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Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 45 2017

The governance transfer of blockholders: Evidence from block acquisitions and earnings management around the world

Lili Dai1; Ravi Dharwadkar2; Linna Shi3,4; Bohui Zhang1

1 UNSW Sydney · 2 Syracuse University · 3 Lindner Center of HOPE · 4 University of Cincinnati

open access

Abstract

We examine the governance transfer effect of corporate blockholders in a sample of 892 block acquisitions across 42 countries from 1990 to 2008. Using earnings management as a proxy for corporate governance outcome, we find that target firms' earnings management is aligned with that of block acquirers after acquisitions, implying that blockholders transfer their own governance quality to investee firms. We further identify three economic mechanisms that underlie the governance transfer effect, namely, monitoring effectiveness, monitoring cost, and monitoring environment. Our findings provide new insights into the governance role of blockholders.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.06.004
Volume
45
Pages
586-607
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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