K-IFRS 도입 이후 영업권 손상인식의 재량의사결정에 관한 실증적 연구 = A Study on Accounting Choice for Goodwill Impairment Under K-IFRS

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Accounting for acquired goodwill has been a subject to debate considerably for several decades. K-IFRS has been changed an approach to goodwill accounting by abolishing goodwill amortization and requiring goodwill be tested for impairment using the estimates of its current fair value. K-IFRS has expected that the new standard will improve the quality of financial statements because a new approach will better reflect the underlying economic figures of a firm``s assets. Despite the standard setter``s claim, it is possible that the change of goodwill accounting may lead it to worse financial reporting. Agency theory predicts managers will use their discretionary power in a new goodwill accounting consistent with private incentives. Because the estimates of the current fair value of goodwill solely rely on assumption about management``s future actions, including conceptualization and implementation of firm strategy. As such, it is difficult to verify and audit. Finally a CEO is likely to make more opportunistic accounting choices for his or her incentive. This study is motivated to investigate whether a new goodwill accounting improves the quality of financial statement or not. An accounting choice about goodwill impairment is classified into two groups based on the existence of impairment indication and recognition of goodwill impairment. If a firm``s decision to impairment is consistent with indication of impairment, it is identified as a normal accounting choice. On the other hand, a firm``s decision which is not consistent with market indication of impairment is classified as a discretional accounting choice on goodwill impairment. Then, the firm``s discretionary accounting choice is resorted as a delayed impairment decision when there is impairment indication without the recognision of it on accounting book and resorted as an accelerated impairment decision when impairment is recognized without being observed impairment indication. If a manager``s discretional accounting choice conveys his(or her) private information about the firm``s future cash flows, the new goodwill accounting diminishes information asymmetry and improves the quality of financial statement. However, if a manager exploits the unverifiable feature in goodwill accounting rules to manage financial reports opportunistically in line with his or her own private incentive, the quality of financial statement is worse. This paper investigates that managers`` accounting choices of the new goodwill impairment test have more explanatory power to firm``s future cash flows. The test samples in this paper are drawn from a set of 592 firm-year observation spanning from 2011-2013. Main findings can be summarized as follows. The consistent evidence with the prediction of agency theory that mangers use the new goodwill accounting as a way of opportunistic disclosures was found, and it deteriorates the value relevance of accounting numbers. In contrast, no support for prediction is found which explains the discretionary accounting choices related to the existence of flexibility or with managers`` possessing positive private information about the firm. This result is consistent by using Ohlson(1995) as well as Barth et al.(2001). This result is consistent with a robust test with another strategy to identify the firms with discretionary accounting choices. The evidence in this paper is consistent with managers discretionary accounting choice of goodwill impairment in circumstances where that they have agency-based motives to do so. In other words, a discretionary accounting choice on goodwill impairment has no signal to the future cash flows. Also it arise from several opportunistic motivation that CEOs are likely to increase their own benefit. This study contributes to the existing goodwill impairment literature on several levels. First, to my knowledge, this is the first study to consider the firms with non-impairment in Korea. While the prior studies only concentrated on the firms which recognize goodwill impairment on their financial statement, the samples in this paper include the firms with non-impairment. In addition, recent innovations in classified firms are also incorporated and the results suggest that managers exploit the discretion, by new accounting treatment under K-IFRS to manage earnings. Nevertheless, this study is limited by the ability to identify the firms which are in discord with market impairment index.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 한국회계기준원회계기준위원회, "한국채택국제회계기준 제 1103호 “사업결합”"

2 한국회계기준원회계기준위원회, "한국채택국제회계기준 제 1036호 “자산손상”"

3 오희장, "최고경영자의 교체와 주식시장의 반응" 한국회계학회 27 (27): 55-80, 2002

4 곽수근, "유진그룹의 국제회계기준 조기도입과 하이마트 인수관련 영업권 회계처리 사례" 한국회계학회 20 (20): 91-121, 2011

5 박석진, "영업권손상인식의 전략적 회계처리 : 최고경영자 교체시점의 Big Bath를 중심으로" 한국공인회계사회 56 (56): 105-138, 2014

6 손혁, "사업결합으로 취득한 영업권의 손상검사에 대한 연구" 한국회계학회 20 (20): 207-238, 2011

7 권수영, "사업결합 시 무형자산의 평가절차 및 평가기법과 영업권 손상평가" 2011

8 김상헌, "금창출단위를 활용한 관리운영권의 손상검사에 대한 연구: A에너지기업 사례" 한국회계학회 21 (21): 239-273, 2012

9 서란주, "국제회계기준 도입 기업에서 원칙중심기준의 적용 및 공시에 대한 사례연구" 한국회계학회 20 (20): 393-426, 2011

10 Chen, C., "Timeliness of impairment recognition : Evidence from the initial adoption of SFAS 142" 24 (24): 72-81, 2008

11 Holthausen, R. W., "The relevance of the value-relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting" 31 : 3-75, 2001

12 Hamberg, M., "The adoption of IFRS 3 : The effects of managerial discretion and stock market reaction" 20 (20): 263-288, 2011

13 Financial Accounting Standards Board(FASB)., "Statement of financial accounting standards no.142. Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets"

14 Easton, P. D., "Scale and scale effects in market-based accounting research" 30 (30): 25-56, 2003

15 McCarthy, M. G., "Market reaction of goodwill : some empirical evidence" 1 : 69-81, 1995

16 오명전, "K-IFRS에 따른 영업권 손상검사 사례" 한국국제회계학회 (53) : 210-229, 2014

17 노민영, "K-IFRS도입과 영업권 손상인식" 한국회계학회 21 (21): 133-162, 2012

18 Korean Accounting Standards Board(KASB)., "K-IFRS 1103(Business combination)"

19 Korean Accounting Standards Board(KASB)., "K-IFRS 1036(Asset impairment)"

20 Ball, R, "International financial reporting standards(IFRS) : Pros and cons for investors. Accounting and Business Research" 36 : 5-27, 2006

21 International Accounting Standards Board, "International financial reporting standards 3 : Business combination" 2004

22 Barth. M. E., "International accounting standards and accounting quality" 46 (46): 467-498, 2008

23 Barth, M. E., "International accounting differences and their relation to share prices : Evidence from U. K., Australian and Canadian firms" 13 (13): 135-170, 1996

24 PricewaterhouseCoopers, "Illuminating values: The business impact of IFRS"

25 Poel, K. V., "IFRS goodwill impairment test and earnings management and the influence of audit quality and institutional environment" 2009

26 Li, K., "Has goodwill accounting gone bad?" 2014

27 Chauvin, K. W., "Goodwill profitability and market value of firm" 2 : 159-180, 1994

28 Carlin, T. M., "Goodwill impairment testing under IFRS : A false impossible shore?" 23 (23): 368-392, 2011

29 Godfrey, J. M., "Goodwill impairment as a reflection of investment opportunities" 49 (49): 117-140, 2009

30 Ramanna, K., "Evidence on the use of unverifiable estimates in required goodwill impairment" 17 : 749-780, 2012

31 Ohlson, J, "Earnings, book values and dividends in equity valuation" 11 : 661-687, 1995

32 Chalmers, K. G., "Does a goodwill impairment regime better reflect the underlying economic attributes of goodwill?" 51 : 634-660, 2011

33 Jarva, H, "Do firms manage fair value estimates? An examination of SFAS 142goodwill impairments" 36 (36): 1059-1086, 2009

34 Watts, R. L, "Conservatism in accounting-part. I : Explanations and implications" 17 (17): 207-221, 2003

35 Li, Z., "Causes and consequences of goodwill impairment losses" 16 : 745-778, 2011

36 Jordan, C., "Big bath earnings management : The case of goodwill impairment under SFAS no. 142" 20 (20): 63-70, 2004

37 Barth, M. E., "Accruals and the prediction of future cash flows" 76 (76): 27-58, 2001

38 AbuGhazaleh, N, M., "Accounting discretion in goodwill impairments : UK evidence" 22 (22): 165-204, 2011

39 Beatty, A., "Accounting discretion in fair value estimates : An examination of SFAS 142 goodwill impairments" 44 (44): 257-288, 2006