Roberto Vincenzi

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting at Bocconi University.

I earned a Ph.D. in Business from London Business School and an M.Phil. in Finance from the University of Cambridge. I completed my M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Finance at Bocconi University, with exchange programs in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Before joining academia, I worked in investment banking at UBS and Barclays Capital.

Research Interests

Empirical financial accounting, with a focus on: Capital markets, Supply chains,  Mergers & Acquisitions and Private firms

 Publications & Working Papers

1. "Voluntary Disclosures for the Bond Market: Evidence from an Unconventional Monetary Policy Tool." Review of Accounting Studies. [Solo-authored]

2. "External Legal Counsels as Transaction Cost Engineers in Syndicated Loan Contracting." R&R at The Accounting Review. With Peter Pope (Bocconi) and Peeyush Taori (HKU)

3. "The Role of Financial Information in Supply Chains: Evidence from Electronic Business Registers in Europe." R&R at Review of Accounting Studies. with Antonio Marra (Bocconi), Ron Shalev (Univ. of Toronto) and Vincent Giese (Univ. of Mannheim)

4. "Industry Expert Analysts and KPI Forecasts." with Wanli Zhao (Bocconi)

5. "Are Merger Synergy Disclosures Credible?" with Atif Ellahie (Utah), Irem Tuna (LBS) and Xuanheng Huang (Bocconi)

6. "Consumer Voices, Corporate Consequences: The Oversight Power of Customer Reviews in E&S Crises." with Angelo Ditillo (Bocconi) and Michele Fumagalli (Bocconi)

7. "Now You See it, Now You Don't: Balancing Reputation with Competitive Concerns in Suppliers' Identities Disclosures." with Ariela Caglio (Bocconi) and Aytekin Ertan (LBS)

Updates

Updated Working Paper Alert, May 2026: Are Merger Synergy Disclosures Credible? (with Ellahie, Huang, and Tuna)

Abstract: "We examine the credibility of synergy guidance in 12,176 U.S. mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announced between 2004 and 2021. Using press releases and conference call transcripts, we identify qualitative and quantitative synergy guidance and analyze its determinants, market reactions, and post-acquisition realizations. Synergy guidance is more common in larger, stock-financed deals, public-target acquisitions, related-industry transactions, and among acquirers with greater analyst coverage and prior guidance experience. Litigation risk deters disclosure, especially numeric guidance. Investors respond favorably to both textual and numeric guidance at announcement, with stronger reactions to more intensive discussion and higher numeric estimates. However, postacquisition outcomes suggest that disclosed expectations are often not realized. Synergy disclosers experience more frequent and larger goodwill impairments and worse post-merger operating performance, and larger numeric estimates additionally predict downward revisions to synergy expectations and lower long-run stock returns. The impairment-disclosure association is attenuated when acquirers have greater forecasting experience and targets operate in richer information environments, consistent with learning and information quality constraining strategic bias and forecasting noise. Exploiting the 2013 U.K. Takeover Panel Rule 28 reform, we find that numeric guidance in U.K.-target deals predicts fewer subsequent goodwill impairments than comparable U.S.-target deals, consistent with mandated external verification improving disclosure credibility. Our findings inform ongoing policy debates by highlighting a disconnect between investors’ favorable announcement reaction to synergy guidance and its limited long-run realization".

The full updated paper is available here: https://tinyurl.com/4cbjwahs