Technological Peer Pressure and Product Disclosure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cao, Sean Shun; Ma, Guang; Tucker, Jennifer Wu; Wan, Chi
• 署名单位: University System of Georgia; Georgia State University; National University of Singapore; State University System of Florida; University of Florida; University of Massachusetts System; University of Massachusetts Boston
• 刊物名称: ACCOUNTING REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4826
• DOI: 10.2308/accr-52056
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 95-126
• 关键词: research-and-development; earnings performance; unit-root; COMPETITION; MARKET; incentives; spillovers; essays

摘要

We introduce a firm-specific measure of the technological aspect of competition-technological peer pressure-and examine firm-initiated product development-related press releases. We argue that empirical examinations of the theorized negative relation between competition and disclosure require the type of voluntary disclosure to be relevant to the dimension of competition under examination to ensure that firms incur significant proprietary costs of disclosure. In other words, many types of disclosure do not provide actionable information to competitors and, thus, should not be affected by that dimension of competition. We expect a negative relation between technological peer pressure and product disclosure because the latter reveals firms' strategies, allocations, and progress of technological investments in product development to competitors. In contrast, we do not expect a negative relation between technological peer pressure and management earnings forecasts-the most common type of voluntary disclosure used in accounting research. Our test results are consistent with these expectations.