The economics and management literature provides theoretical support for both leader and laggard firms to earn higher future operating returns. However, prior empirical research lacks a generalizable proxy to capture leader vs. laggard behavior, thus limiting prior findings to specific contexts....

Prior studies report a decline or no change in acquirers' profitability after a merger or business acquisition. Those studies, however, do not consider the downward impact on profitability that stems from use of the "purchase accounting" (and in later periods, "acquisition") method for business...

We use event study techniques to investigate market participants' ex ante perceptions regarding the benefits and burdens of Interpretation Nos. 46 and 46R, Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, an Interpretation of ARB No. 51 (FIN 46/R). The evidence suggests investors believed the costs...

Strategy theory suggests that firms can impede mean reversion of economic rents by employing competitive efforts, thereby impacting profitability, forecasting, and valuation. We use realized operating performance to establish which competitive effort proxies effectively protect rents. The...