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This study is aims to identify and categorize the perceived risks of Chinese tourists (from mainland China) traveling to Tehran. In addition, this study investigates the relationship between these risks tourists’ information seeking behavior.

This study investigates the relationship between these risks tourists’ information seeking behavior. The research also tries to model the relationship between the explored perceived risks and tourists’ information-seeking behavior. To collect data, a researcher-developed questionnaire containing 24 questions was designed based on a literature review. Before collecting the data, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were reviewed and confirmed. To do study procedure, one essential question and two hypotheses, including exploratory factor analysis, stepwise regression and independent samples T-test, are used.

The results showed that Chinese tourists perceived health, physical, political, cultural, social and economic risks before their trip (with political risk being the most prominent). Also, the results indicate that the tourists have used different ways to collect information about Iran in general and Tehran in particular. Those travelers who perceived a higher risk were more likely to use the information sources that provide them with detailed and accurate information before traveling to Tehran.

This study provides valuable insights for destination managers and tourism marketers to attract Chinese tourists by considering their perceived risks and information-seeking behavior. It should be noted that this study is not without its own limitations. These limitations include (but are not limited to) the timeframe in which the data was collected (prior to the outbreak of COVID-19) and the destination (Tehran, Iran). Therefore, it is advised that future researchers study the perceived risks and information sources in other parts of the world.

The concept of perceived risk was used in Chinese tourists’ behavioral seeking to predict their future behavior following their perceptions. Thus, the findings of this study will be necessary to local governments and other destination organizations when building successful strategies.

Ruth V. Aguilera is an associate professor and a Fellow at the Center for Professional Responsibility for Business and Society at the College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds courtesy appointments at the School of Labor and Employment Relations, the College of Law and the Department of Sociology at Illinois. She received MA and PhD degrees in Sociology from Harvard University. Her research interests fall at the intersection of economic sociology and international business, specifically in the fields of comparative corporate governance, foreign location choices and corporate social responsibility. She has published in the leading journals in International Business and Management. Dr. Aguilera currently serves as a member of an associate editor of Corporate Governance: International Review and is a member of the Editorial Boards of the following peer reviewed top tier journals: Academy of Management Perspectives, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Management International Review, Organization Studies and Strategic Management Journal. She also serves in the board of IMDEA Social Sciences (Madrid) and CSR IMPACT Project (Brussels).

Currently, most research studies focus on ownership reforms and governance reforms, while only a few research studies focus on management system innovations. Based on an evolution of state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) performance appraisal systems, this paper investigates the influence of performance appraisal system on earnings management.

Using a natural experiment that central government-owned enterprises (CGOEs) carried out economic value-added performance appraisal (EVA-PA) in 2010, the authors adapt difference-in-difference method to analyze the relationship between EVA-PA and earnings management choice. Furthermore, the authors consider the situation which contained financial status, separation between decision-making rights and decision-control rights, separation between ownership and control and industrial characteristics.

The research finds that after carrying out EVA-PA, CGOEs prefer accrual-based earnings management to real earnings management, and there is substitution effect between the two types of earnings management. Moreover, further research studies reveal that enterprises suffering losses in the previous year and featuring higher separation between decision-making rights and decision-control rights and higher separation between ownership and control have stronger earnings management motive under EVA-PA. In contrast, enterprises achieving satisfactory financial performance in the previous year and engaging in businesses within protective industry have weaker earnings management motive under EVA-PA. After the implementation of EVA-PA, accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management both impair operating performances of CGOEs.

Theoretically, this paper enriches research studies on earnings management from the perspective of incentive mechanism and expands research studies on economic consequences of EVA-PA. In addition, it validates the relationship between the two types of earnings management. As an important mechanism of corporate management and control, performance appraisal system is an important part for establishing ownership management system and improving internal management system of SOEs.