Let’s have a party! - Temporal landmarks and firm behaviour: How corporate anniversaries influence managerial decisions

• Temporal landmarks, such as corporate anniversaries, influence firm behaviour • Corporations with an anniversary experience higher financial performance • Corporations with an anniversary also engage in more income-increasing earnings management This study examines how symbolic temporal landmarks, specifically corporate anniversaries, influence firm performance. Temporal landmarks simplify managerial decision-making by focusing attention and aligning strategic actions with stakeholder expectations. We investigate whether managers use anniversaries to enhance financial performance, potentially through earnings management (EM), while minimizing detection by stakeholders. Our analysis shows that firms exhibit stronger financial performance and adjusted EM behavior during anniversary years, suggesting strategic adaptation by managers. By linking temporal landmarks to heuristics, this research offers a novel perspective on symbolic management and extends the literature on managerial rationality and earnings management.