• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-40
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• 2022

This study investigates the effect of labor union and its power on information opacity. Given that the information opacity ultimately leads to the stock price crash, this study examines the relationship between labor unions and future stock price crash risk. Further, by assuming a strike by labor union as the actual power of the unionization in firms, whether labor union's power subrogated by the activity (i.e., a strike) makes a significant difference in the likelihood of future stock price crash between unionized firms is also examined. The work place survey data provided by Korea Labor Institute is used to test the hypotheses. The data is for the periods of 2004 - 2012 on firms listed on Korea Stock Exchange and KOSDAQ. The results show that while labor unionization has a positive impact on future stock price crash risk, on which labor union's power has a negative impact. This means that the existence of labor union itself might facilitate firm's information to be opaque by tolerating manager opportunism, while its power mitigates the managerial opportunism, which leads to lower future stock price crash risk. This study adds to the literature on the role of labor unions as nonfinancial stakeholders and its power in accounting environment, and also on the determinants of stock price crash. It is also valuable to examine the unions' role in terms of the economic consequences of both presence and power of the labor unions.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2020

Purpose: This research aims to investigate the impact of corporate integrity on stock price crash risk. Research design, data, and methodology: Taking 1419 firms listed in Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China as a sample, this paper empirically analyzed the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk. The main integrity data was hand-collected from Shenzhen Stock Exchange Website. Other financial data was collected from CSMAR Database. Results: Findings show that corporate integrity can significantly decrease stock price crash risk. After changing the selection of samples, model estimation methods and the proxy variable of stock price crash risk, the conclusion is still valid. Further research shows that the relationship between corporate integrity and stock price crash risk is only found in firms with weak internal control and firms in poor legal system areas. Conclusions: Results of the study suggest that corporate integrity has a significant influence on behaviors of managers. Business ethics reduces the likelihood of managers to overstate financial performance and hide bad news, which leads to the low likelihood of future stock price crashes. Meanwhile, corporate integrity can supplement internal control and legal system in decreasing stock price crash risks.

• Journal of East Asia Management
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2022

This study investigates whether foreign investors' behavior is involved in firm-specific investor sentiment. Because the mixed role of foreign investors on investor sentiment formation seems to exist in the Korean stock market, it needs to examine the moderate or incremental effect of foreign investors on the stock price crash risk which is due to investor sentiment. The analysis results using Korea Stock Exchanges - listed firms for the period of 2011-2019 show the increased future stock price crash risk which is attributable to high investor sentiment is mitigated for firms with the high foreign ownership, indicating the moderate effect. This study expands the literature on the foreign investors' behavior in the Korean stock market, by showing foreign investors are not involved in firm-specific investor sentiment, which improves market's efficiency in the Korean stock market. Also, the paper is valuable to the academic and practice field in that the findings shed light on the foreign investors' mitigating role in stock price crashes in the behavioral finance perspective.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.153-168
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• 2017

Recent studies focus on the role of investor attention and transparency in stock-related information in explaining stock return and trading volume. Moreover, recent literatures predict that firm opacity will increase the likelihood of future stock price crashes. In this paper, we investigate, using Naver Trend, the relation between portal search intensity and stock price crash. Using various alternative measures of stock price crash risk and search intensity, we demonstrate that stocks with larger volume of portal search are less likely to experience stock price crashes. These results are consistent with our hypothesis that accumulated firm opacity cause future stock price crash. Finally, our results still hold even after we control for the potential effect of endogeneity in the regression specifications.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.51-58
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• 2019

Purpose - Prior studies reported that the opacity of information caused stock price crash. If managers fail to disclose unfavorable information about the firm over a long period of time, the stock price is overvalued compared to its original value. If the accumulated information reaches a critical point and spreads quickly to the market, the stock price plunges. Information management by management's disclosure policy can cause information uncertainty, which will lead to a plunge in stock prices in the future. Thus, this study aims at examining the impact of disclosure quality on crash risk by focusing on the unfaithful disclosure firms. Research design, data, and methodology - This study covers firms listed on KOSPI and KOSDAQ from 2004 to 2013. Firms excluded from the sample are non-December firms, capital-eroding firms, and financial firms. The financial data used in the research was extracted from the KIS-Value and TS2000 database. Unfaithful disclosure firm designation data was collected from the Korea Exchange's electronic disclosure system (kind.krx.co.kr). Stock crash is measured as a dummy variable that equals one if a firm experiences at least one crash week over the fiscal year, and zero otherwise. Results - Empirical results as to the relation between unfaithful disclosure corporation designation and stock price crashes are as follows: There was a significant positive association between unfaithful disclosure corporation designation and stock price crash. This result supports the hypothesis that firms that have previously exhibited unfaithful disclosure behavior are more likely to suffer stock price plunges due to information asymmetry. Second, stock price crashes due to unfaithful disclosures are more likely to occur in Chaebol firms. Conclusions - While previous studies used estimates as a proxy for information opacity, this study used an objective measure such as unfaithful disclosure corporation designation. The designation by Korea Exchange is an objective evidence that the firm attempted to conceal and distort information in the previous year. The results of this study suggest that capital market investors need to investigate firms' disclosure behaviors.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.49-55
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• 2018

Purpose - This paper examines the effect of related party transactions on crash firm-specific stock price crash risk. Ownership of a typical Korean conglomerate is concentrated in a single family. In those entities, management and board positions are often filled by family members. Therefore, a dominant shareholder can benefit from related party transactions. In Korea, firms have to report related party transactions in financial statement footnotes. However, those are not disclosed in detail. The more related party transactions are the greater information risk. Thus, companies with related party transactions are likely to experience stock price crashes. Research design, data, and methodology - 2,598 firm-year observations are used for the main analysis. Those samples are from TS2000 database from 2009 to 2013, and the database covers KOSPI-listed firms in Korea. The proxy for related party transactions (RTP) is calculated by dividing total transactions to the related-party by total sales. A dummy variable is used as a dependent variable (CRASH) in the regression model. Logistic regression is used to explain the relationship between related party transactions and crash risk. Then, the sample was separated into two groups; tunneling firms and propping firms. The relation between related party transactions and crash risk variances with features of the transaction were investigated. Results - Using a sample of KOSPI-listed firms in TS2000 database for the period of 2009-2013, I find that stock price crash risk increases as the trade volume of related-party transactions increases. Specifically, I find that the coefficient of RPT is significantly positive, supporting the prediction. In addition, this relationship is strong and robust in tunneling firms. Conclusions - The results report that firms with related party transactions are more likely to experience stock price crashes. The results mean that related party transactions increase the possibility of future stock price crashes by enlarging information asymmetry between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders. In case of tunneling, it could be seen that related party transactions are positively associated with stock crash risk. The result implies that the characteristic of the transaction influences crash risk. This study is related to a literature that investigates the effect of related party transactions on the stock market.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.53-59
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• 2018

Purpose - This study examines the effect of control-ownership wedge on stock crash risk. In Korea, controlling shareholders have exclusive control rights compared to their cash flow rights. With increasing disparity, controlling shareholders abuse their power and extract private benefits at the expense of the minority shareholders. Managers who are controlling shareholders of the companies tend not to disclose critical information that would prevent them from pursuing private interests. They accumulate negative information in the firm. When the accumulated bad news crosses a tipping point, it will be suddenly released to the market at once, resulting in an abrupt decline in stock prices. We predict that stock price crash likelihood due to information opaqueness increases as the wedge increases. Research design, data, and methodology - 831 KOSPI-listed firm-year observations are from KisValue database from 2005 to 2011. Control-ownership wedge is measured as the ratio (UCO -UCF)/UCO where UCF(UCO) is the ultimate cash-flow(control) rights of the largest controlling shareholder. Dependent variable CRASH is a dummy variable that equals one if the firm has at least 1 crash week during a year, and zero otherwise. Logistic regression is used to examine the relationship between control-ownership wedge and stock price crash risk. Results - Using a sample of KOSPI-listed firms in KisValue database for the period 2005-2011, we find that stock price crash risk increases as the disparity increases. Specifically, we find that the coefficient of WEDGE is significantly positive, supporting our prediction. The result implies that as controlling shareholders' ownership increases, controlling shareholders tend to withhold bad news. Conclusions - Our results show that agency problems arising from the divergence between control rights and cash flow rights increase the opaqueness of accounting information. Eventually, the accumulated bad news is released all at once, leading to stock price crashes. It could be seen that companies with high control-ownership wedge are likely to experience future stock price crashes. Our study is related to a broader literature that examined the effect of the control-ownership wedge on stock markets. Our findings suggest that the disparity is a meaningful predictor for future stock price crash risk. The results are expected to provide useful implications for firms, regulators, and investors.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.103-115
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• 2021

This study investigates the relationship between family ownership and the stock price crash risk. It believes that this relationship would never be in direct connection. The authors design and then find that family ownership is predisposed, in the first place, to the related party transaction, then the related party transaction causes the future stock price crash. This study infers that employing the power of family ownership creates the Type I agency problem, although this is not relevant for the Type II problem. From the perspective of the hoarding theory, family ownerships produce opaque accounts by blurring financial information. The blurred information is probably hidden in the related party transactions. This study, therefore, splits these transactions into accounts receivable, other accounts receivable and other receivables. Finally, this research concludes that the family ownership affects related party transactions. These then are used as an instrument to influence the leaded related party transaction. The latest, leaded related party transactions influence the future stock price crash. This study infers that related party transactions are abusive practices, especially on the types of receivables. It implies corporate governance's revitalisation.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.35-42
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• 2019

Purpose : This study examines The impact of human resource investment in internal control on stock price crash risk. Effective internal control ensures that information provided is complete and accurate, financial statements are reliable. By overseeing management, internal control systems can reduce agency costs between management and outside parties. In Korea, firms have to disclose information about internal control systems. The working experience of human resources in internal control systems is also provided for interested parties. If a firm hires more experienced internal control personnel, it can better facilitate the disclosure of information. Prior studies reported that information asymmetry between managers and investors increases future stock price crash risk. Therefore, the longer working experience internal control personnel have, the lower probability stock crashes have. Research design, data and methodology : This study analyzed the association between the working experience of internal control personnel and crash risk using regression analysis on KOSPI listed companies for fiscal years 2016 through 2017. The sample consists of 1,034 firm-years of non-financial firms whose fiscal year end on December 31. Career spanning data of internal control personnel was collected from internal control reports. The professionalism(IC_EXP) was measured as the logarithm of the average working experience of internal control personnel in months. Negative conditional skewness(NSKEW) and down-to-up volatility (DUVOL) are used to measure firm-specific crash risk. Both measures are based on firm-specific weekly returns derived from the expanded market model. Results : We find that work experience in internal control environment is negatively related to stock price crashes. Specifically, skewness(NSKEW) and volatility (DUVOL) are reduced when firms have longer tenure of human resources in internal control division. The results imply that firms with experienced internal control personnel are less likely to experience stock price crashes. Conclusions : Stock price crashes occur when investors realize that stock prices have been inflated due to information asymmetry. There is a learning effect when internal control processes are done repetitively. Thus, firms with more experienced internal control personnel could manage their internal control more effectively. The results of this study suggest that firms could decrease information asymmetry by investing in human resources for their internal control system.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.87-93
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• 2017

Purpose - This paper investigates whether managerial overconfidence is associated with firm-specific crash risk. Overconfidence leads managers to overestimate the returns of their investment projects, and misperceive negative net present value projects as value creating. They even use voluntary disclosures to convey their optimistic beliefs about the firms' long-term prospects to the stock market. Thus, the overconfidence bias can lead to managerial bad news hoarding behavior. When bad news accumulates and crosses some tipping point, it will come out all at once, resulting in a stock price crash. Research design, data and methodology - 7,385 firm-years used for the main analysis are from the KIS Value database between 2006 and 2013. This database covers KOSPI-listed and KOSDAQ-listed firms in Korea. The proxy for overconfidence is based on excess investment in assets. A residual from the regression of total asset growth on sales growth run by industry-year is used as an independent variable. If a firm has at least one crash week during a year, it is referred to as a high crash risk firm. The dependant variable is a dummy variable that equals 1 if a firm is a high crash risk firm, and zero otherwise. After explaining the relationship between managerial overconfidence and crash risk, the total sample was divided into two sub-samples; chaebol firms and non-chaebol firms. The relation between how I overconfidence and crash risk varies with business group affiliation was investigated. Results - The results showed that managerial overconfidence is positively related to crash risk. Specifically, the coefficient of OVERC is significantly positive, supporting the prediction. The results are strong and robust in non-chaebol firms. Conclusions - The results show that firms with overconfident managers are likely to experience stock price crashes. This study is related to past literature that examines the impact of managerial overconfidence on the stock market. This study contributes to the literature by examining whether overconfidence can explain a firm's future crashes.