We examine the role of reported accounting information (e.g., earnings and book values) relative to analysts' earnings forecasts to determine what information is most relevant for explaining market value conditional on a firm's life cycle stage. Using the life cycle measure developed in...

The economics and management literature provides theoretical support for both leader and laggard firms to earn higher future operating returns. However, prior empirical research lacks a generalizable proxy to capture leader vs. laggard behavior, thus limiting prior findings to specific contexts....