IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v17y2024i9p396-d1471615.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Corporate Ethics Enhance Financial Analysts’ Behavior and Performance?

Author

Listed:
  • Sana Ben Hassine

    (Accounting Department, UQAM School of Management, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montréal, QC H2X 3X2, Canada)

  • Claude Francoeur

    (Department of Accounting, HEC Montreal, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada)

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between corporate ethics and the information intermediation element of public companies’ information environment. Drawing on the well-established virtue, deontological, and consequential ethical theories, we predict that higher corporate ethics standards have a positive effect on financial analysts’ behavior and earnings forecasts. Using a sample of 5276 firm-year observations from 780 publicly listed US companies, multivariate regression analyses document a significant positive association between company’s level of ethical commitment and analyst coverage and forecast accuracy. Furthermore, the results show that firms with fewer incidents of ethical misconduct are associated with higher analyst consensus. These findings hold across a battery of robustness tests and indicate that a firm’s ethical commitment enhances its corporate information environment and allows financial analysts to play a more effective intermediary role in capital markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Sana Ben Hassine & Claude Francoeur, 2024. "Do Corporate Ethics Enhance Financial Analysts’ Behavior and Performance?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-19, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:396-:d:1471615
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/9/396/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/17/9/396/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tae Choi & Jinhan Pae, 2011. "Business Ethics and Financial Reporting Quality: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 403-427, October.
    2. Jones, Jj, 1991. "Earnings Management During Import Relief Investigations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 193-228.
    3. Lifeng Gu & Dirk Hackbarth, 2013. "Governance and Equity Prices: Does Transparency Matter?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(6), pages 1989-2033.
    4. Adhikari, Binay K., 2016. "Causal effect of analyst following on corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 201-216.
    5. Kun Luo & Sirui Wu, 2022. "Corporate sustainability and analysts' earnings forecast accuracy: Evidence from environmental, social and governance ratings," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1465-1481, September.
    6. Bhushan, Ravi, 1989. "Firm characteristics and analyst following," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2-3), pages 255-274, July.
    7. Hsiang-Lin Chih & Chung-Hua Shen & Feng-Ching Kang, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility, Investor Protection, and Earnings Management: Some International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 79(1), pages 179-198, April.
    8. Lang, Mark & Maffett, Mark, 2011. "Transparency and liquidity uncertainty in crisis periods," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 101-125.
    9. Carroll, Archie B., 2000. "Ethical Challenges for Business in the New Millennium: Corporate Social Responsibility and Models of Management Morality," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(1), pages 33-42, January.
    10. Ahmed Bouteska & Mehdi Mili, 2022. "Does corporate governance affect financial analysts’ stock recommendations, target prices accuracy and earnings forecast characteristics? An empirical investigation of US companies," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 2125-2171, October.
    11. Danling Jiang & Alok Kumar & Kelvin K. F. Law, 2016. "Political contributions and analyst behavior," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 37-88, March.
    12. Liang, Dawei & Pan, Yukun & Du, Qianqian & Zhu, Ling, 2022. "The information content of analysts’ textual reports and stock returns: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    13. Partha Sengupta & Suning Zhang, 2015. "Equity†Based Compensation of Outside Directors and Corporate Disclosure Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 1073-1098, September.
    14. Arun Upadhyay, 2014. "Social Concentration on Boards, Corporate Information Environment and Cost of Capital," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7-8), pages 974-1001, September.
    15. Katia Furlotti & Tatiana Mazza, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility versus business ethics: analysis of employee-related policies," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 20-37, December.
    16. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:3:p:1083-1124 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. João Neves & Antonino Vaccaro, 2013. "Corporate Transparency: A Perspective from Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(4), pages 639-648, April.
    18. Abdulsamad Alazzani & Wan Nordin Wan-Hussin & Michael Jones & Ahmed Al-hadi, 2021. "ESG Reporting and Analysts’ Recommendations in GCC: The Moderation Role of Royal Family Directors," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-21, February.
    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. Liu, Chengyun & Su, Kun & Zhang, Miaomiao, 2021. "Water disclosure and financial reporting quality for social changes: Empirical evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. Giovanna Gavana & Pietro Gottardo & Anna Maria Moisello, 2022. "Related Party Transactions and Earnings Management: The Moderating Effect of ESG Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Habiba Al‐Shaer, 2020. "Sustainability reporting quality and post‐audit financial reporting quality: Empirical evidence from the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2355-2373, September.
    4. Tiago Gonçalves & Cristina Gaio & André Ferro, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Earnings Management: Moderating Impact of Economic Cycles and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-14, September.
    5. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sanchez & Beatriz Cuadrado‐Ballesteros, 2015. "Effect of Financial Reporting Quality on Sustainability Information Disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 45-64, January.
    6. Chu Chen & Giorgio Gotti & Tony Kang & Michael C. Wolfe, 2018. "Corporate Codes of Ethics, National Culture, and Earnings Discretion: International Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 141-163, August.
    7. Abhijit Barua & Joseph Legoria & Jacquelyn Sue Moffitt, 2006. "Accruals Management to Achieve Earnings Benchmarks: A Comparison of Pre‐managed Profit and Loss Firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5‐6), pages 653-670, June.
    8. Cédric van Appelghem & Pascal Nguyen, 2020. "Do CEO-Board ties affect the firm's cost of equity? [La proximité entre le dirigeant et les administrateurs a-t-elle un impact sur le coût des fonds propres ?]," Working Papers hal-02880367, HAL.
    9. Benjamin Uyagu & Alexander Olawumi Dabor, 0. "Earnings Management and Corporate Social Responsibility," Romanian Economic Journal, Department of International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, vol. 20(65), pages 70-87, September.
    10. Isabel‐Maria García‐Sánchez & Nazim Hussain & Sana Akbar Khan & Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero, 2020. "Managerial entrenchment, corporate social responsibility, and earnings management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1818-1833, July.
    11. Fayez A. Elayan & Jingyu Li & Zhefeng Frank Liu & Thomas O. Meyer & Sandra Felton, 2016. "Changes in the Covalence Ethical Quote, Financial Performance and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 369-395, March.
    12. Yu, Fang (Frank), 2008. "Analyst coverage and earnings management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 245-271, May.
    13. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Emma García‐Meca, 2017. "CSR Engagement and Earnings Quality in Banks. The Moderating Role of Institutional Factors," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 145-158, March.
    14. Arun, Thankom Gopinath & Almahrog, Yousf Ebrahem & Ali Aribi, Zakaria, 2015. "Female directors and earnings management: Evidence from UK companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 137-146.
    15. Sean Cleary & Jonathan Jona & Gladys Lee & Joshua Shemesh, 2020. "Underlying risk preferences and analyst risk‐taking behavior," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7-8), pages 949-981, July.
    16. Chen, Yangyang & Rhee, S. Ghon & Veeraraghavan, Madhu & Zolotoy, Leon, 2015. "Stock liquidity and managerial short-termism," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 44-59.
    17. Ju Hyoung Park & Hyun-Young Park & Ho-Young Lee, 2018. "The Effect of Social Ties between Outside and Inside Directors on the Association between Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-24, October.
    18. Pham, Mia Hang & Merkoulova, Yulia & Veld, Chris, 2024. "Award-winning CEOs and corporate innovation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    19. Leila Zbib & Kourosh Amirkhani & Douglas Fairhurst, 2024. "Chalk it up to experience: CEO general ability and earnings management," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1007-1036, April.
    20. Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez & Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & María‐Antonia Garcia‐Benau, 2019. "Integrated reporting: The mediating role of the board of directors and investor protection on managerial discretion in munificent environments," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 29-45, January.

    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:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:396-:d:1471615. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.