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Science and Technology of Taiwan in 2012, which is nationwide, regularly organized, and
has an open design, highlighting the importance of setting agendas skillfully to build
consensus and guide action. Using qualitative-based action research procedures, authors
develop three strategy tools for the design and delivery of agenda setting including
problematizing, futurizing, and corresponding. They also point out moralizing as a moderator
for such a strategic and creative process.
There are three articles related to finance and accounting in this issue. The first article
by Wang, Lin, Hsu, Chen, and Liu reviews studies on the effects of accounting conservatism
which used data from Taiwan and other Asian countries and were published between 2000
and 2015 in accounting journals listed in Rank “A” Journals of the Ministry of Science and
Technology, the Taiwan Social Science Citation Index (TSSCI), and the
Taiwan Accounting
Review
, and in other non-TSSCI journals. The authors classify these studies into six
categories: the effects of conservatism on financial statement numbers, on equity markets, on
debt markets, on corporate governance and compensation, and on regulation and litigation.
They also discuss possible future research opportunities. Finally, they believe that the
proposed revision of Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting by the International
Accounting Standards Board (IASB) signifies the importance of research on accounting
conservatism.
The second paper by Liao, Tang, and Lee investigates the effect of directors’ and
officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) on the firms’ credit ratings. Using a sample of
firms listed on both the Taiwan Stock Exchange and GreTai Securities Market, they find that
firms with D&O insurance have better credit ratings than those without D&O insurance.
Moreover, the results suggest that D&O insurance coverage also impacts firms’ credit
ratings, i.e., appropriate (excessive) D&O insurance coverage will lead to a superior
(inferior) credit rating.
The last article by Chen, Chang, and Weng applies the unbalanced-panel data to study
the role of qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) in earnings informativeness of
firms with income smoothing. The empirical result shows that high QFIIs’ ownership
weaken the informativeness of earnings for firms with income smoothing since the
deregulation of QFIIs’ ownership restrictions. This suggests that the deregulation of QFIIs’