We explore the effect of corporate opacity on the relation between staggered boards and firm value. We find that through mitigating takeover pressure, staggered boards become increasingly beneficial to firm value as opacity increases. In addition, we document that staggered boards reduce value...

Existing theories suggest two opposite effects that antitakeover protection may have on earnings management: the exacerbating effect and the mitigating effect. We use the introduction of state antitakeover laws during the mid- to late-1980s as a natural experiment to test the relationship...

We test the relationship between takeover protection and voluntary disclosure in a setting of antitakeover laws in a firm’s state of incorporation. After correcting for the endogeneity of firms’ incorporation choices, we find that firms incorporated in states with more antitakeover laws have...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on the cost of capital of increased disclosure that reduces information asymmetry among market participants. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses the decision to regularly hold open (closed) conference calls pre-Reg FD as...

We examine the relationship between takeover protection and earnings management. Existing theories suggest two contradictory effects of takeover protection on opportunistic earnings management: entrenchment theory suggests an exacerbating effect, whereas both alignment theory and quiet life...

According to agency theory, debt is a useful governance mechanism for curbing the tendency of managers to over-invest in firm growth. First, we extend this view by using the theory of rules versus discretion to explain why the ability of debt to constrain excessive growth is contingent upon...

The empirical studies to date have not found consistent support for the performance advantages of international diversification. One reason suggested by internalization theory is that leveraging firm specific assets is critical for enhancing performance from international diversification. We...

With their increasing equity ownership, institutional investors have been hailed as a possible solution to governance problems with the ability to reduce the power of managers. However, there are some barriers that decrease their effectiveness in providing such governance. These include barriers...

As companies continue to make large investments in information technology (IT), questions about how and in what contexts such investments pay off have gained importance. We develop a theoretical framework to explain how IT investments could pay off in the economically significant context of...