• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
• /
• v.8 no.8
• /
• pp.647-658
• /
• 2021

Analysts' forecasts are important for providing useful guidance to investors, especially individual or small investors, and therefore it becomes critical to identify the elements which can potentially increase errors in analysts' forecasts. This study investigates potential factors which can lead to errors in forecasting by analysts, specifically in terms of the level and attributes of corporate earnings. Utilizing a sample of firms listed on the Korean stock markets, this study provides evidence that firms with more volatile and unpredictable earnings feature less accurate analyst forecasts. This study fills a void in the literature by conducting empirical tests for earnings attributes in terms of volatility and unpredictability that could potentially undermine the forecast accuracy. The negative association between the quality of earnings and forecast accuracy is more pronounced for firms with negative net income values. Additional analysis demonstrates that forecast accuracy is significantly lower for the fourth quarter than for other fiscal quarters and that fourth quarter earnings tend to be more volatile and unpredictable. This study contributes to the literature by providing new empirical evidence regarding the comprehensive effects of earnings quality and level on analysts' forecasting accuracy and further suggests potential factors contributing to the fourth quarter anomaly in analyst forecasts in terms of earnings attributes.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.245-262
• /
• 2021

Despite the numerous advantages that CSR engagement can potentially offer, top managers may not always be willing to invest in CSR as they are expected to meet expectations of external constituents in the short run. Given that financial analysts' expectations are important short-term performance targets that top managers are motivated to meet, this study examines how performance relative to earnings forecasts issued by analysts affect top managers' decisions about CSR engagement. Using a sample of publicly listed U.S. firms from 2000 to 2016, we find that top managers are more likely to reduce discretionary expenditure on CSR activities as performance falls below analyst forecasts to improve financial performance in the following fiscal year. As performance exceeds analyst forecasts, top managers are motivated to reduce CSR investments in order to meet higher expectations of analysts. As financial analysts closely monitor the firms that they follow in order to publish investment advice to market participants, we find that analyst coverage weakens top managers' incentive to reduce CSR engagement. Overall, this research sheds meaningful insight into the contextual background in which the top managers are situated in when they make decisions on CSR engagement.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.63-68
• /
• 2013

Some essential components in nuclear power plants are periodically inspected using non-destructive examinations, for example ultrasonic, eddy current and radiographic examinations, in order to determine their integrity. These components include nuclear power plant items such as vessels, containments, piping systems, pumps, valves, tubes and core support structure. Steam generator tubes have an important safety role because they constitute one of the primary barriers between the radioactive and non-radioactive sides of the nuclear power plant. There is potential that if a tube bursts while a plant is operating, radioactivity from the primary coolant system could escape directly to the atmosphere. Therefore, in-service inspections are critical in maintaining steam generator tube integrity. In general, the eddy current testing is widely used for the inspection of steam generator tubes due to its high inspection speed and flaw detectability on non-magnetic tubes. However, it is not easy to analyze correctly eddy current signals because they are influenced by many factors. Therefore, the performance of eddy current data analysts for steam generator tubing should be demonstrated comprehensively. In Korea, the performance of steam generator tubing analysts has been demonstrated using the Qualified Data Analyst program. This paper describes the performance demonstration program for steam generator tubing analysts and its implementation results in Korea. The pass rate of domestic analysts for this program was 71.4%.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.45-61
• /
• 2005

This study develops the evaluation model for e-Business company using analytic hierarchy process. As the first step of this study, we derived the appraisal standards based on the previous literature and the knowledge of experts from venture capitalists, security companies, credit evaluation companies, and consulting firms. In order to validate the evaluating factors in the models, this study was supported by analysts of top ranked venture capitalists in Korea. Through their assistance, this study can determine necessary evaluating factors that refined and deepened the models. Four expert groups, such as venture capitalists, credit analysts, analysts of security company and e-Business consultants, provide their knowledge for the determination of the weights of evaluating factors in the hierarchical model through the questionnaires and interviews. The results show that the weights of the evaluating factors differed by the maturity of e-Business company.

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.151-165
• /
• 2017

This study investigates the effect of revenue recognition by percentage of completion method on financial analysts' earnings forecasting information in order industry. Specifically, we examines how the analysts' earnings forecast errors and biases differ according to whether or not to report the unbilled revenue account balance and the level of unbilled revenue account balance. The sample consists of 453 firm-years listed in Korea Stock Exchange during the period from 2010 to 2014 since the information on unbilled revenue accounts can be obtained after the adoption of K-IFRS. The results are as follows. First, we find that the firms with unbilled revenue account balances have lower analysts' earnings forecast accuracy than the firms who do not report unbilled revue account balances. In addition, we find that the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts decreases as the amount of unbilled revenue increases. Unbilled revenue account balances occur when the revenue recognition of the contractor is faster than the client. There is a possibility that managerial discretionary judgment and estimation may intervene when the contractor calculates the progress rate. The difference between the actual progress of the construction and the progress recognized by the company lowers the predictive value of financial statements. Our results suggest that the analysts' earnings forecasts may be more difficult for the firms that report unbilled revenue balances as applying the revenue recognition method based on the progress criteria. Second, we find that the firms reporting unbilled revenue account balances tend to have higher the optimistic biases in analysts' earnings forecast than the firms who do not report unbilled revenue account balances. And we find that the analysts' earnings forecast biases are increases as the amount of unbilled revenue increases. This study suggests an effort to reduce the arbitrary adjustment and estimation in the measurement of the progress as well as the introduction of the progress measurement method which can reflect the actual progress. Investors are encouraged to invest and analyze the characteristics of the order-based industry accounting standards. In addition, the results of this study empower the accounting transparency enhancement plan for order industry proposed by the policy authorities.

• Asia Marketing Journal
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.53-77
• /
• 2013

As advertising and promotions are categorized as operating expenses, managers tend to reduce marketing budget to improve their short term profitability. Gauging the value and accountability of marketing spending is therefore considered as a major research priority in marketing. To respond this call, recent studies have documented that financial market reacts positively to a firm's marketing activity or marketing related outcomes such as brand equity and customer satisfaction. However, prior studies focus on the relation of marketing variable and financial market variables. This study suggests a channel about how marketing activity increases firm valuation. Specifically, we propose that a firm's marketing activity increases the level of the firm's product market information and thereby the dispersion in financial analysts' earnings forecasts decreases. With less uncertainty about the firm's future prospect, the firm's managers and shareholders have less information asymmetry, which reduces the firm's cost of capital and thereby increases the valuation of the firm. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to examine how informational benefits can mediate the effect of marketing activity on firm value. To test whether marketing activity contributes to increase in firm value by mitigating information asymmetry, this study employs a longitudinal data which contains 12,824 firm-year observations with 2,337 distinct firms from 1981 to 2006. Firm value is measured by Tobin's Q and one-year-ahead buy-and-hold abnormal return (BHAR). Following prior literature, dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts is used as a proxy for the information gap between management and shareholders. For model specification, to identify mediating effect, the three-step regression approach is adopted. All models are estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to test the statistical significance of the mediating effect. The analysis shows that marketing intensity has a significant negative relationship with dispersion in analysts' earnings forecasts. After including the mediator variable about analyst dispersion, the effect of marketing intensity on firm value drops from 1.199 (p < .01) to 1.130 (p < .01) in Tobin's Q model and the same effect drops from .192 (p < .01) to .188 (p < .01) in BHAR model. The results suggest that analysts' forecast dispersion partially accounts for the positive effect of marketing on firm valuation. Additionally, the same analysis was conducted with an alternative dependent variable (forecast accuracy) and a marketing metric (advertising intensity). The analysis supports the robustness of the main results. In sum, the results provide empirical evidence that marketing activity can increase shareholder value by mitigating problem of information asymmetry in the capital market. The findings have important implications for managers. First, managers should be cognizant of the role of marketing activity in providing information to the financial market as well as to the consumer market. Thus, managers should take into account investors' reaction when they design marketing communication messages for reducing the cost of capital. Second, this study shows a channel on how marketing creates shareholder value and highlights the accountability of marketing. In addition to the direct impact of marketing on firm value, an indirect channel by reducing information asymmetry should be considered. Potentially, marketing managers can justify their spending from the perspective of increasing long-term shareholder value.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.14-32
• /
• 2000

This paper is talking about the background, market demand, and government policy of technology valuation. The function and role of technology valuation analysts is appeared and suggested through the examples, such as the related specialists, the related organizations, the laws, and the references of foreign organizations. In particular, we wish this paper the good suggestion for the technology transfer, transaction, investment, M&A and so on.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
• /
• v.10 no.9
• /
• pp.199-207
• /
• 2019

This study aims to analyze the profitability of Robo-Advisors portfolio combined with the analysts' forecasts on the Korean stock prices. Sample stocks are 8 blue-chips and sample period is from 2003 to 2019. Robo-Advisor portfolio was suggested using the Black-Litterman model combined with the analysts' forecasts and its profitability was analyzed. Empirical result showed the suggested Robo-Advisor algorithm produced 1% annual excess return more than that of the benchmark. The study documented that the analysts' forecasts had an economic value when applied in the Robo-Advisor portfolio despite the prevalent blames from investors. The profitability on small or medium-sized stocks will need to be analyzed in the Robo-Advisor context because their information is relatively less known to investors and as such is expected to be strongly influenced by the analysts' forecasts.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.239-276
• /
• 2009

The paper investigates the possible relationship between earnings prediction by security analysts and special ownership ties that link security companies those analysts belong to and firms under analysis. "Security analysts" are known best for their role as information producers in stock markets where imperfect information is prevalent and transaction costs are high. In such a market, changes in the fundamental value of a company are not spontaneously reflected in the stock price, and the security analysts actively produce and distribute the relevant information crucial for the price mechanism to operate efficiently. Therefore, securing the fairness and accuracy of information they provide is very important for efficiencyof resource allocation as well as protection of investors who are excluded from the special relationship. Evidence of systematic distortion of information by the special tie naturally calls for regulatory intervention, if found. However, one cannot presuppose the existence of distorted information based on the common ownership between the appraiser and the appraisee. Reputation effect is especially cherished by security firms and among analysts as indispensable intangible asset in the industry, and the incentive to maintain good reputation by providing accurate earnings prediction may overweigh the incentive to offer favorable rating or stock recommendation for the firms that are affiliated by common ownership. This study shares the theme of existing literature concerning the effect of conflict of interests on the accuracy of analyst's predictions. This study, however, focuses on the potential conflict of interest situation that may originate from the Korea-specific ownership structure of large conglomerates. Utilizing an extensive database of analysts' reports provided by WiseFn(R) in Korea, we perform empirical analysis of potential relationship between earnings prediction and common ownership. We first analyzed the prediction bias index which tells how optimistic or friendly the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings. It is shown that there exists no statistically significant relationship between the prediction bias and common ownership. This is a rather surprising result since it is observed that the frequency of positive prediction bias is higher with such ownership tie. Next, we analyzed the prediction accuracy index which shows how accurate the analyst's prediction is compared to the realized earnings regardless of its sign. It is also concluded that there is no significant association between the accuracy ofearnings prediction and special relationship. We interpret the results implying that market discipline based on reputation effect is working in Korean stock market in the sense that security companies do not seem to be influenced by an incentive to offer distorted information on affiliated firms. While many of the existing studies confirm the relationship between the ability of the analystand the accuracy of the analyst's prediction, these factors cannot be controlled in the above analysis due to the lack of relevant data. As an indirect way to examine the possibility that such relationship might have distorted the result, we perform an additional but identical analysis based on a sub-sample consisting only of reports by best analysts. The result also confirms the earlier conclusion that the common ownership structure does not affect the accuracy and bias of earnings prediction by the analyst.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.65-71
• /
• 2008

This study conducted two surveys to establish an educational system to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The first survey investigates the factors influencing the recognition of job specifications for risk factor analysts of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The respondents of the first survey were selected from 173 different small-sized manufacturing enterprises having less than 300 workers and had experienced the inspection of risk factors. The results of the first survey shows that better recognition of job specifications are followed by the increase of education time, but regardless of the positions and periods of job experience. Among the respondents with a high level recognition, the second survey was conducted. According to the results, it is presented that 2, 8, 16 hours are the most suitable for educating workers, superintendents, and risk factors analysts. Based on the results of the second survey, educational contents have also been suggested. This research will provide the basic information when forming education systems to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.