We reconsider whether hedge funds’ time-varying risk factor exposures are predictive of superior performance. We construct an overall measure (BA) of fund managers and present evidence that top beta active managers deliver superior long-term out-of-sample performance compared to top alpha active managers. BA captures the time-varying nature of beta exposures and can be interpreted as a common factor of both systematic risk (SR) and (1 - R²) measures. BA also compares favorably to extant measures of market timing, capturing the explanatory power of such measures of hedge fund performance.

Equity investors value CEO social capital when pricing firm equity. When CEO social capital is high, the value relevance of the book value of equity declines, whereas the value relevance of earnings measures increases. Results are stronger for firms in high-tech industries where information asymmetries are higher. Social capital may be deconstructed into informational and reputational effects and we report that social capital is a meaningful determinant of value relevance in both scenarios. Results are robust to alternative variable definitions, controls and tests for endogeneity. The results strongly suggest that CEO social capital improves the information environment around firms, benefiting users of accounting metrics.