Accounting Seminar

(2022-10)

Topic:Who Owns the Pen? Institutional Investors’ Influence on Media during Corporate Litigation

Speaker:Luo Zuo, Cornell University

Time:Friday, September 2, 10:00-11:30 a.m. Beijing time

Location:Guanghua Building 2 / Zoom Meeting

Abstract

Institutional investors increasingly own equity blocks of media companies that complement holdings in industrial firms. When industrial firms become defendants of corporate litigation, these institutions nudge media companies they simultaneously blockhold to provide more lenient coverage about the defendants. Doing so props up market sentiment and mitigates negative price impact – benefiting institutions’ portfolios. This strategy is more prominent when institutions are activists and pay closer attention to litigation events. Following the lenient coverage, institutions gradually exit positions in troubled defendant firms and begin to vote more favorably toward the media’s management. Overall, media outlets seem to slant their coverage of corporate litigation to cater to their large shareholders.

Introduction

Luo Zuo is a full professor with tenure at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. He received his BBA and MPhil degrees from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and his PhD degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Zuo currently serves as the faculty director of the Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA Program and the faculty lead of the Cornell-HKUST Partnership. Professor Zuo is the president of the Chinese Accounting Professors’ Association of North America, an associate editor of Management Science and the Journal of Accounting and Economics, as well as an editorial board member of The Accounting Review.

Professor Zuo has a broad range of research interests at the intersection of accounting and finance. His current research explores the role of individual decision makers in shaping observed accounting phenomena. This line of research recognizes two central ideas in behavioral economics. First, individual behavior depends not only on economic incentives and accessible information, but also on individual preferences, abilities, experiences, and other characteristics. Second, the constraints that structure human interactions encompass both formal institutions (e.g., rules, laws, constitutions) and informal institutions (e.g., norms, conventions, rituals).

Professor Zuo received numerous research and teaching awards, including the University of Toronto Roger Martin Award for Emerging Leaders, the American Accounting Association FARS Outstanding Discussion Award, the Cornell-Tsinghua Finance MBA Program Best Teaching Award, the Johnson School Accelerated MBA Core Faculty Award, and the Jonson School Faculty Research Award. His research has been featured in the Economist, the NBER Digest, the Wall Street Journal, and many other media sources.