IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/coacre/v32y2015i3p1099-1127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Performance Commitments of Controlling Shareholders and Earnings Management

Author

Listed:
  • Qingchuan Hou
  • Qinglu Jin
  • Rong Yang
  • Hongqi Yuan
  • Guochang Zhang

Abstract

Since the Split Share Structure Reform took effect in China in 2005, holders of nontradable shares (controlling shareholders) have had to negotiate with holders of tradable shares (minority shareholders) to gain the liquidity right. In a typical deal reached, the controlling shareholder agrees to pay share compensation to minority shareholders and, in many cases, also pledges to meet a specific firm performance target (performance commitments). Using this reform setting, we examine the impact of performance commitments on earnings management behavior, and find the following results. First, less profitable firms have greater incentives to make performance commitments that help to reduce the share compensation that controlling shareholders have to pay. Second, firms entering into such commitments engage in earnings management to meet the promised performance target when actual performance falls short, and firms facing greater default costs tend to manage earnings more aggressively. Third, depending on the performance metric stipulated in the commitment contract, firms employ varying methods to manage earnings. We also find that firms that rely on earnings management to meet their performance targets display inferior performance in the postcommitment years relative to firms that do not. Overall, our evidence is consistent with performance commitment contracts (with costly defaults) between a firm's controlling and minority shareholders causing incentives for earnings management.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingchuan Hou & Qinglu Jin & Rong Yang & Hongqi Yuan & Guochang Zhang, 2015. "Performance Commitments of Controlling Shareholders and Earnings Management," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(3), pages 1099-1127, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:32:y:2015:i:3:p:1099-1127
    DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12111
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1911-3846.12111?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
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Wei Huang & Hong Zhang & Abhinav Goyal & Jason Laws, 2019. "Internal capital market mergers in weak external market environment: An emerging market evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 1486-1505, October.
    3. Huang, Wei, 2016. "The use of management forecasts to dampen analysts' expectations by Chinese listed firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 263-272.
    4. Huang, Wei & Goodell, John W. & Zhang, Hong, 2019. "Pre-merger management in developing markets: The role of earnings glamor," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Ge, Wenxia & Ouyang, Caiyue & Shi, Zhenyang & Chen, Zhanliao, 2022. "Can a not-for-profit minority institutional shareholder make a big difference in corporate governance? A quasi-natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Cheng, Zijian & Liu, Zhangxin (Frank) & Wang, Isabel Zhe & Zhao, Xingju, 2024. "Reverse merger audit fee premium: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Liu, Sun, 2017. "The impact of equity incentive plans on analysts’ earnings forecasts and stock recommendations for Chinese listed firms: An empirical study," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Wilson, Mark & Wang, Kun Tracy & Wu, Yue & Lau, Archie, 2022. "Institutional investors and earnings management associated with controlling shareholders' promises: Evidence from the split share structure reform in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3).
    9. Majeed, Muhammad Ansar & Yan, Chao & Zhong, Huijie, 2022. "Do firms manipulate earnings after winning public-private partnership bids? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(PB).
    10. Dahlen, Niklas & Lahmann, Alexander & Schreiter, Maximilian, 2024. "Panacea for M&A dealmaking? Investor perceptions of earnouts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    11. Song, Di & Shen, Na & Su, Jun, 2023. "A catering perspective of performance commitment-evidence from acquisitions in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    12. Huacheng Wang & Kangtao Ye & Kai Zhong, 2018. "Accounting research in China: commemorating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-37, December.
    13. Song, Di & Su, Jun & Yang, Chao & Shen, Na, 2019. "Performance commitment in acquisitions, regulatory change and market crash risk–evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    14. Hu, Jinshuai & Jiang, Haiyan & Wu, Yibing, 2023. "How does privatization affect cash dividends? Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    15. Kam C. Chan & Xuanyu Jiang & Donghui Wu & Nianhang Xu & Hong Zeng, 2020. "When Is the Client King? Evidence from Affiliated‐Analyst Recommendations in China's Split‐Share Reform," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 1044-1072, June.
    16. Liu, Yu & Yang, Lingxuan & Xiong, Lu, 2023. "Performance commitments and the properties of analyst earnings forecasts: Evidence from Chinese reverse merger firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    17. Pan, Jianping & Weng, Ruoyu & Yin, Sirui & Fu, Xiaoqing (Maggie), 2022. "Central supervision and earnings management: Quasi-experimental evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(3).
    18. Que, Jiangjing & Zhang, Xueyong, 2019. "Pre-IPO growth, venture capital, and the long-run performance of IPOs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 205-216.

    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:wly:coacre:v:32:y:2015:i:3:p:1099-1127. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846 .

    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.