CURRICULUM VITAE. Marie-Anne Verdier September 2013

Transcription

1 CURRICULUM VITAE Marie-Anne Verdier September 2013 Personal details: Date of birthday: June, 14 th, 1987 Nationality: French Ph.D. PROJECT Position: I am currently in the third year of Ph.D. research in Financial Accounting at the (University of Toulouse 1 Capitole) under the supervision of the Professor Michèle Saboly. Temporary title: Managers accounting choices in the context of workforce reduction: Evidence from French listed companies. Current abstract: The PhD research deals with the managers accounting choices in the context of workforce reductions. We define accounting choices as any decision whose primary purpose is influence (either in form or substance) the output of the accounting system in a particular way (Fields et al. 2001, p. 256). According to this definition, accounting choices include both choices associated to: (i) financial statements and (ii) information disclosures. In this perspective, the thesis aims at studying firstly whether companies manage earnings and/or make specific accounting narratives choices in the period before workforce reductions announcements. Secondly, the research focuses on the determinants of these accounting choices in our specific context. EDUCATION Master of research in Accounting, with distinction Dissertation: The representation of performance in distressed companies (supervisor: Professor Michèle Saboly) Master s degree in Accounting, with distinction Bachelor s degree in Accounting, with distinction Baccalauréat (High School Degree) in Economics, with distinction RESEARCH ACTIVITIES ACADEMIC CONFERENCES 1/6

2 Boutant, J., Verdier, M-A. (2013). Les stratégies de communication sur la performance : le cas des sociétés en difficulté [Disclosure strategies on company performance: Evidence for French distressed companies]. Accepted for presentation to the Annual Meeting of the French Accounting Association, Montreal (Canada), 31 May and 1 June. Boutant, J., Verdier, M-A. (2013). Disclosure policy and accounting narratives of French distressed companies. Annual Meeting of the European Accounting Association, Paris (France), May 6-8. Boutant, J., Verdier M-A. (2013). Gestion des résultats et annonces de reductions d effectifs : le cas des societies françaises cotées [Earnings management and work force reductions announcements: Evidence for French listed companies]. Annual Meeting of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR), Montpellier (France), May 2-3. Boutant, J., Verdier, M-A. (2012). Les entreprises en difficulté adoptent-elles une stratégie de communication en matière de performance? [Do French distressed companies adopt specific disclosure strategies on company performance?]. 21 th Conference of the French Graduate School of Management, Poitiers (France), June Boutant, J., Verdier, M.A. (2012). Evolution de la représentation de la performance dans les restructurations françaises de 1997 à 2011 [Representation of performance in French restructurations companies from 1997 to 2011]. 17 th Conference on Accounting and Management History, Toulouse (France), March SEMINARS Verdier, M.A. (2012). La politique comptable des dirigeants des sociétés en restructuration, le cas des réductions d effectifs et des renégociations de la dette [Managers accounting choices in restructuring companies: Evidence for workforce reductions and debt renegotiations]. Doctoral consortium of the French Accounting Association, Grenoble (France), 21 May. VISITING RESEARCH PLANNED University of Antwerpen, Department of Accounting and Finance, Belgium, September- October 2013 (supervisor: Professor Walter Aerts). ADDITIONAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Selected to participate in the CEFAG program 2013: French Ph.D. program in Management Sciences provided by the FNEGE (French Foundation for Management Education) 2/6

3 TEACHING EXPERIENCE LECTURE International financial accounting (class provided in English) Master level in International Management TEACHING ASSISTANT Financial accounting Master level in Accounting and Auditing Preparation to Grand oral Master level in Accounting and Auditing Cash Management Bachelor level in Accounting and Management Control Introduction to Financial Accounting Bachelor level in Marketing and Management EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT Member of the Board of Examiners of students Work Placement Reports Bachelor level in Accounting and Management Control Committee Member of the «Grand Oral» [Synthesis Oral in Economics and Management] Master level in Accounting and Management Control Committee Member of English Oral Master level in Accounting and Management Control PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Member of the French Accounting Association 2013 Member of the European Accounting Association Member of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research ADDITIONAL INFORMATION LANGUAGES French: first language 3/6

4 English: o Advanced level (TOEIC: 860/990) o Summer 2012: Language study holiday in Kings Colleges of Oxford during 4 weeks (language studied: English). Spanish: Intermediate level COMPUTER SKILLS Statistical software: SPSS, Stata Lexicometric software: Lexico, Hyperbase, Sphinx Lexica, Iramutek Accounting and Financial databases: Amadeus, Infinancials, Factiva APPENDIX: PAPER SUMMARIES Paper 1: Accepted for presentation to the Annual Meeting of French Accounting Association (2013) and European Accounting Association (2013): Disclosure policy and accounting narratives of French distressed companies This paper aims at studying whether managers of distressed companies adopt the same disclosure strategies from those of healthy companies before the annual earnings announcement. We perform manual analyses using a sample of 146 French listed companies (73 distressed and 73 healthy companies) which issued 523 press releases before annual earnings announcement over a five-year period ( ). Our empirical survey points out three main results. First, the number of press releases issued by distressed companies is higher than the one of healthy companies. Second, the results show no significant difference according to the amount and the nature of news disclosed by the two populations of companies. However, they reveal that managers of distressed companies prefer spreading over time the report of good news in comparison to managers of healthy companies. Finally, the analysis of accounting narratives suggests that managers of distressed companies are more involved in the discourse and more cautious in the presentation of good news than managers of healthy companies. They attempt to improve the readability of their press releases and be more transparent. Overall, our findings highlight the wish of distressed companies managers to maintain confidence of stakeholders and to preserve both their reputation and future employability. 4/6

5 Paper 2: Presented to the Annual Meeting of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (2013): Earnings management and workforce reduction: Evidence for French listed companies In this study, we examine whether managers make accounting choices before announcing a work force reduction. According to the hypothesis of political costs and the legitimacy theory, we suggest that managers adjust reported earnings to minimize expected costs and to preserve the company s reputation. The study is performed on a sample of 114 workforce reductions announcements realized by 104 French listed companies over the period. The control sample consists of 104 matched-companies according to their industry and size. We estimate earnings management by using three accruals models. Our results show that managers make accounting choice to reduce reported earnings in the year before announcing work force reduction. By contrast, companies in the control sample exhibit no significant earnings management. Besides, accounting choices to reduce earnings are significantly more aggressive when the workforce reduction is proactive, realized by companies who improved their performance. Overall, these results highlight the opportunistic behavior of managers in the workforce reduction context. They seem to use income decreasing methods to reduce political costs and legitimize their actions. Paper 3: Presented to the 17 th Conference on Accounting and Management History (2012): Representation of performance in French restructuring companies from 1997 to This paper aims at studying the representation of performance in French restructuring companies though a lexical analysis of press articles published over the period Academic research does not consider performance only as a financial concept anymore but as a global concept involving all of the concerns of stakeholders of the firm. Therefore, we explore which representation is given in the context of restructuring firms where conflicts of interest are unavoidable. Our results show a representation of performance based on three dimensions: financial, economic and social. Moreover, we observe an evolution of the place of these three dimensions in the representation of performance: first, the representation is more social between 1997 and 2001, then, financial from 2002 to 2007 and last, economic between 2008 and Finally, these results are discussed in a legal and economic context in which occur the restructuring firms. 5/6