AAA Spark Meeting of Regions

The Effects of Corporate Name Changes on Firm Information Environment and Earnings Management

• In Event: Strategy and Earnings Management

Abstract

We study how corporate name changes affect a firm’s information environment and its earnings management. We show that the stock market reacts negatively to name change events of firms. This effect is specifically pronounced for firms that have lower visibility. We also find that firms that change their names tend to have a relatively worse information environment. We also show that earnings management is higher when firms change their name

Authors

• Fuzhao Zhou, State University of New York College at Brockport

• Erik Devos, university of texas at el paso

• Jianning Huang, St Francis Xavier University