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Data breaches have the potential to weaken employee morale, corporate reputations, and customer and supplier relationships, while also disrupting marketing investments and financial performance. Research on reducing their frequency and harm focuses on tactical solutions, though breaches represent serious, even existential threats to firms. To date, research has not attempted to simultaneously address the closely connected phenomena of preventing and recovering from data breaches. The authors propose that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a strategic variable offering dual protection: reducing the likelihood of data breaches and attenuating harm when breaches occur. Drawing on stakeholder theory, the authors distinguish between internal (addressing primary stakeholders) and external (addressing secondary stakeholders) CSR. Study 1 shows that external CSR has no prophylactic effect, while moderate and high levels of internal CSR are equally effective at preventing data breaches, compared with low levels of internal CSR. Study 2 assesses mitigation following a data breach by examining (1) short-term effects (in the form of an event study on cumulative abnormal returns) and (2) long-term effects (with time-series analysis of Tobin's q). The results suggest that internal CSR props up financial performance only at high levels while the positive effect of external CSR is short-lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of a firm's accounting reporting complexity (ARC) on financial statement audit quality. We predict and find that there is a non‐linear relationship between a firm's ARC and audit quality. Specifically, a more complex accounting environment—measured by ARC—leads to higher quality audits, but this effect diminishes when ARC continues to increase. Further analyses reveal that the effect is more salient among client firms that do not purchase non‐audit services (NAS). We also examine whether ARC affects audit quality in the circumstance of mandatory audit partner rotation. Empirical results show a moderating effect of ARC on the negative influence of audit partner rotation on audit quality. Our study extends the literature by illustrating how a firm's ARC influences audit quality in a special manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether CFO's educational background could influence his/her firm's level of earnings management because CFO plays a direct role in overseeing financial reporting. Based on agency theory and upper echelons theory, we discuss whether a CFO with/without an accounting degree could incentivize him/her to choose one over another among the three types of earnings management. Using a US sample between 1999 and 2016, we empirically find that CFOs with an accounting degree are associated with a higher degree of accrual earnings management and a higher degree of real earnings management through overproduction while CFOs without any accounting degree are associated with a higher degree of classification shifting. Our results hold robust when we implement a difference‐in‐difference test on the executive turnover from a CFO without any accounting degree to a CFO with an accounting degree. Finally, we find that CFOs with CPA certification behave more ethically in all three types of earnings management. Our study enriches the management demographic factor influence literature, unveils the role of CFO in choices of earnings management, supports ethics requirements in business education, and provides implications to executive hiring as well to audit practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how industry peer firms influence the voluntary disclosure strategies of individual firms. Our 2SLS regressions on an empirical sample of management earnings forecasts show that the disclosure strategies of individual firms are significantly influenced by their peer firms' disclosure behaviors. Specifically, the increased disclosure frequency and disclosure horizon of their industry peers encourage individual firms to increase their disclosure frequency and disclosure horizon. Moreover, firms with S&P credit ratings, higher profitability, larger size, and/or a higher market-to-book ratio tend to be more sensitive to their peer firms' voluntary disclosure frequency, and react more strongly to peer firms that are of dissimilar size or profitability. Finally, we find that the leader–follower relation does not influence the effects of peer firms' disclosure strategies. Additional tests suggest that signaling theory and litigation risk provide stronger explanations of why firms mimic their peers than herding theory and free rider theory. This paper contributes to the accounting literature by providing new evidence on the effects of voluntary disclosure. Our findings are also of relevance to industry practitioners, and they shed light on the recently proposed voluntary disclosure regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Reports detailing the clinical presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are extensive in China. However, data remains limited regarding the long-term effects of the 2022 outbreak on the community and healthcare workers (HCWs)., What Is Added by This Report?: In the follow-up study conducted with 1,069 community members and 3,309 HCWs infected with COVID-19, we observed that five months post-outbreak, 39.2% of community members and 28.7% of HCWs reported experiencing at least one symptom. The symptoms most frequently reported included fatigue or muscle weakness, insomnia, cognitive dysfunction, hair loss, joint or muscle pain, and persistent cough. HCWs tended to experience fewer long-term physical consequences and their symptoms had an expedited recovery time compared to the community members. Nevertheless, HCWs displayed a higher prevalence of moderate to severe depression and anxiety., What Are the Implications for Public Health Practice?: The establishment of a public healthcare system dedicated to continual monitoring, prevention, and clinical treatment of persistent COVID-19 symptoms is imperative., Competing Interests: No conflicts of interest., (Copyright and License information: Editorial Office of CCDCW, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention 2023.)