysts follow firms with able managers?," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(8), pages 1602-1612, December.
    16. Wu, Wenxin & Zhang, Xuezhi & Zhou, Zixun, 2022. "Institutional investors' corporate site visits and pay-performance sensitivity," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Haga, Jesper & Ittonen, Kim & Tronnes, Per C. & Wong, Leon, 2018. "Is earnings management sensitive to discount rates?," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 75-88.
    18. Daniel Bradley & Connie X. Mao & Chi Zhang, 2022. "Does Analyst Coverage Affect Workplace Safety?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3464-3487, May.
    19. Garel, Alexandre & Martin-Flores, Jose M. & Petit-Romec, Arthur & Scott, Ayesha, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Chunying Zhang & Xiaohui Wu, 2023. "Analyst Coverage and Corporate ESG Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-21, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sell-side analysts; Site visits; Earnings management; External monitoring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:eee:finana:v:83:y:2022:i:c:s1057521922002265. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620166 .

    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.