Decision-Making of Discretionary Goodwill Impairments—Evidence from Publicly Listed Firms in China

With the wave of M&A, total amount of goodwill balances has been accumulated to an enormous number in Chinese capital market. This study uses new independent variables to examine the determinants of goodwill impairments and to study the decision-making of discretionary goodwill impairments. First, this study investigates short-term and long-term market reaction of goodwill impairment announcements from 2019 to 2021 by using the event study method. Results indicate that goodwill impairments are only significantly associated with short-term cumulative abnormal return, on average. Then, based on the panel data of companies with goodwill balance from 2007 to 2020, logistic regression findings indicate that the companies without risk of financial loss have a higher probability of withdrawing goodwill impairments, on average; companies with stable operation have a higher probability of withdrawing goodwill impairments, on average. Result shows the discretion was used in goodwill impairments decision-making.