Huosong Xia, Siyi Chen, Justin Z. Zhang and Yulong Liu
The rise of the mobile Internet has accumulated much text information in various online financial forums. Such information often contains the emotional attitudes of investors…
Abstract
Purpose
The rise of the mobile Internet has accumulated much text information in various online financial forums. Such information often contains the emotional attitudes of investors toward financial technology (fintech) platforms, so extracting the sentimental tendency information has great practical value for the development of fintech platforms. Based on the investor sentiment theory, the paper aims to analyze the relevant social media data and test the influence path of online news evaluation on the stock price fluctuation of fintech platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking Oriental Fortune as the research object, this paper selects multiple variables such as stock bar popularity, snowball popularity, news popularity and news sentiment scores collected by UQER and combines the sentiment scores of single daily news into a daily sentiment score. Based on the period from November 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020, during the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as the background, the authors conduct the Granger causality test based on the vector autoregressive (VAR) model and analyze the relevant evaluation of Oriental Fortune through the empirical model.
Findings
The authors' results show that different online evaluations impact the rise and fall of stock prices differently, while news popularity has the most significant impact. Besides, news sentiment scores on share price fluctuation have a relatively substantial influence. These findings indicate that the authoritative news evaluation can strongly guide investors to make relevant investment behavior operations in the information dissemination process, significantly affecting stock prices.
Originality/value
The research findings of this paper have good inspiration and reference values for investors and financial regulators.
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Xin Liu, Siyi Liu, Jiani Wang and Hanwen Chen
This study examines the relationship between internal control and corporate environmental responsibility.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between internal control and corporate environmental responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
Unlike US studies that concentrate solely on internal control over financial reporting, this study uses a comprehensive index that encompasses internal control over financial reporting, operations, and compliance. Corporate environmental responsibility is measured by environmental investments. Our research sample comprises Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2018.
Findings
The results demonstrate a positive correlation between internal control and corporate environmental investments. Furthermore, we find that firms with high-quality internal control can improve their financial and environmental performance through environmental investments. After decomposing internal control into its five components, we show that the control environment, control activities, and information and communication components exhibit stronger effects on environmental investments than the risk assessment and monitoring components. Finally, the cross-sectional analyses reveal that the positive effect of internal control is more pronounced in private firms and in firms that are subject to weaker environmental regulation.
Originality/value
By focusing on the effect of a comprehensive internal mechanism on corporate environmental responsibility in China, this study contributes to the literature in developed-country settings that overwhelmingly focuses on the impact of external stakeholders and regulations.
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Hanwen Chen, Yang Feng, Aiju Kou and Siyi Liu
This study aims to test the effect of individual audit quality on career advancement the audit labour market.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to test the effect of individual audit quality on career advancement the audit labour market.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses data on auditors from two collapsed audit firms in China, namely, Ruihua and Zhengzhong Zhujiang, and tests the effect of individual audit quality on career advancement in the audit labour market.
Findings
The baseline results show that high-quality audits promote auditors’ career advancement. Our results hold after a battery of robustness tests. Further analyses support our hypothesis, indicating that client retention and audit fees are positively related to auditors’ prior audit quality. The effect of audit quality on career advancement does not hold for auditors from sanctioned branch offices or for auditors with prior culpable clients, as shared reputation damage can weaken the effect of high audit quality. Furthermore, this paper investigates whether the reputation enhancement effect of high audit quality can be strengthened by auditor experience, the title of “senior auditor” and IPO auditing experience. We also show that clients and audit firms place more weight on the quality of audits conducted by auditors in competitive markets and auditors with engagements matched with industries.
Originality/value
Together, these findings indicate the vital role of individual audit quality in auditors’ career development in the audit labour market, consistent with the reputation rationale for audit quality.
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Abstract
Purpose
Virtual clothing presentation has a visual 3D effort and allows consumers to interact. Currently, most scholars make virtual clothing presentations as a whole or focus on one element to study its impact on consumers’ purchase intentions. This study disassembles the components of virtual clothing presentation in Taobao and explores how each component (virtual clothing, virtual model, presentation space, presentation technology and system quality) affects consumers’ purchase intention, which can provide clothing companies recommendations for developing it and help improve consumers’ online shopping experience.
Design/methodology/approach
This study created the parts of a virtual clothing presentation and took advantage of Taobao’s 3D interactive module to simulate a shopping scenario. Participants experienced a 3D interactive virtual clothing presentation in which they could change clothing colors, show actual clothing sizes, try different model poses, switch presentation backgrounds and unfold clothing structure through interactive buttons. Then they were randomly assigned to view two kinds of images and videos of experiment clothing (real images and videos vs virtual ones), respectively. Hypotheses were tested using SEM and applying SmartPLS 4.
Findings
The results demonstrated that five components of virtual clothing presentation have different degrees of influence on consumers’ purchase intention through different consumer perceptions (perceived usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment). It is necessary to consider the design of the virtual clothing presentation in those five dimensions for different needs. In addition, it is feasible to replace images and animated videos of real clothing with virtual ones in Taobao.
Originality/value
Different types of virtual clothing presentations can lead to various results in terms of diverse impacts. This study disassembles and researches each component of a virtual clothing presentation. Overall, this study could provide guidance and suggestions for clothing companies to develop and design or invest in virtual clothing presentations.
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Vishnu K. Ramesh and A. Athira
This study examines the association between geopolitical risk (GPR) and corporate tax, which is a major source of revenue for the government and a significant explicit cost for…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the association between geopolitical risk (GPR) and corporate tax, which is a major source of revenue for the government and a significant explicit cost for firms. The authors use a comprehensive measure of GPR to study its effects on corporate taxes by using an international sample.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors adopt the geopolitical measure constructed by Caldara and Iacoviello (2022) as a proxy for GPR and cash-effective tax rate benchmarked with statutory tax rate to measure corporate tax avoidance. The authors employ panel regression with fixed effects (FEs) to investigate the impact of GPR on corporate tax avoidance. The authors also conduct a battery of robustness tests to ensure the strength of the study’s results.
Findings
This study’s empirical results indicate that sample firms increase their tax avoidance amid increasing GPR. Further analyses show that financial constraints incentivize firms to avoid taxes during rising geopolitical tensions. The authors also provide evidence on the role of firm-level and country-level governance in weakening the association between GPR and tax avoidance.
Practical implications
Policymakers and governments may strengthen the enforcement rule to limit aggressive tax practices of corporates during GPR to balance fiscal deficit. In addition, this study sheds light on the debate among administrators and politicians over the efficacy of current tax laws and governance structures in the presence of heightened GPR.
Originality/value
The authors extend the literature on GPR by analyzing its effect on corporate tax avoidance. Unlike existing single-country studies, the authors use a cross-country setup to investigate the impact of GPR on tax avoidance, making this study’s results more generalizable as the authors control for a host of country, industry, and time factors. Apart from political uncertainty, terrorism, and climatic issues, the authors document GPR as a strong macroeconomic driver of corporate tax avoidance. The authors make a new contribution to the literature on the moderating role of governance and institutional factors on the association between tax avoidance and GPR in an international context. The authors also contribute to the literature on macroeconomic determinants of tax avoidance.
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The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between social capital (SC) and financial performance (FP) in industrial enterprises in the Kurdistan Region of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the current research is to examine the relationship between social capital (SC) and financial performance (FP) in industrial enterprises in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and Sulaimani City (KRG), as well as the role of the quality of accounting information (QAI) as a mediator between SC and FP.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, SmartPLS is used to analyze the questionnaire that was distributed to 10 industrial firms engaged in the iron industry in 2021. The researcher used stratified random sampling to collect sample data from 252 full-time employees of a manufacturing companies in Kurdistan Region/ Iraq.
Findings
The findings of this research show that accounting measurement and disclosure of social capital (AMDSC) plays an important role in improving FP and that QAI mediates between AMDSC and FP in industrial companies in the KRG and Sulaimani city. This research aims to examine the impact of AMDSC on FP through mediating the QAI between AMDSC and FP at industrial companies in KRG/Sulaimani City. The results showed that AMDSC had a positive and significant impact on the company’s FP. The overall results of this study show that AMDSCs are positively and significantly correlated with financial performance, and QAI mediates between AMDSC and FP. This shows that SC should be considered in the companies’ plan to obtain additional funding in this sector.
Research limitations/implications
This study is exclusive to KRG/Sulaimani City’s iron industry. Other industries including sugar, cement, clothing, vehicles and medications could be the subject of future investigations.
Practical implications
The research provides insightful practical implications for management. First, the outcomes recommend that business owners and managers find a satisfactory level of SC when it significantly and positively affects financial performance. Second, the findings of this study will assist KRG manufacturing companies in making rational decisions to maximize profits while minimizing transaction costs such as information and research costs, increasing trust or reducing administrative burdens. This will eventually lead to the growth of industrial companies’ wealth in KRG/Sulaimani City. Managers should focus on social relationships between employees and management to maximize trust and reduce transaction costs, as they have future earnings.
Originality/value
Due to the lack of prior attention given to social capital in KRG, this research focuses on enhancing financial performance in industrial enterprises in KRG and Sulaimani City.