Search results

Unionization is generally thought to improve employee welfare through higher compensation and benefits. However, managers of unionized firms have incentives to manage earnings downward to avoid sharing rents with unionized workers, which may explain why empirical findings on the association between unionization and employee compensation are mixed. This paper develops an analytical model incorporating earnings management into the relationship between newly unionized firms and employee compensation.

The authors develop an analytical model that relies on Nash bargaining theory and signal jamming (Stein, 1989; Fischer and Verrecchia, 2000; Dye and Sridhar, 2004) and model a setting where newly unionized workers' collective bargaining power increases substantially. The authors' model analyzes the relationship between newly unionized firms and employee wages and benefits while incorporating firms' incentives to engage in earnings management.

The authors find that newly unionized firms are more likely to engage in income-decreasing earnings management to avoid paying higher salaries and wages to workers. Further, the authors find that this association is more pronounced when (1) the correlation of firms' earnings across periods is higher, (2) the cost of earnings management is lower and (3) firms' earnings are more volatile.

This is the first paper to analytically model the effect of new unionization on firms' earnings management and workers' welfare. The authors' model offers new cross-sectional predictions that have not been tested in the prior literature. Specifically, the authors show that newly unionized firms are more likely to engage in income-decreasing earnings management; when earnings are more highly correlated, the cost of earnings management is lower and earnings are more volatile. The authors' findings may be relevant to regulators and policymakers.

After the massive data breach incident in 2017, Equifax voluntarily disclosed non-GAAP earnings that beat earnings targets by eliminating breach-related charges and used non-GAAP metrics to determine its executives' compensations. However, it is unclear whether its non-GAAP earnings exclusions and the use of non-GAAP earnings in compensation plans are justified. The purpose of this study is to examine non-GAAP earnings quality in firms with data breach incidents.

The authors identified data breach firms from incidents reported in Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (privacyrights.org) during the period 2004–2017. The authors separate the victim firms into six groups based on financial status and non-GAAP earnings disclosure. Quarterly manager non-GAAP earnings per share data is retrieved from the database created by Bentley et al. (2018). Ordinary linear regression models are used in this study to test the authors’ hypothesis.

The authors find that, in general, the informativeness of non-GAAP earnings is higher than that of GAAP earnings in data breach firms. However, non-GAAP earnings quality vary in data breach firms with different financial health status. The quality of non-GAAP earnings in loss firms with data breach is higher than those in profit firms. Loss converters (i.e. data breach firms with negative GAAP earnings but positive non-GAAP earnings) disclose low quality non-GAAP earnings, which is different from the findings in prior studies.

The findings are particularly useful to analysts who want to make accurate earnings forecasts of data breach firms by incorporating managers' non-GAAP earnings disclosures.

The authors are among the first to comprehensively analyze the quality of non-GAAP earnings in firms with data breaches. The findings in this study address the analysts' concern that data breach firms use non-GAAP earnings metrics to determine executives' compensation after the massive data breach incidents. Next, the authors provide evidence that the financial status of data breach firms affects the quality of non-GAAP earnings.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of audit engagement partner's professional experience on audit quality. The authors also investigate the relationship between the audit partner's experience and audit fees in both Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firms.

Since the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) officially enacted Rule 3211 in 2017, US accounting firms are required to disclose detailed information of engagement partners in Form AP (PCAOB, 2015b). The authors obtained a sample of 2,283 audit partners from Form AP and hand collected their individual professional experience data through Certified Public Accountant (CPA) database, corporate disclosure and social media sites (e.g. Linkedin). Econometric models with fixed effects are used in this study to test our hypotheses. Two-stage least square (2SLS) model is used in the robustness test.

The authors find that the relationship between audit engagement partner's professional experience and audit quality is concave. It indicates that audit quality is increasing during the early stage of engagement partners' career and then decreases as the partners approaching the late-career phase. Further, the authors find that partner's professional experience is positively associated with audit fees in non-Big 4 accounting firms but not significantly associated with audit fees in Big 4 accounting firms.

The finding of how auditor experience impacts audit quality can be useful for accounting firms to better plan their staffing in auditing engagements. This study’s results are also helpful for small accounting firms to optimize their pricing strategy.

This study provides new empirical evidence about the relation between auditor professional experience and audit quality. Furthermore, the authors extend the literature of audit fee determinants by testing the joint effects of audit firm-level factors and auditor individual-level professional experience on audit fees.

This study aims to systematically review the work–family enrichment (WFE) studies in hospitality and tourism management and provide insight into the patterns and trends of WFE literature to practitioners and future researchers.

This study design followed the guidelines of preferred reporting items of systematic reviews and meta-analysis. A final sample of 23 studies related to WFE that published from 2000 to 2021 was selected and systematically analyzed.

This study resulted in a framework that the antecedents and outcomes of WFE at the organizational, job and individual levels. Moderators between antecedents and outcomes were also identified. Theories such as conservation of resources theory, boundary theory, role theory and expansion theory were frequently applied in the investigation of WFE.

This study generated a framework that illustrates the organization characteristics, the job characteristics and individual factors that have examined in hospitality literature on the topic of WFE. This study also pointed out theories that have been used in investigating WFE. However, this systematic review may subject to publication bias and number of reviewed articles remained relatively small.

This study provides suggestions on how hospitality operators could use internal marketing strategies and certain leadership styles (e.g. transformational and servant leaderships) to enhance employees’ WFE.

This study summarized the publication trends and patterns of the WFE studies in hospitality and tourism management in the past two decades, which provides suggestions for future scholars to further explore this research topic.

This study aims to investigate the dual effects of commitment-based governance on the relationship between formal control and public–private partnership (PPP) project performance. Formal control and relationship governance are two primary forms of inter-organizational governance that affect project performance. However, little is known about the interplay between formal control and commitment and its effect on PPP projects. More specifically, previous studies have failed to distinguish the function routes of relationship governance resulting from different types of formal control (process and outcome control).

This study adopts a questionnaire survey to empirically investigate the mechanism that commitment-based governance influences the relationship between formal control and PPP performance. After collecting data from public and private sector professionals involved in 101 Chinese PPP projects, the theoretical framework proposed in this paper is verified by the empirical results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results show that process control has an inverted U-shaped effect and outcome control has a significant positive influence on PPP project performance. Furthermore, commitment moderates the effect of formal control on PPP project performance by increasing the relevance of outcome control and mediates the inverted U-shaped relationship between process control and PPP project performance.

Managers should recognize that process control is a double-edged sword and prevent the overuse of process control. Managers should direct their attention toward efforts to improve the commitment, which allows for the effectiveness of outcome control strategies. Additionally, this study new measurement method for relationship governance suggests that managers should be aware of the difference in parties' perceptions of the relationship.

This study allows for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship governance-control nexus from a commitment perspective. The authors bring into light the dual role of commitment-based governance in the relationship between the two types of formal control and PPP project performance. Moreover, the new approach to measure relationship governance offers valuable insight into the measurement of variables about individual's perception.

This study sought to understand which food allergen labeling systems (non-directive, semi-directive, and directive) were attended to and preferred by 34 participants with food hypersensitivity and their perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and behavioral intention towards a restaurant that identifies food allergens on menus.

This study used an online survey with open-ended and ranking questions, combined with eye-tracking technology, to explore participants' visual attention and design preferences regarding four menus. This study utilized one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and heat maps to analyze participants' menu-reading behaviors. A content analysis of survey responses and a ranking analysis of menus were conducted to understand the reasons behind consumers' preferred menu designs.

The advisory statement was not much attended to. Participants identified food allergen information significantly quicker with the directive labeling system (icons) than the other two systems, implying they were eye-catching. Semi-directive labeling system (red text) has lower visit count and was more preferred than two other systems; each labeling system has its strengths and limitations. Participants viewed restaurants that disclosed food allergen information on menus as socially responsible, and they would revisit those restaurants in the future.

This study was one of the first to explore, through use of eye-tracking technology, which food allergen labeling systems were attended to by consumers with food hypersensitivity. The use of triangulation methods strengthened the credibility of the results. The study provided empirical data to restauranteurs in the US on the values of food allergen identification on restaurant menus, although it is voluntary.

According to relational contract theory, relational governance has potential to improve public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project sustainability. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the association between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects. Further, this study examines the mediating effect of managerial innovation and the moderating role of public involvement.

Research data were collected from 158 valid questionnaires completed by Chinese PPP professionals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then employed to test five hypotheses.

Results indicate a positive correlation between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability. This linkage is regulated by public involvement. In addition, managerial innovation plays a mediating role between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects.

This study verifies the relationship between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability, as well as intermediary and regulatory factors, providing a new approach to achieving sustainability in PPP infrastructure projects.