Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2021
Abstract
We examine whether a firm’s decision to disclose non-financial proprietary information depends on peer disclosures of similar information. Using a sample of 5,035 unique clinical trials by U.S. pharmaceutical firms over the 2007-2014 period, we find that the firm is less likely to disclose its own clinical trial results if peers have published clinical trial results pertaining to the same medical condition. Conditional on disclosing clinical trial results, the firm is also less likely to disclose the trial results on time when peers have disclosed their clinical trial results. Our cross-sectional tests suggest that proprietary costs of disclosure play an important role in the relation between peer disclosures and the firm’s own disclosure. In particular, the negative relation is more pronounced when proprietary costs of disclosure are higher. Taken together, our findings provide new evidence on the interplay between peer and own disclosures of non-financial proprietary information.
Keywords
Peer disclosure, Clinical trial, Proprietary cost
Discipline
Accounting | Clinical Trials
Research Areas
Corporate Reporting and Disclosure
First Page
1
Last Page
54
Identifier
10.2139/ssrn.3344942
Publisher
Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Research Paper No. 2019-102
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
CAPKUN, Vedran; LOU, Yun; OTTO, Clemens A.; and WANG, Yin.
Do firms respond to peer disclosures? Evidence from clinical trial disclosures. (2021). 1-54.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/1789
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3344942