IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jocaae/v15y2019i3s1815566919301067.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CFO tenure, CFO board membership and accounting conservatism

Author

Listed:
  • Muttakin, Mohammad Badrul
  • Khan, Arifur
  • Tanewski, George

Abstract

We examine the influence of chief financial officer (CFO) tenure and CFO board membership on accounting conservatism among Australian listed companies. The study uses market-based (i.e., timeliness of earnings to news) and accounting-based (i.e., accrual-based loss recognition) measures of conservative accounting. The results show that while longer CFO tenure and CFO board membership increases accounting conservativism, this is not the case when CFOs become entrenched through long board-membership tenure. This entrenchment appears to lead to the use of aggressive accounting practices. Overall, the results indicate that CFO tenure and CFO board membership improve financial-reporting quality by increasing accounting conservatism in organizations, providing evidence of the importance of recognizing these two governance characteristics in policymaking and in regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Muttakin, Mohammad Badrul & Khan, Arifur & Tanewski, George, 2019. "CFO tenure, CFO board membership and accounting conservatism," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:15:y:2019:i:3:s1815566919301067
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2019.100165
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1815566919301067
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcae.2019.100165?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. Jean C. Bedard & Rani Hoitash & Udi Hoitash, 2014. "Chief Financial Officers as Inside Directors," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 787-817, September.
    2. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 137-176, March.
    3. Xue Wang, 2010. "Increased Disclosure Requirements and Corporate Governance Decisions: Evidence from Chief Financial Officers in the Pre‐ and Post–Sarbanes‐Oxley Periods," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(4), pages 885-920, September.
    4. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Rajgopal, Shiva, 2005. "The economic implications of corporate financial reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1-3), pages 3-73, December.
    5. Enrichetta Ravina & Paola Sapienza, 2010. "What Do Independent Directors Know? Evidence from Their Trading," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. 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.
    7. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    8. Ali, Ashiq & Zhang, Weining, 2015. "CEO tenure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 60-79.
    9. Renée B. Adams & Daniel Ferreira, 2007. "A Theory of Friendly Boards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(1), pages 217-250, February.
    10. 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.
    11. Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2010. "Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 51-89, March.
    12. Patricia M. Dechow & Richard G. Sloan & Amy P. Sweeney, 1996. "Causes and Consequences of Earnings Manipulation: An Analysis of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions by the SEC," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-36, March.
    13. Ahmed, Anwer S. & Duellman, Scott, 2007. "Accounting conservatism and board of director characteristics: An empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 411-437, July.
    14. Muniandy, Puspa & Tanewski, George & Johl, Shireenjit K., 2016. "Institutional investors in Australia: Do they play a homogenous monitoring role?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 266-288.
    15. Ryan Lafond & Sugata Roychowdhury, 2008. "Managerial Ownership and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 101-135, March.
    16. Zhang, Yan & Zhou, Jian & Zhou, Nan, 2007. "Audit committee quality, auditor independence, and internal control weaknesses," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 300-327.
    17. Klein, April, 2002. "Audit committee, board of director characteristics, and earnings management," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 375-400, August.
    18. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    19. Diamond, Douglas W, 1989. "Reputation Acquisition in Debt Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 828-862, August.
    20. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    21. Khan, Mozaffar & Watts, Ross L., 2009. "Estimation and empirical properties of a firm-year measure of accounting conservatism," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2-3), pages 132-150, December.
    22. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    23. 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.
    24. Roslinda Lim, 2011. "Are corporate governance attributes associated with accounting conservatism?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(4), pages 1007-1030, December.
    25. 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.
    26. Bushman, Robert M. & Piotroski, Joseph D., 2006. "Financial reporting incentives for conservative accounting: The influence of legal and political institutions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 107-148, October.
    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. Lu Qiao & Emmanuel Adegbite & Tam Huy Nguyen, 2024. "CFO overconfidence and conditional accounting conservatism," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 1-37, January.
    2. Ferdous, Lutfa Tilat & Atawnah, Nader & Yeboah, Richard & Zhou, Yifan, 2024. "Firm-level climate risk and accounting conservatism: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PC).
    3. Felix Schumann & Toni W. Thun & Tobias Dauth & Henning Zülch, 2024. "Does top management team diversity affect accounting quality? Empirical evidence from Germany," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(1), pages 137-175, March.
    4. Yang Wang & Yifei Zhang & Xiao Chang & Wei Kang, 2024. "CEO tenure and environmental fraud for listed family firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 1887-1905, March.
    5. Irfan Ullah & Aurang Zeb & Chunlin Wang & Muhammad Arif Khan & Umair Bin Yousaf, 2024. "Foreign Experienced CFOs’ and Financial Reporting Quality," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, September.

    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. Sudipta Basu & Yi Liang, 2019. "Director–Liability–Reduction Laws and Conditional Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 889-917, September.
    2. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    3. Liu, Sun, 2019. "The impact of ownership structure on conditional and unconditional conservatism in China: Some new evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 49-68.
    4. 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.
    5. Jagadison K. Aier & Long Chen & Mikhail Pevzner, 2014. "Debtholders’ Demand for Conservatism: Evidence from Changes in Directors’ Fiduciary Duties," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 993-1027, December.
    6. Pan, Xiaofei, 2017. "Accounting conservatism, bank lending and firm investment: Evidence from a quasi-experiment of China's stimulus package," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 64-79.
    7. Yin, Meiqun & Zhang, Jidong & Han, Jing, 2020. "Impact of CEO-board social ties on accounting conservatism: Internal control quality as a mediator," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    8. Inder K. Khurana & Wei Wang, 2019. "International Mergers and Acquisitions Laws, the Market for Corporate Control, and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 241-290, March.
    9. Ferdous, Lutfa Tilat & Atawnah, Nader & Yeboah, Richard & Zhou, Yifan, 2024. "Firm-level climate risk and accounting conservatism: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PC).
    10. Chan, Ann L.-C. & Hsu, Audrey W.-H. & Lee, Edward, 2015. "Mandatory adoption of IFRS and timely loss recognition across Europe: The effect of corporate finance incentives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 70-82.
    11. Ha, Joohyung & Feng, Mingming, 2018. "Conditional conservatism and labor investment efficiency," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 143-163.
    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. Yuying Xie, 2015. "Confusion over Accounting Conservatism: A Critical Review," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(2), pages 204-216, June.
    14. Carlo D'Augusta & Matthew D. DeAngelis, 2020. "Does Accounting Conservatism Discipline Qualitative Disclosure? Evidence From Tone Management in the MD&A," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(4), pages 2287-2318, December.
    15. Archana Jain & Chinmay Jain & Ashok Robin, 2020. "Does accounting conservatism deter short sellers?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1075-1100, April.
    16. Akinobu Shuto & Tomomi Takada, 2010. "Managerial Ownership and Accounting Conservatism in Japan: A Test of Management Entrenchment Effect," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7-8), pages 815-840.
    17. Tri Tri Nguyen & Chau Minh Duong & Nguyet Thi Minh Nguyen & Hung Quang Bui, 2020. "Accounting conservatism and banking expertise on board of directors," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 501-539, August.
    18. Haider, Imran & Singh, Harjinder & Sultana, Nigar, 2021. "Managerial ability and accounting conservatism," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1).
    19. Yu, Zeng, 2024. "Essays on incentive contract and corporate finance," Other publications TiSEM 6f66f49e-d710-44f6-943d-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. 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.

    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:jocaae:v:15:y:2019:i:3:s1815566919301067. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-contemporary-accounting-and-economics .

    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.