발생액 이익조정과 실제이익조정에 관한 연구: 대체적인가, 보완적인가?

박영규 한국기업경영학회 2012 기업경영연구 Vol.19 No.6

Managers have some incentives to manipulate earnings intentionally and have two tools to manage it. Those are accrual based earnings management (AEM) and real earnings management (REM). Most of studies have been previously disparate. Managers show opportunistic behavior of increasing earnings with these tools. Graham et al. (2005) finds that managers prefer real activities manipulation over accrual based manipulation because the real earnings management have direct effects on cash flows. Cohen and Zarowin (2010) explain two reasons why managers have an preference of real earnings management over accrual based earnings manipulation. First, real earings manipulation is safer from inspection of audit and regulator than accrual based strategy. Second, real activities manipulation is the last option to increase reported income. Sometimes only accrual based manipulation is not enough to meet the threshold which manager want to perform. According to these reasons, managers are likely to regard two manipulation as complimentary methods. But Zang (2012)’s study investigate tradeoffs between two methods. She concludes that managers utilize the two manipulation as substitutes. According to Cohen and Zarowin (2010)’s comment about a preference for real earnings management and a cost of earnings manipulation, these make firms regard two as complementary rather than substitution relation. To find the association between accrual based and real earnings management in this study, we try to investigates the influence of Big4 audit firms and audit tenure which is proxy variables of audit scrutiny on the level of accrual and real earnings management in Korean firms. Several previous researches have already showed that Big4 and audit tenure controls the degree of accrual based earnings management in firms. Audit scrutiny is an important factor to influence the degree of manipulation through boosting accruals. Audit scrutiny does not have effect on real earnings manipulate. The influence of it on accruals based earnings manipulation may have indirect effect on the level of real earnings management. If two manipulation strategies are substitutionary relationship, high scrutiny get managers to increase the amount of real earnings management because it is hard for them to manipulate accruals. If one is complementary thing of the other, the effect of audit scrutiny on real earnings management is changed. We suggest an hypothesis below. Hypothesis: The quality of audit influences the degree of real earnings manipulation. The study finds followings through empirical analyses. First, Big4 audit firms decreases both the degree of accrual and real earnings management in firms. second, audit tenure has negative relationship with the extent of discretion accruals as a proxy for measure of accrual based earnings management. Based on these empirical evidences, we conclude that manger use two tools of earings manipulation simultaneously to increase earnings. in other words, two methods of managing earings are not substitutionary but complementary relation. It is rational result considering that concentrating on one, it increases cost of manipulation. In addition, we run one more regression analysis in which the dependent variable is AEM (REM) including REM (AEM) as the independent variable. We find the positive association between them, suggesting that those are complementary relation rather than substitutionary relation. It is different result of Zang (2012)’s study which try a regression analysis in which the dependent variable is AEM with unexpected REM find the negative relation. 재량적 발생액을 의도적으로 증가시켜 장부상 이익을 부풀리는 경영자의 기회주의적 행동이 여러 연구들에서 발견된다. 감사인 유형과 계속감사기간은 이러한 발생액 이익조정을 통제하는 중요한 요인이다. 최근 들어 발생액을 부풀리는 이익조정방법뿐만이 아니라 실제 영업활동을 통해 이익을 증가시키는 현상이 관측된다. 즉, 경영자는 이익을 부풀릴 수 있는 두 가지의 이익조정 도구(발생액 이익조정과 실제이익조정)를 보유하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 감사인 유형과 계속감사기간이 발생액 이익조정뿐만 아니라 실제이익조정에 미치는 영향력을 검증한다. 외국계 회계법인과 전략적 제휴를 맺은 회계법인(Big4)을 감사인으로 선임한 기업들이 그렇지 않은 기업에 비해 발생액 이익조정과 실제이익조정 모두가 낮은 수준이다. 이에 반해 계속 감사기간(Tenure)이 길수록 발생액 이익조정을 줄이는 영향력은 존재하지만 실질이익조정을 감소시키는 역할은 명확하지 않다. 외국법인과 전략적 제휴를 맺은 외부감사인 또는 동일 감사인에게 장기간 감사를 받게 된다면 발생액을 이용해 장부상의 이익을 조작하기는 어려워 질 것이다. 그렇지만 경영자들이 회계상의 이익조정을 대체하는 수단으로 실제이익조정을 선택하지는 않는다. 추가적으로 실제이익조정정도가 발생액 이익조정에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과 양(+)의 관계를 확인했다. 이는 경영자들이 두 이익조정을 보완적으로 사용하고 있음을 재확인시켜주는 증거이다

실제이익조정과 이익 및 현금흐름 지속성

정광화,배성호 한국회계정책학회 2016 회계와 정책연구 Vol.21 No.6

We examine the relationship between real earnings management and the persistence of earnings and cash flows. Specifically, we investigate how real earnings management affects the persistence of earnings and cash flows when managers reduce discretionary expenditure to avoid a loss. Firms’ earnings consist of cash flows and accruals. Hanlon(2005) finds that managerial accruals earnings management has a negative impact on earnings persistence due to the reversal of accruals. Similarly, the persistence of earnings will decrease when managers manipulate earnings with real activities. However, abnormal operating activities may be a signal of anticipated future economic opportunities rather than opportunistic earnings manipulation(Leggett et al., 2009), which enhances earnings persistence. Therefore, the relationship between real earnings management and earnings persistence needs to be tested empirically. In addition, we also investigate whether real earnings management influences the persistence of cash flows because real management includes the change of cash flows in a firm. Since the introduction of K-IFRS in 2011, we analyzed 2,159 firm-years that are listed on the Korea Exchange over the period 2011-2014. Our results are as follows. First, real earnings management firms have less persistent earnings than non-real earnings management firms. This result suggests that earnings quality proxied by earnings persistence decreases when managers manipulate the flow of real resources in firms. Second, real earnings management firms’ cash flows persistence is also lower than that of non-real earnings management firms. This result is interpreted that real manipulation has a negative impact on the persistence of cash flows because earnings management through real activities manipulation has a direct effect on the firm’s cash flows. Taken together, real earnings management brings about the change of cash flows and, in turn, adversely influences the persistence of earnings and cash flows. Our study contributes to the extant literature in the following ways. First, we provide empirical evidence that real earnings management negatively affects the persistence of earnings. Second, our result that real earnings management decreases the persistence of cash flows suggests that real earnings management may hinder equity valuation. Lastly, our result is consistent with a series of research indicating real earnings management has a negative impact on firms’ operating performance, etc. Our result that earnings quality is impaired by real earnings management may be one of the causes addressing the negative relationship between real earnings management and firm valuation(including stock return). 본 연구는 실물활동을 통한 경영자의 이익조정과 이익 및 현금흐름 지속성과의 관계를 검토한다. 구체적으로, 경영자가 손실보고를 회피하기 위해 기업의 지출을 재량적으로 삭감하는 경우 기업의 이익 지속성과 현금흐름 지속성에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 분석한다. 기업이익은 현금흐름과 발생액의 합으로 구성된다. Hanlon(2005)은 경영자가 재량적 발생액을 이용하여 이익조정을 시도하는 경우 발생액의 반전현상으로 인해 이익 지속성에 부정적인 영향을 미친다는 것을 발견하였다. 동일한 논리로 경영자가 실물활동을 통해 이익을 조정한다면 이익 지속성은 악화될 것으로 예상된다. 하지만 비정상 영업활동은 기회주의적인 이익조정이 아니라 예상되는 미래 경제적 기회에 대한 신호일 수도 있다(Leggett et al., 2009). 이 경우 이익 지속성은 오히려 높아질 수도 있다. 따라서 실제이익조정과 이익 지속성과의 관계는 실증연구를 통해 검증할 필요성이 있다. 또한 실제이익조정은 현금흐름을 조정하는 것이므로 본 연구에서는 실제이익조정이 현금흐름 지속성에 미치는 영향도 함께 검토하고자 한다. 한국채택국제회계기준(K-IFRS)이 도입된 2011년부터 2014년까지 한국거래소시장에 상장된 2,159개 기업-연도 자료를 분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 실제이익조정 기업은 그렇지 않은 기업에 비해 이익 지속성이 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 경영자가 실제 자원의 흐름을 왜곡하여 이익을 조정하면 이익 지속성으로 대변되는 이익의 질이 감소함을 의미한다. 둘째, 실제이익조정 기업은 현금흐름 지속성 또한 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 이는 실물활동을 통한 경영자의 이익조정은 기업의 현금흐름에 직접적인 영향을 미치기 때문에 현금흐름 지속성에 부정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 해석할 수 있다. 본 연구의 결과는 실제이익조정이 발생하는 경우 현금흐름의 왜곡을 불러올 뿐만 아니라 이로 인해 이익 및 현금흐름 지속성에도 부정적인 영향을 미친다는 사실을 보여준다. 본 연구의 결과는 다음과 같은 점에서 관련 연구에 공헌점을 가진다. 첫째, 발생액 이익조정뿐만 아니라 실물활동(현금흐름) 이익조정도 이익 지속성에 부정적인 영향을 미친다는 사실을 실증하였다. 둘째, 실제이익조정은 이익 지속성은 물론 현금흐름 지속성도 악화시킨다는 본 연구의 결과는 실제이익조정이 효과적인 기업가치평가를 저해할 수 있음을 시사한다. 마지막으로, 본 연구의 결과는 실제이익조정이 기업의 영업이익 등에 부정적인 영향을 미친다는 일련의 선행연구와 일관성을 가진다. 실제이익조정으로 인해 이익의 질이 저하된다는 본 연구의 결과는 실제이익조정과 주가 등 기업가치 사이에 음(-)의 관계가 있다는 선행연구의 결과를 설명하는 하나의 요인이 될 수 있다.

비상장기업의 적자회피 및 이익감소회피를 위한 이익조정 활동

박종일,백혜원 韓國公認會計士會 2013 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.55 No.2

본 연구는 비상장기업을 대상으로 Burgstahler and Dichev(1997, 이하 B&D)의 연구에서 제시된 이익조정이 의심되는 적자회피 및 이익감소회피 구간의 기업들이 목표이익기준 달성을 위하여 재량적 발생액과 실제 이익조정 중 주로 어떤 수단을 이용하는지를 분석하였다. 기존 연구인 최종서와 곽영민(2010)에서는 비상장 중소기업이 적자회피와 이익감소회피 구간에 있는 경우 그렇지 않은 경우보다 재량적 발생액 또는 실제 이익조정과 각각 양(+)의 관계가 있음을 보여주었으나, 이 연구는 모형설정상에 역의 관계를 통해 분석되고 있어 두 변수 간의 관계만을 살펴보았다. 이와 달리 본 연구의 목적은 경영자의 이익조정 수단인 재량적 발생액과 실제 이익조정 중 어떤 수단을 보다 선호하여 목표이익기준인 적자회피 또는 이익감소회피를 달성하는지를 규명하는데 있다. 이를 위하여 본 연구에서는 이익조정이 의심되는 기업(적자회피 및 이익감소회피)은 B&D와 같이 횡단면적 불연속성 이익분포(이익수준 및 이익변동) 특성을 이용하여 구간을 설정하였고, 재량적 발생액은 Kothari et al.(2005)의 방법을, 실제 이익조정은 Roychowdhury(2006)의 모형식을 이용해 측정하였다. 분석기간은 2003년부터 2008년까지이고, 금융업을 제외한 이용가능 했던 최종표본 40,362개 기업/연 자료가 분석되었다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 이익조정에 영향을 미칠 것으로 예상되는 일정 변수를 통제한 후에도 이익조정이 의심되는 적자회피 구간의 기업들은 그렇지 않은 기업들과 비교할 때 재량적 발생액 보다는 주로 실제 이익조정을 이용하여 목표이익을 달성하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 적자회피 기업들은 목표이익을 달성하기 위하여 실제 이익조정인 비정상 영업현금흐름, 비정상 생산원가 및 비정상 재량적 지출 모두를 이용하는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 일정 변수를 통제한 후에도 이익조정이 의심되는 이익감소회피 구간의 기업들도 역시 그렇지 않은 기업들과 비교할 때 재량적 발생액 보다는 주로 실제 이익조정을 이용하여 목표이익을 달성하는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 이익감소회피 기업들은 목표이익을 달성하기 위하여 실제 이익조정 중 비정상 생산원가나 비정상 재량적 지출을 주로 이용하는 것으로 나타났다. 이상의 두 분석결과는 이익조정이 의심되는 구간을 좁게 혹은 넓게 설정한 경우에서도 대체로 일관된 결과를 보였다. 이상의 결과를 종합하면, 본 연구는 비상장기업이 재량적 발생액을 이용한 이익조정 보다는 미래 기업의 경영성과에 더 부정적인 결과를 초래할 수 있는 실제 이익조정 수단을 주로 이용하여 적자회피나 이익감소회피를 위한 목표이익을 달성하고 있음을 보여주었다. 즉 기존 선행연구의 주장과 달리 본 연구결과는 비상장기업에서 목표이익기준을 달성하는데 있어 두 이익조정 수단이 모두 이용되고 있기 보다는 실제 이익조정 수단이 더 선호되고 있음을 보여주었다는데 의미가 있다. 이와 같이 본 연구의 발견은 이익조정 관련연구에 추가적인 공헌을 제공할 뿐만 아니라, 이익조정에 관심 있는 학계 외에도 실무계, 회계기준 제정기관 및 규제기관에게 비상장기업들이 목표이익에 근접된 이익을 보고하기 위하여 어떤 수단의 이익조정을 주로 활용하고 있는지에 관한 이해에도 도움을 줄 수 있다는 점에서 유익한 시사점을 더불어 제공해 줄 것으로 기대된다. This paper investigates whether private firms in Korea use accrual-based earnings management or real earnings management to avoid losses and earnings decreases. Managers have incentives to manipulate accruals as well as real activities during the year to meet certain earnings targets. Unlike accrual management, real activities manipulation affects cash flows and in some cases, accruals. Specially, real activities manipulation can reduce firm value because actions taken in the current period to increase earnings can have a negative effect on cash flows in future periods (Roychowdhury 2006; Cohen and Zarowin 2010 etc). Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) classify firms that show small positive earnings (small earnings increases) on the basis whether they avoid losses (earnings decreases) by a narrow margin because such small beaters are suspected of managerial intervention by accrual management or real earnings management. After Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), most studies observe firms that meet or slightly beat zero earnings threshold to indirectly examine whether managers manage their earnings through accrual-based or real earnings management. However, much of the current research on earnings management focuses on “detecting” abnormal accruals or abnormal real activities. Choi and Kwak (2010) report that suspected non-listed firms that slightly achieve earnings benchmarks tend to manage earnings using discretionary accruals as well as real activities devices, such as abnormal cash flow from operations, abnormal production costs, and abnormal discretionary expenditures. They provide some limited evidence on earnings management behavior of non-listed firms. However, it is difficult to conclude that non-listed firms with small positive earnings or small positive earnings increases always use both accrual-based and real manage earnings to achieve earnings benchmark. Therefore, our study examines whether managers’ behavior to use accrual-based earnings management or real earnings management affect the probability to include the small positive earnings and small earnings increases interval. Following Burgstahler and Dichev (1997), we find unusually high frequencies of small positive earnings (small earnings increases) in cross-sectional distribution of earnings level (earnings changes) and define as suspected firms whose managers might manage their earning. Burgstahler and Dichev (1997) document that firms manage their reported earnings mostly to avoid losses or earnings decreases, thus increasing the incidence of producing the small positive earnings and the small earnings increases. In order to measure accrual-based earnings management, we estimate discretionary accruals by using the performance matched model by Kothari et al. (2005). Similar to Roychowdhury (2006), we estimate abnormal cash flow from operations, abnormal production costs, and abnormal selling and administrative expenses to measure real earnings management. Our observations are based on 40,362 firm-year data, selected from non-listed firms in Korea, for six years (2003 to 2008). The empirical findings of this paper are following. First, we find that the suspected firms whose managers might manage their earnings to avoid losses prefer to use real earnings management rather than to use accrual-based earnings management. Our results are same even after we control a certain variable that might affect earnings management. We also report the suspected firms that manage earnings to avoid losses use real earnings managements such as abnormal cash flow from operations, abnormal production costs, and abnormal discretionary expenditures. Second, we find that the suspected firms whose managers might manage their earnings to avoid earnings decreases prefer to use real earnings management, usually abnormal production costs, and abnormal discretionary expenditures, rather than to use accrual-based earnings management. We find the consistent results after we redefine the suspected interval by a narrow or wide section. Finally, the results of our study show that non-listed firms in Korea tend to avoid losses and earnings decreases by using usually real earnings management rather than using accrual-based earnings management even though the real earnings management might cause a negative effect on their business performance in future periods. Thus, our results are different from previous studies such as Choi and Kwak (2010), showing that non-listed firms use both real earnings management and accrual-based earnings management to avoid losses and earnings decreases. Our paper contributes to a literature on earnings management for non-listed firms, the majority of which concentrate mainly on real earnings management to meet earnings goals (e.g. to avoid a loss or to avoid an earnings decrease). Our findings that managers for non-listed firms in Korea prefer to use real earnings management to avoid losses and earnings decreases, imply that managers focus on their short-term achievement rather than on activities to increase firm value in a long-term perspective. Therefore, our findings provide an important implications to not only investors and creditors but also regulators who are interested in managers’ behavior in non-listed firms. Researchers who are interested in this area can also apply the discussion in this paper for the related studies.

신규상장기업의 실질이익조정을 통한 임계이익충족

심호석 ( Ho-suk Shim ) KNU기업경영연구소 2019 기업경영리뷰 Vol.10 No.3

This paper empirically tests whether initial public offering firms beat earnings thresholds through real earnings management. Real earnings management is managing earnings upward through real activities. Based on Roychowdhury(2006), it has been accepted that firms manage earnings using real activities as well as accruals. This paper conducts a research that facing initial public offerings, how frequently and how much firms manage real earnings upward to be successfully listed, delivering favorable visions to investors. Specifically, this paper focuses on the tests of frequency and size of real earings management of initial public offering firms and listed firms that report earnings above earnings thresholds through real activities. The frequency or size of real earnings management of initial public offering firms is inferred to be higher than that of listed firms. According to the results, In frequency, loss avoidances of initial public offering firms are higher than expected but earnings increases are not higher than expected. In size, real earnings management of initial public offering firms for loss avoidance does not appear significantly bigger than that of listed firms, but real earnings management for earnings increase appears significantly bigger than that of listed firms. Through additional analyses, I find that real earnings management of IPOs for loss avoidance is significantly bigger than that of other typed earnings management. And I test whether initial public offering firms manage real earnings upward to beat earnings list condition(net income 2 billion), an institutional earnings threshold. The results does not show evidence that the size of real earnings management of IPOs for beating the list condition is not significantly bigger than that of listed firms for loss avoidance. This tells us that initial public offering firms are unlikely to consider the list condition as an absolute criterion to beat. It could be that the investigation authority for listing allows alternative list conditions available to beat and if some of the alternatives are achieved, initial public offering firms are allowed to be listed.

IFRS 도입이 실제 이익조정에 미친 영향

박종일 한국세무학회 2015 세무와 회계저널 Vol.16 No.5

본 연구는 이익조정 측정치 중 실제 이익조정에 초점을 두고, IFRS 의무도입이 실제 이익조정의 변화에 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지를 검증하였다. 선행연구들은 주로 IFRS 도입 전후 재량적 발생액의 변화를 중심으로 살펴보았으며, 국내 연구들은 IFRS 도입 후 재량적 발생액이 감소되었음을 보고하였다(박현영 등 2013; 김경태 2014; 정재을과 김헌숙 2014). 그런데 일부 선행연구들은 새로운 회계기준인 IFRS 도입이 엄격할수록 기업의 재량적 발생액은 감소될 수 있지만, 여전히 이익조정 유인이 높은 기업경영자는 외부에서 잘 식별되지 않고 관찰가능성이 낮은, 또한 외부감사인이나 규제기관의 감시·감독이나 규제대상이 아닌 실제 이익조정 활동으로 전환될 것이라는 주장이 제기되어 왔다(Ipino and Parbonetti 2011; Doukakis 2014; 박상애 등 2011). 따라서 본 연구는 이와 관련해서 국내의 경우 IFRS 의무도입이 경영자의 실제 이익조정에는 어떤 영향을 미쳤는지와 관련한 실증적 의문을 중심으로 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 IFRS 도입 전후의 각 3년간(2008년부터 2013년까지) 자료를 이용하고, 금융업을 제외한 유가증권상장 및 코스닥상장기업을 대상으로 최종표본 6,759개 기업/연 자료를 분석하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, IFRS 도입 후에 실제 이익조정의 절대값은 도입 전과 비교하여 유의하게 감소된 결과로 나타났다. 또한 실제 이익조정이 양(+)과 음(-)인 표본으로 나누어 살펴본 결과 모두 IFRS 도입 전과 비교해 도입 후에는 실제 이익조정 수준이 유의하게 감소된 결과로 나타났다. 둘째, IFRS 도입 전과 비교하여 도입 후 재량적 발생액과 실제 이익조정 간에 대체관계가 나타나는지를 분석한 결과에 따르면, 선행연구들의 주장과 달리, 국내 상장기업들의 경우에서는 두 변수 간에 대체관계를 보이지 않았다. 오히려 추가분석 결과에 따르면, 실제 이익조정의 결과와 마찬가지로 재량적 발생액의 절대값, 그리고 재량적 발생액이 양(+)과 음(-)인 표본 모두 IFRS 도입 전과 비교해 도입 후에 유의하게 감소된 결과로 나타났다. 마지막으로, 실제 이익조정의 유인이 강한 기업들(예로, 적자회피 구간, 유상증자, 장단기 차입금의 증가, 기업신용등급이 낮은 경우)은 그렇지 않은 경우와 비교할 때 IFRS 도입 후에 이러한 유인이 감소되는지를 살펴본 결과는 전반적으로 유의성 있는 결과가 관찰되지는 않았다. 이상의 결과를 종합하면, IFRS 도입 후가 도입 전과 비교해서 국내 상장기업들의 재량적 발생액뿐만 아니라 실제 이익조정 모두 유의하게 감소되는 결과를 보여 IFRS 이후 이익의 질이 보다 개선된 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 본 연구결과는 양(+)과 음(-)의 실제 이익조정뿐 아니라 양(+)과 음(-)의 재량적 발생액 수준 모두 감소된 결과가 관찰되어 전반적으로 IFRS 의무도입은 국내의 상장기업들의 이익의 질 개선에 효과성이 있음을 보여주고 있다는데 의미가 있다. 한편, 이전 연구들은 실제 이익조정에 절대값을 취하거나 또는 양(+)과 음(-)의 실제 이익조정 변화, 그리고 부호가 있는 측정치 간의 비교에 대해서 구체적으로 다루지 않았고, 또한 연구결과도 혼재된(mixed) 증거를 보고하였다. 따라서 본 연구의 실증적 증거는 관련연구에 대하여 추가적인 정보를 제공할 것으로 기대된다. 아울러, 본 연구결과는 국내에서 IFRS 의무도입이 회계의 질 변화에 보다 긍정적인 효과성이 있는지에 관심을 가진 학계뿐 아니라 ... This paper examines the effect of mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the real earnings management. This paper also examines whether firms substitute accrual-based earnings management and real earnings management once after the IFRS adoption becomes mandatory. Furthermore, additional analysis of firms with relatively strong earnings management incentives supports a dominant role for firm-level reporting incentives over accounting standards in shaping financial reporting quality. Recent literature notes that to meet certain financial reporting goals, managers engage in real earnings management. While prior literature has mainly examined the effects of IFRS adoption on accrual-based earnings management, scarcely study to date has focused on the impact of IFRS adoption on real earnings management. Regulators expect the IFRS to enhance the comparability of financial statements, improve accounting transparency, and raise the quality of financial reporting. Financial reporting quality should increase if the adoption of IFRS limits management’s opportunistic discretion in determining accounting amounts. If so, IFRS which are of higher quality than Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (hereafter K-GAAP), would lead to a decrease in earnings management practices. These arguments suggest that the impact of mandatory IFRS adoption on earnings management is an open empirical issue that warrants further investigation. This study aims to fill the gap in the IFRS and earnings management literature by examining the impact of mandatory IFRS adoption on earnings management and, more precisely, on both real earnings management and accrual-based earnings management. In this respect, this study allows for a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the possible impact of IFRS adoption on real earnings management. In the regard, this study selected total 6,759 firm-year from 2008 to 2013 (pre-IFRS in 2008-2010 and post-IFRS in 2011-2013) as the samples, targeting non-financial companies of December 31 fiscal year-end listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ market. As in Roychowdhury (2006), this study uses the abnormal levels of cash flow from operation (ACFO), the abnormal level of production costs (APROD) and the abnormal level of discretionary expenses (ASGA) to capture the effects of real earnings management through all these three activities in a comprehensive measure, I construct an overall real earnings management proxy by summing ACFO, APROD, and ASGA. The empirical results are based on both the aggregate real earnings management measure and the individual real earnings management proxies. This study also uses the performance-adjusted model to calculate discretionary accruals (accrual-based earnings management) as described by Kothari et al. (2005). The empirical results of this study are as follows. First, in comparisons between pre- and post-IFRS adoptions, the average absolute value of real earnings management were significantly decreased after the adoption of IFRS. Besides, the average absolute value of discretionary accruals were significantly decreased after the adoption of IFRS. This results imply that the adoption of IFRS decreases opportunistic earnings management, there is evidence of an increase in earnings quality. Consequently, the empirical findings have direct implications for standard-setters and policymakers in assessing whether mandatory IFRS adoption has accomplished its stated objective of improving accounting quality. Second, this paper do not find evidence that the switch from accrual-based to real earnings management activities. In other words, this paper find a decrease in real earnings management after the mandatory IFRS adoption, but rather a contemporaneous decrease in accrual-based earnings management. Finally, additional analysis on a range of suspect firm-years observations with relatively strong earnings management incentives confirms the lack of a significant ...

기업지배구조가 실물활동에 기반을 둔 이익조정에 미치는 효과

김유찬(Yoo Chan Kim),강윤식(Yun Sik Kang) 한국경영학회 2011 經營學硏究 Vol.40 No.1

In the real world, it is hardly expected that complete contract is made because of the existence of contract costs. Thus, corporate governance has been regarded as one of major control mechanisms to affect manager`s decision-making significantly. Several prior studies related to earnings management have indicated that the higher level of corporate governance is, the lower degree of earnings management is. Obviously, it somewhat looks like straightforward. However, earnings management literatures recently suggest that mangers are shifting earnings management strategy from accrual basis to real activity basis. After the accounting reforms, it is said that change in earnings management strategy tends to be fast. It may be attributable to the reinforcement of internal control over financial reporting because strengthened internal control system can easily detect accrual-type earnings management. In addition, real activity-based earnings management has far more important meanings than accrual-based earnings management because real activity-based earnings management can induce different sorts of consequences in contrast to accrual-based earnings management. For example, real activity-based earnings management significantly affects the future cash flows of the company. On the other hand, accrual-based earnings management does not affect cash flows themselves but adjust simply the timing of recognizing revenues or expenses. Therefore, it is important to focus on the strategic changes in earnings management in that real activity-based earnings management has great impacts on the long-term prospects of the company. If so, it indeed implies that we need additional evidences on the real activity-based earnings management in order to understand the earnings management practices. In this context, this study examined empirically that how much the level of corporate governance has an effect on the real activity-based earnings management by using the evaluation score from Korean Corporate Governance Services. As a result, we could find that the degree of earnings management through real activities(such as abnormal operating cash flows, abnormal production costs, and abnormal discretionary expenses) decreased as the level of corporate governance increased. It represents that corporate governance can play an important role in controlling managers` opportunistic behaviors on real manipulation. Additional test based on the scores of corporate governance subindices showed that they were negatively associated with real activity-based earnings management as a whole. In short, real activity-based earnings management is quite different from accrual-based earnings management in that it has direct cash flow consequences. That is, in a long-term perspective, real activity-based earnings management has unique characteristics compared to those of accrual-based manipulations. The empirical results of this paper that the level of soundness of corporate governance is strongly related to the degree of real activity-based earnings management can be an evidence to complement the existing literature on earnings management.

실제이익조정의 반전과 미래 수익성에 관한 연구

이화득,김금영 한국국제회계학회 2015 국제회계연구 Vol.0 No.60

This paper examines how the reversal of real earnings management affects the association between real earnings management and future financial performance. The reversal of real earnings management means current period’s upward(downward) real earnings management is reversed in the next period as downward(upward) real earnings management. Real earnings management is defined as departures from normal and optimal operational practices for the purpose that managers influence the output of the accounting system. Since real earnings management involves in sub-optimal operations, firms with real earnings management experience lower future performance than those without real earnings management. However, firms with real earnings management recover their optimal normal operation quickly, their future profitability loss as a result of real earnings management will be lowered. The means of real earnings management used in this paper are overproduction, decreasing discretionary expenditures and sales manipulation through increased price discounts or more lenient credit terms. Empirical results are as follows. First, firms with the reversal of real earnings management do not experience significant decline of future earnings while firms without the reversal of real earnings management do experience significant decline of future earnings by current real earnings management. Second, for firms with earnings management incentives to avoid loss or earnings decrease, the reversal of real earnings management does not affect significantly the association between real earning management and future performance. Third, the reversal of real earnings management affects positively the association between real earnings management and future long-term performance. The results of this study may be helpful for firms' decision makers to plan firms' operational decisions and for financial analysts and accounting academics to analyze firms' profitability and to predict future earnings. 이 논문은 실제이익조정의 반전(reversal of real earnings management)이 기업의 미래 수익성에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 분석한 것이다. 실제이익조정의 반전은 당기에 실제이익조정을 통하여 이익을 상향조정(하향조정)한 기업이 생산 활동의 조절 등을 통하여 차기에 하향조정(상향조정)하는 것을 말한다. 실제이익조정은 기업 성과에 영향을 미치기 위해 경영자가 생산활동을 조정하는 것으로 이로 인해기업은 정상적이고 최적화된 경영활동에서 벗어나게 된다. 따라서 실제이익조정을 한 기업은 최적의 경영활동에서 벗어난 준최적화된 경영활동을 하기 때문에 미래 수익성이 훼손될 가능성이 있다. 그러나실제이익조정을 한 기업이 그 이후에 실제이익조정을 반전시켜 최적의 경영활동에 근접하게 된다면 실제이익조정으로 인해 손실될 미래 수익성의 훼손이 적어지게 될 것이다. 본 논문에서 실제이익조정은과대생산, 재량적 지출의 감소, 가격할인이나 신용조건의 완화를 이용한 매출조정을 말한다. 또한 미래수익성을 측정하기 위해 해당 기업의 자산이익률에서 산업의 자산이익률 중위수를 차감하여 계산된 산업조정 자산이익률을 사용하였다. 본 연구를 위해 1994년부터 2011년까지 제조업을 대상으로 연구를 진행하였다. 이중 금융업을 제외하고 재무자료가 이용 가능한 기업과 12월 결산법인만을 대상으로 한 결과 전체 표본은 5,159개이다. 실증결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 실제이익조정을 한 후 이를 반전시킨 기업은 실제이익조정을 한 후 이를 반전시키지 않은 기업보다 미래 수익성 훼손이 줄어들었다. 둘째, 손실회피나 당기의 이익감소의 회피와 같은 이익조정 유인이 존재할 때 실제이익조정의 반전이 기업의 수익성에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과, 이익조정 유인이존재하는 기업과 이익조정 유인이 존재하지 않는 기업간 실제이익조정의 반전과 미래 수익성의 관계가유의한 차이를 보이지 않았다. 셋째, 실제이익조정의 반전이 기업의 장기적인 미래 수익성에 영향을 미치는지 분석한 결과 실제이익조정의 반전이 기업의 장기 수익성에 긍정적인 영향을 미침을 알 수 있었다. 본 연구는 경영자의 장단기 영업계획 수립의 도움이 될 것이며, 재무분석가와 회계학 연구자들의 기업성과와 미래 수익성 평가에 유용한 정보를 제공할 것이다.

Characteristics of Firms Engaged in Real activity based Earnings anagement: Evidence from Korea

강선아,전성빈 한국회계학회 2010 회계학연구 Vol.35 No.2

This paper aims to examine the characteristics of firms that are suspected to be engaged in real activity based earnings management after controlling for abnormal accruals. A real activity based earnings management directly changes a firm’s underlying operations which potentially sacrifices the firm’s future cash flows whereas an accruals based one is just a way of representing the firm’s underlying activities through a choice of accounting methods. Prior research suggests that managers have incentives to use real activities even though they know that future cash flows are sacrificed for boosting current earnings by using them. We try to infer the reason why managers are engaged in real activity based earnings management by identifying the characteristics of those firms. Firm characteristics in prior studies are mostly examined for firms that manipulate earnings using only abnormal accruals as a proxy of earnings management. To observe characteristics of earnings managing firms, it is useful to investigate firms that are highly likely to manipulate earnings using real activities and/or accruals. We concentrate on a sample of right offering firms that are documented to inflate earnings to enhance stock prices before they issue new shares. We also confirm those results based on a full sample for robustness. We compare firms that are more actively engaged in real activity based earnings management with firms that are less active in manipulating earnings using real activities. Those firms classified as being engaged in real activity based earnings management for the SEO(Seasoned Equity Offering) turn out to be more mature, smaller, less flexible financially, less profitable, and having lower ownerships. It is also found that audit quality is not associated with real activity based earnings management in the SEO sample. Consistent and much stronger results are found in a full sample except the audit quality variable, i.e., higher audit quality is related with lower real activity based earnings management for the full sample. The result implies that firms offering new shares have such a strong incentive to boost their earnings that they engage in earnings management regardless of the reputation of external auditor. A main contribution of this paper is that we identify characteristics of firms engaged in real activity based earnings management, unlike prior studies which tried to identify the characteristics of firms engaged in earnings management without considering different types of earnings management. The empirical evidence provides an insight into manager’s motivations to choose earnings management tools and contribute to future studies dealing with real activity based earnings management.

실제 이익조정이 장기 경영성과에 미치는 영향

김지홍 ( Jee Hong Kim ),배지헌 ( Ji Hun Bae ),고재민 ( Jai Min Goh ) 한국회계학회 2009 회계학연구 Vol.34 No.4

Roychowdhury(2006)가 영업현금흐름, 제조원가, 재량적비용 등 영업 활동 전반에 대한 실제 이익조정(Real earnings management) 측정 모형을 제안한 이후, 이를 활용한 후속 연구들이 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 이 모형은 그동안 개별적인 경영 활동만을 대상으로 해왔던 실제 이익조정의 지평을 넓혔다는 중요한 공헌점을 지니고 있지만, 반면 잠재적으로 측정오차가 포함될 수 있다는 문제점 또한 내포하고 있다. 만약 실제 이익조정 측정치가 평균적으로 실제 이익조정이 아닌 경영자의 사적 정보를 반영한다면, 기업의 경영성과는 오히려 개선될 수 있다. 본 연구는 Roychowdhury(2006)의 추정 모형을 통해 도출된 실제 이익조정 측정치가 사후의 장기 경영성과와 어떤 관계가 있는지 살펴보았다. 실증분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 실제 이익조정은 장기 영업성과 및 주가성과에 부정적영향을 미치고 있다. 즉 실제 이익조정 기업은 차기뿐만 아니라 그 이후의 영업성과 역시 악화되는 사실을 관찰하였고, 그 정도는 기간이 장기화될수록 더욱 심화되었다. 또한 주식시장에서는 이러한 실제 이익조정이 영업성과에 미치는 부정적 영향을 인지하고 있는 것을 발견하였다. 둘째, 이익조정의 유인에 따라 이익 구간을 나누어 살펴본 분석에서 상향의 이익조정 구간에서는 장기 영업성과가 감소하였고, 반대로 하향의 이익조정 구간에서는 증가하였다. 주가성과의 경우 상향의 이익조정 구간에서만 유의하게 나타나 주식시장이 상향의 실제 이익조정에 대해 부정적으로 인지하고 있음을 알 수 있다. 셋째, 실제 이익조정을 이용한 차익거래에서 초과이익을 얻을 수 있다는 사실을 확인하였다. 이는 주식시장에서 실제 이익조정을 많이 한 기업은 과대평가되어 있고 적게 한 기업은 과소 평가되어 있다는 것을 의미한다. 본 연구는 Roychowdhury(2006)의 실제 이익조정 모형을 개선하였고, 이를 활용하여 실제이익조정이 기업성과에 미치는 장기 영향을 검증하였다는 점에서 의의가 있다. 또한 본 연구 결과는 Roychowdhury(2006)의 실제 이익조정 측정치가 경영자의 사적 정보를 전달하기보다는 평균적으로 이익조정을 반영하고 있다는 실증적 근거를 제공하고 있다. Since Roychowdhury (2006) developed estimation models for real earnings management, such as abnormal cash flow from operation (ACFO), abnormal production cost (APC), and abnormal discretionary expenses (ADE), several researches have been conducted using his estimation models. Although his models have contributed to studies on real earnings management in terms of helping researchers overcome the limitations of previous studies that were only able to capture individual operating activities, these models are still vulnerable to measurement error problems. It is argued that managers tend to relax their credit policy to boost sales and they reduce research and development (R&D) expenses to improve accounting numbers. However, similar to discretionary accruals, managers` activities considered to be real earnings management may deliver their private information (Subramanyam 1996). A manager who is aware that a customer whose operating performance will improve in a later period does not restrain the employee from selling products on credit. In addition, a manager who enhances the efficiency of their R&D process can achieve the same level with a smaller budget. Namely, Roychowdhury`s (2006) metrics may have positive as well as negative meaning. The former is related to private information, whereas the latter is associated with managers` opportunistic earnings management. If Roychowdhury`s (2006) metrics as to real earnings management embrace managers` private information instead of earnings management, it will be related to even an higher operating performance in succeeding period. This study investigates whether Roychowdhury`s (2006) measurement is negatively associated with a firm`s performance. Negative relationship can serve as the evidence that the measurement captures opportunistic earnings management on average. The followings are the empirical results of the study. First, real earnings management has a negative effect on long-term operating performance and stock performance. In other words, current real earnings management impairs not only the very next period`s but also the later period`s performances. We also find that stock price reflects this negative impact of real earnings management on long-term performance. Furthermore, this negative impact is more serious in long-term periods than in short-term periods, consistent with Graham et al. (2005). Unlike accruals-based earnings management, real earnings management distorts managers` operating decisions damaging actual performance. Although discretionary accruals are reversed in next period without a longer effect, the negative impact of real earnings management accelerates with the lapse of time. Second, upward (downward) earnings management has a negative (positive) impact on long-term operating performance. We analyze the differential impact with the direction of real earnings management. We define the earnings management brackets that are suspected to have different earnings management incentives: upward, downward, and unclear. While long-term operating performance decreases with upward real earnings management bracket, it increases with downward real earnings management bracket. Stock price declines only with upward earnings management bracket, showing that investors are more sensitive to bad news. Third, we find that investors can obtain abnormal profit with hedge portfolio based on real earnings management. It implies that firms with larger real earnings management are overvalued because real earnings management brings about mispricing in stock market. This study has some contributions. First, we try to mitigate measurement error problem in Roychowdhury`s (2006) model. In addition to his estimation models, we add the return on asset (ROA) variable to control a firm`s performance like performance-matched discretionary accruals model (Kothari et al. 2005). Although Roychowdhury (2006) included net income as a control variable in the regressions, we cannot control operating performance with his model. It is because the proxy for the real earnings management is independent variable in our analysis. Thus, we eliminate the correlation between real earnings management and firm performance in the estimation stage to minimize the measurement error. Second, we examine the gradual long-term impact of real earnings management on firm`s operating performance with the modified real earnings management model. Our finding suggests that his model contains not managers` private information but opportunistic earnings management on average. Third, we find that upward and downward real earnings management have differential impacts on the long term performance. While upward real earnings management aggravates future performance, it gets better with downward real earnings management. Our detailed analysis furthers the result of earlier studies.

산업 내 경쟁정도와 실제이익조정 -기업지배구조와의 상호작용을 중심으로-

신일항 ( Il Hang Shin ),이명건 ( Myung Gun Lee ),이은철 ( Eun Chul Lee ) 한국회계학회 2014 회계학연구 Vol.39 No.3

본 연구는 상품시장 차원에서의 경쟁 정도 및 기업의 시장지배력이 경영자의 회계선택의 일환으로 여겨지는 실제 이익조정(real earnings management) 행태에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 규명하고자 다양한 측면에서 실증분석을 수행하였다. 분석 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 독점도가 높은 산업에 속한(산업 내 경쟁정도가 낮은 산업에 속한) 기업일수록 실제 이익조정을 통해 이익을 상향조정하고자 하는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 내부 기업지배구조가 건전할수록 산업집중도가 실제 이익조정에 미치는 양(+)의 영향을 감소시키는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 내부 기업지배구조와 외부 기업지배구조가 상호작용을 통해 이익조정을 감소시키는 규율이 작동하게 됨을 의미한다고 볼 수 있다. 추가 분석을 통해, 실제 이익조정과 발생액 이익조정 간에 보완 관계가 존재하는데, 이러한 보완관계는 특히 실제 이익조정과 비기대 재량적 발생액과의 관계에서 강하게 관찰됨을 확인하였다. 또한, 산업 내 경쟁정도가 낮아질수록(산업집중도가 높아질수록) 기업들이 실제 이익조정을 발생액 이익조정보다 더 선호함을 확인하였다. 본 연구는 산업 내 경쟁정도가 기업의 실제 이익조정 행위에 미치는 영향을 상세히 분석함으로써 자본시장의 이해관계자들에게 의미있는 시사점을 제공하고 있다. 본 연구결과를 통해, 재무분석가는 기업에 대한 예측 정보 제공시 기업이 속한 산업의 경쟁정도가 이익조정 행태에 미치는 영향에 대해서 더 많은 주의를 기울여야 할 것이며, 투자자는 투자 의사결정 과정에서 재무분석가의 예측정보를 사용하거나 직접 회계정보를 이용할 때 해당 기업이 속한 산업의 시장구조에 주의를 기울여야 한다는 시사점을 제공할 것으로 기대한다. 또한, 규제기관에게는 경쟁제한적 시장구조를 개선하는 것이 시장 전체의 후생 극대화 측면뿐만 아니라 자본시장의 정보의 투명성 제고에도 긍정적인 영향을 미칠 수 있다는 시사점을 제공한다. This study is to find out how market competition in the product market affects real earnings management(REM) in a company using the empirical analysis. The market is where the specific commodity and services are bought and sold. As there are the behaviors trying to buy and sell things, there occurs the relation between people for getting the best conditions or profits. As such, the motive for causing the demand and supply in the market is the pursuit for profit. The accounting information is the result of the strategic execution under the competition of product market. Therefore, behaviors related to the generation of a firm`s accounting information can be different according to the market competition where the company belongs to. Nonetheless, there is no sufficient research on companies` behavior regarding the accounting side depending on market competition. So, this study will focus on how market competition would affect real earnings management, which is deemed to be an option of accounting choice made by manager. Real earnings management is made in a way that the specific profit target is met by changing the period and size of production, sale of products, investment and financial activities. As it directly affects the actual allocation of resources for the company, it can be deemed as one of corporate strategy. Accordingly, it can be predicted that market competition in an industry, which is one of the external corporate governance structure significantly affects real earnings management of the company. Thus, the study was conducted on how market competition in an industry would affect the behavior of producing the accounting information or particularly real earnings management. The study was conducted on the listed companies having the fiscal year ending in December except banking companies. The study was made on 4,583 companies- year from 2002 to 2010. The results of analysis are as follows. First, the industry having higher level of monopoly (low competition) have more intention of raising profit through real earnings management. This result shows that in the Korean management environment, the more monopolistic an industry is (or lower competition in the industry), the companies in the industry are likely to use real earnings management as in that case the regulatory agencies are hard to catch real earnings management. In addition, this result can be explained based on the prior literature which shows that the more competitive the industry is, the stronger the external governance`s effect becomes, thus decreasing real earnings management. Second, the better the internal corporate governance of the company is, the weaker the relation between industrial concentration and real earnings management becomes. This can be said that the internal corporate governance and external corporate governance interact in a way that they decrease earnings management. The additional analysis showed that there are the complementary relation between real earnings management and accrual earningsmanagement(discretionary accruals). The complementary relation was found to be strong, particularly in the relation between real earnings management and the unexpected part of accrual earnings management. In addition, as the lower the market competition(the higher the industrial concentration) in the industry becomes, the more the company prefers real earnings management to accrual earnings management. This study is expected to provide a valuable implications to the stakeholders in capital market by analysing the effect of market competition in the industry on real earnings management. Based on the findings of this study, the financial analysts should pay close attention to the effects of market competition on real earnings management in the process of providing predictive information of companies. Also, investors would be careful in using such predictive information and direct accounting information in the investment decision-making process. Additionally, regulatory agencies may use the information on the level of market competition of each firm in deciding priorities in monitoring. This study shows the interesting results through the empirical analysis. But there are still measurement error regarding test variables and estimated variables. The subsequent study shall be done to make up for the limitations.