Walid Ben Amar Honoured For His Study Examining Ownership Structure and Earnings Management

Professor Walid Ben Amar received an Emerald Literati award for research published in the International Journal of Managerial Finance. The paper investigated the link between ownership structure, earnings management preceding a merger and acquisition and the acquiring firm’s subsequent long-term market performance. It was named as one of three “highly commended” papers published in 2012. The study was co-authored with Claude Francoeur and Philémon Rakoto, Department of Accounting Studies, HEC Montréal.

The team took a closer look at dominant shareholders’ motivations to manage earnings in stock-financed M&A. From the abstract: “Large shareholders have strong incentives to manage earnings upward prior to stock-financed transactions to limit the dilution of their controlling position. Regulators can play an important role in preventing dominant shareholders from engaging in opportunistic earnings management in stock-financed M&A.”

Read more about Professor Ben Amar or about the study online.