An Empirical Study on the Relationship between Industrial Risk Factors and Earnings Management

• Main Authors: Yueh-Hsiang Chang, 張越翔
• Other Authors: 陳育成
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38060601679129458885

碩士 === 中興大學 === 會計學研究所 === 95 === The earnings level of a company not only shows the ability of gaining a profit, but implies further different information content. That is, the presentation of annual earning information of a company apparently shows the performance of the management; however, for investors to figure out the reason why the management has this kind of performance is the main basis of making an investment decision. Therefore, fluctuations of stock prices arise from anticipations made by investors with analyzed information. Being aware that the information of earning has a certain effect on the stock price, the management has incentives either to continue supporting the demand of funds or to maximize its own interests. In this case, the earning information just can’t state the exact status of operation of a company, and this situation is really against investors. Hence this study examines whether management has incentives to conduct earnings management when the earnings level may be affected by growth opportunities, market risk and operational risk, which play important roles in corporate administration. The empirical results suggest that both growth opportunities and operational risk factor have a positive and significant relationship with earning management and so does the interaction between growth opportunities and operational risk factor; nevertheless, because of the existing controversy over if beta risk, so-called systematic risk, captures the characteristic of market risk factor, neither market risk factor nor the interaction between growth opportunities and market risk factor has a positive and significant relationship with earning management. The result doesn’t correspond to what this study anticipates; therefore, the operational risk factor is able to capture more effectively the relationship between earnings management of corporate executives and various risk levels.