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This study aims to assess if the benefits outweigh the costs of participation in online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Booking.com.

A two-step system generalised method of moments estimation of a regression model of firm-level return on assets (ROA) is used on a dummy variable indicating whether a lodging facility participates in Booking.com. The assessment contained various control variables, including size, age, leverage, liquidity and lagged ROA. The moderating effect of firm age and size was studied by including interaction variables between the Booking.com dummy and age and size, respectively. The model was estimated using participation and financial data of 775 Belgian firms over a 20-year period (1999–2018).

The findings indicate that participation in Booking.com is associated with higher profitability, with this effect more economically important and pronounced for smaller hotel properties.

The study provides a broadly applicable empirical model to assess the impact of platform participation on the financial performance of tourism, hospitality or retail businesses.

The study provides empirical evidence that, from a transaction cost perspective, the benefits of participation in OTAs outweigh the costs, resulting in substantially higher profitability. The evidence can be used to justify the use of OTAs as distribution channels.

While prior studies have described and conceptually analysed the evolution and role of OTAs in the hotel sector, and speculated on the net effect of OTA participation, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically assess whether OTA participation creates value for hotel owners and investors.

本文采用了两步系统GMM的估计方法, 用一个虚拟变量指示住宿设施是否参与了Booking.com, 以确定企业级别的资产回报率（ROA）的回归模型。评估涵盖了多种控制变量, 包括公司规模, 年限, 杠杆, 流动性和滞后资产回报率。企业年龄和规模的调节作用是通过加入Booking.com虚拟变量与年龄和规模之间的交互变量实现的。该模型是使用20年（1999–2018年）间775家比利时公司的参与和财务数据估算得出的。

本文目的是评估收益是否超过了参与Booking.com等在线旅行社（OTA）的成本。

研究结果表明, 参与Booking.com与更高的获利能力相关联。这种影响在经济上更加重要, 并且对于较小的酒店物业而言更为明显。

该研究提供了广泛适用的经验模型, 以评估平台参与对旅游业, 酒店业或零售业的财务绩效的影响。

该研究提供了重要的实证依据。从交易成本的角度来看, 参与OTA的收益大于成本, 从而大大提高了盈利能力。该实例证明了使用OTA作为分销渠道是合理的。

尽管先前的研究已经描述并从概念上分析了OTA在酒店领域的演变和作用, 并推测了OTA参与的净效应, 但据我们所知, 这是第一个凭经验评估OTA参与是否为酒店所有者和投资者创造价值的研究。

Una estimación GMM en dos pasos de un modelo de regresión del rendimiento de los activos (ROA) a nivel de empresa sobre una variable ficticia que indica si un establecimiento de alojamiento participa en Booking.com. La evaluación contenía diversas variables de control, como el tamaño, la edad, el apalancamiento, la liquidez y el ROA retardado. El efecto moderador de la edad y el tamaño de la empresa se estudió incluyendo variables de interacción entre la variable ficticia de Booking.com y la edad y el tamaño, respectivamente. El modelo se estimó utilizando datos de participación y financieros de 775 empresas belgas durante un periodo de 20 años (1999–2018).

Evaluar si los beneficios superan los costes de la participación en agencias de viajes online (OTAs) como Booking.com.

Los resultados indican que la participación en Booking.com está asociada a una mayor rentabilidad, siendo este efecto más importante y pronunciado desde el punto de vista económico para las propiedades hoteleras más pequeñas.

El estudio proporciona un modelo empírico ampliamente aplicable para evaluar el impacto de la participación en la plataforma en los resultados financieros de las empresas turísticas, hoteleras o minoristas.

El estudio proporciona pruebas empíricas de que, desde la perspectiva de los costes de transacción, los beneficios de la participación en las OTAs superan los costes, lo que se traduce en una rentabilidad sustancialmente mayor. Las pruebas pueden utilizarse para justificar el uso de las OTAs como canales de distribución.

Aunque estudios anteriores han descrito y analizado conceptualmente la evolución y el papel de las OTAs en el sector hotelero, y han especulado sobre el efecto neto de la participación en las OTAs, hasta donde sabemos, éste es el primero que evalúa empíricamente si la participación en las OTAs crea valor para los propietarios e inversores de hoteles.

This paper aims to investigate whether the choice for a Big4-affiliated local audit firm affects the capital structure of listed companies in Indonesia, a fast-growing emerging country that is characterized by high information asymmetry and low litigation risk. A unique characteristic of the Indonesian audit environment is that Big4 auditors can only enter the market indirectly through affiliation with a local audit firm.

A sample of Indonesian listed companies between 2008 and 2015 is used to investigate this relation using ordinary least squares (OLS). To address the concern that the choice for Big4-affiliated auditors might reflect client characteristics, the authors also perform OLS on a matched sample, using both propensity-score and entropy-balance matching.

Across all three samples, the authors document that companies audited by a Big4-affiliated local audit firm display lower debt ratios. The authors find no such effect for affiliation with second-tier audit firms. Surprisingly, they find that the negative effect of Big4 affiliation is increasing in client size.

This study provides evidence of the consequences of hiring Big4 auditors on the perceived information asymmetry by financial markets under extreme conditions: in an environment characterized by low litigation risk and where Big4 auditors can operate only indirectly through affiliation.

The results of this study are of interest to policymakers, managers and financial stakeholders in emerging countries where external financing is important yet difficult to obtain because of severe information asymmetry. Hiring a Big4 auditor, even only through affiliation, might reduce perceived information asymmetry and increase the access to external equity financing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide evidence of the effect of Big4 auditors on their clients’ capital structure when they can operate only indirectly through affiliation with a local auditor.

This paper aims to examine the impact of selected characteristics (rating, volume and variability) of online user-generated reviews on the bottom-line profitability of restaurants.

Restaurant-level review data are extracted from TripAdvisor and matched with firm-level data from the financial reports gathered from the Belfirst database of Bureau van Dijk. The resulting sample contains data on 2,297 Belgian firms over the period 2007–2018, for which 134,831 reviews are investigated. The author’s regression model of firm-level profitability is estimated against online review characteristics and various financial control variables, including past profitability. This research model and estimation technique address the endogeneity concerns that typically weaken this kind of study.

While comparable studies on hotels document a positive association between review characteristics and profitability, the authors find no relationship between review rating, volume and variability in the profitability of restaurants.

Due to the format of the financial reports of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), data on turnover and cost of materials/services was not available for most restaurants in the sample, limiting our potential for analysis. In addition, our assessment of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) was limited to measures derived from user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor.

In the literature on eWOM, the importance of online reputation is hardly disputed, especially in the context of the hospitality sector. However, most research to date has focused on the hotel sector and top-line measures of success. This study uses restaurant-level financial data, focuses on bottom-line profitability, considers potential endogeneity issues and pays careful attention to the estimation technique. The results fail to establish a direct relationship between eWOM metrics and financial performance and are surprising, meriting further investigation to establish the underlying causes.

In contrast to prior studies on the impact of eWOM on restaurant performance at a group level, this study examines the impact on unit-level profitability, taking into account several potential sources of estimation bias. In addition, the authors challenge this finding with a battery of sensitivity tests, revalidating the absence of a relationship in each case.

The Scandinavian boards are known for their “best practices” for corporate governance. This paper aims to examine the management incentives behind corporate disclosure via an empirical study.

Many of the previous empirical work have focused on the US data, but the generalizability of such findings is geographically bounded. The set of management incentives in this paper is examined using a total sample of 123 local annual reports via some of the largest publicly listed firms in the Scandinavian countries between the years 2008-2012.

The findings of this study reveal that a firm’s financial success originates from the different attributes of corporate governance. Correlation and regression analyses reveal that in terms of firm size, leverage ratio, the existence of audit committee and the independence of CEO, there is a correlation between firm-specific factors and the level of disclosure. In contrast to the previous literature, a positive relationship between corporate disclosure and information asymmetry was not found.

The results of this study are valuable to the policymakers when implementing regulations on corporate governance control. The strategic implications of the findings on business decisions and future research are also discussed.