IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reacre/v21y2009i1p1-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The association between financially expert independent directors and the accounting for employee stock options

Author

Listed:
  • Jiang, Ling
  • Ferris, Kenneth R.
  • Coffman, Edward N.

Abstract

This study investigates how the financial expertise of independent directors is associated with voluntary accounting policy decisions. As representatives of a company’s shareholders, financially-expert independent directors are more likely to cause management to pursue higher quality accounting policy decisions. The policy decision investigated involves the expense/non-expense policy choice for employee stock options as previously permitted under SFAS No. 123. Using a sample of 174 option-expensing firms and a matched control sample of 174 non-expensing firms, the results indicate a significant, positive association between the decision to expense employee stock options and the financial expertise of a company’s independent directors. Further, a significant, negative association was found between the option-expensing decision and whether the chief executive officer was the largest internal blockholder.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Ling & Ferris, Kenneth R. & Coffman, Edward N., 2009. "The association between financially expert independent directors and the accounting for employee stock options," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:21:y:2009:i:1:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.racreg.2008.11.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052045708000118
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.racreg.2008.11.001?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. Vafeas, Nikos, 2000. "Board structure and the informativeness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 139-160, June.
    2. Eng, L. L. & Mak, Y. T., 2003. "Corporate governance and voluntary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 325-345.
    3. Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K. & Sarin, Atulya, 1997. "Ownership structure and top executive turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 193-221, August.
    4. David Aboody & Mary E. Barth & Ron Kasznik, 2004. "Firms' Voluntary Recognition of Stock‐Based Compensation Expense," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 123-150, May.
    5. Gordon, Lilli A & Pound, John, 1993. "Information, Ownership Structure, and Shareholder Voting: Evidence from Shareholder-Sponsored Corporate Governance Proposals," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(2), pages 697-718, June.
    6. Anil Shivdasani & David Yermack, 1999. "CEO Involvement in the Selection of New Board Members: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1829-1853, October.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Klein, April, 1998. "Firm Performance and Board Committee Structure," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 275-303, April.
    10. Cotter, James F. & Shivdasani, Anil & Zenner, Marc, 1997. "Do independent directors enhance target shareholder wealth during tender offers?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 195-218, February.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Xie, Biao & Davidson, Wallace III & DaDalt, Peter J., 2003. "Earnings management and corporate governance: the role of the board and the audit committee," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 295-316, June.
    14. Gul, Ferdinand A. & Leung, Sidney, 2004. "Board leadership, outside directors' expertise and voluntary corporate disclosures," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 351-379.
    15. Wendy Beekes & Peter Pope & Steven Young, 2004. "The Link Between Earnings Timeliness, Earnings Conservatism and Board Composition: evidence from the UK," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 47-59, January.
    16. Nikos Vafeas, 2003. "Length of Board Tenure and Outside Director Independence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7‐8), pages 1043-1064, September.
    17. Kaplan, Steven N. & Reishus, David, 1990. "Outside directorships and corporate performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 389-410, October.
    18. Nikos Vafeas, 2003. "Length of Board Tenure and Outside Director Independence," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30, pages 1043-1064.
    19. Fama, Eugene F, 1980. "Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 288-307, April.
    20. Wayne Guay & Richard Sloan, 2003. "Accounting for Employee Stock Options," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 405-409, May.
    21. John, Kose & Senbet, Lemma W., 1998. "Corporate governance and board effectiveness1," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 371-403, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Luminita Enache & Antonio Parbonetti & Anup Srivastava, 2020. "Are all outside directors created equal with respect to firm disclosure policy?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 541-577, August.
    2. M. Andrew Fields & Phyllis Y. Keys, 2003. "The Emergence of Corporate Governance from Wall St. to Main St.: Outside Directors, Board Diversity, Earnings Management, and Managerial Incentives to Bear Risk," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Bill B. Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Qiang Wu, 2012. "Do corporate boards matter during the current financial crisis?," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 39-52, April.
    4. Dionne, Georges & Triki, Thouraya, 2005. "Risk management and corporate governance: The importance of independence and financial knowledge for the board and the audit committee," Working Papers 05-3, HEC Montreal, Canada Research Chair in Risk Management.
    5. Afef Feki & Walid Khoufi, 2008. "L'effet des caractéristiques du conseil d'administration et de la qualité de l'information financière sur le coût de la dette (Cas des entreprises industrielles françaises)," Post-Print halshs-00525385, HAL.
    6. Cheng, Lee-Young & Su, Yi-Chen & Yan, Zhipeng & Zhao, Yan, 2019. "Corporate governance and target price accuracy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 93-101.
    7. Tao, Ngoc Bich & Hutchinson, Marion, 2013. "Corporate governance and risk management: The role of risk management and compensation committees," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 83-99.
    8. James, Hui Liang & Ngo, Thanh & Wang, Hongxia, 2021. "Independent director tenure and corporate transparency," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    9. Marco Allegrini & Giulio Greco, 2013. "Corporate boards, audit committees and voluntary disclosure: evidence from Italian Listed Companies," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(1), pages 187-216, February.
    10. Renee B. Adams & Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2010. "The Role of Boards of Directors in Corporate Governance: A Conceptual Framework and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 58-107, March.
    11. Bill Francis & Iftekhar Hasan & Qiang Wu, 2015. "Professors in the Boardroom and Their Impact on Corporate Governance and Firm Performance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 44(3), pages 547-581, September.
    12. Christofer Adrian & Sue Wright, 2020. "Perceptions of shareholders and directors on corporate governance: what we learn about director primacy," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1209-1236, April.
    13. Tessema, Abiot, 2019. "The impact of corporate governance and political connections on information asymmetry: International evidence from banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-17.
    14. Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2016. "Problem directors on the audit committee and financial reporting quality," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 121-144, February.
    15. Ken Y. Chen & Jian Zhou, 2007. "Audit Committee, Board Characteristics, and Auditor Switch Decisions by Andersen's Clients," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 1085-1117, December.
    16. Cheng, Eugene C.M. & Courtenay, Stephen M., 2006. "Board composition, regulatory regime and voluntary disclosure," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 262-289.
    17. Huilong Liu & Hong Wang & Liansheng Wu, 2016. "Removing Vacant Chairs: Does Independent Directors’ Attendance at Board Meetings Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 375-393, January.
    18. Anis Mnif, 2009. "Corporate Governance And Management Earnings Forecast Quality: Evidence From French Ipos," Post-Print halshs-00459171, HAL.
    19. Gisbert, Ana & Navallas, Begoña, 2013. "The association between voluntary disclosure and corporate governance in the presence of severe agency conflicts," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 286-298.
    20. Chenglong Zheng & Roy Kouwenberg, 2019. "A Bibliometric Review of Global Research on Corporate Governance and Board Attributes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-25, June.

    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:reacre:v:21:y:2009:i:1:p:1-10. 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/research-in-accounting-regulation .

    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.