An investigation of financial expertise improvement among CFOs hired following restatements

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine chief financial officer (CFO) qualification improvement associated with restatements and restatement characteristics (restatement materiality). The study is motivated by recent high-profile financial scandals and increasing instances of restatements which focus public attention on the role of CFOs in maintaining the integrity and quality of corporate financial reporting. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs data composed of 80 restating firms matched with 80 non-restating firms with hand-collected CFO turnover information in the periods of 2003-2010. The research questions are tested in the logistic regression models. Findings – The results provide some support that restating firms are more likely to hire new CFOs with greater accounting knowledge and overall CFO qualification (both accounting knowledge and CFO work experience) than non-restating firms. Furthermore, the authors also find that the number of restating years has a positive effect o...