Conditional Earnings Conservatism and Corporate Refocusing Activities
研究了英国上市公司业务重构活动前后条件性盈余稳健性的变化，发现重构事件前常有显著负回报，且伴随大额费用，稳健性系数在事件前后系统性改变。
We extend standard models of conditional earnings conservatism and adaptation value to the context of the corporate refocusing activities of UK listed companies. This analysis is interesting because refocusing activities are: (1) commonly anticipated by significant negative returns in the financial year(s) before the refocusing event; (2) typically associated with large material charges; and (3) likely to be part of a strategic plan with the internal decision preceding the formal public announcement. We complement Burgstahler and Dichev [1997] by showing how their nonlinear relation between share prices and earnings changes around refocusing events as adaptation options are exercised. Because refocusing events also involve large realized losses and major changes to firms' strategic plans, we expect to see systematic changes in the timing relations between stock returns and reported earnings. To capture this, we show how the coefficients of Basu's [1997] model of conditional conservatism change around refocusing events. © University of Chicago on behalf of the Accounting Research Center, 2011.