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We adopt an information risk view and argue that higher levels of pledge risk incurred by insiders incentivize opportunistic financial disclosure and impair the quality of information available to analysts to forecast firm performance.

We sample Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2022. Following the literature, we apply established models to measure and test analysts’ forecasting accuracy/dispersion related to controlling shareholders pledging equity and the amount of margin call pressure. Analyst characteristics and nonfinancial disclosures proxied by CSR reports are also examined as factors likely to influence the relationship between pledge risk and analysts’ forecast quality.

We find that analysts’ earnings predictions are less accurate and more dispersed as the proportion of shares pledged (pledge ratio) increases and in combination with greater margin call pressure. Pledge ratios are significantly associated with several information risk proxies (i.e. earnings permanence, accruals quality, audit quality, financial restatements, related party transactions and internal control weaknesses), validating the channel through which equity pledges undermine analysts’ forecast quality. The results also demonstrate that forecast quality declines for a wide variety of analysts’ attributes, including high- and low-quality analysts and analysts from small and large brokerage firms. Importantly, nonfinancial disclosures, as proxied by CSR reporting, improve analysts’ forecasts.

We extend the literature by demonstrating that incremental pledge risk increases non-diversifiable information risk; all non-pledging shareholders pay a premium through more diverse and less accurate earnings forecasts. Our study provides important policy implications with economically significant costs to investors associated with insider equity pledges. Our results highlight the benefits of nonfinancial disclosures in China, which has implications for the current debate on the global convergence of CSR reporting.

Lead users are essential participants in crowdsourcing innovation events; their continuance intention significantly affects the success of the crowdsourcing innovation community (CIC). Although researchers have acknowledged the influences of network externalities on users' sustained participation in general information systems, limited work has been conducted to probe these relationships in the CIC context; particularly, the predictors of lead users' continued usage intention in such context are still unclear. Hence, this paper aims to explore the precursors of lead users' continuance intention from a network externalities perspective in CIC.

This work ranked users' leading-edge status to recognize lead users in the CIC. And then, the authors proposed a research model based on the network externalities theory, which was examined utilizing the partial least squares (PLS) technique. The research data were collected from an online survey of lead users (n = 229) of a CIC hosted by a China handset manufacturer.

Results revealed that the number of peers, perceived complementarity and perceived compatibility significantly influence lead users' continuance intention through identification and perceived usefulness.

This work contributes to the crowdsourcing innovation research and provides views regarding how lead users' sustained participation can be developed in the CICs. This work also offers an alternative theoretical framework for further research on users' continued intention in open innovation activities.

This study aims to research the erosion wear characteristics and sealing performance of V-regulating ball valve in coal chemical process pipelines, which provides a theoretical reference for improving its antiwear and sealing performance.

Taking the V-regulating ball valve as the research object, based on the computational fluid dynamics and the theory of erosion wear, the authors studied its erosion characteristics under different medium parameters and analyzed the sealing performance under the heat-fluid–solid coupling working condition.

The erosion wear mechanism of the valve sealing surface is the simultaneous action of cutting and deformation. When the medium flow velocity, particle mass flow rate and particle size increase, the maximum erosion rate and average erosion rate in the V-regulating valve increase. The inner diameter Mises contact stress of the sealing surface is symmetrically distributed in a “wing shape,” and the contact stress of the outer diameter is distributed in a “butterfly shape.” Due to the superposition of thermal stress and pressure stress in the contact transition zone to produce a significant stress concentration.

The findings will provide a theoretical basis for improving the erosion resistance and sealing performance of V-regulating ball valve in coal chemical industry.

V-type regulating ball valve is widely favored by coal chemical enterprises and petrochemical enterprises because of its wide adjustment ratio and good erosion resistance.

The V-regulating ball valve wear mechanism for cutting and deformation simultaneously, and its wear rate is positively correlated with the medium flow rate, particle mass flow rate and particle size. After the valve is opened, there is a significant stress concentration occurs in the contact transition zone due to the superposition of thermal stress and compressive stress. The findings will provide a theoretical basis for improving the erosion resistance and sealing performance of V-regulating ball valve in coal chemical industry.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-06-2024-0205/