言多必失?管理层报告的样板化及其经济后果

The less said the better? Economic consequences of textual similarity in management discussion and analysis

样板化报告在古今中外都有广泛的运用,但报告者面临两难:一方面,样板化有利于规避披露风险;但另一方面,样板化又不利于传递内部信息.那么,投资者如何评价中国上市公司的报告的样板化程度?以中国上市公司的管理层讨论与分析的文字为样本,用公司t期和t-1期报告的纵向文本相似度以及本公司和其他公司同期的报告的平均横向相似度来衡量样板化的水平,并考察了其经济后果.检验结果表明,纵向样板化的经济后果呈现相机抉择性,当公司财务风险高(亏损、微利或者被出具非标准审计意见)时,信息效应占优,样板化的报告引发负面的市场评价,而当公司财务风险较低,风险效应占优,样板化的报告则引发市场的好评.另一方面,报告横向样板化则引起了整体的负面评价.在调节效应方面,纵向样板化的经济后果受公司创新、特质信息、董事长权力和停牌次数的影响,横向样板化的经济后果则受到公司独立董事的社会网络位置的影响.综合结果表明,公司管理层讨论与分析的横向样板化,以及在高财务风险条件下的纵向样本化都会因信息披露不足而引起负面的经济后果.

While model report is widely used in ancient and modem China, the evidence is rare. The reporter faces a dilemma: Should similar reports be reported to avoid disclosure risk or diversified reports be reported to communicate private information? This paper aims to investigate how investors evaluate textual similarity of Management Discussion and Analysis ( MD&A) in the Chinese annual reports. Based on a sample of textual information of MD&A of listed firms in China, the vertical textual similarity ( VTS) is measured by the Levenshtein edit distance between an MD&A in year t and that in year t-1 and horizontal textual similarity ( HTS) is measured by the mean value of the Levenshtein edit distance among all firms. The following results are found. First, market reaction of VTS is contingent on financial risks. When companies suffer losses, report small profits or release modified audit opinions, VTS is negatively related with short term abnormal return. Oppositely ,when companies' financial risks are low, market reaction is positively associated with VTS. Second, HTS is negatively related with market return in the whole sample. Third, economic consequences of VTS is contingent on corporate innovation, specific information, Chairman' power and transaction suspending. Finally ,economic consequences of HTS is affected by the social network of independent directors. Taken together, the results indicate that both VTS in financial distressed companies and HTS are harmful to private information communication and will have negative economic consequences.