本研究旨在探討管理當局自願性盈餘預測與權益資金成本之關聯性，檢視管理當局發布盈餘預測頻率之影響是否反應於權益資金成本上，並進一步檢視管理當局之聲譽是否為影響權益資金成本的因素之一。 在本研究的實證分析結果中，發現管理當局發布自願性盈餘預測之頻率與權益資金成本呈顯著負相關，表示管理當局發布盈餘預測的次數越多時，權益資金成本越低。 在管理當局聲譽對於權益資金成本的影響，本研究實證分析結果發現，管理當局之聲譽與權益資金成本亦呈顯著負相關，管理當局聲譽以管理當局預測誤差和分析師預測誤差來衡量，當管理當局的盈餘預測誤差小於分析師盈餘預測誤差時，投資人認為管理當局對盈餘的預測有效且值得信賴，此時管理當局聲譽提高，投資人認為取得有用的資訊，進而降低企業權益資金成本。 / The primary objective of this thesis is to explore whether the frequency of management forecasts is related to the cost of equity capital. In addition, I further examine whether the association is stronger when management has better reputation. Basing on a sample of S&P 500 listed firms during 2000-2009, I find that, consistent with my prediction, cost of firm’s equity capital decreases with the frequency of management earning forecasts after controlling for other determinants well-documented to be related to cost of equity capital. Second, I find that cost of equity capital is negatively related to the reputation of management; however, I do not find that the association between cost of equity capital and the frequency of management systematically vary with the reputation of management.

會計盈餘是企業向投資人傳達營運績效的指標，又投資人視公司達成分析師預測門檻與否為企業前景的重要訊號。當公司宣告策略聯盟決策時，資本市場給予正面評價，不過策略聯盟協議可能使管理當局存在機會主義與盈餘管理活動，過去文獻發現，有策略聯盟的公司，其盈餘品質較低。本文探究企業執行策略聯盟對於跨越盈餘門檻的關聯性，觀察策略聯盟事件是否為管理當局進行盈餘管理或是預期管理的工具，以迎合或擊敗分析師之盈餘預測門檻。本文實證發現策略聯盟與否及策略聯盟多寡與分析師預測門檻具有顯著正相關，而執行策略聯盟之公司從事向下引導分析師預測的機率較低，此外，實證結果亦發現，策略聯盟會降低公司管理當局採取向上調整裁決性應計數的可能性。綜上研究顯示，有策略聯盟之企業達成分析師預測門檻的機會較高，然而，其管理當局較不會選擇應計項目盈餘管理或預期管理方式來迎合或擊敗分析師之盈餘預測門檻。

本研究以研究發展費用作為專利的投入變數，以專利數作為專利的產出數量變數，以平均專利範圍及平均專利發明人數作為專利的產出品質變數，使用長期間與大範圍的台灣樣本來探討專利資訊與企業財務績效之關連性，並透過專利資訊的使用者-分析師的觀點來判別哪些專利資訊是資訊使用者眼中的攸關資訊。研究結果發現大量的專利並不會對企業未來盈餘有明顯助益，擁有高品質的專利才是對企業未來盈餘有所助益的關鍵因素，研究結果亦發現分析師在進行盈餘預測時，並未適當的利用專利產出品質與專利產出數量資訊，且這些未經適當利用的專利資訊會增加盈餘預測誤差。故本研究建議資訊揭露相關準則及法規可針對專利資訊給予更完整、更透明的揭露。 / Patent’s value is hard to accurately identify under current generally accepted accounting principles. This paper uses firms in the Taiwan Stock Exchange to investigate the association of firm’s patents, future financial performance and the information used in analysts’ earnings forecasts. The patents were measured by the proxies of R&D expenditures, granted patents, patent claims and the number of patent inventors. The evidences show that possessing a large number of patents does not help future financial performance, but granting high quality patents does. The evidences also show that analysts do not appropriately use the information provided by patents, and this truly causes analysts’ forecast errors. Therefore, I suggest giving patents clearer and more complete disclosure, so that investors can obtain more value-relevant information.

文獻顯示存貨對於銷售和盈餘具有預測能力（Bernard and Noel 1991）。本文進一步探討比較後進先出法和國際會計準則允許之存貨計價方法所揭露之存貨，對於銷售和盈餘之預測能力。2003年發布之國際會計準則第二號公報「存貨」，禁止公司採用後進先出法衡量存貨，本研究擬觀察後進先出法和非後進先出法存貨對公司銷售與盈餘的預測能力是否有所差異。 本研究選取採用後進先出法並且揭露後進先出存貨準備之公司做為樣本，計算出樣本公司在國際會計準則規定下應有之存貨水準，測試與比較後進先出法之存貨與依國際會計準則揭露之存貨，孰者對銷售與盈餘之預測更具攸關性。實證結果顯示，後進先出存貨與國際會計準則存貨代理變數之實證結果並不顯著，顯示存貨在銷售與盈餘之預測迴歸模型中為一雜訊，存貨對銷售和盈餘之預測並不具有增額資訊，也說明存貨生產平穩理論與避免缺貨理論無法解釋存貨對銷售和盈餘預測之關聯性，因此無法判斷採用何種存貨計價方法所揭露之存貨，對銷售與盈餘較具預測能力。 / In economic literature, production smoothing model and stockout model address the predictability of inventory disclosure on sales and earnings. Based on these models, Bernard and Noel (1991) show that inventory disclosure predicts sales and earnings. This study further investigates and compares the predictability of the sales and earnings by inventory reported under last in, last out (LIFO) and that under International Accounting Standard 2 (IAS 2). Thus this study compares the predicting ability of inventory on sales and earnings under IFRS and non-IFRS. This study selects the companies adopting LIFO and disclosing LIFO reserve, calculates the inventory reported under IFRS, and determines the inventory’s ability to predict future sales and earnings under different inventory valuation methods. The empirical results show that the coefficients for the unexpected inventories under LIFO and IFRS are both statistically insignificant, suggesting that the unexpected inventories are merely noises in the models, and that the effects of production smoothing model and stockout model are not prevailed. Thus, it is difficult to determine which inventory valuation method can generate the inventory that leads to better sales and earnings prediction.

本研究探討我國於2004年發佈之第35號財務會計準則公報，有關『資產減損之會計處理準則』。35號公報要求企業必須評估公司資產之價值，以避免資產價值之虛列，增加資產價值資訊之透明度。本研究就公開資訊之揭露與資訊透明度的觀點，探討與資產減損有關的三項議題：(1)資產減損之股價反應幅度與公司特質及減損資產類別的關聯性；(2)資產減損對分析師盈餘預測特性之影響；(3)資產減損對本益比之影響。本文之研究結果顯示：(1)對於提前於2004年年報適用的樣本與準時於2005年第一季季報適用的樣本，公司特質變數與股價反應幅度的關聯性有不同；而減損資產類別變數與股價反應幅度則未有顯著之關係；(2)相較於同產業且資產總額接近之未宣告認列資產減損的控制組公司，宣告認列資產減損之公司，其分析師盈餘預測之離散性與預測誤差降低；並且公司揭露認列的減損比率愈大，其分析師間盈餘預測的離散性及預測誤差愈小；(3)在與同產業且資產總額接近之未宣告認列資產減損之控制組公司相較下，宣告認列資產減損之公司，其減損認列後的本益比較減損認列前的期間為高，且認列減損之比率愈大者，其認列減損之後的本益比愈高。這些結果顯示35號公報之公布實施，強制規定公司全面檢視資產或重大投資之潛在未實現損失，將有助於增加資產及盈餘資訊之透明度與穩健性，並提高了分析師對公司盈餘預測能力及市場對公司盈餘資訊之評價。 / This paper studies the effects of the implementation of Statement on Financial Accounting Standards (hereafter, SFAS No. 35) in 2004 on “Accounting for Asset Impairments”. SFAS No. 35 requires that the company has to assess its assets to reflect the potential unrealized losses of assets and improve the transparency of the value of assets in financial statements. From the viewpoints of the disclosure on public information and the transparency of financial statements, this study examines the following three issues related to the asset write-offs: (a) how is the association between the magnitude of market reaction to write-off announcements, firms’ characteristic, and the categories of the asset written-off? (b) what is the impact of asset write-offs on analysts’ forecast dispersion and errors? (c) what is the impact of asset write-offs on price/earnings ratios? The results show that the magnitudes of market reaction in the early adoption samples in 2004 financial statements are different from that in the timely adoption samples in first quarter of 2005’s financial statement. However, The magnitudes of market reactions to the write-off are not significantly associated with categories of asset written-off. Furthermore, compared to control sample of non-adopting firms in the same industry and with similar total assets, the adopting firms have less analysts’ earnings forecast dispersion and errors. And, the larger the asset write-offs, the smaller the analysts’ earnings forecast dispersion and errors. Finally, the adopting firms have larger price/earnings ratios after the asset write-offs than control sample. The larger proportions of asset write-offs to total assets, the larger the price/earnings ratios after the firm the asset write-offs. Accordingly, the above evidence indicates that the reports implementations of SFAS No. 35 improves the transparency and conservatism of assets and earnings information, and to increase the valuations of earnings in the stock market in that the adopting firms are required to evaluate the potential unrealized losses on their long-lived assets and investments.