Australian Journal of Management

This article empirically shows that the cost of new debt is higher for firms that commit covenant violations. Using a proxy for product market competition to capture exogenous changes to a firm’s competitive environment, I find that the cost is systematically higher for firms that operate in competitive markets. Moreover, I identify channels through which violations can increase the cost of new debt, namely, the incidence, timing and frequency effects, and I document these effects to be more acute for competitive markets. Overall, the study finds that the market prices financial contracts by taking into account the information content of the violation and the risk arising from market competition.

JEL Classification: G12, G30

This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) reduces information asymmetry (IA). Using a firm-level CSR dataset of Australian publicly listed firms from 2004 to 2014, we estimate IA models using a fixed-effects panel estimator. We find that CSR performance is negatively associated with IA. Moreover, this negative relationship is stronger for larger firms and firms with stronger market power. We also find that the negative association between CSR and IA decreases for firms with a high level of equity risk. Our results are robust to alternative measures of CSR and IA, model specifications and endogeneity controls.

JEL Classification: D82, G34, M14

This study examines the choice of boutique financial advisors in mergers and acquisitions, and the consequences of this choice on deal outcomes and post-acquisition performance. Boutique advisors often specialize in a particular industry and focus exclusively on providing advice in mergers and acquisitions. The results suggest that boutique financial advisors are preferred when the deal is considered complex and when information asymmetry is high. The study finds that the benefits of hiring a boutique advisor flow to both the acquirers and the target firms. Acquiring firms benefit in terms of improved post-merger performance, while target firms benefit in terms of higher completion of value-enhancing deals and positive cumulative abnormal returns. Overall, these results provide support for the growing popularity of boutique financial advisors in the Australian market.

JEL classification: G24, G34

We investigate the influence of government grants, venture capital (VC), and private equity (PE) funding on innovation in newly public firms. We examine innovation inputs (R&D), innovation outputs (patents), and the quality thereof (patent citations). We contribute to understanding of the mechanisms between government grants and subsequent VC and PE funding and innovation. We find that grants encourage VC funding but not PE funding. Grants and VC/PE funding are generally complements regarding innovation except grants substitute for VC funding on innovation inputs. Furthermore, we observe that the firm-level heterogeneity of VC/PEs significantly influences innovation in portfolio companies.

JEL Classification: G24, G32, L53, O31, O38

We study the relationship between stock price synchronicity and information disclosure of firms listed in the Chinese stock market, using hand-collected data on firms’ official microblogging content in Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging service in China. We find that after controlling for the impact of traditional media, the number of Weibo tweets is related negatively to stock price synchronicity, indicating that stock prices incorporate firm-specific information disclosed in the firm’s official Weibo. Number of microblogging fans can strengthen this negative relationship. Our result is robust to alternative measures of stock price synchronicity, microblogging information disclosure, and to endogeneity issues.

JEL Classification: G14, G15

This study investigates the relationship between financial leverage and competitive strategies based on the investigation into the cross-listing announcements, through which the financial condition of a firm might shape the competition outcome. The empirical evidence shows that cross-listing announcements normally attract positive market responses to cross-listed firms but incur negative market responses to rival firms, especially upon the strategic substitutes competition. Cross-listed firms obtain more positive market responses if their financial leverage is lower, but the firms have no advantages when they are financially constrained. Less leveraged rival firms could weaken the negative impact and even gain positive market responses upon the strategic complements competition.

JEL classification: G14, G32, M16

Using resource dependence theory, this study examines the determinants of firm performance among business groups’ new venture affiliates using a sample of 1512 new venture affiliates associated with 104 large-sized business groups in Taiwan. The empirical findings reveal that improved affiliate postentry performance is linked to the relative size of a business group’s new venture affiliate and the level of autonomy inherent in decision-making. Furthermore, when the product market of a new venture affiliate is resource-related to its affiliated business group’s main business, this affiliate may benefit from resource relatedness with an improved return on equity.

JEL Classification: M10, M16, M38