“Informational Uniqueness, Corporate Disclosure, and Information Environment” by Mr. Yuen-Kit (Jacky) CHAU
ACCOUNTING SEMINAR
Speaker:
Mr. Yuen-Kit (Jacky) CHAU
Ph.D. Candidate in Accounting
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Abstract:
The study examines how the lack of comparable public peers (“informational uniqueness”) is related to a firm’s disclosure policy and information environment. Having less information spillover from other public firms may present an information deficiency if it is not compensated by other components of the information environment. Consistent with firms attempting to mitigate the information deficiency through tacit commitment to continued disclosure, I find that uniqueness is associated with a higher propensity to provide ongoing bundled guidance. Overall, I find a strong negative relationship between uniqueness and the quality of corporate information environment only among firms without regular bundled guidance. This suggests that, while uniqueness can generate significant information deficiency, tacit disclosure commitment through regular bundled guidance can largely compensate for the lack of information spillover from peers.
