Seminar (Dept. of General Management)

Title: Weaving the Threads of Time: Manager Temporal Focus and Newly Public Firm’s Non-GAAP Financial Reporting

Speaker: Sunny Li Sun (University of Massachusetts, Lowell)

Time: 14:30pm, Mar 20th (Wednesday), 2024

Venue: Room1008, Mingde Business Building

Language: Chinese/English

ABSTRACT:

This paper explores the influence of newly public firm managers’ temporal focus on reporting pro forma accounting metrics, namely non-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) earnings. Bringing together insights from the temporal focus and accounting information literature, we argue that newly public firms led by managers with a stronger future focus are less likely to report non-GAAP earnings, while those led by managers with a stronger present or past focus are more likely to report non-GAAP earnings. Venture capital backing negatively moderates the relationship between temporal focus and non-GAAP earnings reporting. Empirical results of newly public firms that went public between 2009 and 2017 largely support our hypotheses.